The Fallout of Fedor Losing to Fabricio Werdum

[JohnnyDrama]

i read this a couple of days ago and thought hmmm what if this were to happen well we got our answer.

by Michael David Smith of MMAFighting.com

I don't think Fabricio Werdum is going to beat Fedor Emelianenko on Saturday, and neither do you, and neither does anyone we know. But it is possible that Werdum could beat Fedor, and although it would be a huge upset, it wouldn't be as big an upset as Sokoudjou beating Antonio Rogerio Nogueira or Matt Serra beating Georges St. Pierre.

So if that huge upset happens, what happens next for Werdum, for Fedor, for Strikeforce, for M-1 Global and for all of MMA? A few scenarios are below.

Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin at UFC 116 becomes MMA's true heavyweight title fight. For now, just about everyone who follows MMA accepts Fedor as the sport's top heavyweight. But it doesn't follow that Werdum would be the top heavyweight if he beats Fedor. Lesnar and Carwin are generally recognized as the next best hevyweights after Fedor, so if Fedor loses on Saturday, that makes UFC 116 the first time ever that a UFC heavyweight title fight would be for the undisputed heavyweight championship of all of MMA.

Junior dos Santos moves to No. 3. The first-round knockout of Werdum in dos Santos's UFC debut in 2008 was plenty impressive at the time, but it would become all the more impressive in hindsight if Werdum were to beat Fedor. While we're re-arranging the Top 10 heavyweights in MMA after a Werdum win we'd have to keep dos Santos higher than Werdum, and higher than everyone except Lesnar and Carwin.

Werdum's legacy changes forever. Werdum has already accomplished a lot in MMA: He's TKO'd Gabriel Gonzaga twice, he's submitted Alistair Overeem and Aleksander Emelianenko, and he's been considered one of the Top 10 heavyweights in MMA for much of his career. But if he were to beat Fedor, that would completely change the way we view him. When and if someone beats Fedor (and I mean really beats him, not just gets a win on a cut caused by an impermissible strike), that's going to go down as one of the most significant fights in MMA history, and Werdum's legacy would be immensely boosted by a win in one of the most significant fights ever.

Werdum-Overeem 2 becomes the biggest fight Strikeforce can book. When Werdum beat Overeem in the first round of Pride's 2006 openweight tournament, it really wasn't considered a particularly significant heavyweight fight. But since then Overeem has won the Strikeforce heavyweight belt and looked like a monster while fighting in Japan, and he'd probably be favored to beat Werdum, even a Werdum who had a win over Fedor on his resume. Werdum-Overeem 2 wouldn't generate anywhere near the hype of Fedor-Overeem, but it would still be a big deal, and it's the fight Strikeforce and Showtime would go with next.

M-1 Global loses its meal ticket. M-1 is relevant for one reason, and that is its affiliation with the fighter who has the aura of invincibility. If Werdum ends that aura of invincibility, M-1 loses its relevance. No one is going to be interested in co-promoting with M-1 while Fedor is on a losing streak.

Fedor's greatness becomes a part of MMA's past, not its present. Fedor's legacy in the sport is secure; no matter what else he ever does, he was the best fighter of the last decade. But he's the greatest fighter of the present only as long as he keeps winning. There's no fighter for whom there's more pressure to keep winning every time than Fedor.

i think all of this will happen.

thoughts on this article?

 

[Final Form Snyper.]

I don't think Fedor or his aura can be changed, well too much anyway. The only thing that might blight him would be if after losing he keeps on a losing streak. Chuck was one considered an indestructible force and in most peoples opinion the pound for pound fighter in the world. Hotly contested by Fedor for that name. Chuck lost to Rampage...... lost to Jardine, beat Wanderlei Silva in a match that if happened even 5 years ago, someone would have been going in a body bag, got KTFO'd by Rashad Evans. This is IMO where you would be thinking maybe I need to hang it up.

No he kept going by getting dropped by a punch that he would have walked through and laughed at a mere 3 years ago...... this is where I would have retired on a 21-7 record but instead he desides to trample on his great name once more to show up against a game Rich Franklin........ now you can say he looked good but against a punch that he would have walked through put him to sleep. I might be over reacting here seeing it's his first loss (I still can't count the cut as a loss, even though it's on his record.) but Fedor is at a point where age isn't on his side and losses might come abit frequent..... hopefully he knows when to leave. I think he can come back from this and show it might have been a fluke, I think it might have been but more of a carelessness on Fedors part to come into someone the BJJ calibre of Werdum.

NOTE: This is in no way a call for Fedor to retire but merely a persons perspective on this situation.

 

[INDYjon22]

Well, Fedor's loss obviously drops him down the rankings and kind of puts Strikeforce in a tough position. They were really banking on Fedor winning and facing Overeem next but in good conscious they can not do that now. Werdum defeated Fedor fair and square and deserves the next shot at Overeem. Hopefully Strikeforce does the right thing and gives him a proper shot at the title now.

As for Fedor, I don't really know what his contract says or how many fights he has left with SF. I believe this was his last fight under contract but am not positive. If it was then he has two options, either he resigns or he goes to the UFC, well in retrospect I guess he could retire as well, but I don't think he is ready for that yet. I don't really know who is left for Fedor to fight in SF unless he faces Big Foot Silva and that fight does not interest me at all. I think Fedor should finally nut up and give the UFC a chance, but it will be interesting to see how the UFC approaches Fedor now that he and his mystique has taken a hit.

 

[JohnnyDrama]

Well, Fedor's loss obviously drops him down the rankings and kind of puts Strikeforce in a tough position. They were really banking on Fedor winning and facing Overeem next but in good conscious they can not do that now. Werdum defeated Fedor fair and square and deserves the next shot at Overeem. Hopefully Strikeforce does the right thing and gives him a proper shot at the title now.

As for Fedor, I don't really know what his contract says or how many fights he has left with SF. I believe this was his last fight under contract but am not positive. If it was then he has two options, either he resigns or he goes to the UFC, well in retrospect I guess he could retire as well, but I don't think he is ready for that yet. I don't really know who is left for Fedor to fight in SF unless he faces Big Foot Silva and that fight does not interest me at all. I think Fedor should finally nut up and give the UFC a chance, but it will be interesting to see how the UFC approaches Fedor now that he and his mystique has taken a hit.

fedor has 1 more fight left on this contract and i read that after that he'll take the UFC's offer into consideration. what i want to see is what this loss does to his mind. i mean IMO he could have had a lot of pressure before this fight to keep winning and everything but a loss here now there is even more pressure on how he rebounds from this loss, i kinda noticed this on Lyoto Machida after his "win" against shogun at 104, then in the rematch IMO he didnt look the same, it wasnt the same machida i watched before. so it'll be interesting on what this does to him in his next fight.

 

[INDYjon22]

fedor has 1 more fight left on this contract and i read that after that he'll take the UFC's offer into consideration. what i want to see is what this loss does to his mind. i mean IMO he could have had a lot of pressure before this fight to keep winning and everything but a loss here now there is even more pressure on how he rebounds from this loss, i kinda noticed this on Lyoto Machida after his "win" against shogun at 104, then in the rematch IMO he didnt look the same, it wasnt the same machida i watched before. so it'll be interesting on what this does to him in his next fight.

Well it really only matters on who he is matched up against. I really don't think one loss in nine years will fuck with Fedor's psyche that badly, but I have been wrong before. If he is put in the ring with someone like Antonio Silva, like I think he will be, then he should have no problem rebounding and getting his career back on the right track. However, if SF does the wrong thing and give him a shot at Overeem then Fedor may have some doubts going into the fight with a loss.

 

[jmt225]

I don't think people will stop believing in Fedor just because he got caught in a submission.

Now, had Werdum come out and rocked Fedor on the feet, take him down, and then catch him in a submission... then yeah, Fedor would then be looked at as completely washed-up and unable to go anymore. However, Fedor dropped Werdum INSTANTLY. It's just after that he made the mistake of going to the ground with literally the most prolific Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu artist in ALL of MMA. Not just in the Heavyweight Division, but Werdum is the best in MMA when it comes to BJJ. That's an indisputable fact. Getting caught by that guy does not make Fedor a bad fighter; it just makes him human.

Anyways, Fedor has one more fight on his contract and I hope Strikeforce uses it wisely. It's guaranteed though that the fight will draw, and people will still believe in Fedor. And if they don't, then Fedor will make them believe once again that night, make no mistake about it.

 

[Dave]

Man, I never expected to ever say this but I think that Fedor has blown up. The most uninteresting man who fights the most uninteresting fighters in the heavyweight division has blown MMA wide open and anything literally could happen from here on out.

Lesnar vs Carwin was always going to be the biggest fight that the UFC could book. With Lesnar being the absolute beast that he undoubtedly is and Carwin being undefeated and the Interim Champion, this match was always going to overshadow anything that Fedor Emilianenko could do against Werdum. Or so we thought. I looked at the match before it happened and thought that Fedor could be in a lot of trouble in his fight with Fedor. The thought of him losing was prevalent but it was certainly there. For me, Fedor hasn’t fought the best guys nearly enough and now that he has tried and failed, people will say that he was dodging people because he knew that he couldn’t beat them.

Lesnar vs Carwin is a great fight and might come close to the buyrate that UFC 100 got. It was always going to be a big fight but as the article stated, this match just means so much more than it ever did before. These guys were fighting for the UFC Heavyweight Championship but now they are fighting to see who is the best Heavyweight in the world. The UFC have happened onto a great coincidence with Fedor losing because it only increases the popularity of the Lesnar/Carwin fight.

As for Werdum’s legacy, I think it is safe to say that it has changed forever. Fedor only lost one time before that it was through a bad situation. People might not remember Werdum for being a great fighter but they will certainly remember him for being the man who submitted Fedor easily with a Triangle choke. People said that Fedor was the best heavyweight around and for Werdum to tap him out in just over a minute shows how seriously we must consider Werdum to be. Werdum vs Overeem will certainly happen now and I am looking forward to seeing it. If Werdum can win that too, then he may change his fortunes forever, cementing himself as one of the best today.

As for M-1 Global, they must be shitting themselves right now. Their marquee signing is not the man he was before he stepped into the octagon on Saturday night and if he continues to lose, then they will find their business going down the tubes. He has already lost with ease to Werdum and if this continues, people wont remember him as the most dominating force in MMA. Rather, he will be remembered as the guy who held on to long. The whole thing reminds me of Ricky Hatton vividly.