Saturday, January 24, 2009

Fedor- Unstoppable Once Again


For the first 2 plus minutes of the fight, former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Andre Arlovski was having his way with Fedor Emelianenko, the man considered to be the best fighter in the world. Arlovski is a great striker and his game plan coming in was to out strike the former PRIDE Champion. Arlovski would want no part in any type of ground war with Fedor and even went to the extent of hiring famed boxing trainer, Freddie Roach to improve on those skills. He wanted to stay away from the clinch and any type of take down Fedor would attempt. For 2 plus minutes, he succeeded, hitting Fedor with a variety of leg kicks and a few straight right and left punches. and then he felt the power of Fedor, The strongest and most feared puncher in all MMA.
He backed up Fedor with a nice push front kick (a slight variation from the classic front kick in traditional karate) and then attempted a flying knee kick. Unfortunately for Arlovski, the next thing he saw was the referee asking for a doctor as Fedor timed a vicious right hand that caught Arlovski flat across the jaw while in midair, turned him parallel to the ground, his head hitting the canvas first and the lights were out. Just like that, a fight Arlovski was winning ended in dramatic fashion as he felt the amazing power of Fedor with a classic highlight reel knockout punch.
In his last two fights, in a total of just under 4 minutes he has knocked out two former UFC Champions. He has a record of 32-1 and even his one lost should have been ruled a no contest rather than a defeat. He has beaten everyone that has come his way. I was one of his doubters early on, but there's not much left to doubt. He will probably fight Josh Barnett next, a good heavyweight but not someone that will have much of a shot against Fedor. The only 2 fighters out there that could Fedor a fight are signed to UFC and that makes a fight with either Frank Mir or Brock Lesnar unlikely. Dana White, UFC Boss has publicly questioned Fedor's dominance but the questions now have been answered as he easily disposed of two of White's former Champions (Arlovski and Tim Sylvia). Although it's wishful thinking, it would be great to see Fedor somehow fight the winner of the Mir-Lesnar bout that will decide once and for all the best Heavyweight fighter in the world. Right now, it's hard to argue with Fedor.


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