Fedor, Gegard, and Babulu in EA MMA game

[Wet Bandit]

Quote: Originally Posted by NOBLE

And let's not act like Brett Rogers is some can. He's a Top 10 HW.

Yeah, and Cheick Kongo would be a top 10 HW if he had the luxury of never fighting a guy with an ounce of wrestling ability.

Personally, if I were to rank Fedor's potential challengers throughout his career, in terms of their danger to him, I'd probably rank them something like this:

1) Lesnar
2) Big Nog
3) Crocop
4) Couture
5) Barnett
6) Carwin
7) Mir
8) Arlovski
9) Velasquez
10) Overeem

So yeah, to me, there'd absolutely be an asterisk on his career if he never faced his first, fourth, sixth, seventh, and ninth biggest challenges because he was more concerned about promoting a business than facing those challengers in the UFC.

And before you do it, I know you'd rank them differently. Fine. But there's at least four of his top ten challenges waiting for him in the UFC, and he's not gonna go there.

[SHO]

This asterisk talk is silly because he's beaten almost everyone that has gotten into the ring with him, but somehow it's not enough because there is a new top fighter at the division. If he beats that guy, that won't be enough because there will yet another new top guy. There is ALWAYS going to be that 'next big thing' fighters, and after all that he's done (say what you will about HMC, Lindland, etc.) there will still be people clamoring for Fedor to 'prove' he's the best, as if his record doesn't speak for itself. He's already at the top of the sport - are you really going to knock a man who's conquered Mt. Everest for the fact that he didn't climb every bit of rock?

Whether we like it or not, Fedor has earned the right to do what he wants in his career at this point and I find it ridiculous to take him to task for it just because he won't come to our favorite organization(s) and make the fights that we want to see happen.

Why are you guys going to try and hold it against a fighter for conducting business the way he wants to? Again, he's not obligated to come to the UFC just because Affliction died. It's not like he's choosing to duck UFC fighters, so why is the target on Fedor to miraculously make these fights happen? We want to see him fights, but that's not fair to him. If anything, the pressure should be on Dana. Simply put, the reason he's not here (yet..?) is because the business isn't right for both sides to agree on something. It's funny how Fedor's and his camp are the only ones catching heat for this situation. I have yet to hear anyone call out the UFC and tell them to step up their negotiations.

[XFactah416]

If Dana wants someone, he'll get over the grudge.

I'm pretty sure Mousasi won't go to the UFC regardless, as he is a Red Devil member. Babalu was exiled from the UFC as well after his actions.

We'll see though.

[Scoop_Brady]

We'll just have to agree to disagree Noble. IMO to be considered the best that means consistently proving you are the best. You can't prove your the best until your career is over. Fedor's career is not over. You've clearly made up your mind that he's the best before seeing his entire career. Tom Brady has the potential to be the best quarterback who ever played right now but I guarantee if he went to the CFL to finish his career that talk would disappear. What's so wrong about wanting to see the best fight the best? I respect your opinion but you obviously don't respect the opinion of anybody that wants Fedor to keep proving he's the man.

[Wet Bandit]

Quote: Originally Posted by NOBLE

He's already at the top of the sport - are you really going to knock a man who's conquered Mt. Everest for the fact that he didn't climb every bit of rock?

He hasn't climbed Mt. Everest, though. You can not seriously claim that Pride's heavyweight division was Mt. Everest. Outside of Nog and Crocop, two premiere heavyweights, look at who Fedor fought in Pride as champion no less.

Kazuyuki Fujita
Gary Goodridge
Yuji Nagata
Mark Coleman
Kevin Randleman
Naoya Ogawa
Tsuyoshi Kohsaka
Big Zulu
Mark Hunt

Those are the guys he defended his belt against, and at best there's a couple of gatekeepers mixed in with that list of cans.

Fedor has not climbed Mt. Everest. Maybe you can say he's climbed Mt. McKinley, but there's new, bigger challenges for him out there now.

And the reason that the UFC isn't getting heat for this, at least not this time, is because they're the ones that, by almost all accounts, are acting reasonably. But Fedor's and M-1's insistence on co-promotion, which was a ridiculous idea a couple years ago and is even more ridiculous now that they've helped sink Bodog and Affliction, is the peak of unreasonableness.

You can even call it the Mt. Everest of unreasonableness.

[Scoop_Brady]

Quote: Originally Posted by Wet Bandit

You can even call it the Mt. Everest of unreasonableness.

I see what you did there. Nice.

[Keith121212]

Fedor is one of the best heavyweights MMA has ever seen but if he doesn't sign with the UFC, he might as well retire because noone wants to see him fight nobodies anymore. He needs to continue to cement his already great legacy or STFU basically. If he's not in the UFC noone cares about him.

If M1-Global really cared about MMA or Fedor, they would have never brought up this co-promotion BS and they would have got Fedor signed. Since they don't and all they really care about is furthering their name and making money, this deal will never get done.

[MC Fatigue]

Here's an interesting little article on GSP vs Fedor

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2009/7/30...ions-fedor-gsp