Considering Fedor's Sambo background, is he the greatest HW MMA wrestler ever?

Yellowcrab said:
That's what his fanboys think, hence why he's the GOAT and not Jon Jones <seedat>

It doesn't matter if Jon Jones is the only one who actually fought under USADA while Fedor spent almost his whole career in a japanese circus show without any drug testing.

No wonder he got badly destroyed by a MW grandpa once in the USA.
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Totally
 
Technically the greatest HW wrestler in MMA is Alexander Karelin.

 
achoo42 said:
Technically the greatest HW wrestler in MMA is Alexander Karelin.

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Pro Wrestling match though, RINGS started out as shoot style pro wrestling and Maeda never had a legit MMA fight.
 
Fedor is an elite Judoka first and foremost. Sambo second.

You wouldn't call him a wrestler, but he certainly knows how to defend takedowns from wrestlers.

Just look at his fights against Matt lindland, olympic silver medalist and Chael Sonnen.

He's able to manipulate the momentum, destabilize their base and then capitalize on those small openings.

There's definitely some holes in his TDD, but he's so good at adapting positionally, outside of being mounted by a 280 pound TRT bigfoot, he will find ways to end up where he wants to be on the ground.

His judo, grappling style is actually a decent counter to a high level wrestler in some ways.

Guys like Jon Jones / DC would probably be the trickiest wrestlers for him to deal with all time, since they're also such strong grapplers with a strong base and masterful fight Iq In their own right.

It seems like his injuries were piling up when he was going into his 30's and beyond, so you seen him use his grappling less.

At it's best though, his judo, sambo and grappling were very strong and probably the hallmark to his style.

Even today, he's someone to watch and emulate in many regards.
 
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don't ask said:
People always forget Fedor was primarily a judoka who narrowly missed the Russian Olympic team and only started doing Sambo when he started transitioning to MMA. So, yeah, he's a wrestler. And a damn good one.
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He didn't narrowly miss the Russian Olympic team. https://www.judoinside.com/judoka/8554/Fedor_Emelianenko/judo-matches There were at least 2 Russians better than him at his weight class and a 3rd who is bronze medal with him. It's not a knock on Fedor. The people he lost to were world cup winners and national champions.
 
AstralPanda said:
Fedor is an elite Judoka first and foremost. Sambo second.

You wouldn't call him a wrestler, but he certainly knows how to defend takedowns from wrestlers.

Just look at his fights against Matt lindland, olympic silver medalist and Chael Sonnen.

He's able to manipulate the momentum, destabilize their base and then capitalize on those small openings.

There's definitely some holes in his TDD, but he's so good at adapting positionally, outside of being mounted by a 280 pound TRT bigfoot, he will find ways to end up where he wants to be on the ground.

His judo, grappling style is actually a decent counter to a high level wrestler in some ways.

Guys like Jon Jones / DC would probably be the trickiest wrestlers for him to deal with all time, since they're also such strong grapplers with a strong base and masterful fight Iq In their own right.

It seems like his injuries were piling up when he was going into his 30's and beyond, so you seen him use his grappling less.

At it's best though, his judo, sambo and grappling were very strong and probably the hallmark to his style.

Even today, he's someone to watch and emulate in many regards.
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He grabbed the ropes against Lindland....
 
You have to remember Fedor was also excellent from the bottom.

He's not the best strict wrestler, but a very good grappler and judoka at HW.
 
NoSmilez said:
He didn't narrowly miss the Russian Olympic team. https://www.judoinside.com/judoka/8554/Fedor_Emelianenko/judo-matches There were at least 2 Russians better than him at his weight class and a 3rd who is bronze medal with him. It's not a knock on Fedor. The people he lost to were world cup winners and national champions.
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Yeah I've heard this

Adds a lot of credibility to his prowess as a judoka.

There aren't really many in mma history with those sort of credentials.
 
NoSmilez said:
He didn't narrowly miss the Russian Olympic team. https://www.judoinside.com/judoka/8554/Fedor_Emelianenko/judo-matches There were at least 2 Russians better than him at his weight class and a 3rd who is bronze medal with him. It's not a knock on Fedor. The people he lost to were world cup winners and national champions.
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I've read repeatedly he was ranked third in his division, which barely missed putting him on the Russian Olympic team. It looks like you're confirming this.
 
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don't ask said:
I've read repeatedly he was ranked third in his division, which barely missed putting him on the Russian Olympic team. It looks like you're confirming this.
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Bruh he’s not even an alternate to the alternate.
 
AstralPanda said:
Yeah I've heard this

Adds a lot of credibility to his prowess as a judoka.

There aren't really many in mma history with those sort of credentials.
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Not really. There were several gold medalist that competed in MMA. I am not trying to bash Fedor but some of his fans glaze him too much.
 
don't ask said:
I think you've got a different definition than anyone else who's talked about this.
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He wasn’t a great international player. I posted his international record. It’s not to bash him. It’s because he wasn’t able to make it to judo that we got him in MMA.
 
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