I think it depends. Like you said, Fedor is a high level judoka and sambo practitioner. You asked “ Do you see anyone today who doesn’t do BJJ and is a great grappler?”
How about:
Khabib
Islam Makachev
Every other fighter from Dagestan
I’m sure they train *some* BJJ, but that’s not where their skill comes from. They’re sambo fighters. During the Khabib-Barboza fight, Joe Rogan praised Khabib’s “next level ground and pound” when all he was doing was the same thing Fedor did to Herring and Nog 18 years ago. Sambo is clearly pretty effective in MMA even today. As for mount, remember that Bigfoot also outweighed Fedor by 45 lbs or so. Against Chael, even an old, injured, shopworn Fedor baited him into mount and then swept him.
What about the other fighter’s prime? Arlovski in particular was pretty well past it by the time Stipe fought him.
And if we’re going to blast Fedor’s poor fight IQ against Werdum, shouldn’t we blast Werdum’s poor fight IQ against Stipe?
I know it is not correct but i dont like to call sambo a martial art. I doesnt describe anything. I mean Ben Askren and Conor McGregor are both MMA martial artists
You get what i am implying. Sambo is MMA/MMAish. They bring different things to sambo/MMA.
Fedor is judoka, Khabib is wrestler and there is a difference in how they fight. I mean Khabib praises judo and sambo, and he uses some moves sometimes, but he wrestles ppl down. You can even see as time passes how he went from Askren style to Maia style on ground. He invested a lot into his BJJ. There is a reason he went to AKA and not stayed in Russia and Dagestan.
I look at segments of fight and techniques, not how fights end. Fedor never invested in wrestling. Problem is wrestling is by far best way for TDD and TD against more rounded opponents.
Imagine me pushing you with both hands back and grabbing you and trying to push you sideways across my leg. What is easier? (get my point on some difference between wrestling and judo) Not investing in wrestling made his TD success much harder especially against heavier opponents. From same position Fedor had Silva in, Cain, Stipe or DC TD Silva no problem.
And again it is not about his loss against Silva. It is about his technique to let everyone into full mount. He did that from first day in MMA. It was his go to move. I am not talking how he reversed Hunt or Sonnen, i am talking if you want to go for HW belt you cant let Stipe, DC, Cain or Blaydes full mount you. I dont think you can let Francis or Lewis full mount you anymore.
I remembered you said he became sloppy boxer and i heard Jack Slack talk same. I generally agree in most things with Jack, but i dont agree Fedor became sloppy boxer.
Fedor was always sloppy boxer (he liked to unbalance himself and his footwork was all over the place), but he had lighting fast hands and it worked wonders with his judo TD and his top sub game. As time passed competition got more rounded and his judoTD became ineffective so all he had left was his sloppy boxing which was even more pronounced as his speed dropped. His greatness at start never exposed holes in his game and he payed for it latter.
You can even compare mistakes he does against Arona early into career, he does it all over again in Strikeforce.
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Stipe-Werdum// Werdum knows why he did it, it wasnt great move in retrospect but he knows why he was so desperate to get that clinch game started. Its easy to say low IQ move but when you get pieced at distance, sometimes best thing you can do is bumrush and hope for the best.
