Hard to say whether he was trying to bait him or not but Nog did pretty much the same thing in their first match, got caught with a punch and dropped back to guard but the way Fedor responded to that was vastly different. In 2003 he realised Nog was still a live threat and built position only unloading with GnP when Nog gave him some space with a butterfly guard, when Nog used a high guard in the 2nd and 3rd fights Fedor did not go crazy with GnP due to the risk of a triangle.
I'v no idea what a "one dimensional chin" is but post comeback Fedor getting hurt standing I think actually shows you that his prime years he was not the "brawler" the more uneducated make him out to be. Fujita basically caught him with a blind punch when Fedor wasnt showing a guy who previous had shown little power much respect ala GSP/Serra 1, thats very different to Mitrone, etc catching him on the way in with counters which became possible as his timing and speed declined, unless you think Mitrone throws a better straight counter than Crocop.
I think against 04-05 Fedor Randy would have had very little chance indeed personally, in a cage he might have been able to work the clinch against it a bit and maybe worked a cut stoppage or something but that Fedor was just way too dangerous everywhere IMHO, not someone it was easy to gameplan at all. I think Arlovski was actually a much more dangerous fight for Fedor than Randy was, both had questionable chins but Andrei had speed/power.
