Why all the Fedor Hate?

Recently I have been looking at some posts on MMA Playground and Sherdog and a lot of people have been bashing Fedor. They have been saying he was never that good and he has never fought anyone. I just don't understand this. At his time he fought the best and dominated everyone for almost a decade. Now that he has shown to be human everyone is talking ****. I just don't understand. IMO Fedor is still one of the best fighters to ever fight and if you don't believe me then check out this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsRnkdIJZlk

This happens to any big named fighter at some point.
You can make cases for why Liddell,Couture,Wandy,AA,Sylvia,royce,etc are all overhyped,past their prime cans but what it really come down to is the fact people are very fickle and once what seems to be an invinciable fighter suffers a loss no one is interested because the mystique is gone. And if someone happens not to like that fighter they just simply say,"see i told you so!"
Told me what,that at somepoint pretty much every fighter is going to lose a fight or two?

I also think what has hindered Fedor has been the fact he has stayed away from the UFC, he was defo the best in the Pride days and he beat the best, Nog, Crocop etc, but we never got to see him fight the likes of Couture, Lesnar and Valesquez. That has always been my gripe with him.

80% of todays fans only see PRIDE fights when they are on spiketv and never watched live, that's the biggest issue here.

Newer fans have said the same about Randy because his record isn't stellar due to the majority of his fights in the UFC being title fights.

When Fedor fought HMC on NYE a lot of the hardcores kind of turned on him too, there were better fights out there for him, but he took a freak show fight(which may have been the only one offered, not that the fans care) and that started the "Fedor doesn't fight top guys anymore" talk.

The long, and in the end fruitless, negotiations with the UFC didn't endear him to fans either, especially a lot of new fans that were brought in by TUF that believed the UFC(Zuffa) was the beat all end all at the time(although it kind of is now).

In the end it comes down to ignorance and the keyboard warrior mentality. If you don't recognize him as the GOAT to this point(Anderson is closing quickly on that), then you are as fairweather as they come, and that is the mark of the MMA fan in general. It's a new and growing sport with athletes that have a short shelf life so long term fans are hard to come by.

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Posted by cowcatcher

80% of todays fans only see PRIDE fights when they are on spiketv and never watched live, that's the biggest issue here.
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I think that's a good point. Watching a fight live is just,well a huge rush. You don't know the outcome. Anything can happen.

Imo, Fedor is the best fighter to ever compete in MMA. The dominance he showed for over 10 years should be enough proof of that. No other fighter stayed #1 in their weight division as long as Fedor did. When the ranking system was implemented, he was definitely the top heavyweight at the time. He loses 2 straight fights and he's still on Sherdog's Top 10, when have you ever seen that?

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Posted by hotrodttt

Imo, Fedor is the best fighter to ever compete in MMA. The dominance he showed for over 10 years should be enough proof of that. No other fighter stayed #1 in their weight division as long as Fedor did. When the ranking system was implemented, he was definitely the top heavyweight at the time. He loses 2 straight fights and he's still on Sherdog's Top 10, when have you ever seen that?

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This

It's just completely ignorant to say otherwise. I mean seriously, who has had a better career than Fedor? Who's been as dominate as Fedor was? GSP may reach that level one day and so might Anderson Silva but at this stage in the game Fedor is the best there has ever been and it's hard to argue against that. He got beat very late in his career by two men that both out weighed him significantly and are easily both Top 15, probably top 10.

i agree that fedor was the best, he just isnt anymore. i kinda been irritated with him cause he let himself be concidered to still be the best in the world but on the other hand he went a long time without really fighting anybody and hes really not that old. he fought AA after his prime, same with silvia. i get pretty pissed at the people that STILL think hes the best, he's not anymore, he was, just not now. i still got mad respect for him though. i cant deny what he's done.

Well, I'll just start with this...

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Posted by cowcatcher
If you don't recognize him as the GOAT to this point(Anderson is closing quickly on that), then you are as fairweather as they come, and that is the mark of the MMA fan in general.

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I'm a huge MMA fan, followed it with passion for many years, and have seen most of Fedor AND Silva's fights as they happened. And I can honestly say I think Anderson Silva is the best fighter ever. So I'm as fairweather as they come, eh?


Honestly, there's a case to be made for each guy. I don't need to speak on their achievement, cause if people on THIS site don't know them, they need to play catch-up...I Respect Fedor tremendously for everything he accomplished. However, Silva was more impressive to me.

The key point to me is whether or not you recognize the UFC as the best MMA promotion. If you do, like myself, you'll recognize the Silva's reign of brillance came entirely within the UFC. Now, PRIDE was one of the top promotions for a while, and Fedor was champ for alot of that time. BUT...Fedor had every chance to go to the UFC to fight the best remaining heavyweights..but instead he opted for Mark Hunt (losing career record), Mark Coleman (twice, after age 40), Matt Lindland (a middleweight), Hang Man Choi (exactly), Wagner de Whatever..that gigantic flabby dude that tapped to strikes within 30 seconds...and so on.

Even after the started fighting Legit Heavyweights again he would pick and choose his opponets. Decent names, respectable names, but not the best in the world...guy who were past their "prime" like Arlovski and Sylvia. Then Brett Rogers who was basically right guy, right place at the right time with a fan friendly style. I don't know anyone who had Rogers top ten P4P.

After dodging the UFC and the Top Heavyweights in the world, he lost to Werdum and Bigfoot. It doesn't even diminish his value to me, as I still have him as #2. Also, I think M-1 is probably the reason for most of the hate, not Fedor himself. Fedor is the best Heavyweight ever, a legend, and will be remembered as one of the all-time greats.

Unfortunately, he'll also be remembered as the guy who Dodged the UFC every chance he got and had his fights hand picked to increase the likelyhood of a victory.

And THAT is where the Fedor hate comes from

Maybe the as fairweather as they come was a little over the top, but Fedor was undefeated for a decade, Anderson about halfway there right now, a little over if you don't count the Okami loss. Fedor never lost to a guy with a losing record, Anderson did. If you're looking at the full body of work of a fighter things like that have to be taken into account. I did go on to say that Anderson is closing quickly though and I can see the argument for him right now.

As far as recognizing UFC as the best goes, in recent history yes it has been, but during the beginning of Fedor's run the best fighters in the world were in PRIDE, in fact top guys were jumping ship from the UFC to PRIDE.

I wasn't really challenging the guys that think Anderson is the GOAT, but was more or less admonishing the people that have seen Fedor fight only since he came to SF and are basing their opinions of him on the last couple of fights. I'm sorry you took that personally, I get a little fired up when I see people basically discounting everything the guy did.

EDIT: I don't know why everyone is under the assumption that Fedor hand picked all his opponents. I don't think he wanted Bigfoot after losing to Werdum, it sure sounded like he wanted a rematch to me. Also the Japanese fans love freak show fights and they love Fedor, so I'm not so sure he went out there and asked for HMC or even Hunt who was also hugely popular there. I think since the talks between ZUFFA and M-1 went down and Dana made a bunch of public comments that people jumped on him. I don't remember Fedor wanting to hand pick opponents being part of the problem in the negotiations there either. I for one won't accuse a guy that has a claim as the GOAT of being scared to get in there with anyone, and I don't know why people assume that.

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Posted by cowcatcher

Maybe the as fairweather as they come was a little over the top, but Fedor was undefeated for a decade, Anderson about halfway there right now, a little over if you don't count the Okami loss. Fedor never lost to a guy with a losing record, Anderson did. If you're looking at the full body of work of a fighter things like that have to be taken into account. I did go on to say that Anderson is closing quickly though and I can see the argument for him right now.

As far as recognizing UFC as the best goes, in recent history yes it has been, but during the beginning of Fedor's run the best fighters in the world were in PRIDE, in fact top guys were jumping ship from the UFC to PRIDE.

I wasn't really challenging the guys that think Anderson is the GOAT, but was more or less admonishing the people that have seen Fedor fight only since he came to SF and are basing their opinions of him on the last couple of fights. I'm sorry you took that personally, I get a little fired up when I see people basically discounting everything the guy did.

EDIT: I don't know why everyone is under the assumption that Fedor hand picked all his opponents. I don't think he wanted Bigfoot after losing to Werdum, it sure sounded like he wanted a rematch to me. Also the Japanese fans love freak show fights and they love Fedor, so I'm not so sure he went out there and asked for HMC or even Hunt who was also hugely popular there. I think since the talks between ZUFFA and M-1 went down and Dana made a bunch of public comments that people jumped on him. I don't remember Fedor wanting to hand pick opponents being part of the problem in the negotiations there either. I for one won't accuse a guy that has a claim as the GOAT of being scared to get in there with anyone, and I don't know why people assume that.

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well said...on a sidenote...there's a lot of Fedor bashers on the ESPN boards. it gets pretty retarded there after a while. its good to hear more than just "Fedor sucks and is overrated" with no sound reasoning behind it.

I don't hate Fedor. I just hate his worshippers.