Ultimate Fighting’s Cold War Gets Hotter. TIME provides a brief history of the relationship between Fedor Emelianenko and the UFC. I couldn’t name 10 fighters but Fedor is one of the names that I know, which makes it pretty clear to me how important he is to the sport.
A former member of the Russian army who possesses an assassin’s glare and a face-denting right jab, Emelianenko, the top-ranked heavyweight in the world, is so good he is known simply as “Fedor,” according to the World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts. He has won 30 fights in his career and lost just one, a controversial referee’s decision in Japan nine years ago. Fedor has already beaten five former UFC champions, two of them twice. He has finished four of them off in the first round.
I’ve never really followed MMA, but I’ve had a slight interest since watching the Lesnar/Couture fight. Count me in as one of the people drawn in by Lesnar because of his WWF history. More serious MMA fans seem to detest him, and with yesterday’s antics he’s basically become the ultimate heel. Which would be great in WWF, but UFC is trying to make MMA a mainstream sport so Brock shakes the balance between sport legitimacy and the pro-wrestling style entertainment that UFC wants to separate itself from. It’ll certainly be interesting to see where this all goes. If Brock/Fedor ever happens, it’ll probably be the first MMA PPV that I buy.