Prime Fedor

[Crease]

Yeah you know him, The Last Emperor they call him.
But on a 5-fight series which of these UFC Heavyweight Champions would he have beaten 3 times out of 5?

[Counter-puncher]

WAR Fedor

[Wee Tommy]

Cormier the only one not voted. Interesting as I find them to be quite similar fighters, great grapplers, looping punchers with a lot of agility in their stocky frames.

[JamesPhilips]

should be an all of them option. That would be my choice.

[gilgamesh]

should be an all of them option. That would be my choice.

You can vote for all of them. I did.

He did beat Andrei Arlovski.

He was 2-0 with 1 No Contest over Nogueira as well. He beat him for the Pride FC Heavyweight Title, and then won the Pride FC 2004 Grand Prix Tournament against him in the Final Match at Shockwave 2004. The first Final match of that Tournament is where the No contest came in.

They had to do it twice to settle the Tournament.

[JamesPhilips]

People forget how superior he was because he wasn't UFC, and due to his later ko losses when his chin went. To me he's the best Heavyweight ever

[Impractical Poster]

It's kinda hard to say because the game and fighters have evolved to be more well-rounded since Fedor's prime. I'd give a prime JDS, Velasquez, and Cormier, along with the current versions of Stipe and Frances a good chance at beating a prime Fedor. But for the time in his prime, Fedor was absolutely not only the best HW, but the p4p best fighter in the sport.

[JamesPhilips]

It's kinda hard to say because the game and fighters have evolved to be more well-rounded since Fedor's prime. I'd give a prime JDS, Velasquez, and Cormier, along with the current versions of Stipe and Frances a good chance at beating a prime Fedor. But for the time in his prime, Fedor was absolutely not only the best HW, but the p4p best fighter in the sport.

Great post

[Crease]

There's no doubt that MMA has moved on since Fedor's best days... That does go against him.
But his techniques (his high-level sambo, his conditioning, his punching power, his ground and pound) would all still be just as effective today as they were back in the mid and late 00s... The sports has not moved on from any of these things and they would all still be massive attributes in his favour...

In that regard, he is much different that someone like Royce Gracie... The competition have caught up and surpassed him - as shown by his loss to Matt Hughes, who freely admitted that he thought Royce was going to pull out something crazy never-seen-before manoeuvre to get the win. Fedor's strengths will still be as prevalent in ten years even further down the line...

[gilgamesh]

There's no doubt that MMA has moved on since Fedor's best days... That does go against him.
But his techniques (his high-level sambo, his conditioning, his punching power, his ground and pound) would all still be just as effective today as they were back in the mid and late 00s... The sports has not moved on from any of these things and they would all still be massive attributes in his favour...

In that regard, he is much different that someone like Royce Gracie... The competition have caught up and surpassed him - as shown by his loss to Matt Hughes, who freely admitted that he thought Royce was going to pull out something crazy never-seen-before manoeuvre to get the win. Fedor's strengths will still be as prevalent in ten years even further down the line...

Exactly. He could do it all. Strike on the feet, strike on the ground, submissions. I don't really see how a Fighter could evolve too much beyond that. A new submission hold or something maybe, but that'd be about it, has anyone been busting out never before seen subs in recent years?

[Crease]

Exactly. He could do it all. Strike on the feet, strike on the ground, submissions. I don't really see how a Fighter could evolve too much beyond that. A new submission hold or something maybe, but that'd be about it, has anyone been busting out never before seen subs in recent years?

Well, Frank Mir was the one who really brought the submission level up at Heavyweight... And Werdum did catch a slowed-down version of Fedor, didn't he?
But in all honesty, I wouldn't best against any of these boys beating a prime Fedor.

[Crease]

Looking at the polls, I see a lot of people have picked Cormier to beat Fedor, anyone want to pick that up?

[gilgamesh]

Exactly. He could do it all. Strike on the feet, strike on the ground, submissions. I don't really see how a Fighter could evolve too much beyond that. A new submission hold or something maybe, but that'd be about it, has anyone been busting out never before seen subs in recent years?

Well, Frank Mir was the one who really brought the submission level up at Heavyweight... And Werdum did catch a slowed-down version of Fedor, didn't he?
But in all honesty, I wouldn't best against any of these boys beating a prime Fedor.

Nogueira was even better than Mir at Heavyweight. Not sure who was getting their biggest wins 1st between the two. It was right around the same time I know.

Fedor was able to shut down Nogueira's subs though, when most of his opponents weren't able to.

[Crease]

Nogueira was even better than Mir at Heavyweight. Not sure who was getting their biggest wins 1st between the two. It was right around the same time I know. Fedor was able to shut down Nogueira's subs though, when most of his opponents weren't able to.

Yeah, great points there

[margaret thatcher]

There's no doubt that MMA has moved on since Fedor's best days... That does go against him.
But his techniques (his high-level sambo, his conditioning, his punching power, his ground and pound) would all still be just as effective today as they were back in the mid and late 00s... The sports has not moved on from any of these things and they would all still be massive attributes in his favour...

In that regard, he is much different that someone like Royce Gracie... The competition have caught up and surpassed him - as shown by his loss to Matt Hughes, who freely admitted that he thought Royce was going to pull out something crazy never-seen-before manoeuvre to get the win. Fedor's strengths will still be as prevalent in ten years even further down the line...

Exactly. He could do it all. Strike on the feet, strike on the ground, submissions. I don't really see how a Fighter could evolve too much beyond that. A new submission hold or something maybe, but that'd be about it, has anyone been busting out never before seen subs in recent years?

he was a bit sloppy/wild and couldnt take a shot particularly well id say, those were some of his ponts that could be exploited. i think he would beat most of this list 3/5 though

[gilgamesh]

There's no doubt that MMA has moved on since Fedor's best days... That does go against him.
But his techniques (his high-level sambo, his conditioning, his punching power, his ground and pound) would all still be just as effective today as they were back in the mid and late 00s... The sports has not moved on from any of these things and they would all still be massive attributes in his favour...

In that regard, he is much different that someone like Royce Gracie... The competition have caught up and surpassed him - as shown by his loss to Matt Hughes, who freely admitted that he thought Royce was going to pull out something crazy never-seen-before manoeuvre to get the win. Fedor's strengths will still be as prevalent in ten years even further down the line...

Exactly. He could do it all. Strike on the feet, strike on the ground, submissions. I don't really see how a Fighter could evolve too much beyond that. A new submission hold or something maybe, but that'd be about it, has anyone been busting out never before seen subs in recent years?

he was a bit sloppy/wild and couldnt take a shot particularly well id say, those were some of his ponts that could be exploited. i think he would beat most of this list 3/5 though

Of course. Every man has his flaws, but yes I think he'd win more often than not against any of these guys.

[Impractical Poster]

Looking at the polls, I see a lot of people have picked Cormier to beat Fedor, anyone want to pick that up?

I feel Daniel's wrestling would have been too much for Fedor.

[DrDuke]

It's tough to say with this 5 fights stuff. Definitely almost every matchup would split, if not every. Fedor obviously had wins over the UFC former/future top fighters, despite it weren't prime-vs-prime matchups mostly.

Some of the actual fights tell a lot, some are deceptive. For example, the Nogueira case tells almost everything possible. However, the Arlovski and Mir cases don't. Arlovski did a super stupid mistake. Mir imposed a brawl, which often makes it a 50/50 affair, kill-or-be-killed. Arlovski was winning before he did that stupid flying knee attempt. Mir would have a different fight against Fedor, if he tried to be methodical and relied on his true strengths, grappling.

Styles matter a lot here. The worst matchups for Fedor are Cormier, Velasquez, Werdum and Miocic. All of them are technical, well-rounded and very tough.

The likes of Arlovski, Mir, Couture, Carwin would likely split it close. It's difficult to say, how exactly it would go.

Dos Santos, Ngannou and Lesnar would be the best matchups for Fedor. Dos Santos and Ngannou would be dangerous on the feet, but they could be outgrappled, submitted, ground-and-pounded quite easily. Lesnar was just a powerhouse, who majorly relied on his crude force. Fedor was tougher and more ingenious than Lesnar.

[Crease]

I feel Daniel's wrestling would have been too much for Fedor.

You may be right. Cormier could control the bout to win more rounds... I just feel that with Fedor there is an explosiveness and an unpredictability that no other HW has shown me. And I'm not talking about big KO blows - rather lifting people and smashing them about the place... His core strength was unbelievable... And he was so, so quick for such a powerful lump of a man...

[Oiky]

Prime fedor was an absolute animal of a man