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Quote of the Week – Freddie Roach
By Zach Arnold | January 24, 2009
From yesterday’s LA Times:
“Fedor’s boxing skills are not that good,” Roach said bluntly. “His footwork’s terrible. We have to take advantage of that.”
This, a day before Fedor knocked out Andrei Arlovski with one punch in their Affliction PPV main event match in Anaheim.
Topics: Affliction, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 36 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
To be fair to Roach, Fedor isn’t great in terms of pure Boxing skills but he was able to time and land a perfect counter hook as Arlovski ran in chin first going for a flying knee in the corner.
Arlovski was killing Fedor with straight boxing. I mean, absolutely dominated him. Its when he threw out the gameplan and went with the knee off instinct that it went wrong. If he had come in behind the jab, we’d probably be talking very differently about the way that fight went.
Also, that event was a blast to watch. I’m sure there will be plenty of people posting about how Scott Ferrall or camera angles ruined their fun of seeing Matt Lindland get torched, but whatever.
Yeah, maybe if Arlovski stuck with his boxing “gameplan” he would have won round one. Maybe even round two, but what happens when it hit the ground?
Or maybe what happens when he gets clipped with one punch? Oh wait…
Fedor wins this fight 8 or 9 times out of ten. Barnett said it best when interviewed by sherdog yesterday, “this isn’t a boxing match”. Yeah Fedor was losing on his feet but when worst comes to worst, he will change levels and go to his strength.
You can play the what if game all you want, it done, OVER. Fedor has Barnett next and I would like to see him against lesnar if he beats Mir.
Arlovski did a pretty good job fending off Fedor in the first within the clinch. Honestly, he had Fedor backing up big time. He got overly excited and got caught. I’d like to see him maybe fight someone like an Overeem and if he wins, gets a rematch.
Given the dearth of quality opponents outside the UFC besides Barnett for Fedor to fight for the first time, it’ll likely happen.
It is unreal that people are already tearing apart Arlovski’s performance. He made one mistake against Fedor. The thing is, you can’t make any mistakes against Fedor. I have no doubt if he kept at his gameplan he had a good shot of knocking Fedor out.
I’d put money on him in a rematch.
Watch the fight again now that you know what happens and can analyze it dispassionately. Arlovski got Fedor into the 3rd minute, he was able to stop Fedor from pushing him backward, and he was able to survive the clinch with Fedor. But he did no significant damage and only pestered Fedor with the leg kicks.
It’s possible Arlovski could win a decision from a purely technical kickboxing perspective, but Fedor doesn’t give a hoot about flies pestering him. He doesn’t go to decision with them. He swats them.
War Fedor!!! No doubt, the #1 P4P fighter in the world.
And yet I’m sure that in a few months, the Kevin Ioles of the world will still be questioning who Fedor has ever fought…
Dana will forever be quoted… lol
I got very worried as to Fedor’s performance; a few people have commented on the net that he was doing too much promo and having to talk to so many people (PR).
He was over committing certain strikes, like his protoge “Baby Fedor.”
Fedor is the best MMArtist in the world right now and after Barnett, there is no other draw besides a vintage Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar.
I gotta watch that fight a few more times to digest it, looks like Arlovski could have picked Fedor apart had he really wanted to, or had he the patience.
Ivan Trembow Says:
“And yet I’m sure that in a few months, the Kevin Ioles of the world will still be questioning who Fedor has ever fought…”
Yeah of course. And if he stops Barnett in the 1st, he will still get panned by UFC propogandists types. Doesn’t matter, he is a few wins away from clearing out a division.
There are still a handful of guys out there at Heavyweight that they could get who would be better opponents than anyone in UFC except Nog.
Rothwell’s out there, Kharitonov, Antonio Silva, Monson, Overeem. He can fight Yvel inside his promotion, and Werdum is a free agent now, and I still rank him among the top guys in UFC aside from Nog.
Also inside the M-1 stable is Magomedov. The problem is that these are not name fights.
You’re reaching Jeremy. The UFC HWs are much better than you’re giving them credit for, especially if you’re giving Nog exempt status. Did you see his last fight?
I expect that they are better than I’m giving them credit for, but there’s a certain degree of stickiness, and their “betterness” isn’t being reflected in my methodology.
Personally I really like Frank Mir as a fighter, and I know that his ranking in my system is affected by his past losses to guys that he would never lose to now, and also by his limited exposure to “top” heavyweights because the fighters in that division are all over the place instead of in one promotion means that it will take him longer to move upwards than it would take someone who has the chance to fight Barnett or Fedor or Silva.
Lesnar, absent some serious unforeseeable event, is clearly headed upwards in the rankings, but right now I’m showing him as being in way over his head. Ideally he would have been fighting Dos Santos or someone like that in terms of having a similar number of fights instead of fighting Randy Couture for a disputed UFC heavyweight championship belt.
But those other guys are out there, and their numbers are better. No reason not to have them fighting one another.
I mean, these popularity contest polls are all fine and good, but I think it’s reasonable to say that you have to earn some things in the fight world, and the guys that I mentioned have earned the right to fight Fedor as much as Mir or Couture and certainly more than Lesnar.
Mir, Couture and Lesnar beat top fighters. Quality over quantity, always.
If you’re giving fighters shots at Fedor based on the fact that they have a pretty looking number next to the name, rather than judging them on the strength of the opposition and how they performed against it, then include Carwin, Gonzaga, and Kongo on the list. Their 10-0, 10-3 and 13-4 records, respectively, are just as good as the records of the guys you listed.
Overeem is 29-11, mostly at LHW, so let’s toss Herring’s 28-14 record into the hat as well.
I feel bad for AA, he must feel so disappointed. I would like to see a Overeem AA fight. Two great strikers battling it out. Would be a great match.
AA looked alot better standing up than Fedor. But even before the fight this was widely predicted. A no brainer statement. No doubt in a boxing match it would be 95% to AA, kickboxing maybe 60-70%.
But guess what, Fedor found a way to be competitive on the feet. AA threw away his chances when he disrespective Fedor’s abilities with his over-confidence, and as a result got KO 3 seconds later. But i think even after seeing this fight it wouldn’t affect the odds in a future fight, Fedor can find a way to win no matter what his opponent is doing to you, no matter if it’s Coleman having his back and getting the takedowns, Randleman with his slam and wrestling, Fujita with his big right hand and Nog with his sub attempts. Fedor will be right there to put you away for good, that’s why he’s no.1!
If you don’t want a popularity contest poll, then check out fightmatrix. It’s completely unbiased and mathematical, and 7 of their top 10 HWs are UFC.
To say that Rothwell, Kharitonov, Antonio Silva, Monson, and Overeem would be “better opponents than anyone in UFC” is silly.
You can put all the numebers you want into an equation or a model and there will still be a way to improve on it. They’re not the be all end all. It still won’t compare to a human brain and a good analyst’s capabilities.
I’m not some dumb fuck with a worthless opinion saying this, i got a first class in my masters degree in Applied Mathematics. I know what i’m talking about.
“To say that Rothwell, Kharitonov, Antonio Silva, Monson, and Overeem would be “better opponents than anyone in UFC” is silly.”
Yet strangely enough absolutely correct
You are only correct relative to your assumptions, and i don’t agree with them.
The opponents you list are world class and would be very competitive in the UFC.
Arlovski’s gameplan and performance will be used and perfected by the man that will eventually beat Fedor.
Arlovski exposed several weaknesses; he rocked Fedor (not quite as bad as Fajita) with quck and sharp strikes and pushed him back constantly with constant pressure.
Fedor sets a very high standard for himself based on his dominance. Using that baseline, he looked like crap tonight; out of shape, slow, and unfocused. Barnett could have a chance if tonight’s Fedor shows up for their fight.
You need to watch the fight again.
i have to agree w/ Makea. Although its hard to find fault with a guy when he wins by 1st rd knock out, he looked small, a bit slow and dare I say it like his day might be passing. MAybe hidding in the hills has its down side, maybe he should be working with a wider variety of coaches.
Whatever the case he won and I’m happy for that.
“Yet strangely enough absolutely correct.”
Rothwell > every UFC HW? Please stop the obvious trolling.
“You can put all the numebers you want into an equation or a model and there will still be a way to improve on it. They’re not the be all end all. It still won’t compare to a human brain and a good analyst’s capabilities.”
I never said it was the be all end all ranking system, in fact it’s riddled with errors, such as having Jorge Santiago as the #2 MW in the world.
However, I’m sure you’d agree that models and equations are useful for gathering and sorting information for a human brain to analyze, and shouldn’t necessarily be dismissed offhand like you appear to have done.
I don’t think Andre hurt Fedor at all. He did look good, but height and reach will do that. Despite Arlovski’s obvious physical advantages, it took Fedor less than one round to put him to sleep.
I’ve always thought that a big submission wrestler like Barnett has the best chance against Fedor.
Fedor #1
It seems Freddie wants to get his name in the public spotlight no matter who he trains. Being critical of Arlovskis performance last night would not be fair to either fight. Arlovski was holding his own up until he made his fatal error. I think that Afflication should now place Barnett-Fedor together into a match, with the winner making an open challenge to the UFC champion. Dana put your money where your mouth is!
Solid PPV. Production was much better then the first time.
I find it funny that Affliction doesn’t show Hieron vs. High, nor do they show one prelim for the people who didn’t have HDNet… And I have yet to hear one complaint about that. The UFC has been tar’d and feather’d for not showing enough prelims in the past. Affliction had about 1 hour of dead airtime at the end.
Now let’s get to the important stuff, which are the numbers.
The reported payroll for this event was $3.3 Million. Fedor’s pay looked substantially low, so it is likely he got paid more then what is being reported. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to estimate a $4 Million + payroll for this event.
Let’s say Affliction ended up making $1 Million from the live gate, after the arena takes it’s portion. They would have to sell over 150,000 PPV’s just to break even on the fighter payroll.
And that’s not even counting production costs, commission fee’s, oh and paying Trump & ODLH to be there.
Two events in a row lost money, not including the cancelled show. These are not good signs.
I’m annoyed about Hieron vs High (which seems to have been pushed and pushed to ensure there was time for Fedor vs Arlovski, then M-1 and WAMMA took over the ring pushing the fight itself past the air slot), but I do have HDNet, so I’m not going to complain about that. And I’m sure that more people have HDNet than purchased the PPV.
If UFC was showing prelims on Spike and not on the PPV, I wouldn’t complain about that either.
The PPV was slighly short of 3 hours, which is normal for UFC, although you do normally get an instant replay of the full event on an UFC PPV.
Six fights is also not unusual for a UFC PPV, and generally their main card has five fights, so they’re almost guaranteed to have time to show prelims.
There’s more to it than wins and losses. People are acting like there are no quality opponents out there for Fedor aside from guys in UFC. That isn’t true. There are guys who have the fights against the right fighters at the right time to establish themselves as quality opponents. Guys who have placed themselves in the top 100 all-weight fighters in the world based on what they have actually done rather than what they might do.
If you want to reject them, do it because they don’t have the name to match their deeds, not because their deeds don’t match up.
The PPV was scheduled for 4 hours, not 3. If the Main Event went 5 rounds, it would have gone past the 3 hour mark, and it’s not like the signal would have dropped off.
Also, the number of households who have HDNet is still extremely limited. It would be one thing is the UFC put the prelims on SpikeTV, as it is safe to assume that the vast majority of people with PPV access also have SpikeTV. The only people who might be left in the dark would be the people ordering it online because they don’t have cable.
With HDNet, most people don’t have the channel still. And with 1 hour left, they could have easily shown Hieron/High, and perhaps Nog/Vlady 2.
As for their Heavyweight Division… After Barnett, there is no fight outside the UFC guys I can think of for Fedor that would motivate anybody to purchase a PPV with him on it.
I agree fighters can be built up, but it seems like Affliction is thinking really short term right now. They haven’t built anybody up past Barnett.
Secondly, I just don’t see how they can continue to pay these fighters what they are paying them and expect to stay in business. They will have to ask guys like Belfort & Barnett to sign on for less during their next contracts… And I can’t imagine winning fighters wanting to take a paycut.
An issue that will likely be discussed over the next 6+ months is the futures of Andrei Arlovski & Tim Sylvia. I’m not going to say Zuffa is going to blackball them. But what will likely happen is of the same effect.
1. Sylvia & Arlovski got big paydays from Affliction. Zuffa would not pay either of them close to those amounts.
2. Zuffa has no incentive to sign either of these fighters. Both lost to Fedor, and if they came back and were successful in the UFC, it could tarnish their division to the hardcore fans.
I think both Sylvia & Arlovski better make sure they saved their money properly. The potential markets for their services might not exist by the end of 2009.
“A celebrity who is here in bronze only,” quipped Merchant, referring to a bronze statue of Oscar De La Hoya that stands outside the Staples Center. “Oscar De La Hoya, the live version, is in nearby Anaheim, where his company got a $5 million fee from a t-shirt maker so that he would be personally involved in the promotion of a mixed martial arts show.”
He added, “It would take that much, Jim, to get me to go to one of those things.”
Arlovski made around 1.5mil, Fedor around 1.6mil, btw. I think as a part of Fedor’s contract, Affliction pays him 300k, M1 pays him the rest.
interesting to check the fedor post fight interview
things that stood out to me
-fedor didn’t think AA was doing much damage
-he didn’t intend to takedown in the clinch
-he thought he was in control?!
i love on some of the other forums, fedor sucks now because he didn’t strike the best over a period of 2 minutes
1. Sylvia & Arlovski got big paydays from Affliction. Zuffa would not pay either of them close to those amounts.
So, let me get this straight: Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski are stupid because they went and took large sums of money that never would have been offered to them by the UFC, and thus it makes impossible for them to return to the UFC to make those same sums of money they would have otherwise made had they not been stupid and fought for Affliction. Uhhh….
Dave, Affliction pays M-1 that amount, and then Fedor gets paid by them. It’s still an Affliction cost.
Both Arlovski and Sylvia made great decisions. Andrei has made almost 3 million dollars in a year, probably close 4 counting sponsorships. Dana will welcome him back after he plays around with boxing for a while.
Sylvia made more for one fight than he would have on his whole new UFC contract probably. Even if he only fights on small shows from now on, he made the right call.
If Brock Lesnar is champ in a year, and he’s gone through Mir, Kongo, the new big guys, and even Couture again…Arlovski and Sylvia will get offers to come back and fight him.