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What it was like meeting Fedor in his locker room after he lost to Werdum
By Zach Arnold | December 23, 2010
I would encourage you to check out this video interview with Dr. Gary Furness, a respected physician with the California State Athletic Commission.
(He was at the Chael Sonnen hearing a couple of weeks ago and knew what the situation was all about.)
He’s based out of Santa Rosa, which is the very northern edge of the Bay Area. So, to go to Sacramento, San Jose, and other cities in central California he definitely does travel quite a bit. In addition to all that, he’s a graduate of a school I familiar with called Humboldt State.
During the interview, Dr. Furness talks about some of the signed photos and posters on his wall including a photograph of him taking care of Cal Worsham on the mat in 2006 when Worsham fractured his eye socket in his last MMA fight. There are other photos observed, including a picture of his kids with David Terrell and a signed K-1 Battle at the Bellagio 2007 poster.
With that noted, check out what he had to say about meeting Fedor before and after his fight last June with Fabricio Werdum in San Jose.
“This past June I was very lucky, I got assigned to work the Fabricio Werdum/Fedor Emelianenko fight in San Jose. I also got to do their pre-fight physicals, which for me is a thrill. I’m always a professional but as a fan to meet Fedor and those guys at that level is always very exciting.
“One of the more difficult things I have to do after a fight is to try to help take care of someone who’s just lost. That’s the one time where even the best guys are sometimes a little upset, don’t want to talk about things, preferred to be left alone, which is totally understandable. What I found just fascinating about Fedor is his 10-year win streak was over with, uh, and he was still a complete gentleman, completely cooperative, no anger. After I checked him out, he thanked me for making sure he was okay and shook my hand, nodded, and went on his way. It was a very interesting experience.
“Sometimes, Santa Rosa seems like a very small town. One of the local sports writers, a gentleman named Phil Barber (LinkedIn) who has an interest in MMA, he was interested to find out (that) one, that we had a world-class gym like Dave Terrell’s NorCal Fighting Alliance, and then also he was interested that he actually has a real life doctor who works at these things and so we became friends. He got interested and wrote a story on it, which was a lot of fun.”
This is a recent HDNet video segment where they went and visited the NorCal Fighting Alliance gym. It’s good viewing.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Fedor is a class act. Never any doubts about him as a person.
I believe I said that night that I probably was taking the loss harder than Fedor was.
I know it was posted in a few places (the UG if I remember right) that Fedor never considered himself unbeatable but it management team did.
There is a big difference in losing by decision vs. KO that can create the mood for the fighter after the fight.