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Scott Coker: Winner of Strikeforce HW GP should be ranked number one
By Zach Arnold | February 11, 2011
This is a transcript of just part of the video interview.
RON KRUCK: “You look at the first round match-ups, I mean there’s some epic fights. How did you come up with the opening round fights and the tournament bracket?”
SCOTT COKER: “You know, we sat down for two weeks and we thought about how we would lay this out, and you know we’ve had some criticism from some of the fans saying, well, why is it, you know, these guys are all on top? You know what, we wanted to give the fans the best opportunity to see the best fights that we could put together, guaranteed. And, you know, Fedor, he might win, he might lose (Saturday) night, right? You don’t know, right? But if he should go forward, then he’ll fight the winner of Alistair and Werdum and, so, we’re guaranteeing these fights because, you know, in a tournament format and I know this from experience, very rarely do the guys that you expect from the bottom, you know, like you have eight guys and say, OK, this guy should win and this guy should win, so this is the finals you’re going to get. Very rarely does it happen and I’ll give a good example, three weeks ago or four weeks ago everybody in America thought the Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons were going to the Super Bowl, you know, I did. And then it ends up being, you know, Pittsburgh and Green Bay. So, very rarely does it end up the way you think it’s going to end up. So, we’ve mixed it up a little bit, fans might get confused but I guarantee you when they start seeing these fights, they’re going to be happy.”
RON KRUCK: “As you look at the fighters that you have put into this Grand Prix, do you feel when it’s all said and done that the winner should be considered the #1 Heavyweight in all of MMA and that’s including the fighters in the UFC?’
SCOTT COKER: “Yeah, absolutely, I mean, you know, our style has never been to disparage anybody. But I can tell you this, not only are these the most talented fighters in the world, they’re the most proven fighters in the world. Look at who Fedor has fought already in his past. Look at who Alistair’s fought. Look at who Bigfoot Silva’s fought. I mean, these guys have all went through the gauntlet several times. Josh Barnett, I mean these guys are all proven fighters, they’re all have been at the top of their game and going into this tournament it’s going to see who is still at the top of their game and the fighter that goes through this gauntlet of athletes should be the #1 fighter in the world.”
One of the interesting things that you see Mr. Coker say in multiple interviews is that he has all the guys signed under contract and that he’s not too concerned about any major injuries taking place. How can he say that when it seems like every other fight that Fedor has a hand injury? How can that be said when contracts haven’t been signed for all the fights (so far, to my knowledge), let alone all of the building venues? Even PRIDE when they ran year-long tournaments had buildings booked for the whole year and announced them ahead of time. We still aren’t sure where Strikeforce’s April event is going to take place.
- Dave Meltzer: Can Fedor regain his legendary aura?
- Dave Walsh: Why you should support the Strikeforce Heavyweight GP
SF has had a good week on the East Coast doing the media rounds. Check out this ESPN interview with Alistair Overeem.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 88 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The reason he can say that is that Coker has no choice but to lie at this point. He’s basically become a mouthpiece and little more now that guys are going over his head to sign with Showtime instead of SF.
The guy is so full of crap at this point that it’s just funny to see how far he buries himself in it. The only way this SF tourney doesn’t go to hell is if either Silva or Werdum can pull off the upsets in their fights. Because if Fedor and Overeem both win, then Coker nad Showtime will be SOL because M1 wants no part or Reem his management.
The reason he isn’t concerned about injuries is because they are not something he can control. There is nothing they can do besides prepare for the worst, and they have done that. If an injury happens, they have alternates ready to step in. What more can they do?
Coker is desperate to be relevant. Here is his problem. He says they aren’t competing with the UFC. But he wants to go on PPV and declaring having the best in the division. He can’t have it both ways.
UFC signed Jorge Santiago. I am shocked on that one. Strikeforce needed him so much more and should have made a huge push for him. Souza is without a real challenger now.
And there is a great interview with Dana White ripping on Rashad Evans for having too many friends. And he even points out that if he changes weight classes, that the friend issue will still be there. It’s funny but so true. The interview is from Heavy.
No venue means no contract
Number one heavyweight in the world? I don’t know about that. Number two? Absolutely. This is going to be a hell of a tournament. My predictions for tonight:
Fedor T/KO2 Silva
Kharitonov UD3 Arlovski (reason not KO is because I think Arlovski will be tentative to engage)
Del Rosario T/KO2 Johnson
Overeem SUB2 Sefo
Villante T/KO3 Griggs
Most of these fights can go either way (namely Villante/Griggs, Sefo/Overeem which probably shouldn’t exist in 2011, and Kharitonov/Arlovski). The Kharitonov/Arlovski fight can be either be an epic war or a slow, somewhat tactical fight. It pretty much depends on Arlovski on that. If he fights like he fought against Bigfoot then it probably won’t be too good. If we got the Arlovski that fought Roy Nelson and Ben Rothwell then I think we are in for a damn good fight.
If the Kharitonov/Arlovski fight happened in 2007 or so it would be awesome. 2011? I don’t know. And both guys are still pretty damn young (Kharitonov is 30, and Arlovski is 31) so who knows until it happens?
I understand he’s a promoter and all. But Scott Coker sounds like a crack fiend.
His reasoning behind why the winner should be number 1 is crazy.
“Look at who Alistair’s fought. Look at who Bigfoot Silva’s fought. I mean, these guys have all went through the gauntlet several times. Josh Barnett, I mean these guys are all proven fighters,..”
Alistair has done very little at HW, even he admits that. If he wins the Tourney he will certainly add some good names to his credentials. But if he loses in round 1 it basically eliminates him from the Top 10 and any serious discussions.
Who exactly has Bigfoot Silva beaten?
Josh Barnett lost three times to Cro Cop and essentially has a draw and a loss against Nog. He hasn’t fought anyone of merit in four years.
C’mon. Just let the tournament happen.
If Chad Griggs wins as a replacement is he supposed to be the #1 HW?
I’m hoping for a lot of fun fights in this thing. But there’s a chance, and a very real possibility, that the tourney goes to expose more than half the field of being washed up.
Coker is a promoter and obviously will sell the winner as number 1. Although to me Cain and JDS are 1 and 2, and both beat everyone in this tournament.
I don’t even think this tournament is the best Coker could do, he just tried to get the fighters with the most name recognition. I mean there no way 32 year old glass jaw Arlovski with a 3 fight losing stream can ever be considered number 1. Or a habitual cheater like Barnett, who constantly tests positive for juicing and taints any win hes ever had.
Cain and JDS both beat everyone in this tournament? What?? I must have missed those fights.
JDS beat Werdum (starched him nice and good) but besides that they haven’t fought anyone in this tournament. Now if you said the both of them CAN beat anyone in this tournament, then I can certainly agree with that. I would love to see Alistair Overeem fight the both of them (triple threat!! Why not?).
If you don’t think this tournament is the best Coker can do, then what is? Most of best heavyweights are in UFC, so this is really the best Coker CAN do. Maybe replace Brett Rogers or Andrei Arlovski with someone like Shane Del Rosario (who’s a reserve fighter anyway)? Try to fit Jeff Monson in? Ricco Rodriguez? Travis Wuiff? All good names, but what we have is good. And Kharitonov is probably going to beat Arlovski tonight anyway, And Josh Barnett is pretty much guaranteed victory over Rogers, so there you go. Then again, that last sentence might have proved your point…
I think Cormier stacking the ‘weak’ side of the bracket with up and coming fighters rather than veterans on the back nine of their careers would have been a smart move. I would be much more excited if Cormier, SDR, plus two others were in that bracket. That said, I understand that I am not a typical MMA fan and that the older ‘name’ guys are more appealing to the run-of-the-mill casual fan.
hahaha can’t disagree with much there. Those fighters would more than likely be cheaper to use and would more than likely not pull out of the tournament except for a serious injury. I can still see the semi-finals almost not happening because of contract disputes or whatnot.
So far, the first 4 fights of the tournament (including the reserve fights) have been embarrassing. Nothing is leaving the first round. It’s almost like amateur hour.
The only guy who impressed me so far is Del Rosario. But his opponent wasn’t good enough for us to know what his real skill level is.
If this is an indication of things to come, it’s not going to look pretty….
not sure if you actually watched Lavar Johnson before, the guy is strickly a brawler who has the power to knock you out with one punch. Could have been an off day for Johnson, but he never faced an opponent like SDR before.
And the last fight was a very good fight. The only one on the card that was high level that deserved to be on Showtime.
Yet it completely killed Strikeforce’s PPV hopes. Nobody is going to pay to see Silva vs. Werdum/Overeem.
Time to drop Fedor from the top 10.
If he’s still there, maybe #10 or so. You see now what Lesnar/Fedor would have probably looked like. Good fight though.
It always amazed me when people thought Fedor would have beataen Cain, Lesnar, or even Carwin.
He can’t compete with the bigger more athletic Heavyweights of today.
That’s why his management tried to keep him away from those guys. This is exactly what he deserves.
I can see him beating Carwin. Carwin is wild as hell and has zero cardio, and I don’t buy the guy being all that great. And at some point he might have beaten Lesnar. Still could if Lesnar was willing to stand in front of him, though I wouldn’t bet on it with other people’s money.
You really think that washed up version of a fighter can beat anybody in the Top 10 today?
I don’t think Fedor is washed up so much as he’s an undersized heavyweight. And yeah, I think he probably can. Frank Mir is a top ten heavyweight. Its not like its an improbable standard.
I’ll say it again Fedor and Arlovski have name recognition but are not top HW’s.
The problem with Fedor is that we will just never know when he really left the top level of the sport. He spent years not fighting the best guys so he could have been out of the elite in 2008 and we would have never known it.
He was the best of an era. That is for sure. But that era is behind us and the new level of Heavyweights is far superior. Heck, the level of competition is far superior.
GSP is better then Hughes. Silva is better then any Middleweight ever. The list goes on and on….
The bad fights at the start were better than I expected, Del Rosario got the win I anticipated for him, Kharitonov/Arlovski wasn’t a staring match (opposite of it) and Silva got his breakout win. Now we can stop talking about M-1 screwing up the tourney or whatever. I’m excited to see him fight either Overeem or Werdum.
LOL its a shame 45 isnt excited. hears hoping Overeem runs the table. Kinda be bad for Strikeforce though.
Well, that’s his problem. I’m not watching fights for 45 Huddle’s approval, am I?
Dont think that was the point of what I saying. But way to take it seriously I guess…eye roller right there.
Anyways…As I said the point being, I want Overeem to win but running table would be ridiculous for strikeforce, who would be his next opponent besides SDR.
I’m just joking around. 45 is going to find the negative in anything anyone who isn’t the UFC does, and hey, that’s his gimmick. We wouldn’t want him to be someone else, right?
Overeem could very well run the table. In doing so he’ll likely avenge a couple losses along the way and put to bed some of the criticism about prior losses in the sport. I personally don’t care who wins so long as the fights are good.
Nothing to do with being excited.
My comments are based on the business end of this for Strikeforce. They needed Fedor in the next round. They don’t have that anymore. They aren’t going to be able to sell an Antonio Silva fight like they would a Fedor Emelianenko fight.
Sort of like Edgar beating Penn. Just because Edgar beat him twice, doesn’t mean the fans interest automatically transfered.
And what happens if they have a Werdum/Silva rematch? Are people really going to care about it? Not even half as much as Fedor/Overeem.
And Fedor is saying he won’t fight anymore. See how long that lasts. But nobody has a deep Heavyweight Division. Losing a guy like Fedor, even if he is washed up, is not good for Strikeforce at all.
If Barnett can’t get sanctioned, what are they left with?
This is why splitting the Heavyweight Division with the UFC and Strikeforce is so bad. The division is weak anyways. It doesn’t need to be fractioned like this which gives us fans even fewer matchups. Neither the UFC nor Strikeforce has much left in their divisions that aren’t repeat fights.
I’d rather have good repeat fights than stupid, meaningless new match ups. See also: Rampage being put in with Hammill instead of being pulled out and held off until the summer to fight Rashad in a big money rematch.
So you have to use an injury replacement as your reasoning? That shows how much you are stretching it.
combine the UFC and Strikeforce Heavyweight rosters and it’s still not a respectable division but it’s close.
Right now all of those rematches are going to get old quick.
You mean a steroid positive replacement for a fight 3 months from now. 3 months!
And like I said – I prefer meaningful rematches over stupid “new” fights should the choice be made. Overeem/Werdum 2 is a much better fight than any other Strikeforce can make, so yeah, I’d like to see it before a “new fight”, thanks.
You are right. Watching Overeem/JDS wouldn’t even compare. Because it’s not a rematch.
Strikeforce can make Overeem/JDS? I’m sure they’d be surprised. In the meantime, I’ll watch the sport for what it is and you do your thing.
See, I would like the UFC to be able to control things. We’ve discussed this before. The thing is that they don’t want to pay enough money to do it, and so it allows Strikeforce to exist. You want to complain to someone, complain to Dana.
Yeah, because you know more about how much to pay fighters then White and Fertitta. Sounds about right.
Strikeforce exists because Showtime is overpaying for the ratings they are getting. If Showtime decided not to pay up more then Strikeforce was worth, they wouldn’t be around. That is the only reason Strikeforce exists.
I’m not saying I know more than they do. They know what they are doing and make a lot of money doing so. They also know that by paying what they do, it allows someone to run MMA on Showtime and not go immediately bankrupt. That’s their call. If you want them to run Showtime and Strikeforce out on a rail, they can do it right this very second. They don’t. If you have a complaint about the heavyweight division being split, talk to them. They have all the power, don’t they?
As for “Showtime overpaying”, take some of your own advice when it comes to talking about telling professionals in their industry how much they should be paying for something.
Find any show on TV that costs over $10 Million a year and averages less then 400,000 viewers. You won’t find it. It doesn’t exist. Anything on Network TV or a Top 20 cable station will have to bring in much higher number of viewers so those are out of the question.
So it is pretty easy to say they overpay right now. Yeah, you will say it’s premium, yada yada yada. Doesn’t matter much.
No show does such a small fanbase for the money it costs. And the $10 Million is really just fees to Strikeforce. Not even really counting production costs.
Right, we’ve been through this before, and you consistently dodge the comparisons to other premium programs based on the difference in demographics. There’s comedy – Showtime doesn’t want the demographic MMA has! LOL.
Face it: No one has gone up against the NFL and tried to get talent it wanted from it in 25 years because the price of players has risen to the point that no one could afford it. The best anyone could do was gimmickry with throw aways. If the UFC paid guys more (and they can afford to, judging by the 10 million dollar gates and million buy PPVs) there would be no Strikeforce on Showtime because it would cost so much to produce, Showtime’s licensing fee couldn’t make it profitable.
Blame Dana. Tell him to poach these guys like he did Shields.
Why in the world would Dana overpay for guys who aren’t worth the money?. That would be idiotic which is what SF is going to learn, paying guys like Nick Diaz 150k per fight is a joke and idiotic business.
Dana is 100% right not to bend over because some other idiot thinks they know how to run and mma org better than he does. Affliction showed that throwing money at fighters doesn’t do anything for you and SF and Showtime are going to learn that lesson aswell.
Why in the world would Dana overpay for guys who aren’t worth the money?
How many guys are worth any money? The way the internet talks, its like the UFC could pay these guys $5 and that they should be appreciate they got anything.
The point is this – their pay allows Strikeforce to exist. You can argue it’s “overpaying” or whatever, but the UFC is the one making 1/3 of Strikeforce’s revenue in the live gate of a single show. If they wanted all these guys, they could have them. The simple fact that no one here is willing to argue that they are incapable of signing all these fighters and turn a profit tells me that there is a great level of cognitive dissonance about how it is that Strikeforce exists.
Yeah, I’m sure the money Showtime pays for Strikeforce will run them to the status of Affliction. ROFLMAO.
“The simple fact that no one here is willing to argue that they are incapable of signing all these fighters and turn a profit tells me that there is a great level of cognitive dissonance about how it is that Strikeforce exists.”
No there isn’t, we know why SF exist because Coker has fallen into the same trap as other orgs before him. He think you can sign some guys that are over with hardcore fans and compete with the UFC but that’s not how it works.
Reality is that the UFC will never overpay for fighter if that means orgs like SF will pop up and lose money while following idiotic business practices than so be it. The UFC would be even dumber to go overboard and pay out the ass for guys like Fedor when they don’t have to and in the end they keep being proved right as to how to run an mma org.
“Yeah, I’m sure the money Showtime pays for Strikeforce will run them to the status of Affliction. ROFLMAO”
That is funny even funnier is the fact that they paid 2 million for a guy who isn’t a draw and had to bend over to M1 and give them whatever they wanted. Wat to go Showtime really with great business moves like that HBO should have no problem winning this little boxing struggle they are about to get into.
I meant that Showtime would be the ones who want to re-negotiate considering they spent several millions to get him into the tournament for nothing.
No there isn’t, we know why SF exist because Coker has fallen into the same trap as other orgs before him. He think you can sign some guys that are over with hardcore fans and compete with the UFC but that’s not how it works.
Instead he should BUILD GUYZ THE RITE WAY, isn’t that right? Because building guys using unrecognizable tomato cans sure has a history of working!
Reality is that the UFC will never overpay for fighter if that means orgs like SF will pop up and lose money while following idiotic business practices than so be it.
There’s no evidence SF is even losing money.
That is funny even funnier is the fact that they paid 2 million for a guy who isn’t a draw and had to bend over to M1 and give them whatever they wanted. Wat to go Showtime really with great business moves like that HBO should have no problem winning this little boxing struggle they are about to get into.
You mean the guy who got 5 million viewers on CBS? That non-draw? OK. Sure. And hey, I’m sure the heavyweight tournament would have had the same cache with Strikeforce built talents such as Daniel Puder or Anthony Ruiz in it instead of them “overpaying” for actual fighters.
I meant that Showtime would be the ones who want to re-negotiate considering they spent several millions to get him into the tournament for nothing.
“Several million”: Where does this sum come from? LOL
Overrated wont get past Verdum.
Thats an easy one.
LOL are you sure about that. I think he will win via TKO versus Werdum. Thats just how messed up Strikeforce is right now. He will most likely end up winning this tourney and facing Rosario, a guy who was a reserve fighter.
I’m pretty sure.
Although I’m begining to consider that Alistairs new frame when combined with his is a much more effective combination then he was at 205.
IE: his skills haven’t gotten any better, but they’re much more effective with the additional power.
If he beats Verdum then I’ll drink the koolaid too.
But I dont think that he will.
^^
“…with his decent skillset…”
Well, it is now OFFICIALLY the end of an era. Silva put in a damn good performance. Congrats to him. The two underdogs (Kharitonov and Silva) won tonight. Yes, Kharitonov was TECHNICALLY the underdog (he shouldn’t have been). Even though the first four fights ended in the first round none of the fights (even the Sefo/Overeem fight) were really mismatches. Sefo was winning the stand-up, then when it hit the ground it was all Overeem. We all knew it would turn out that way. The Villante/Griggs fight was a fun sloppy C-level kickboxing match that went back and forth, with Griggs winning via TKO 1. Most (including myself) predicted Villante, but Griggs did it. Del Rosario won via armbar in round one, and the stand up was pretty close. As most of us predicted it would be close but would come down to Del Rosario’s overall polish over Johnson.
Kharitonov put Arlovski to sleep (effectively ending Arlovski’s career, and maybe even his life span by ten years or so) but Arlovski looked really fast and sharp before the KAYO. And Silva…..well,a pretty damn good performance, especially on the ground. If you see the CompuStrike stats when it came to standing strikes it was pretty much dead even. But Silva did GREAT on the ground.
Well, with Fedor’s loss, the second round fights are pretty much guaranteed to happen now…
I thought Arlovski looked nervous with his energy, doing a lot of unnecessary movement. When it came to the kind of movement that mattered, Kharitonov walked him down and cut the cage off. He spent much of the fight squared up completely with his back to the cage, and he lost as a result even with a huge hand speed advantage. Poor fundamentals and poorer mental game = you lose. Kharitonov is probably the safer opponent for Barnett in my mind given how helpless he often is against big grapplers, but who knows?
Yeah he did seem tentative to really engage with Sergei. Sergei did find his window of opportunity to cut the ring off, landed leather, and bombs away. Did he figure that, with his speed advantage, he would just pot-shot Serdei on route to a decision? He probably would have been better off being slower and counter punch like he did against Bigfoot Silva.
I could honestly see Kharitonov in the finals, maybe losing to Overeem. But we’ll see.
Kharitonov could get there. If he’s on, he’s an interesting match for most anyone with his grappling and boxing background. I can’t believe he’ll beat any of the three remaining guys in the other bracket though. Best match for him out of them is probably Werdum due to Werdum’s history of focus issues/lack of training.
No man. Kharitonov has looked ok in his last two fights because he fought an undersized can, and the Shell of Andrei Arlovski.
Kharitonov will be the new overrated guy on the block for SF now.
I’m not saying that Kharitonov is a great fighter. I just think he has a style matchup that makes for interesting fights. On paper, he loses to Josh Barnett long before he makes it to the final. Then again, on paper, he probably should have lost to Arlovski too. Trust me – I haven’t forgotten Monson taking him down, controlling him, and making him into a highlight reel submission.
And Fedor gives us a retirement speech. Someone put Vadim on suicide watch, LOL.
Coker might be right behind him.
BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Fuckthat noise.Thoughts coming out of this:
AA is done son, hang them up. SK is not better than a mid level journeyman at this point and he lit him up. AA fights scared and has a glass jaw to boot.
The undercard heavyweights looked like a couple of big dudes throwing leather, nothing to write home about.
Fedor will continue to lose. I hope he has been good with his money because his time as a top fighter is over. UNLESS he gets some modern MMA trainers in there. He did not move his head that well and did not seem to have a real plan besides throw heavy leather and hope it connects. It did, BFS did not fall, and it was game over.
He also NEEDS to train with top modern MMA fighters. Random Russian dudes out in Stary Oskol or where ever the fuck he trains is not going to get it done in this day and age.
Lastly, he should really cut weight and fight as a LHW. That is the weight class for a guy his size. Russian pride has no place in the modern day of MMA and he would be a beast fighting guys his own size. Being quicker than the other guy is cool and all but hgiving up 50-80 pounds to athletic guys is a recipe for disaster.
A run at LHW could be just what his career needs.
I hope he does not retire but I can see why he would. He looks over it. Plain and simple, just flat over it.
Oh, and while he did get fairly well manhandled that 2nd round he was hard beat to crap. He ended it fighting for a sub and could have kept fighting. I understand why it was stopped but it REALLY sucks to see it end via puffy black eye.
The 3rd could have easily been more of the same but than again he could have pulled a rabbit out of his hat, I would have liked to see him have the chance.
At least I got to see him fight live.
War Fedor.
Notice how many posts 45 Huddle has about Fedor losing?
Ban!
Nah, but you can’t argue much for Fedor in this fight. Does this loss take him out of the Top 10? Maybe, and I wouldn’t have a problem with it if it did.
He is still an all-time great fighter, and he did some pretty awesome stuff. Maybe this loss will provide a way for him to break away from Vladim?
War Fedor is right!
The real GREATS come back from losses.
GSP and Anderson Silva are great examples of this. They used their losses and became even better.
Fedor took his loss and looked even worse and then retired because of it.
That automatically removes his name from the all time greats. All time greats don’t lose and take their tail between their legs and run out of town.
LOL. I wouldn’t argue that Fedor is greater than Anderson or GSP because he isn’t (I’ve been arguing that GSP has been better for a couple years now, actually). But the idea that you can’t be because you walk away after a loss is ridiculous. Marvin Hagler is one of the greatest boxers ever and he packed up the gloves after the Leonard fight. Letting the sport retire you is for dummies.
But Hagler will never be the best. Just like Fedor will never be the best. The first time he really hit adversity in his career he quit. He didn’t change up his style like GSP. He didn’t improve like Silva. He got up and quit. He couldn’t bring it up to that next level of today’s current fighters and quit because of it.
That’s not greatness. That’s a guy who was ahead of the curve for his time. That curve not only caught up to him, but passed him.
Geeze 45 Huddle….your hate for all things non-UFC is really showing through tonight bud. Go ahead and keep believing that Fedor is not an all time great.
Keep spouting your
bullshit.45;
I highly disagree with you. Fedor is one of the all-time greats. He’s probably right behind Anderson Silva and GSP. That isn’t true what you said about all-time greats. Rocky Marciano is one of the all-time greats, and he retired undefeated, so he didn’t have a chance to come back from a loss. Alan already mentioned Marvin Hagler. Michael Spinks retired after only one loss (first round KO to Mike Tyson). Tyson pretty much NEVER completely recovered from his losses, and he is still one of the greatest heavyweights ever. But being able to come back better after a loss does make a fighter great, but it isn’t the only prerequisite. Barry McGuigan and Sean O’Grady are two great examples of guys walking away young.
I agree with Alan. It’s best to know when to leave. I think it is the perfect time for Fedor to leave.
Hagler isn’t considered to be as great as Sugar Ray Robinson, but even coming back from the defeat agaisnt Leonard probably wouldn’t have changed that. He’s still considered one of the great middleweights ever, if not the greatest.
Alan-I don’t think old time boxing fans would ever let anybody think anyone was better than Robinson, and I wouldn’t be able to argue enough because I don’t see the guy.
Fedor for now is the best HW of all time, but that status could change in the next 5-10 years. He’s already below Anderson and GSP on the all-time list I have personally.
I thought Gus Johnson did a good job tonight. Hopefully its one step closer to getting rid of Ranallo.
It’ll probably never happen, but I’d like to see Fedor cut to 205 and fight in UFC.
He could start by demolishing Couture. Then do the two fights I always hoped PRIDE would do: Fedor vs Rampage and Fedor vs Shogun.
Tons of fun fights for him there.
I think Fedor loses his greatest advantage by cutting to 205. I do agree that it would be interesting to see him do it no matter where it takes place. I just don’t think his heart is into the sport.
The man is 34 years old and clearly isn’t THAT passionate about fighting. I highly doubt Fedor would diet and try to cut to 205. He should have done that years ago.
Ditto, was gonna say the same comment. His physical shape just shows he doesnt prepare as hard as we think. Despite all the ridiculous mythos the media attempted to make up about the guy. He just doesnt look or feel like he belongs in fighting game anymore.
All kidding aside, if any of the fanboys need it, here are two suicide hotlines:
1-800-SUICIDE 1-800-273-TALK
1-800-784-2433 1-800-273-8255
“Anyone else done with mma?
[1] 2 Next»
From: TampabayMMA
Posted: 11 minutes ago
Member Since: 5/23/07
Posts: 5778
This is worse than the dark era. This is the dark era on steroids.
the sport officially sucks, you can have it now. ”
^^
From MMA.TV
Lol!
LOL. That is a sad dude. Hey, if he couldn’t handle this, he was never gonna be a long term fan anyhow. Better than he goes and finds a hobby he can control like playing Magic: The Gathering or WoW. I’m sure Jens Pulver needs someone to play with.
Or Ivan Trembow…
I’ve always assumed he came back under a different name to message boards. I have zero proof of this, but that was always my first thought when he wrote that article about why he wouldn’t be watching the sport anymore.
Dude…have you seen Cataclysm? There are like 20 million people playing WoW….and with cross-server dungeon running, he is not alone.
Fed has officially lost interest.
We already knew it, but now its official.
But whoever says this means he was never that good is a fool.
He’s retiring early though IMO, and I cant help but feel that squandering these last few years unnaturally accelerated his current disinterest.
I’m glad its over.
I’d rather it be over now then dragging on the misery.
Bigfoot is a good kid and a good fighter, he deserves this.
I figure Silva, Kharitovov or Verdum takes it.
That KO doesn’t prove whether Sergei is completely back up to speed yet though. That was well within the capabilities of the same flakey Sergei of the last few years.
I’ll take Silva and Verdum in the final, then Verdum takes all.
Although I wouldn’t be so surprised if Silva surprised us all either!
IT’s OFFICIAL
M-1 has dirty pictures of Scott Coker’s wife….
According to Coker, Fedor Emelianenko could still be an alternate in the tournament if he does not retire.
I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.
LOL!!!! So why did they have those alternate fights tonight?
This thing is double elimination all of a sudden?
They had said that anyone who was in the main draw and lost was still eligible to return as an alternate weeks ago. I don’t know why this is news now again?
I hadn’t heard that. But that’s preposterous. How is it a tournament then?
Perhaps because he was beaten so badly and then talked about wanting to quit.
But somehow he should still come back? What’s the point of all those alternate bouts then?
And who cares about losing if you can just come back if somebody else gets injured.
It doesn’t matter if they talked about it years ago. The fact is that a guy just got beat down and wants to retire, and the promoter is trying to find anyway to get his name back into the tournament. It reeks of desperation.
Did you guys ever see any of the tournaments that happened in Japan?
There is nothing unusual about bringing back a guy who lost as an injury replacement. It happened all the time.
How many times did they mention PRIDE tonight? I would suggest a drinking game for the next round but I wouldn’t want anyone getting alcohol poisoning.
The most interesting part of this now that Fedor lost is how much did Showtime have to give up to even get him in the tournament in the first place.
I mean we already know he and M1 are making around 2 million just from the fight alone. And who knows what kind of money Showtime had to shell out for a reality show or whatever else from M1. Now it’s going to be funny to see if Showtime is the one’s that are going to try and re-negotiate things now that their golden goose is cooked.
I honestly can’t wait to hear the spin and bs coming from Coker, SF and M1 after tonight it’s going to be great comedy to say the least.
There’s nothing additional to give up now that Fedor is gone. What is he going to renegotiate for? Did’t you see him give a retirement speech after getting the
shitbeaten out of him last night?few random thoughts…
I’m not going to suggest that Sefo dogged it, but he def didn’t plan on spending ANY time at all on the ground tonight. ‘Cause that was one quick tap.
Griggs will never be world class, but damn if he doesn’t make for a fun mid-card guy. Sloppy, but exciting with a ton of heart. I hope they can find at least one or two more bigger name, more credentialed fighters for him to upset before harsh reality slams the door.
Hell, he’s fun to watch & seems like a decent guy, so I hope they recognize him as a fan favorite & don’t throw him to the wolves too soon.
Del Rosario?
Don’t know, he got the job done tonight against a tough, dangerous,( but limited ) opponent tonight. Which is all you can ask, but I didn’t see anything that told me that he’s ready for that next step up yet.
But then, I was saying the same exact thing about Bigfoot not all that long ago as well, so…
I was impressed by Kharitonov.
I mean, maybe I shouldn’t be so much considering who he had in front of him tonight, but I was. Enough so that I think he wins his bracket of the tourney & is dangerous in the finals.
Poor Arlovski.
I REALLY feel bad for him.
To be SO physically gifted & skilled at combat sports like he is & yet to be cursed with a chin that is tragically comprised of nothing stronger than fine bone china. It’s almost a cosmic joke on the poor guy.
And it’s not as if he just suffers these losses via an accumulation of blows or something, he almost always knocked SPARK out. And it’s been going on for years. Since even before he was in the UFC.
So, what’s he supposed to do now?
He’s still a young man.
But DAMN, he just can’t continue to lit up like this. Not if he wants to have any sort of a life a few years down the road. You know?
Poor guy.
Fedor’s just a bit past it & I don’t believe he has any desire to compete anymore. So, hopefully he’ll be allowed to walk away from the fight game like he clearly wants to.
As for Silva, good for him.
He deserved it.
He fought a great fight, had a terrific game plan & used everything he had to his advantage to post a career defining victory.
I have no shame in admitting that I’ve been a doubter of Bigfoot’s since I first saw him on the inaugural EliteXC show three years or so ago. And, every step of the way since he’s proven me wrong.
Coming off of his near disasterous win over the cruiserweight Mike Kyle, I was convinced that Fedor was just one or two big right hands away from an easy first round win, but once again Silva made a fool of me.
so, from now on, in my book Bigfoot’s for real.
Fedor is an atg. I’m glad his retiring. His aged and slowed down. The way Silva got into full mount with such ease was crazy. I don’t remember bjj expert big nog being able to pass Fedor like that. I know Fedor has ignored bjj but that was basic stuff. Thanks for the great fights and I hope u ain’t spent all ya money!!