Fedor Emelianenko vs. Jeff Monson

[monaroCountry]

theres not many ADCC champs around, Monson is actually one of them. People talk about NCAA wrestlers as having good ground game, yet Monson won a world grappling tournament twice. I rate Monson's ground game as more dangerous than your walk in the park college level wrestler.

[Drunken Cat]

Your point is sound, but your examples do hang me up. Like I said before. To me Fedor was better at both stand up and ground games then anyone else around. We both agree old Fedor don't give a **** what your good at. He's 100% confident he can beat you. That was probably my biggest attraction to him. I guess what I'm saying is what y'all see as improvement I'm seeing negative. There's just no way my psyche can logically rationalize Fedor giving Monson respect is any field. I get that that's his strength. I get that. But Monson on his best day in his best way should be a walk in the park for Fedor. Monson was a Tim Sylvia title contender. Fedor beat Tim by way of KO. The next champ of that era AA by way of KO, but the loser of the era. Thats who he's got to worry about. Fedor was cautious against a fella I'm not impressed with. He respected skills I've no respect for. You don't gotta keep posting his AC wins I read them. I just don't care. Fedor used to be the destroyer of champions and now he's out pointer of bums. I just upsets me.

On a different note. I really hope the best for him. Not a lot of times you hope to be wrong, but really I'd love to see him back in the big time.

Fedor is possibly not the fighter he once was anymore. At 35, he is still an extremely capable fighter. But it is part of the human condition that you can't always do at 35 what you could do at 26.

It is generally believed that Fedor could have won any of those 3 fights which he lost. You are right to allude that Fedor use to beat people at their own strengths, and that was as much as anything what made him into a legend. He beat the hell out of Nog in his guard, outstruck Crocop, armbarred a judo gold medalist, attempted to throw a 7-3 Sserium champion, etc. etc.

But, that was then. I do not know whether Fedor is still capable of his former physical feats. It seems likely that he may have already exceeded his physical prime, but that doesn't mean he cannot still perform at a worldclass level. In the interest of career longevity, he probably needs to evolve into a more mature fighter. It is certainly the case that Monson was not an A-class fighter, and Fedor's performance for this reason alone needs to be taken in its proper context, but Fedor fought pretty well in that fight. He looked like a dangerous man, and he looked sharp to me. I think that Fedor could still hang with most, if not all, guys out there.

And I'm not trying to endorse a guy hanging around too long, either. I'd support Fedor if he chose to retire tomorrow. But, I don't think there is necessarily cause for believing that he can't still compete at the top level.