Many MMA fans continue to try to make sense of the sport’s landscape, just two days removed from Fedor Emelianenko’s stunning loss to Fabricio Werdum. Fedor’s first defeat in a decade just wasn’t supposed to happen; not against Werdum, despite the Brazilian’s ever increasing abilities. Really, when you think about it, Fedor was kind of effed with this fight either way. If he won, Fedor’s critics would say all he had done was beat a guy that got bombed out by Junior Dos Santos. Someone, “The Last Emperor” could have elected to fight, if he hadn’t ‘dodged’ tough competition in the UFC…But, Fedor lost, so here’s more on the flip side of that undesirable coin…
For many of Fedor’s critics, Saturday’s result was likely proof that the Russian legend’s reign as the world’s #1 P4P fighter has long been over (beating Hong Man Choi just didn’t do it for a lot of people…). Of course Alistair Overeem was also adversely affected by Saturday’s result, as now the Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion may never face Emelianenko, in what could have been the promotion’s biggest fight to date. Speaking to Sherdog.com, the Dutchman had this to say, when asked about Fedor’s future:
“Fedor’s a little bit out of the picture,” said Overeem. “He has one more fight on his (Strikeforce) contract and I don’t know against who he’ll fight. He might retire after that anyway. He might retire now. He’s the X-factor.”
Out of the picture huh? Not surprising considering Overeem also claims that Fedor turned down a fight with him in May. MMA is a ‘what have you done for me lately’ sport, but, we’re thinking Fedor still has some big wins in him yet. Check out the entire Overeem interview here.