Eleven Ways of Looking at Fedor Emelianenko’s Latest Loss

Filed under: StrikeforceAfter Fedor Emelianenko’s second consecutive defeat rocked the MMA world in the opening round of the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix, it’s hard not to ask, what does it all mean? What happened on Saturday night against Antoni…

Filed under:

After Fedor Emelianenko‘s second consecutive defeat rocked the MMA world in the opening round of the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix, it’s hard not to ask, what does it all mean? What happened on Saturday night against Antonio Silva, and how does it change our understanding of future and past events?

There are many (sometimes directly contradictory) answers to these questions, so we might as well lay them out one by one and make the best case we can for each. Feel free to mix and match where possible.

I. Fedor is the best there ever was. One loss — or even two straight losses — doesn’t change that. Who else has that kind of win streak? Who else is as well-rounded, or as dominant? Who walked through Cro Cop’s hardest shots and shook off a Kevin Randleman suplex? One man, and his name is Fedor. The more the UFC heavyweight strap gets passed around like an iPod at a white elephant gift exchange, the more you’ll come to realize just how glorious Fedor’s run was.