Fedor Emelianenko: Brock Lesnar Is 'A Very Good Fighter, a Very Strong Fighter'

Brock Lesnar beat Randy Couture to become the new UFC heavyweight champion of the world, but he's not the best heavyweight in MMA. That distinction belongs to Fedor Emelianenko, who will likely never fight Lesnar because he'll likely never agree to a contract with the UFC.

But while Fedor doesn't think highly of the UFC's contract language, he does think highly of Lesnar. He tells MMA Weekly:

"He's a very good fighter," he remarked. "He's a very strong fighter. I'm very impressed with his speed. ... I would certainly take a different tactic to the fight, although I do believe that Randy had a smart game plan, but it appears that he wasn't able to control the top position, which is what I believe he was trying to do."

Fedor sounds like he's resigned himself to the fact that he's never going to fight Couture.
Fedor added:

"Nothing is ever certain. This is something that the managers and the organizers need to resolve. But I understand that in all likelihood if Randy stays with the UFC, that the chances of us fighting are much less, and hopefully our fans will be able to overcome that. We both have our history in the sport and if a fight between Randy and I was not to materialize in the future, there will still be other fights. I'm not going to be angry or upset about it in any way."

Even if Fedor is able to get past his contractual issues with the UFC some day, a Fedor vs. Randy fight isn't all that attractive because at this point in their careers, Fedor is a lot better than Randy. It was fun to speculate about in the past, though.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-19-2008 @ 10:13AM

Eric said...

Respectful of all fighters as usual ... Brock could learn a lot from Fedor.

11-20-2008 @ 12:12AM

SS said...

Fedor is a true humble champion. Not to mention he is undefeated against UFC's past champions. Head and shoulders above anybody else. He would find a way to beat Brock too.

11-19-2008 @ 10:48AM

TheHulk said...

I enjoy MMA, but lets face it, It is like a triathlete good at(running, swimming and biking) but not great at any. Could you think of someone coming into boxing (after being a pro wrestler) and becoming heavy weight champ. I'm Happy for Brock (scary dude) but him winning proves that MMA is an overrated toughman contest. Still enjoyable but not much skill required. Brock brings down the creditbility of the UFC and MMA in general. I'll still watch though just like I would watch a street fight.

11-19-2008 @ 12:33PM

G said...

Overrated toughman contest? Not much skill? Why in the world are you dismissing the entire sport based on one fight in one weight class? Even if what you're saying were true for heavyweights (and it's not, otherwise, Bob Sapp would be undefeated), it certainly does not apply to the other weight classes.

And pro wrestler or not, not recognizing Lesnar's athleticism or his skill (seriously, watch the difference in how he fought from Mir to Herring to Couture) is willful blindness. As a brief aside, on the current TUF, do you know who one of the top picks/consensus top fighters in the house is? Krzysztof Soszynski. Do you know what he used to be? A pro wrestler (though never in WWE). Do you think that makes him less of a fighter? Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira would disagree with you. And they're both highly skilled BJJ and MMA practitioners.

11-19-2008 @ 1:06PM

I did not mean to dismiss an entire sport, and even though it is a profitable outlet for Wrestlers and BBJ, I believe the best Strikers are Pro Boxers, the best Wrestlers are NCAA Division 1 champs or Olympic Champs, and the best at BBJ are not in MMA but are teaching them. Techencial sports can be boring to watch too the avg layman and right now MMA is the most fun to watch. but when the fighters start to move to the GSP level, it could lose some of its appeal. I love Randy C but remember her never could make the olympic level of Greco-Roman. Wrestling. The guy who won the Ironman could not beat Lance A in a bike race, could not beat the man who won NYC Marathon and could not beat Micheal Philps at swimming.

11-19-2008 @ 3:23PM

MMA is a different sport than boxing, wrestling, and BJJ. A BJJ black belt might be a terrible striker (and remain so), which is why he might not ever be a top MMA fighter.

Do you say NFL WRs aren't playing a real sport, because they'd be beaten in sprints by Olympic sprinters? Do you say NFL linemen aren't playing a real sport, because they'd be beaten in grappling by Olympic wrestlers? No, because that's silly.

Just as none of Lance, the NYC Marathon champ or Michael Phelps could beat a champion triathlete in an Ironman. The guy who won the Ironman is playing a different sport - demeaning his sport by saying he's not as good as someone who specializes is pointless.

11-19-2008 @ 4:32PM

Hulk - You're right, boxing is like checkers and MMA is like chess.

The 2 sports are completely different, but if we have to compare ...

Let's put Roy Jones vs Anderson Silva in an MMA fight - Roy would get kicked in the head, his face shattered by a knee, and then he'd get pounded into the mat like a roofing nail - all in less than 1 minute.

OK, now let's put the 2 of them in an boxing match (which Silva has begged for) - you could argue that Jones would win a decision (no way in hell he KOs Silva), but with the striking avoidance skills you learn when punches, elbows, kicks, and knees are allowed to the entire body ... bobbing and weaving ain't shit. Silva wins by KO or decision.

Do you want to know why MMA is becoming more popular than boxing?

Fedor, Anderson, GSP, Penn, Griffin - these guys are warriors who would rather fall on their sword in defeat than be in a boring fight like De La Hoya vs Mayweather! Those pansies should have been forced to go door to door and give every PPV purchaser their money back.

11-19-2008 @ 3:57PM

Brayan said...

A mixed martial artist is the perfect fighter. A hybrid of all other fighting styles. He can stop a pure prowrestler, proboxer, judo champion with a much greater arsenal. This is why we watch MMA. If Calzaghe ran into Bj penn on the street and got into a fight, the most likely outcome is that Calzaghe would get beat down. Its real fighting, Allows the chance to bring in any style or all styles to beat another opponent.
Triathlete is a nice term, i dont see it as offensive though MultiAthlete is much better because these guys bring alot more than techniques than seen in any other sport.

11-20-2008 @ 1:31PM

Ed Jaffie said...

Spent 54 yrs. in the Martial arts, studying 4 different styles. People want to confuse survival with competition. MMA is the nearest fighting to survival currently, but it still has restrictions. No holds barred is the only true test of styles, allowing eye gouging, biting, bare knuckle, groin attacks, rabbit punches, in other words to the death. In this type of a fight, the winner could find himself crippled for life. Any type of competition will have certain types of limitations, and on any given day two equal fighters could find the results going either way. So unless we return to the gladiators of old, this arguement will never be answered. My opinion!

11-24-2008 @ 3:42PM

mike said...

And no, I don't believe the best strikers are professional boxers, I believe american boxing is a joke of a sport that no one watches anymore. I believe the best punchers may be professional boxers, but to compare a punch to a kick or a knee which puts so much more force behind it because face it, you get more power from your legs and range, to say professional boxers have better "striking" than lets say mui-tai, or karate / tkd, or even kickboxing...No contest

11-24-2008 @ 3:48PM

And hulk...not to pick on you but lets face it....most non-mma fans think of mma as a bar-fight or streetfight or whatever. But case and point, Brock lesnar: 2000 NCAA D-I Wrestling champ, 2-Time D-I All American, 2-time bigten wrestling champ. Fedor, a national russian sambo champ literally destroyed in his conquests some significant people, including Kevin Randleman another 2-time NCAA D-I wrestling champ, Naoya Ogawa 6-time Japanese Judo champ, and the list goes on and on. You are right, the best wrestlers are NCAA champs and I do believe there are some national BJJ champs in there too, and they have all fought / are fighting in mma. The fact is, these are top of the top martial arts experts using all of their skills arsenal in the mma ring / octagon.