Fedor Finally Loses

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Fedor Finally Loses

Both arms in or both arms out. Or else.

That’s a fundamental principle of jiu-jitsu, one that Eddie Bravo likes to say will never change. If you violate that rule, you are giving your opponent a triangle or an armbar.

What a horrible way for Fedor Emelianenko’s decade of dominance to come to an end. Fedor wobbled Fabricio Werdum and sought to end the fight by following the BJJ champ to the ground into his guard. He kept swinging with the hand outside the guard while leaving the other hand inside the guard. Oops. Fedor pulled out of the initial arm bar attempt only to reinsert his arm while he continued to try to smash his opponent from the guard. Double oops.

It’s not that Fedor made a mistake so much as that he made such a simple mistake the defies logic because Fedor has perhaps a stronger claim than anyone else to the title of greatest pound for pound fighter ever. His undefeated streak of 31 wins is unparalleled, albeit asterisked. The asterisk is because of a recorded loss that was due to a cut caused by an opponent’s illegal blow. The fight was part of a tournament and as Fedor was unable to continue, tournament officials opted to declare his opponent the victor for the convenience of the bracket. That’s a loss due to administrative error, which is why most people agree it shouldn‘t count. But even if you do count the loss, Fedor entered his fight with Fabrico Werdum on a 26-win streak. No one is even close to achieving that sort of record and it will likely go down as the benchmark by which a fighter’s greatness is measured (outside of Dana White‘s mind, of course).

This isn’t boxing where fighters are protected in their development phase because their marketability suffers drastically once a fighter suffers a loss or two. MMA fighters rarely preserve their undefeated record past ten fights. Four impressive fights in a row and any fighter is likely going to be in a title fight or at least propelled into the title mix where they will have to fight serious competition. Former WEC Bantamweight champ Miguel Torres won 20 in a row before suffering his first defeat, then won another 17 before dropping two in a row. Diego Sanchez had a nice run, winning 19 fights before Josh Kosheck derailed Sanchez’ messianic visions in a dominant decision. Anderson Silva is on a thirteen win streak since losing to Yushin Okami via disqualification after kicking his opponent while he was down. John Hathaway, with a 14-0, comes to mind as someone with a strong streak but his last fight against Diego Sanchez was his first high profile test.