Now that he's retired, I made a Fedor Emelianenko Highlights video. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkMxhqWMoAY




My first attempt at making a Fighter's highlight reel, hope you guys enjoy. As always, any constructive criticism will be most welcome.

* Edited at 01.09.2013, 7:10 PM ET *

Does anyone know how to embed YouTube videos on here?

* Edited at 01.09.2013, 7:09 PM ET *

A good first effort, I liked the "outtakes" bit at the end.  One thing I noticed that bothered me was when you would include the commentary from the fight, the music volume stayed the same level and it made things a bit muddy sounding.  Pretty good overall.

Good job!! 

I agree with oldmangloom that the sound got "Muddy" when the commentary was with the music.  I like the song.  The outtakes were cool and I like how you showed the good and the bad.

Fedor "the can destroyer" Emelienenko

If Fedor was destroying cans, what was the UFC's heavyweight division back then? Burger wrappers?

Yeah, it seems a lot of people don't understand back in the day Pride HW division was the best competition out there. Fedor did fight a few questionables but the UFC HW division was far from the "cream of the crop." @DelRose you should torrent the total PRIDE FC collection with all the Bushidos included because I think you have a misconception that PRIDE was all freakshow fights when it wasnt. The file is massive at over 100gigs but worth the wait.

* Edited at 01.10.2013, 2:39 PM ET *

Part of the problem is people look at what his competition did out of their prime and not what they did at the time he fought them. Fedor is undefeated against former and future UFC HW champions, so if he was crushing cans then maybe we give the UFC too much credit

Thanks for the responses guys.

Re: OldManGloom and stinkybike, Yeah, I was having some trouble getting the Music/Commentary sound levels right, it's something I'll have to work on in the future. Anyways, thankyou for the feedback.

@Live2wrestle, Agreed. Guys like Sylvia and Arlvoski may have hit bad points of their careers after Fedor fought them, but they were both Elite-tier Top 5 HW's when they fought him, and alot of tend people forget that.

The constant criticism that I hear is that Fedor was "crushing cans in Japan" before he was "exposed" after coming to America. Aside from the fact that he fought his share of Japanese pro-wrestlers/part time MMA fighters with meagre records and abilities (that everybody fought in Japan, be it Mark Coleman, Anderson Silva, Josh Barnett, Cro Cop, Igor Vovchanchyn or Wanderlei), when in PRIDE (which is usually the focal point of the criticism, so let's discount his early times in RINGS and single fight stints in Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye and Yarennoka) Fedor fought some of the best Heavyweight competition available - and beat them all.

So for fun let's break down that collection "cans" that Fedor "crushed" during his time in PRIDE (2002-2006) one by one and see what comes up.


2002

Semmy Schilt (22-10-1) - 4 time K-1 World GP Champion, recent Glory Heavyweight Grand Slam winner and former Openweight King of Pancrase. Facing Fedor the towering kickboxer was on a 3 fight winning streak (and the total of 3-0 in PRIDE) and 1-1 in the UFC, losing by submission to Josh Barnett, certainly nothing to be ashamed of.

Heath Herring (20-7) - ranked as one of the top 10 fighters in the world at that time, his most recent loss was to Minotauro for the PRIDE HW Title, while he recently beat Igor Vovchanchyn (who was 49-5 himself), Mark Kerr (at the time when Kerr was also a top ranked fighter with a 13-2 (1) record), Enson Inoue (who is much better than his record would suggest and who was the first person to defeat - and submit - Randy Couture, at that time undefeated UFC HW Champion) and Tom Erikson, who might not be well known today, but at that time was also considered a very high ranked prospect and was 7-0-1 himself (including a 1 minute KO of Kevin Randleman).

2003

Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira (19-1-1) - duh, Minotauro needs no introduction; at the time he was the PRIDE HW Champion (his sole loss came early in his career to Dan Henderson, whom he submitted in the rematch) and Fedor beat him for the belt.

Kazuyuki Fujita (9-3) - despite coming from pro wrestling, he was widely known as one of the toughest guys of his time, his only losses before fighting Fedor came from Cro Cop (a decision and a cut) and Mark Coleman in the 2000 GP (corner stoppage 2 seconds into the fight after he already beat Mark Kerr in a 15 minutes fight) - Fedor submitted him in less than 5 minutes.

Gary Goodridge (17-13-1) - again his record does not reflect his toughness; Big Daddy was a very strong guy and a powerful striker, who would fight anybody, anywhere; again, his losses before fighting Fedor came mostly from fighting top talent (Minotauro, Igor Vovchanchyn, Marco Ruas, Don Frye, Mark Coleman etc.) - he befriended Mark Coleman and trained ground with him for the Fedor fight - it didn't help, Fedor destroyed him in little over a minute with a barrage of punches and kicks.

2004

Mark Coleman (13-5) - The former UFC HW Champion and The Godfather of Ground & Pound is often under-appreciated today; people seem to forget (or just don't know) that he was one of the most feared and powerful fighters in the early days of NHB and then MMA - he smashed through the competition in the UFC to the point that in his second tournament both the other finalist and the alternate would rather drop out than fight him. His cardio and lack of overall skills failed him in his fights against Maurice Smith (one of the true pioneers and first overall Mixed Martial Artists) and Pete Williams. He lost a controversial Split Decision to Pedro Rizzo in his last UFC fight and then "lost" a worked match to Nobuhiko Takada (which is a story for another time, suffice to say it guaranteed him several other fights in PRIDE and he really needed the income at the time) before going onto a 6 fight winning streak in PRIDE including winning the first ever PRIDE Grand Prix smashing Igor Vovchanchyn (who was himself on a 26 fights winning streak - plus a win over Mark Kerr overturned into a NC) in the finals (he fought for well over 30 minutes in one night, which answered the question about his cardio). His only other loss was to Minotauro after over 6 minutes. Fedor submitted him in a little over 2.

Kevin Randleman (15-7) - Mark Coleman's friend, protegee and training partner and another former UFC champion and incredibly powerful, explosive fighter. He was coming off a KO of the feared kickboxer Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović (himself 9-1-2 before that), which sent ripples through the MMA world. He managed to deliver a thunderous German suplex to Fedor that many feared would KO if not permanently injured the Russian (and would probably break the neck of a normal man). Did it help him? Well, at 1:33 he tapped when Fedor put him in a reverse ude-garami also known as a kimura.

Naoya Ogawa (7-0) - might not be well known today, but he was a former multiple time world champion in Judo, an Olympic medalist (silver) and a towering 6'4" 254 pound fighter, who finished all his 7 opponents by either TKO or submission almost universally within the first 2 minutes. He wasn't considered a favourite against the 6' 230 pound Fedor, but he had enough credentials for the fans to expect to give the Russian a fight. He couldn't. He tapped to an armbar in 54 seconds.

Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira (24-2-1) twice - since losing the HW Title to The Last Emperor Minotauro won 5 fights (beating the deposed UFC Champion Ricco Rodriguez, Mirko Filipović, Heath Herring and Sergei Kharitonov) to get to the finals of the 2004 PRIDE HW Grand Prix and get the rematch against Fedor. The original fight ended in an anti-climatic No Contest after an accidental headbutt, but the rematch was booked for the 31st December of 2004. Before the fight Minotauro said that he studied Fedor extensively and noticed several flaws in his game, which he was confident he could exploit and win the HW Title back. As it turned out, he couldn't. Fedor beat him decisively for the second time dominating the ultra tough Brazilian JJ master both on the feet and on the ground and unified the 2004 PRIDE HW Grand Prix Championship with the PRIDE HW Championship he already held.

2005

Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (24-15-2) - TK might not have been the world beater nor ever won any titles in MMA except for the little known Pancrase Super Heavyweight Championship, but he was another supremely tough fighter and a pioneer of the sport, who would also fight anybody anywhere. He was also the one who handed Fedor his only "loss" over 4 years earlier (the nature of that loss is often questioned, since it was a stoppage from a cut re-opened by an illegal elbow and originally sustained by Fedor in a previous fight that day in a RINGS tournament and since somebody had to advance in the tournament, the decision was made to declare the little known Russian the loser). This time Fedor would not be denied and after 10 minutes the battered TK was deemed unable to continue.

Mirko Filipović (16-2-2) - like Minotauro before, Cro Cop does not need any introduction. By the time he challenged Fedor for the PRIDE HW Title his only ever two losses came via the aforementioned KO by Kevin Randleman and a submission at the hands of Minotauro (in a fight that Cro Cop dominated through the entire first round). Since losing to Randleman Mirko was on a tear winning 7 fights straight and 6 straight via a first round stoppage, beating Fedor's brother Alexander, Josh Barnett, Kevin Randleman in a rematch (via a 41 seconds submission, the quickest anybody ever dealt with The Monster) and Mark Coleman. Earlier among his victims were Kazayuki Fujita, Igor Vovchanchyn, Heath Herring and even Kazushi Sakuraba. After having success early in the fight by scoring with hard kicks to Fedor's midsection and breaking his nose, Mirko was taken down and mauled with body shots and beaten even worse in standup for the remaining of the fight ultimately losing a decision after a beating worse than in his two previous losses.

Wágner da Conceição Martins aka Zuluzinho (5-0 (1)) - the mammoth Super Heavyweight (6'7" 390 lbs) was actually the first of what could be considered "freakshow fights" for Fedor in PRIDE, but even so coming into the fight he was not only almost twice as big as Fedor, but also undefeated with 5 KO's behind him. On December 31st 2005 that proved to be not even nearly enough as he was quickly brutalized by The Last Emperor and forced to submit under the torrent of strikes after only 26 seconds.

2006

Mark Coleman (15-7) - since losing to Fedor over two years ago the former 2000 GP winner and UFC Champion has fought with mixed success. He got KO'd by Cro Cop, but early in 2006 he scored an important victory over a much younger (and much feared) Brazilian Muay-Thai expert Maurício "Shogun" Rua (who was 12-1 and only 25 years old when he fought the over 41 years old Coleman) even if it came from an injury after Shogun landed awkwardly on a Coleman takedown and got his arm broken. The fight often remains overshadowed by the brawl that broken after that between the members of Chute Boxe and Hammer House, but the fact remains that old man Coleman took Shogun down and injured him to the point that Shogun could not continue making it a legitimate win. Coleman was chosen as Fedor's opponent in the first PRIDE show in the United States and even though he lasted longer than previously, the outcome was never in doubt. Early in round 2 the battered Coleman was submitted by Fedor with an armbar.

Mark Hunt (5-2) - considering how much support Hunt has gathered during the last 2 years with his 3 fight winning streak in the UFC, I doubt he would be considered one of the "cans". And even though he was getting the PRIDE HW Title shot coming off a loss to Josh Barnett, before that he won 5 fights straight, including beating Mirko Filipović and Wanderlei Silva, Split Decisions they both might be. He still gave Fedor quite a fight tapping to the armbar after over 8 minutes in this last ever PRIDE Heavyweight Title fight.

@joe kerr

Wow, what a fantastic breakdown. Thankyou.

зверь

Here comes the thumbs down but im one of those guys who thinks fedor was overrated and had a padded record. Theres no doubt he has some excellent wins over guys like coleman,Nog,Crocop and herring during his pride days. But with pride not giving a **** about weight clases i think there were a lot of fighters he could have fought like henderson,Wandy,Shogun,Barnett, and Rampage. Instead he fought freakshows or cans like zulu,hong man choi, middleweight lindland,goodridge,Fujita,Nagata.

He then beat arlovski and sylvia who i dont think were top 5 guys at the time, otherwise the ufc wouldnt have let them go. And for what they were being paid, i doubt they cared if they won or lost considering they were making like a million bucks just to show.

He then got exposed in strikeforce. Beating a can like rogers before losing to 2 top 5 guys like werdum and silva. He then went on to lose to a middleweight/light heavyweight. He also managed to avoid overeem and barnett while in strikeforce.

Then went on to pad his record 3 more times before retiring by beating old ass monson and rizzo, and a very raw and inexpierenced satoshi ishii.

Theres no doubt you have to give him respect for his early pride wins. But i just cant call anybody a top fighter when they have fought zulu,choi or a guy 2 division below him.

Thumbs UP because I more or less agree.

Fedor was great, but he wasn't THAT great.

Joe Kerr, I cannot believe that you are trying to sell opponents like Fujita and Zuluzinho as credible opponents.  Fedor did have credible opponents, but not those two.  Randleman and Coleman were kind of weak at the time, too.  

* Edited at 01.10.2013, 7:15 PM ET *

Yea, what Joe Kerr said. 

Sylvia and Arlovski where both top 5 when Fedor fought them. he was going to fight Barnett in Affliction and Rampage, Wandy and most of the 205's didn't want to fight him. even Chuck was hesitent when asked about fighting him.

Fedor was well past it when he was fighting in Strikeforce too. he was a small HW that relied alot on his speed,reflexes and explosiveness. which are the first things to go as you get older.

Did he beat some cans? sure, but he also never lost to any of them like Anderson.

Fedor was one of the best ever period ! Andy overtrumps him in a GOAT deabte but Nr.2 isn't that bad either.

Really look at the fights Fedor has done wether it be in Pride or strikeforce he was not getting dominated by any sense of the word he was keeping pace with them the whole time except for the Silva fight where i only remember him being hit with ground and pound even then he was still fighting only to lose by doctors stoppage, the Wedum fight, Werdum even said himself he fell to his back pretending he was hurt to lure Fedor into his guard, if they fought again it would have looked like Fedor vs monson. As for the henderson fight, i thought he was winning until he got caught, but look at all of those guys all top at least 7 or higher. On the henderson subject i thought fedor didn't look right in that fight he came out way to agressive probably wanted to give a show before he knew they were going to cut him, in my oppinion