Home Categories Miscellaneous The Shameful Disrespect Shown Towards Fedor Emelianenko’s Victims
The Shameful Disrespect Shown Towards Fedor Emelianenko’s Victims
Written by Matt Bremner   
Tuesday, 23 March 2010 22:36
When Georges St. Pierre stomped Jon Fitch into pulp, people applauded Fitch's display of heart, as he never gave-up and stayed in the fight -- no matter how badly he was being beaten. When Anderson Silva ran a clinic on Rich Franklin and ran him out of the MW division, people just shrugged and said “Franklin would beat everyone but Silva”. When Lyoto Machida embarrassed Rashad Evans, it earned Evans a reality show and what would have been a high profile fight with Rampage Jackson. However, when fighters lose to the man considered to be the greatest heavyweight fighter of all time, their stock drops in a way that is simply unprecedented and incomparable in the sport.

Tim Sylvia ruled the UFC's heavyweight division on two occasions. He twice won the belt from men who were considered to be better fighters than him and both times he knocked them out. He even went from 2005 until 2007 without a loss until he met the re-energized Randy Couture who took his belt. In a return fight that was anything but a ‘gimme’, Sylvia dispatched highly touted and undefeated Brandon Vera. The Maine-iac was then tapped to fight the legendary Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera. Shedding the stigma of being timid, Sylvia went out and battered Big Nog for two-and-a-half rounds, before getting caught in a lightning quick guillotine choke. After this fight, Sylvia was still highly regarded as a Top 5 heavyweight. He then did something that was incredibly gutsy and to a large degree, unprecedented. Sylvia walked away from the UFC in search of a meeting with “The Last Emperor”.

The showdown was tapped to happen at the ill-fated Affliction promotion's debut show. People everywhere said that this was when Fedor would be ‘exposed’. Sylvia was “too powerful”, “too big”, “too good of a straight puncher” for Fedor to get in close, get him down and armbar him. Of course, when the fight actually happened, Fedor didn't need an armbar or a takedown. Fedor deftly clocked Sylvia numerous times, floored him, and choked him out in 36 seconds. Did this loss legitimize Fedor as the best heavyweight in the world? Well, that depends on who you talk to. However, almost instantly after this fight, everything Tim Sylvia had ever done was dismissed and he was dubbed “washed-up”, “mediocre” or just “never that good”.


Sylvia had lost to 3 heavyweights who were all ranked inside the top 5, like himself, and suddenly he was treated like Giant Silva. The facts are that Sylvia did indeed lose 3 of his last 4 fights. However, look at his losses and they tell the story. Randy Couture is a legend of the sport, he went on to abuse Gabriel Gonzaga and give Brock Lesnar the toughest test of his career thus far. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera's record reads like a who's who of MMA greats. Finally, he lost to Fedor, who has never suffered a legitimate loss in his entire career. That list does not read like any can's record that I have ever seen. Tim Sylvia got a raw deal for doing something that most fighters only ever talk about doing. He went in search of Heavyweight's Great White Whale and should have been praised for his guts, as he wanted to test himself against the best in the world. Instead he was unfairly berated and punished by media outlets and keyboard warriors, largely in part to him no longer being in the UFC.

I wish I could say that this was an isolated incident, but it was not. Andrei “the Pitbull” Arlovski had one of the most prolific heavyweight runs between 2003 and the end of 2008. Losing only two times, to Tim Sylvia, a man he had already beaten to win the title. In his second fight with Sylvia, he dropped Sylvia and became overzealous, leading to him being knocked out by a big uppercut. Arlovski went on to reel-off three more wins in the Octagon, but it was made clear to him that he wasn't a priority in the UFC, so he went to Affliction when his contract with the UFC finally lapsed. When he faced Fedor he was also considered to be a top of the heap heavyweight, even the #2 ranked HW according to some MMA sources.

Early on, Arlovski appeared to be getting the better of Fedor in the stand-up department for the large majority of the first round. However, Arlovski got overconfident, made a crucial mistake and was consequently knocked-out in brutal fashion. Just like Sylvia, people wrote-off Arlovski as a guy that “couldn't cut it” in the UFC and that the UFC “didn't want him anymore” until they were blue in the face, despite the fact that the opposite was true; Arlovski didn't want the UFC.

These are the two most prevalent examples that I can think of, but this has happened to essentially every fighter that Fedor has ever fought. Rather than losing to the best being a badge of honour, like it has been for so many fighters in the past, it is a mark of shame. Brock Lesnar essentially earned a title shot on the back of beating Heath Herring, who Fedor brutalized for a doctor stoppage. Fedor decimated Big Nog twice, years apart and people discount those wins as well. The truth is that both sides deserve credit; Fedor for miraculously finding a way to win every time he fights and the brave warriors who stepped up to challenge him in the first place

There is no shame in losing to the best, and this is a principle that needs to be universally held instead of being selectively used towards only the people who fight under the UFC banner. I hope to see both Sylvia and Arlovski making their ways back to the form they once held, which should be respected. However, if they don't, they should be respected not just for what they accomplished, but for having the guts to do what other people were either too proud or too afraid to do -- leave the UFC and challenge “the Last Emperor” for his crown.