- The Cage
Every fight he lost was because of the cage. Straight up.
Werdum - Forgot about the cage while he was circling out of Werdums sub attempt like a wild animal, hit the cage and fell right into the triangle.
Bigfoot - forget the exact point here in which the cage messed him up but it was there.
Hendo - that scramble before he got knocked out happened against the cage.
2. Religion - who would have thought but boy did Christ ruin Fedors will and desire to destroy his enemies. He may have lost to Werdum but he was already gone against Arlovski. Maybe even a little earlier.
Regardless....
Neither Cain and JDS will accomplish what Fedor has accomplished in his career because they both already have legitimate losses in the prime of their careers. Fedor is the GOAT.
Long live the Fedor.
Does this even qualify as a horse anymore?
Marriage, having a family life. I think he was ready to stop.
he also admitted he'd stopped weight training in 08/09, i think that hurt him a lot. 
a lot of fighters changed mentally when PRIDE went, camps broke up etc. Filho is maybe the most extreme example but Fedor isn't far behind IMO. I think it's more important than the testing/roid allegations people make up but gets mentioned less.
Not saying 'Filho lost his marbles because PRIDE went bust' (although maybe if he was a REALLY huge fanboy...) but there was a lot of change for a lot of people. It's also kind of funny because in mid 2000's his Fedor's angle was that he was down to earth and would never catch 'star' disease. Then he became a huge star in asia, worldwide recognition, got divorced, and...
Just being rich. Fedor isn't a guy who ever fought to impress people. Was it his burning desire to fight the best and destroy them so he can win orcus over as a fan?
Nah.... he needed money. Once he had it he didn't need to fight anymore. It's hard to get up for a 12 week camp and also skill training in between if you don't NEED to fight.
Age, lack of interest in the sport, and an improving HW division were Fedor's downfall.
Not saying the cage would have absolutely, 100% nothing to do with it, 'cuz I have no idea I'm not in Fedor's head. But I think the sport just caught up with him, as it does everybody and will always do.
I dont agree with the OP because I dont like the idea of Fedor forgetting there was a cage 3 times in a row haha
DRevan - Does this even qualify as a horse anymore?
nods
This did not go unapppreciated.
So you are saying the best MMA fighter in the world forgot he was fighting in a cage?
That's your reason?
God must love stupid people. He made SO many.
Fedor: These ropes look funny...
disbeliever - I never understood new fans saying "the sport caught up with Fedor".
Have you not seen the transitions he could do from striking to clinch throw/trip and then GnP?
It's the exact same moves people still do today...
So against today's crop of HWs, you think a prime Fedor would still be the most dominant HW in history?
I don't think it's a stretch to admit that perhaps the division's gotten a little better the last few years?
You can only stay mentally at the top for so long, lots of guy's "fire" just burns out eventually, Fedor will always be one of my favorites, but I think he was just going through the motions at the end there....
oh...and there was the diet as well.....
Cage def hurt his style.
Saying "he fought better guys" is a hard sell when you look at Nog/CC/Sylvia/AA. Thats a murderer's row.
Bottom line: nobody can perform flawlessly forever.
If Anderson keeps going, he will eventually get stuck in bad positions and not be able to come back and win.
Well he had a few things working against his favour.
1. He was undersized.
2. He was getting older.
3. Probably didn't have same drive.
4. He didn't really seem to gameplan.
5. i like ice cream
suess -Fedor needs no excuses made for him. what he did in mma was legendary and that's the end of it.
This
I don't see much evolution in the HW division, there is but not as much as in other weight classes. It's mainly knockout and decisions so I wouldn't say the game passed Fedor by cuz IMO he is still the most well rounded HW ever. I think the last 6-7 fights he just did to make people happy, I don't think his mind was in it since Tim Sylvia
I do believe Fedor is the GOAT because of who he beat and the length of time he was undefeated for. Ten years is a long time, esp when ur fighting people like Cro Cop (in his prime) Big Nog (in his prime) and countless others. I don't know if the cage really had anything to do with it, and honestly it just sounds like a good excuse, i just came with terms with the fact Fedor lost his killer instinct. The guy was 32-1 (and alot of people dont count that 1 loss) and then dropped three. It was nice to see him go out with three wins but I think it was his time to walk away before he damaged his career anymore. It is too bad he never made it to the UFC when he was in his prime tho, it would have been cool to see him fight Mirr, Captain America, or even Lesnar. We wont see another Fedor for a while, and thats ok with me.
One thing I noticed was that his previously near-superhuman speed had slowed down quite noticeably during his last few fights.
Watch his classic PRIDE fights and see how scary his speed was, he almost looks like he's on Fast Forward while everyone else is on Play. By Strikeforce, he was about the same as everyone else.