That was a beautiful victory by Fedor.
I don’t know what possessed Andrei to jump like that. After his fight with Ben Rothwell, Alex told him backstage that when he jumps, he leaves his hands behind. Andrei dismissed the advice.
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At the time it looks like Fedor wasn’t in a position to punch when he went for the flying knee.
*You’ve heard the phrase “it’s the one that you don’t see that gets you”
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Fedor said afterwards he knew Andrei would get overzealous. It was a bait.
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I can see why Andrei would try.Fedor was coming in with his head down.
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This. I think Andrei actually likely gamelanned that exact sequence. Fedor’s best standing weapon is a slip to the left-10 sequence
You see a lot of guys use a jumping knee to counter guys who slip low predictably
The plan was probably to get some shots on Fedor, get him moving backwards, time the jump knee when he’s off balance and throws the slip 10. AA was starting to find his rhythm just before that. The push kick into the ropes really threw Fedor off balance. That was a good time to try that.
Fedor’s timing and accuracy was just better than Andrei.
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People on here always say when they see the fight in person & I’m going to do the same thing.
I was there live at Affliction!
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I too was in attendance for both Affliction shows and remember the reason Andre said he threw that flying knee… not sure if it was mentioned yet since avoided this thread out of respect for Fedor lol
But if you remember the 1st Affliction show, Andre had one of the best performances of his career imo against Ben Rothwell. And in that fight he threw a giant jumping knee that landed flush on Rothwell’s face. The crowd (me) absolutely erupted at that knee and I remember Andre specifically saying because that reaction and how it played out in that fight that he tried doing against Fedor. And we saw the result.
So in a way us the fans in attendance were part of the reason Andre attempted that flying knee lol
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I’ve heard the Fedor bashers around here basically say Arlovski was “winning” up to that point and Fedor got a lucky punch.
I always say no, Fedor was baiting him.
I also say that Fedor was always going to win that fight. Even if Arlovski didn’t throw that knee – it was only a matter of time.
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I remember posting a bunch of gifs showing Fedor parrying a lot of Andrei’s punches
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Fedor having a better fight IQ than AA doesn’t seem like any kind of a stretch.
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Agreed.
I just don’t agree with the narrative of some people who say Arlovski was “winning” up to that point.
For one thing not enough time had gone by to establish that, and it’s not like he rocked Fedor before getting caught.
I always saw it as Fedor baiting him.
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I think that has the round ended before the flying knee, AA was winning but what is that?!? He was winning until he got knocked clean out in the first round? Silliness.
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“What’s he going to teach?”
Uh how about “how to knock you the eff out 101”?
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This. Or it can be knee tap to ouchi gari.
Fedor can teach how to transition from judo to MMA.
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Can’t fault Andrei for being distracted by an OGer. Scratch that loss from his fight record.
That was the second ppv I bought
I saved up money cutting grass and shoveling horse shit at a neighbor’s farm to buy it.
It was an excellent card.
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Oh it’s definitely a big L for Andre he got KO’d in mid air lol
I went to MrZipplokks tailgate party & sat right next to Momita at the show.
MrZipplokk bought the tickets.
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I don’t disagree that he did not have a classic style.
And he shut down Mirko’s style effectively. But in my opinion his style was based on his physical attributes. He has very impressive speed and reflexes.
Once those were gone, there was no technique to protect him. There is a reason why technique exists. It has been proven to work and be the best, given average physical characteristics.
Roy Jones also didn’t a classic style and the same thing happened to him once he slowed down to the speedo or mortals.
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We’ll have to agree to disagree.
I don’t think technique and attributes are completely decoupled like you may.
The techniques he implemented required fast reflexes. His game was very timing based. Once his reflexes were gone he couldn’t implement the same game.
Some people have styles that age more gracefully than others. Like Sean Strickland will be able to do what he does forever. Fedor’s style didn’t carry as well as he aged.
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