At a risk of being flamed for making a Fedor thread, I figured I would make it anyway just to voice the truth. It doesnt matter if he doesnt fight in 2011, or if he fights in the UFC, or if he never fights again, or if he looses his next 10 fights. His career and legacy are already complete even if he stops or is stopped at any time moving forward.
Thats it.
Fedor is the best. He confirmed this when he fought the top competition.
Zulu Jr.
Nagata(fat pro wrestler)
Lindland(not even in the same weight class and Fedor had to grab the ropes constantly in the match)
Fedor will go down as the best mma fighter who never competed and dodged fight imo. You cant just sit on your fat behind and fight once per year and earn the respect you deserve in this sport.
Guys like GSP, anderson and shogun are all better tested fighters and there is many more
frontrowbrian - His legacy is already secured. He was the best of his era. That era being the one where fighters were starting to be able to cross train at a high level as opposed to the previous era where fighters basically stuck to their base. He's a legend already.
The current era is where everyone is good at everything. Fedor can still hang and be amongst the very best.
this. also, he's lost once, and it was by submission to a bjj world champion. even if he had won that fight, he still would have been criticized for fighting subpar opposition, much like how gsp is criticized for not finishing and anderson is criticized for getting dominated for 23 minutes. if you want to see people's positive qualities, you'll see them, and if you want to see their negative qualities, you'll see those. i feel sorry for the fans who are so wrapped up in misguided notions about ufc-centric mma and legacy and ducking fighters that they're unable to appreciate one of the all time greats while he's still competing.
shb - if you want to see people's positive qualities, you'll see them, and if you want to see their negative qualities, you'll see those. i feel sorry for the fans who are so wrapped up in misguided notions about ufc-centric mma and legacy and ducking fighters that they're unable to appreciate one of the all time greats while he's still competing.
Fedor is the best. These are some of the people he fought when he was at his peak.
Lee Hasdell(9-14-1 record)
Nagata(fat pro wrestler with a 0-2 career record)
Ogawa(pro wrestler who had no problem doing worked fights)
Zulu Jr.
Mark Hunt(5-7 career record)
Lindland(not even in the same weight class and Fedor had to still grab the ropes to alter the fights outcome)
Hong Man Choi
Legacy doesn't go far. Look at the legacy of guys like Wilt Chamberlain in basketball, or Mickey Mantle in baseball ... a few decades later they're just names and nothing special to guys who've never seen them. Or Sugar Ray Robinson in boxing - someone many boxers say was the best ever, but many modern fans only know him as a name, and have no opinion on his legacy.
Shut up and fight already!!
Sagiv Lapkin - His legacy is losing some of it's luster.
Absolutely.
The feedback from the MMA fans and community demonstrates that clearly.
Agree with OP 100%.. It's easy to hate and flame from behind a keyboard on the GOAT, but before you guys do, compare your own "bad ass" accomplishments with those of Fedor. It may be a humbling experience ; ). 
OveREEMed A New Butthole - Fedor's legacy has been tarnished, Crocop lost in the UFC, Nog lost in the UFC, Fedor ran away.
His best fights are Nog and Crocop, whom he ducked for a year.
Yup, the same way Shaq's basketball legacy is tarnished because he's now he's just a roll guy off the bench, and most of the guys he outplayed five years ago can't even make the league anymore. And did you see Michael Jordan in his last year in the NBA? No way he was a real super star. Jordan and Shaq were gifted their MVP's, because its well known that athletes never age - Shaq is as good now as he ever was, its just that everyone else has gotten better.
And Muhammed Ali? Cripe, I could probably beat him today. No way he should have any legacy at all ...
TimeToCrush - LOL @ Fedor not fighting top competition within the last few years. Since 2008 these are the fights he's signed up for:
Sylvia (top 5)
Couture* (top 5)
Arlovski (top 5)
Barnett* (top 5)
Rogers (top 10)
Werdum (top 10)
*No fault of his own those fights didn't materialize
So who else at heavyweight has signed up to fight more top competition in the last couple years than Fedor?
People really are fucking dumb. There's no heavyweight that comes close to his legacy.
Don't get me wrong, I like Fedor, but that list is beyond me.
Sylvia and Arlovski top 5?? Werdum wasn't top 10 before he beat Fedor. Rogers top 10 is also a bit of a stretch.
Twenty47 is a paid shill account
TimeToCrush -joe k -TimeToCrush - LOL @ Fedor not fighting top competition within the last few years. Since 2008 these are the fights he's signed up for:
Sylvia (top 5)
Couture* (top 5)
Arlovski (top 5)
Barnett* (top 5)
Rogers (top 10)
Werdum (top 10)
*No fault of his own those fights didn't materialize
So who else at heavyweight has signed up to fight more top competition in the last couple years than Fedor?
People really are fucking dumb. There's no heavyweight that comes close to his legacy.
Don't get me wrong, I like Fedor, but that list is beyond me.
Sylvia and Arlovski top 5?? Werdum wasn't top 10 before he beat Fedor. Rogers top 10 is also a bit of a stretch.
No. The list is accurate. At the time of the fight, that's where they were ranked.
Ok I had to go and look at the stats. I have to agree on Arlovski, Silva no way. Werdum is arguable and Rogers isn't.
So one top 5 and one top 10 since 2008. (And lost to the top 10)
Monsters Ball -Bobby Lupo - He'll be remembered like one of those old time boxers who were the best of their era, but in the future his era will be slammed for being full of one dimensional guys, he'll lose credit for fighting so many cans and he'll drop down in the rankings because of the fact that for the second half of his career, he avoided top competition. People will chuckle about how a chubby guy who threw wild punches could be the top dog much like people now looking at Dempsey and thinking he was crude brawler and completely missing WTF he was doing.
Forum board kiddies do the same thing to Tyson and Marciano now. They pick apart their resume in retrospect as if you can really look back and simply make a judgement based on record. You have to know what fights actually meant within their time constraints.
Even now while Anderson Silva is still fighting people are starting to discredit many of his victories as opponents that were not worthy. It happens to all fighters.
Who did Chuck or Hughes really beat? See what I mean?
That's why we need guys like Whistleblower around to put a time and rankings sensitive context to fights.
it's actually gross how bad this is.
I was reading a thread last week here that there Rhodes scholars were saying Tyson was never that good, and he cherry picked all his opponents.
Given a decade, the know it alls think they've got it all figured out, and they do dumb shit like this.
For the sport, Fedor is known as the best of all time, and he proved it repeatedly. he's just not prime anymore, and as much as the children and TUF noobs think so, you can't be the best forever, but it doesn't mean it diminishes what you accomplished.
not to mention that until someone can even beat his record, it's not even a conversation.
and finally, as MB pointed out, the only people that care about a legacy for fedor, are the ones that have nothing to do with it. Fedor is the epitome of what an mma fighter should represent. He doesn't care about the money, or a 'legacy'. he fights because he enjoys it, like to challenge himself and likes bringing pride to his country. And as hard as the wannabes try, they can't, and never will be able to tarnish that.
and for all you nay sayers and geniuses, let's see what the other best fighters in the world think....
now, what's your argument again?
EDIT: added to post above.
Bobby Lupo - "He doesn't care about the money, or a 'legacy'. he fights because he enjoys it, like to challenge himself and likes bringing pride to his country."
This is a crazy notion that people keep repeating. Fedor only cares about money. Fedor is M-1 and M-1 is Fedor, he has ownership stake. He doesn't even care for MMA as a sport. If it was up to him and Olympic judoka were being paid their pensions he would have stuck to judo instead of choosing MMA to pay the bills. He has said numerous times that he neither enjoys fighting nor watching fights.
well i'm sure you'd like people to think you know everything, this means you're calling fedor a liar, and making huge assumptions with zero facts to back them up. (except for fighting for a job)
I'm guessing people will believe the person that has come across as sincere, respectful and honest his entire career. you know, Fedor.
shlever - At a risk of being flamed for making a Fedor thread, I figured I would make it anyway just to voice the truth. It doesnt matter if he doesnt fight in 2011, or if he fights in the UFC, or if he never fights again, or if he looses his next 10 fights. His career and legacy are already complete even if he stops or is stopped at any time moving forward.
Thats it.
i agree. he could lose his next 20 fights, but he was still THE MAN for many years
For latet
Im gonna have to drop by again in a bit and dish out more "youre lost"s.......
The best shit ever is how know-nothing morons have this fantasy that there were secret, mythical HWs that Fedor needed to fight to prove himself and avoided. Yet when you look at the rankings there werent. Nog and CC were the best at that time. Since then the UFC crop hasnt been that hot. Couture is barely keeping his head above water, Brock has looked atrocious, Carwin has ? marks and Mir has been brutalized in 2 out of his last 3. Cain and JDS are hot shit at the moment.
People just dont get it.
UltraMagnus -TimeToCrush -joe k -TimeToCrush -joe k -TimeToCrush - LOL @ Fedor not fighting top competition within the last few years. Since 2008 these are the fights he's signed up for:
Sylvia (top 5)
Couture* (top 5)
Arlovski (top 5)
Barnett* (top 5)
Rogers (top 10)
Werdum (top 10)
*No fault of his own those fights didn't materialize
So who else at heavyweight has signed up to fight more top competition in the last couple years than Fedor?
People really are fucking dumb. There's no heavyweight that comes close to his legacy.
Don't get me wrong, I like Fedor, but that list is beyond me.
Sylvia and Arlovski top 5?? Werdum wasn't top 10 before he beat Fedor. Rogers top 10 is also a bit of a stretch.
No. The list is accurate. At the time of the fight, that's where they were ranked.
Ok I had to go and look at the stats. I have to agree on Arlovski, Silva no way. Werdum is arguable and Rogers isn't.
So one top 5 and one top 10 since 2008. (And lost to the top 10)
No point in talking to someone who ignores facts completely. No one cares what you think the rankings were/are. The rankings used for that list were the consensus rankings by all the major MMA media at the time of the fights.
Good day.
You know what......This is why people don't take this sport seriously...
I mean you never hear boxing fans talking shit about Ali's or SRR's legacy like it never was anything...
Its sad that Dana White is trying to rewrite the history of this sport by saying that the UFC is the only place for MMA and is the be all end all.......
Its really sad but thats whats happening...
I don't argue about Fedors legacy and I don't see what Dana White got to do with that ranking list?