What do you think would have happened with his career from that point?
Both he and Werdum's next fights were in the Strikeforce HW Grand Prix tournament. Fedor fought Antonio Silva and got battered pretty badly and then lost by KO for the only time in his career to Hendo. I don't know if he would have been paired against a different opponent than Silva in the 1st round of the tourney or not if he had defeated Werdum (who fought Alistair in the 1st round of the HW Grand Prix).
He got beat pretty decisively by Antonio Silva and then Hendo did what Hendo does against him. But, I'm not sure he would have even fought these guys had he defeated Werdum.
Fedor had Werdum hurt with a quick and heavy barrage of punches, where the Brazilian fell to his back. I think Fedor thought he was almost out (I remember thinking Werdum was either out or on his way to going out) and went for the finish, but Werdum was just conscious enough to keep his composure, and got an over anxious Fedor with the sub.
But I still wonder what would have happened if Fedor had not been caught. I'm sure he would have likely lost down the road, but to who? Also, if the loss to Werdum affected both his and Antonio Silva's confidence and might have played a role in that fight. I don't know.
Any thoughts or opinions on how you think Fedor would have fared IF he had not lost to Werdum?
disbeliever - He would have lost eventually IMOSadly this.
Everyone does
He could have fought for 5 more years never losing, and when he finally did there would be people to go "AH HA! Fake loser was never ufc2legit2quit!"
If Fedor had beaten Werdum his next fight would have been against Overeem that fall.
Still no credit given to Werdum is a fucking joke.
Deal with it. 
Didnt he get hit on the chest and possumed the triangle in? I dont remember him being rocked
martial arts can be about deception... ;)
Fedor would have had losses in career a decade ago if he wasn't sheltered by Pride.
Don't get me wrong, he was one of the best every. However, his Pride career was mostly padded by fighting cans. After smashing Nogueira and becoming the Pride heavyweight champion, here are his next four opponents:
Egidijus Valavicius
Kazuyuki Fujita
Gary Goodridge
Yuji Nagata
Imagine if the UFC had Brock Lesnar pad his record like this after winning the heavyweight title...he'd probably still be champion at this point.
Fans don't like to admit it, but in his 4 years Fedor only defended his Pride Heavyweight Championship against 2 opponents who were top 10 heavyweights at the time. (3 if you include Mark Coleman, which is debateable). The only time in his life he fought 3 consecutive top 10 fighters in a row were also the period in which he lost 3x in a row.
Anyway, commence the downvotes :(
When Fujita fought Fedor he was top 5 maybe even top 4 he was on one hell of a streak.
Top 5...really?
Before fighting Fedor, Fujita was 2-2, with victories over Manabu Nakanishi and Tadao Yasuda.
Does that mean Fujita was better than some of the following active fighters of the time:
Antonio Nogueira
Heath Herring
Josh Barnett
Mirko Filipovic (a green Mirko had two wins against him at this point)
Randy Couture
Semmy Schilt
Frank Mir
In Fujita's ENTIRE career, his only win over a top 10 opponent was Mark Kerr in 2000. How is he top 4 or top 5 in your opinion?
he was protected in Pride? What HW's did Fedor or Pride avoid?
Barnett didn't want it
Mirko had lost to Randleman, which prolonged their eventual fight
Sergei and Fedor were buddies
after Pride-
Couture had contract issues
Barnett failed a drug test
but to answer the OP's question, I think down the line he would of eventually lost, once he started coming to America doing interviews and making movies back home...I figured he was getting too comfortable and the hunger was going. It was said after Barnett failed the drug test, Fedor pretty much got lazy in training, he barely trained for Arlovski because of the movie he was filming.
Most of the guys in the tournament would have beat him
Fedor had been getting sloppier for years. He went from being one of the most cerebral and well-rounded fighters in the sport to being a 'just bleed' headhunter who relied almost entirely on his boxing. He still had all those other skills, but they weren't as sharp as they used to be because he only used them when his opponents forced him to. That approach was bound to get him beat sooner or later, and we saw cracks in his game leading up to his losing streak, but his opponents weren't quite good enough to capitalize. Werdum, Bigfoot, and Hendo proved they they were good enough to capitalize.
Fedor did seem to go back to being much more diverse after the losing streak and looked great closing out his career. I just don't think he was all that invested in post-Pride career and went through the motions rather than really putting in the effort. He had other interests that moved MMA to the backburner.
Sastan - Fedor would have had losses in career a decade ago if he wasn't sheltered by Pride.
Don't get me wrong, he was one of the best every. However, his Pride career was mostly padded by fighting cans. After smashing Nogueira and becoming the Pride heavyweight champion, here are his next four opponents:
Egidijus Valavicius
Kazuyuki Fujita
Gary Goodridge
Yuji Nagata
Imagine if the UFC had Brock Lesnar pad his record like this after winning the heavyweight title...he'd probably still be champion at this point.
Fans don't like to admit it, but in his 4 years Fedor only defended his Pride Heavyweight Championship against 2 opponents who were top 10 heavyweights at the time. (3 if you include Mark Coleman, which is debateable). The only time in his life he fought 3 consecutive top 10 fighters in a row were also the period in which he lost 3x in a row.
Anyway, commence the downvotes :(
Sure he fought a lot of gimme fights, but he also just fought a lot more than what UFC fighters do. In his 4 1/2 years in PRIDE he went 16-0-1 and fought Semmy, Herring, Big Nog twice (3rd was an NC), Coleman, Cro Cop, and Hunt, all top 10 HWs at the time. In Cain's 6 1/2 years he's gone 11-1 and beaten 6 top 10 HWs. Brock fought in the UFC for 4 years and faced 5 top 10 HWs during that time.
Solly97 -LolJohn 'nottheface' Nash -he definitely would've lost that fight
If Fedor had beaten Werdum his next fight would have been against Overeem that fall.
Solly97 -14ers manJohn 'nottheface' Nash -he definitely would've lost that fight
If Fedor had beaten Werdum his next fight would have been against Overeem that fall.
Solly97 -John 'nottheface' Nash -he definitely would've lost that fight
If Fedor had beaten Werdum his next fight would have been against Overeem that fall.
This guy has jokes.
Fedor would send Overeem's glass jaw into the stratosphere.
John 'nottheface' Nash -Sastan - Fedor would have had losses in career a decade ago if he wasn't sheltered by Pride.
Don't get me wrong, he was one of the best every. However, his Pride career was mostly padded by fighting cans. After smashing Nogueira and becoming the Pride heavyweight champion, here are his next four opponents:
Egidijus Valavicius
Kazuyuki Fujita
Gary Goodridge
Yuji Nagata
Imagine if the UFC had Brock Lesnar pad his record like this after winning the heavyweight title...he'd probably still be champion at this point.
Fans don't like to admit it, but in his 4 years Fedor only defended his Pride Heavyweight Championship against 2 opponents who were top 10 heavyweights at the time. (3 if you include Mark Coleman, which is debateable). The only time in his life he fought 3 consecutive top 10 fighters in a row were also the period in which he lost 3x in a row.
Anyway, commence the downvotes :(
Sure he fought a lot of gimme fights, but he also just fought a lot more than what UFC fighters do. In his 4 1/2 years in PRIDE he went 16-0-1 and fought Semmy, Herring, Big Nog twice (3rd was an NC), Coleman, Cro Cop, and Hunt, all top 10 HWs at the time. In Cain's 6 1/2 years he's gone 11-1 and beaten 6 top 10 HWs. Brock fought in the UFC for 4 years and faced 5 top 10 HWs during that time.
I don't disagree he was an insanely active fighter. My point was that in 4 years as the heavyweight champion he only defended is title against TWO top 10 fighters in Pride, which contributed towards his long reign. Brock Lesnar defended his title againt two top 10 fighters in half that time. If Brock got to fight 4-5 Japanese scrubs between his title fights, he would probably still be heavyweight champ today.
If instead Fedor had to defend his title against top fighters consecutively (as UFC champions do), I don't see that he could remain undefeated in his Pride run.
Cain Velasquez would dominate Fedor, and he has a loss purely because he fights top 5-10 heavyweights over and over again, which is why he'll eventually get a loss again.
Barry_BondsMVP -
he was protected in Pride? What HW's did Fedor or Pride avoid?
Barnett didn't want it
Mirko had lost to Randleman, which prolonged their eventual fight
Sergei and Fedor were buddies
after Pride-
Couture had contract issues
Barnett failed a drug test
but to answer the OP's question, I think down the line he would of eventually lost, once he started coming to America doing interviews and making movies back home...I figured he was getting too comfortable and the hunger was going. It was said after Barnett failed the drug test, Fedor pretty much got lazy in training, he barely trained for Arlovski because of the movie he was filming.
Fedor was not afraid of anyone, and rightfully so.
He did not fight active Pride heavyweights in the top 10 such Sergei Kharitonov, Fabricio Werdum and Josh Barnett. And if you're looking at the period, the other half of the top 10 at the time were in the UFC so they obviously couldn't fight.
Not Fedor's fault (though in the second half of his Pride run his management have a lot of blame), but Fedor didn't finish half the top 10 heavyweights in his 4 years as champ.
Let's put it this way: Fedor fought in Pride 14 times, and only defended his belt 3 times.
I'm not trying to slam on Fedor's abilities or amazing talent and ferocity as a fighter. I just don't subscribe to his unbeatable-in-his-prime mystique that has grown up around him. Nogueira, the first Pride champ, also had that invincible aura at the time, and guess what, he fought multiple cans after winning the belt.
I think Anderson Silva is the only fighter who managed to clear out his division without a loss for almost five years, fighting the best of the best consecutively.
Looking back i'm really glad it was werdum who beat him first and not some asshole
I think Fedor's descent into brawling would've had him in serious trouble against most of the world's top heavyweights. If I recall correctly, he hadn't actually landed anything when Werdum fell to his back, and he even opted for the same mindless swinging against Dan Henderson, of all people.