Alistair Turns Down Fight with Fedor, Again
By: Brian Lopez-Benchimol Posted On: August 31, 2010 at 6:05am
It wasn’t all that long ago that Fedor was sitting on top of the mountain.
A stoic figure sitting on top of the MMA world–the former Pride Heavyweight champion had just began earning his due respect here in the United States, after making a campaign with the now defunct Affliction organization where he dispatched of two former UFC heavyweight champions.
Emelianenko signed with Strikeforce in 2009 after his stint with the “T-Shirt” company, he performed in true Fedor fashion when the Russian rallied back in the second round after a rough going in the first with heavyweight standout Brett Rogers last November, marking his debut with the San Jose based organization after knocking out the big man.
Now removed after his first legitimate loss in nearly ten years to submission specialist Fabricio Werdum last April, Fedor has turned from King to contender, and thus is now campaigning for his own fights, to make his way back to the top.
While Werdum would have been the most logical choice for the aforementioned Overeem to face for the heavyweight title in Strikeforce, the Brazilian will be sidelined for the rest of 2010 after having had successful surgery on his elbow, post-Fedor.
It wasn’t all that long ago when the famed Dutch striker was campaigning a fight of his own against the Russian, but now it looks like the tables have turned. After a press release was made stating Fedor and management team M-1 Global were publicly vouching for said fight, the team Golden Glory product simply declined. And here’s why:
“They already declined to fight me”, said Overeem while speaking with MMAJunkie.com following the press release.
“They know I’m not going to accept (a fight with Emelianenko). (They said), ‘Maybe Alistair needs extra drug testing.’ ‘Maybe Alistair needs to fight other opponents first, and maybe, he deserves to fight Fedor.’ So these guys, they declined to fight me”.
For what it’s worth, Overeem has never been positive for any performance enhancers throughout his career, though his weight he’s put on his both noticeable and astounding. It was just three years ago that the Dutchman fought as a light heavyweight against studs like Ricardo Arona, Mauricio Rua and Chuck Liddell among others. But now, just a few years later, and we have seen the culmination of 6’5 and 250-plus-pounds of pure machine since Overeem has made the inception back into the heavyweight division.
Most have questioned his surprising growth, panning it as growth hormones or obvious steroid usage, including M-1 Global. And while the former Pride star had been asking for the proposed fight, he is disgusted at the sudden come around in attitude, now that he is the man to beat.
“Now, all of a sudden, they’ve dropped their terms”, said Alistair. “Now, they do want to fight me. It’s all tricks, and I don’t feel pressured by it at all. Never in my life have I encountered a managing agency capable of such manipulation (and) tricks. And in the end, it doesn’t work. You can see Fedor’s image has been tarnished. It’s not working. It’s bad karma.”
Talks of the proposed match up were said to have began once again as early as yesterday, but again were declined by Golden Glory’s Bas Boon, according to sources. Now that the adept striker is set to enter the K-1 Grand Prix tournament, which continues through years end, it looks like the fight will be off the table for a while.
So, is anyone else surprised at M-1 Global’s attitude, now that the tables have turned? Is Overeem justified in his beliefs, or are they delusions of grandeur? You be the judge.
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Comments
alistair is scared off his balls
Ditto to the above.
Not really. It’s not a win-win anymore. Alistair wanted to be the first to defeat him, however M1 and Fedor kept declining the fight. Not 1 time, but many times. Now Fedor lost and he has to win back respect, but why does the champion have to fight a loser? Makes no sense. Fedor has to work his way up again and he should have taken the fight in the first place. Or his ridiculous Russian management is to blame.
Yes, Fedor surprisingly lost for the first time to Werdum a few months ago. It was shocking. He was overzealous in wanting to finish the fight after flooring Werdum that he foolishly got caught. I won’t call it luck, as Werdum is a very adept ground fighter and is a professional, but I would be willing to bet a large sum of money that if they fought each other 9 more times, Fedor would come out the victor in every one of those fights. Overeem knows this and has been ducking real competiton in MMA since he has been involved with it. If he was serious about his Strikeforce Championship belt, he would focus on MMA, not K-1.
Honestly, if you were Overeem who has a history of ducking fights, would you really want to fight Fedor in his redemption fight? Fedor is going to want to prove to the World that the Werdum fight was a fluke (which it was) and will punish who ever is his next opponent. Overeem only wanted to fight Fedor before because he recognized that he’d get a big pay day…not because he was ready to beat him, because he knew there would be big bucks in it. When you look at the tale of the tape, why would M-1 Global give Overeem the time of day prior to the Werdum loss? Because Overeem had wins over Gary Goodridge, Tony Slyvester, James Thompson, and Fujita? Those fighters are 3rd rate at best…though Overeem held the Strikeforce belt, it had no value.
Now that Overeem has recently beaten a shared opponent in Brett Rodgers, the fight between Fedor/Overeem has more substance…but when it comes to it, Overeem still doesn’t deserve to fight Fedor.
Fedor has 1 blemish on his record, and he is anxious to demonstrate that he simply made a mistake…he lost the fight because he lost himself…not because of Werdum being better. The only legit fight for Fedor in Strikeforce is a rematch with Werdum to prove that it was a fluke. None of the other fights matter and he should be fighting the up and comers in the UFC, but his partial ownership of M-1 is what is keeping him out of the UFC.
I don’t think it is fair to say that either fighter is scared of the other. These guys are professional fighters who are taught, trained and experienced to go out there to pound and get pounded, they have learnt to disregard any physical pains and have signed the dotted line to prove that.
The only other thing that a fighter may want to protect is his legacy… So ponder on that for a bit.
Fedor had an undefeated streak to protect, that is out of the way now – thanks to Werdum’s triangle choke.
Alistair is not afraid to lose, infact, he has plenty of loses on his record to prove this.
However, with Fedor looking human and actually vulnerable for once, people are beginning to look over at Overeem (those of us who are sensible enough to understand that UFC is not everything). All of a sudden, Overeem is in the spotlight – K1 level striking, ADCC level grappling, a perfect physique (regardless of how it was attained – and I hope you guys understand that Brock and Shane and Bob Sapp are not natural either). The guy is a monster and we are all finally seeing this. He has just began making his presence felt in the US. For him to be the first person to dethrone Fedor would have made a lot of sense for him. That would have made his mark in MMA history. Werdum took that from him and now, well… there is nothing really to gain and everything to lose for Overeem. If he loses to Fedor now, his value drops down to Arlovski status. If he does manage to beat Fedor then the MMA world will document the fall of the emperor and not look back at Overeem…
With all due respect, I do believe that Overeem is a very complete fighter and is probably the biggest challenge that Fedor can face today, yes… more than Brock Lesnar or any other UFC heavyweight right now.
I think all of this back and forth nonsense is nothing more than publicity for both Golden Glory and M-1. At the end of the day, it is all business. It all boils down to money.
The emperor has to maintain an empire, even if his throne got choked out of his bald head.
The demolition man has to look out for himself.
Although, there is also the possibility that even Overeem does not want to be at the receiving end of an emperor with a vengeance… peace.
I will try again, my first comment was never published. Odd people, probably pro Fedor.
Fedors management refused to let Fedor fight Overeem even though Overeem was the champ. What is the point of fighting Fedor now? He already lost, Overeem wanted to be the first to beat him but they never let him even try. Now Fedor lost and he can fight the champ? In what world does that make sense? It’s the idiot Russian management which prevents Fedor from fighting in the UFC and also prevented the Fedor-Overeem fight in the first place. So Fedor needs to look in the mirror & kick out his management.
Ps. Overeem & Fedor should both be in the UFC they would destroy Lesnar
I dont think Alistair is afraid. He was the first to step up to fight Fedor. My guess is that M1 would fight only if Alistair is given extra drug testing. Alistair covers up his real reason for not accepting the fight.
@One Who Knows
Great comment, just what was in my thoughts. Fedor will be back and all trash-talkers will shut up.
i agree with rustambek, i think once fedor fights again, he’ll be hungrier then ever and possibly dominate the fight(POSSIBLY). then all the fedor haters will stfu, or come up with different excuses. its just sad that all fedor haters are dana or lesnar nuthuggers and its so obvious why.
To much Bullsh-t what happened to just having a great fight that the fans want,those days are gone as in most sports,were is the love and desire that once gave birth to this sport,we the fans can get it back,we pay for it,so enough is enough and lets get it on,Overeem Fedor just fight,it has been in the works and we all want to see it,SO GET IT ON !!!!
Overeem is great, but Fedor is still THE legend in the mma world. Not fighting him, would be adding to the likelyhood of being forgotten later.
Fight the legend. Fedor by TKO, end of the 2nd rd.
Fedor had won 27 straight fights on paper, and anyone who knows how he ‘lost’ the first fight knows that he really had won 32 straight fights prior to the Werdum loss. One of you guys posted that you wouldn’t call it luck. I would. Werdum knows it, Fedor knows it (although he’s got far too much class to come out and have a translator say it for him), and most importantly, Overeem knows it. Brock Lesnar has won a grand total of 6 fights, yet he leap-frogs Fedor in the world rankings. Fedor has two legitimate flukes in his career that have kept him from 33-0. He’s the greatest and most well-rounded fighter I’ve ever seen. He’s a merciless sociopath. He doesn’t care. From the moment the fight starts until the moment the ref throws him off of his usually dazed if not unconcsious opponent he is a human wrecking ball. If he fights Overeem it doesn’t matter if it stays up or goes to the ground, Fedor wins. Overeem does NOT want to be the so-called ‘redemption match’ for Emelianenko. And who can blame him? Any of us? I sure wouldn’t want to be the man that Fedor ‘The Last Emperor’ Emelianenko takes his frustration out on in attempts to show the world that complacency got the best of him and he’ll never allow it to happen again. Put ANY PERSON IN MMA against Fedor for his next fight and you might as well put a mark in the ‘L’ column for them. Fedor will win big in his next fight.
To answer the ignorance of those of you that say ‘Oh, Fedor lost. What’s the point in anyone fighting him now?’ Muhammad Ali lost! Micheal Jordan lost, Wayne Gretzky lost, GSP has lost, and Overeem sure as hell has lost. With the exception of Marciano, EVERYONE has lost! What do all of them have in common? (besides Overeem). They are all comparitives for THE GREATEST ATHLETES OF ALL TIME!! Ali lost and he STILL was on the hit list of every great heavyweight boxer of his era. They all wanted to say ‘yeah, I fought Muhammad Ali. I fought the greatest boxer in HISTORY’. What is Overeem going to say at the end of his career? Because we all know that Overeem’s career is so illustrious. (insert sarcasm) He’s NOT going to be remembered as the heavyweight champ of strikeforce, he’s NOT going to be remembered as one of the most elite fighters in the sport, he’s simply going to go down as ‘the guy that had a chance to fight the greatest fighter that the sport has ever seen and didn’t try his damndest to make it happen.’ Does anyone remember the Houston Rockets of the mid ’90′s? The Rockets won an NBA title (actually they won 2, back-to-back) but the first year they were a 6 seed. For those of you who don’t know how the NBA playoff system works I’ll explain it quickly. The 6 seed has the toughest road of ANY other seed, because in order to win, they have to beat a 3 seed, followed by a 2-seed, followed by a 1 seed, then, they played the East’s 1 seed. They were the first team in NBA history to accomplish this. This just so happened to be in the 2 year span that Jordan was retired. Does anybody remember the Houston Rockets of the mid ’90′s? NO! Becasue they did NOT beat Jordan and the very prestigious Chicago Bulls. Does anybody get the connection I’m making here? In my opinion, Overeem needs to fight Fedor or else he’ll never be remembered as a great fighter. He’ll lose, but he needs to make it happen.