It looks like Fedor will fight Korean K-1 fighter Hong-Man Choi on New Years eve in Japan. M-1 is loaning Fedor out to Hustle. Hustle was the pro-wrestling arm of DSE(DSE being the former owners of Pride).
Hong-man is a surprisingly decent K-1 fighter who is huge, 7 foot 2 and 350 pounds. Still he has barely any mma experience. If this was a K-1 fight Choi would probably win. I suppose Fedor will win this fight if he can take it to the ground. Though because of Choi’s huge size advantage and stregth advantage I really don’t know what to expect.
I think I am looking forward to Anderson Silva against Dan Henderson more. And Gono’s next fight.
I still think Fedor is a great fighter but it seems that Fedor going to M-1 instead of the UFC and now fighting Choi has resulted in alot of backlash for Fedor.
I personally think you should be able to fight anybody anywhere regardless of promotion, so I like what M-1 is attempting to do. Too bad they couldn’t get Antonio SIlva or somebody from the IFL.
Christ, couldn’t they get an MMA fighter to fight him? Fedor is losing a touch of credibility here.
[quote]otoko wrote:
I suppose Fedor will win this fight if he can take it to the ground. Though because of Choi’s huge size advantage and stregth advantage I really don’t know what to expect.[/quote]
Oh come on.
Fedor will demolish Hong Man. He’ll stand and trade with him until Hong Man cuts him, then he’ll shoot inside, secure a body lock, trip him, and proceed to smash his gigantic head like a watermelon.
Choi has good striking technique and his length causes problems for guys in K-1, but he is painfully slow. Fedor will be able to slip under a punch and get inside for a takedown whenever he wants.
[quote]otoko wrote:
I personally think you should be able to fight anybody anywhere regardless of promotion, so I like what M-1 is attempting to do. Too bad they couldn’t get Antonio SIlva or somebody from the IFL.[/quote]
Agreed.
Fedor has the right to do whatever the hell he wants to do. His legacy in MMA is already secure. It would have been nice to see him add to it, just as it would have been nice to see Frank Shamrock add to his legacy from 2000-2006, but he is under no obligation to do so. I think all of the backlash against Fedor is from little kids who don’t understand that sometimes a man has to do what makes him happy, not what makes other people happy.
I’m not sold on M-1 yet. Hopefully, they end up landing Josh Barnett and making Fedor-Barnett happen, and maybe than can land Randy Couture once he fulfills/escapes his UFC contract. Until that happens, I expect Fedor will have to bide his time smashing the Hong Man Choi’s and Pedro Rizzo’s of the world.
[quote]RagingBull wrote:
Christ, couldn’t they get an MMA fighter to fight him? Fedor is losing a touch of credibility here.[/quote]
Fedor could retire tomorrow and he would still be the single greatest mixed martial artist of all time. Nobody in the sport has come even close to his accomplishments. Fedor’s run from 2002-2005 has cemented his place in history as one of the greats.
Would I like to see him add to that legacy?
Absolutely.
But he could spend the rest of his career smashing cans and it still wouldn’t taint his accomplishments from 2002-2005.
WTF? Why is he fighting Eric Stoltz’s character from Mask?
Do you have a source?
Fedor will get him with the quickness. Hong-Man Choi"s freakish size can make him a real problem for people who don’t know how to slip inside on him, but I don’t think Fedor will have that problem.
Hong-Man doesn’t have the speed to use his reach to his full advantage to keep someone off of him. Those long limbs can become a liability when he gets crowded and it goes to grappling, which is where Fedor excells.
[quote]Mick28 wrote:
Does anyone know if there is any hope of a Couture/Fedor match?[/quote]
Probably not until the winter of 2008 at the earliest.
Randy’s contract with the UFC seems to be pretty iron-clad. He’s going to have to finish his last two fights on the contract or come to some kind of buyout agreement.
I’m glad we waited so long to see this. Truly the fight we all have been clamoring for.
Does Hong even have a ground game? I just watched one of his fights on Youtube. No way he’ll even have a chance against Fedor.
[quote]Donut62 wrote:
I’m glad we waited so long to see this. Truly the fight we all have been clamoring for.[/quote]
Personally, I would have rather seen him face the greatest MMA fighter to have ever walked the planet.
He journeys through life … alone
He is hated by all … loved by none
Yet he fears no one
He has fought all of them
Still disrespected
Still hated
Rejected
Misunderstood
But he fights on
One by one
They fall
[quote]Steve4192 wrote:
Donut62 wrote:
I’m glad we waited so long to see this. Truly the fight we all have been clamoring for.
Personally, I would have rather seen him face the greatest MMA fighter to have ever walked the planet.
He journeys through life … alone
He is hated by all … loved by none
Yet he fears no one
He has fought all of them
Still disrespected
Still hated
Rejected
Misunderstood
But he fights on
One by one
They fall[/quote]
Perhaps the most frustrating fight you can possibly watch was Heath Herring almost go to decision with him.
[quote]Hagar wrote:
Does Hong even have a ground game? I just watched one of his fights on Youtube. No way he’ll even have a chance against Fedor. [/quote]
He was a Sirium (sp?) wrestler, a damn good one, which is basically a Korean sumo. So he’s no submission wizard, but at least he has some control of his freakishly large body positioning.
[quote]Donut62 wrote:
Perhaps the most frustrating fight you can possibly watch was Heath Herring almost go to decision with him.
[/quote]
To be fair to Heath, that was before everyone knew that Paulo posed no threat on the feet or on the ground. He showed too much respect to a gigantic dude who he knew nothing about. I’m sure he would have crushed him quickly if they had a rematch.
[quote]Donut62 wrote:
He was a Sirium (sp?) wrestler, a damn good one, which is basically a Korean sumo. So he’s no submission wizard, but at least he has some control of his freakishly large body positioning.[/quote]
I put absolutely no stock in his Ssireum background. We have already seen that Sumo is completely useless in MMA, and Ssireum might even be less applicable because of some of it’s rules.
[quote]Steve4192 wrote:
otoko wrote:
I suppose Fedor will win this fight if he can take it to the ground. Though because of Choi’s huge size advantage and stregth advantage I really don’t know what to expect.
Oh come on.
Fedor will demolish Hong Man. He’ll stand and trade with him until Hong Man cuts him, then he’ll shoot inside, secure a body lock, trip him, and proceed to smash his gigantic head like a watermelon.
Choi has good striking technique and his length causes problems for guys in K-1, but he is painfully slow. Fedor will be able to slip under a punch and get inside for a takedown whenever he wants.
otoko wrote:
I personally think you should be able to fight anybody anywhere regardless of promotion, so I like what M-1 is attempting to do. Too bad they couldn’t get Antonio SIlva or somebody from the IFL.
Agreed.
Fedor has the right to do whatever the hell he wants to do. His legacy in MMA is already secure. It would have been nice to see him add to it, just as it would have been nice to see Frank Shamrock add to his legacy from 2000-2006, but he is under no obligation to do so. I think all of the backlash against Fedor is from little kids who don’t understand that sometimes a man has to do what makes him happy, not what makes other people happy.
I’m not sold on M-1 yet. Hopefully, they end up landing Josh Barnett and making Fedor-Barnett happen, and maybe than can land Randy Couture once he fulfills/escapes his UFC contract. Until that happens, I expect Fedor will have to bide his time smashing the Hong Man Choi’s and Pedro Rizzo’s of the world.[/quote]
On. The . Money.
[quote]Steve4192 wrote:
Donut62 wrote:
I’m glad we waited so long to see this. Truly the fight we all have been clamoring for.
Personally, I would have rather seen him face the greatest MMA fighter to have ever walked the planet.
He journeys through life … alone
He is hated by all … loved by none
Yet he fears no one
He has fought all of them
Still disrespected
Still hated
Rejected
Misunderstood
But he fights on
One by one
They fall[/quote]
Bisping could take him
[quote]oldcrabbybastard wrote:
Bisping could take him
[/quote]
Only one man stands a chance versus the MMA Legend.
This is going to be like his fight against Zuluzinho. Fedor beating the life out some giant twice his size.
[quote]Steve4192 wrote:
oldcrabbybastard wrote:
Bisping could take him
Only one man stands a chance versus the MMA Legend.
James “glass jaw” Thompson? if the wind blows hard enough he gets ko’d