This is a tribute to my favorite MMA fighter of all time, yep you’ve guessed it, Fedor Emelianenko! The first time I saw Fedor fight was back at Pride Critical Countdown 2004 against Kevin Randleman and judging by the physic and persona of both fighters I immediately thought Fedor was going to get mauled in the ring. Never judge a book by it’s cover, Fedor definitely does that quote justice.

Looking at Fedor for the first time kind of reminds you of your next typical next door neighbor, father type figure who mows the lawn ever weekend and waves hi to you as you pass by. He looks border-line chubby and round and is one of the most relaxed looking fighter ever, the look he gives before, during, after a fight is almost the same, for him it’s just another day at the job.

With that being said his opponent Keven “The Monster” Randleman resembled a freak of nature, his physic looks that of an professional bodybuilder, this guy is huge and not to mention scary! During the stare down Randleman looked incredibly intimidating, while on the other hand Fedor look as one of my friend said first time seeing him fight “bored”. I thought to myself how does a person keep his composure like that, especially facing off against a guy who is referred to as “The Monster”.

This fight was not only my first time seeing Fedor fight but was also the fight that made me a fan for life. The first minute started very well for Randleman as he shot straight in and got the take down on Fedor, but then Fedor pushed out of his guard by turning around which exposed Fedors back to Randleman and immediately Randleman capitalizes on that. See picture to the left.

Now for anyone who has first watched this fight and didn’t know the outcome beforehand, you would thought it was the end for Fedor, you would of thought he would have broken his neck or was rendered unconscious because that was sure hell what I was thinking.

But not only did he recovered from that slam but also manage to get a kimura in minutes after the slam to win in 1 minute 33 seconds of the first round! Wow was I impressed by Fedor. His resume is amazing and is literally undefeated, the only blemish he has to his record was when he was illegaly cut with an elbow by Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, and the fight had to stop, but rather than calling it a no contest someone had to win in order to proceed to the tournament. Fedor did rematch Tsuyoshi Kohsaka and won via TKO doctor stoppage.

Fedor will be fighting Tim Sylvia on July 19th, win or lose I will be a fan for life.

Here’s a Photoshop I recently did of Fedor, maybe in the future I will give a tutorial on this. I call this the phases of Fedor.

Phase 1. Humble Fedor

Phase 2. Oh no you didn’t!

Phase 3. You better start running!

Phase 4. /end life