Stolen from Bloody Elbow’s comments section:

To steal from Bloody Elbow once again, that very post sums up the fallout perfectly:

1. Fedor Emelianenko – The big one. As Luke Skywalker told the Emperor in Return of the Jedi, it was Fedor’s overconfidence that proved to be his weakness. The Russian paid no caution to Werdum’s guard and paid the biggest price possible. When Fedor begrudgingly tapped, he lost the aura that made him so appealing to the MMA fan base. He’s no longer FEDOR, but simply Fedor.

It’s a rule in MMA that EVERYONE loses, even the very best of fighters. The sport is too unpredictable and one mistake can end a fight. Yet Fedor always seemed to find a way to win. And accomplishing this as a heavyweight made his legend as immensely epic as possible. He wasn’t just the best “pound for pound” fighter in the world, he was the best fighter, period, full stop. There could be no talk of him moving up a weight class. He fought someone who was 7 feet tall!

So is my post from a year ago still true? I know the YouTube video is still badass, but Fedor just lost to Fabricio Werdum, who was the 9th ranked MMA heavyweight, and also a fighter who was released from UFC. Dana White is eating it up, as evidenced by this post on twitter.

I don’t know how to feel, because I didn’t even get to watch the fight as it happened. I found out Fedor lost by a “Holy. Shit.” on Twitter and someone on MSN telling me that Fedor had lost. I didn’t quite believe it, until Twitter updated again and I saw a string of about 10 people saying “Oh my fucking God” in different ways. The feed I was watching cut out right as the fight started, and since it ended only a minute later, I wasn’t able to find another working streaming in time. Fuck my cheap ass.

But I’ll say I’m pretty disappointed that we’ll never see an undefeated Fedor fight an undefeated Brock Lesnar, which was what every MMA fan — casual or hardcore — was pining for before Fedor joined Strikeforce instead of UFC. Since then, I feel like most people have split into two camps, one of which is extremely happy tonight, the other crying themselves to sleep. The former group consists of people pissed at Fedor seemingly ducking the best competition available, while an example of the latter would be whoever made that YouTube video.

At least Stephen Strasburg is still a God, right? Oh wait, he’s on the Nationals. Shit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVVrNOQtlzY

Fedor Emelianenko scares me more than Mike Tyson in his prime. The guy is Russian, and he trains like Rocky in Rocky IV. So he’s like Ivan Drago and Rocky combined. Plus grappling and submission skills. The only fight he has “lost” was due to a cut from an illegal elbow, and due to it occurring in a tournament format where blood equals losing, he got fucked. So for all intents and purposes, he has never lost — this in a sport where a lucky punch or stupid maneuver on the ground can cost an entire match. Holy shit.

Keeping this information in mind, anyone can see why when the LA Times reported earlier this week that Fedor and the UFC were close to a deal, the entire MMA community was frothing in anticipation. When news came out about a rumored 6-fight/$30 million deal, fans got even more excited. But it never truly looked like it was going to happen, and by early this morning, the president of the UFC, Dana White, gave the final word. No deal.

I’m not going to analyze why Fedor and his handlers or managers or agent didn’t accept such an insane deal — I just wanted to post that YouTube tribute video because it’s one the most badass things I’ve seen on the internet. What a fucking animal. I wanted to see him destroy Brock Lesnar. Sigh.