There is a lot of confusion about my opinion on Fedor. Let me clarify:
Most consider Fedor the greatest heavyweight & P4P fighter of all time. Some consider him the best today. I disagree. I believe he is one of the best heavyweights of all time. I don't believe he is a top five P4P. And I don't believe he is a top 5 heavyweight today. Why? Because of the 31 fights he has won, more than half were against non-names that no one knows about. Let's take a look:
1. Has anyone ever heard of these guys or taken a look at their fight records? Martin Lazarov, Levon Lagvilava, Hiroya Takada, Mihail Apostolov, Kerry Schall, Ryushi Yanagisawa, Lee Hasdell, Chris Haseman, Semmy Schilt, Egidijus Valavicius, Yuji Nagata, Naoya Ogawa, Wagner Martins, Hong Man Choi. These are all people that Fedor beat. Most of these guys have more losses on their records than they do wins. Some only have ONE fight on their record!
2. How about two other guys that Fedor beat: Renato Sobral & Matt Linland. Neither of these guys are heavyweights and Fedor couldn't finish Renato, and he held on to the ropes when Matt (a middle weight) went for the takedown.
3. Who has Fedor beaten in the last couple of years? Past their prime fighters like Tim Silvia and complete Cans like Hong Man Choi, whose record is 2 wins and 3 losses.
4. Fedor has been heavily criticized for avoiding the top competition in and out of the UFC. In spite of the UFC offering him more money than anyone ever has, he chose to stay out and continue to fight carefully selected opponents. He even ducked the Alistar Overreem fight claiming that he didn't want to fight him because he was on steroids. Alistar has never tested positive. Fedor had no problem fighting Tim Silvia who has tested positive.
5. Fedor just lost to a guy who was cut from the UFC after being KTFO by Junior Dos Santos.
Bottom line. Half of Fedor's wins are over no name cans. He has been ducking top competition for the last three years. And he just lost to a UFC reject who was ranked #10. When you add it all up, Fedor was a good heavyweight. But, the greatest ever? I don't think so.