Fedor’s Future: A Rebuttal to Jake Rossen

Fedor’s Future: A Rebuttal to Jake Rossen
BY JAMES FREDERICK WILLIAM ROWE

In the most outstanding case of journalistic insanity permitted in a major MMA news outlet, Jake Rossen declared in an editorial posted on Sherdog.com as his “best, haphazard guess” that “Emelianenko takes a fight or two in Japan, makes a mistake, loses and suddenly it’s not such a story anymore” because “Emelianenko is just a fighter”. Oh, and that these fights would be against “medical tragedies” in line with a spectacle on New Years Eve. In other words, we have a serious editorialist claiming that the most dominant mixed martial artist the world has ever seen, knowing no losses against a list of champions, will lose to tomato cans.

Is this some sort of sick joke?

Let’s set the record straight: Emelianenko is not just a fighter, he is a champion of champions and belies the common idea of a fallible MMA athlete. The Herculean feats that Fedor accomplishes as part and parcel of his ownership of the heavyweight division for the last six years of his title reign are as remarkable as they are extensive and demonstrate his status as a legend of the sport. In his reign of absolute terror as the top fighter in the world at heavyweight (or any class) Emelianenko has demonstrated that the UFC HW belt to not be worth the hide the strap was made of. He twice eviscerated Mark Coleman, twice brutalized Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, slaughtered Tim Sylvia in 30 seconds, decimated Andrei Arlovski in a little over 3 minutes, and in all likelihood will soon systematically dismantle Josh Barnett. Moreover, this is not to even consider the rest of his career, where Emelianenko has shown such domination as thought impossible. He hasn’t even lost a round since his fourth pro-fight. Sorry, Jake Rossen, this is not the mark of a fighter who loses to cans.

Contrast this with the nonsense which is the HW division in the UFC. In a mockery of the marquee status of the UFC as the premier organization in the world, the champion currently reigning, Brock Lesnar is 4-1 in MMA competition. The man he fought to attain the undisputed (within the UFC) belt, Frank Mir, had but one notable win in his career against a gravely ill Antonio Nogueira (whom shouldn’t have fought at all due to illness) and has the dubious distinction of being beaten by such second stringers as Vera and Cruz. The salient feature of Rossen’s article was that Fedor had something to prove in the UFC, but with the UFC HW division in this state, does he really?

Disputing Fedor’s skill in a manner like Rossen’s is not merely a case of skepticism but is out right bigotry. This is not to claim that Rossen hates Fedor because of his ethnicity or race, but only an irrational hatred could produce the vicious, ill-founded, and frankly embarrassing remarks of Rossen to be leveled against a man who has demonstrated no weaknesses in his career. There are legitimate questions to make regarding Fedor’s career which Rossen could have chosen to make, such as whether Fedor can keep on beating champions like he does without losing, but he instead said Fedor will lose to a can. This is not only disrespectful to Emelianenko and blind to the manifest evidence of his greatness, but further also stands as a mark of dishonour against MMA journalism and Sherdog.

Why would Sherdog, the pre-eminent MMA website, even permit this sort of schlock opinion on its front page? Has it become merely the propaganda wing of the UFC? Is this some sort of journalistic equivalent of back-room dealing to curry favour? Sure, Rossen is just an editorialist and may not reflect the view of all of Sherdog, but putting an article like this on their front page betrays the MMA fans that flock to Sherdog for quality news and opinion. Shame on you, Sherdog, for giving voice to this trash.

Works Cited:

Rossen, Jake. “The Future of Fedor”. Sherdog.com. July 21 2009. July 21 2009.