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Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia was perhaps one of the most widely anticipated fights of the year and Emelianenko has demonstrated why he may just be the best Mixed Martial Arts fighter in the game today. Emelianenko has beaten Tim Sylvia badly. Fedor climbed on his back and choked him out early in the first round.
Emelianenko was a huge -400 favorite at most online gambling sites including SBG Global though many believed that the Russian could come out rusty, having not fought for some time. Furthermore, there were rumors of an injury.
None of this could stop Fedor Emelianenko from dominating in the debut of Affliction Banned.
The event, we should point out, was so highly trafficked over the Internet that nearly all the websites covering Emelianenko vs. Sylvia were inaccessible during fight time and immediately following Emelianenko's big win.
In mixed martial arts, top-ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko is perhaps the closest a fighter can come to the greatest-of-all-time label, writes Tim Leidecker of Sherdog Sports. Yet the Russian, 27-1, is denied that status by some critics, who point to the fact that he has not fought top competition recently.
Fans and experts alike should not forget, however, what earned "The Last Emperor" his aura of invincibility in the first place. Emelianenko wasn't considered the best fighter on the planet by chance. Between 2002 and 2006, he cleaned out the deepest heavyweight division in the history of the sport.
While his battles against Japanese wrestler Kazuyuki Fujita, former UFC champions Mark Coleman and Kevin Randleman, and Croatian kickboxer Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic have provided plenty of material for highlight reels, it is his three-part feud with Brazilian Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira that is the foundation of Emelianenko's claim to be the greatest of all time.
If it weren't for Emelianenko, Nogueira, the UFC's current heavyweight champion, could probably lay claim to being the greatest MMA fighter of all time. He was the first Brazilian heavyweight not only good on the ground but also on the feet. Even though "Minotauro" never possessed the "pure" jiu-jitsu skills of, say, Fabricio Werdum, experts agree that there has never been a fighter who used his Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills in an MMA environment as well as Nogueira.
Combining his jiu-jitsu training with club-fighter-caliber boxing skills, solid wrestling prowess and an unbelievable ability to take punches, the pupil of Carlson Gracie black belt Ricardo de la Riva posed an insoluble riddle for all his opponents in the first three and a half years of his career. .
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Tyrone Black, Gambling911.com
Originally published July 20, 2008 12:42 am EST
