To be honest he has earned every single moniker related to his inhuman ability to make every single fighter out there look totally out of their league at the moment they enter the ring with him.
Coming into this match with Zuluzinho we all knew the only reason the Brazilian got a shot at Fedor was because of the “TV ratings” war between K-1 and PRIDE. I don’t know what kind of rating a fight that lasted 0:26 seconds can generate, but one thing is for sure, Fedor was less concerned about that than beating the holy hell out of the poor Brazilian, like a kid beating a bully after he stole his candy.
What can we expect from Fedor in 2006? Rematch with “Cro Cop”? Fight Hunt or Kharinotov?
According to Fedor he’s going to take some time off and have hand surgery to finally fix that old injury. After that he’s going to focus on the upcoming PRIDE Heavyweight Grand Prix 2006.
Finally, in a unrelated note, I noticed some Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) merchandise on sale at the PRIDE booths inside Saitama Super Arena. I understand Fedor’s personality is one of a very quiet, family man, but his managers need to do something in order to sell his “unbeatable” image to the fans. I barely see any Japanese fans wearing Fedor t-shirts, while there are whole Chute Boxe and Mirko “Cro Cop” armies out there.
What can we suggest to make Fedor’s merchandise once again popular with the fans? What about placing his head over a Terminator body? Kind of lame I guess. What about using Fedor’s image in the same pose as “Conan the Barbarian” while sitting on a throne surrounded by dead bodies as he watches his vast empire? Probably too brutal. What about a t-shirt with “Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) PRIDE Heavyweight Champion” across the chest and on the back we can read “Is Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) gonna have to choke a bitch?”
Probably this is a topic better left for another moment.
5) “Decision Dan” strikes again
Going to be short here. No disrespect to Dan Henderson (Pictures) because he’s an awesome fighter worthy of wearing the PRIDE welterweight (183 pounds) belt. I believe he was one of the few guys out there in PRIDE that actually deserved to fight in his weight division and I give him all the credit in the world to dominate that division as well.
Anyway, I need to be honest or, better yet, brutally honest: Dan Henderson (Pictures) got a gift from the judges.
Don’t misunderstand my words because I never said “he didn’t deserve to win” or “he never tried to win” or “he got outclassed by Murilo Bustamante (Pictures).” But I simply feel Bustamante, while fighting a close fight, dominated a large portion of the match, especially more than half the first round to get that decision. Still we go to the judges and somehow lady luck once again twisted her hand and smiled at the American fighter to give him another close decision.
Best of luck to Henderson, who’s now in a division where he can clearly dominate and remain on top.
6) “Fireball Kid” twists of fate
This might sound like a bold statement but after watching how Takanori Gomi (Pictures) rolled over Hayato Sakurai (Pictures) and dropped him like a bag of hammers en route to being crowned the very first Japanese PRIDE champion and first lightweight champion in the brand new 160-pound division, I was left without any doubt in my mind that there is no one, currently in or outside PRIDE in the 155-160 pound division that can touch the Japanese star.
Like many others fans I expect Gomi to rematch the likes of Joachim Hansen (Pictures) or Tatsuya Kawajiri (Pictures) after these two resolve their differences February 17 in SHOOTO. Also I would love to see someone like Vitor Ribeiro (Pictures) join PRIDE and face Gomi. But honestly I don’t see any of these fighters beating him anytime soon.
Of this group, the one with the best chance, mostly due to an x-factor, is Tatsuya Kawajiri (Pictures). Not because the SHOOTO 154-pound champion will roll over him like nothing in a rematch, but mostly because the x-factor in Kawajiri is how he always bounces back from defeats to rebuild himself as a better fighter who makes previous losses looks like nothing.
Still at this moment I don’t give any of these names a fair chance against Gomi, especially with the way Gomi is fighting now and how much he improved over the last couple of years.
After his fight and during a break I got the chance to talk backstage about Gomi’s future with some Japanese journalists. While I did my best to bring every possible scenario about future opponents, I was met by responses that no one currently at this weight can touch Gomi. More interesting was how many of these very same journalists only brought up one opponent as a possible interesting match to the current lightweight king.
This name was none other than B.J. Penn (Pictures).
I found this so ironic, given how back in his days as SHOOTO champion Gomi was basically crying out loud to fight in UFC. I still remember after every match in SHOOTO, as part of Gomi’s speech he would beg Dana White & Co. to sign him. His dream was to fight inside the Octagon, like part of his destiny, according to Gomi.
All this pleading was met with negative responses by the American promotion. Later, Gomi asked to get into K-1 MAX but many fans doubted his striking was at the same “level” as the stars in K-1. Only after PRIDE took the chance to sign him did Gomi turn from the “boring” champion in SHOOTO to one of the biggest stars and draws currently in Japan.