Fedor Emelianenko Is Not Top 3 P4P

When we talk Pound for Pound “P4P” it refers to who currently are the best fighters on this planet regardless of weight, and never has a topic been so heavily debated in MMA as who should be ranked where in the P4P discussion.  Nothing has been bugging me more than people clinging to one of the greatest fighters from Pride that hasn’t appeared in the UFC Fedor Emelianenko, and blindly ranking him number 1 on the P4P list as a way to keep Pride alive in some way to them, or out of spite towards the UFC.  When in fact Fedor is not number 1 nor is he even in the top 3, and when you try to have someone justify this ranking you get called a “Zuffa Zombie”, and that’s their best argument.
When I judge, and rank fighters for the P4P list I have started being more honest with myself and holding everyone to the same standards, which means no special treatment from emotions on how I feel about fighters.

P4P is a ranking that needs to be maintained so coasting off of your past accomplishments will not get you a spot, maybe if it was P4P of all time, but not the current P4P rankings. We don’t see Matt Hughes, Chuck Liddell, Jens Pulver, Royce Gracie, and Ken Shamrock who were all dominant at one point but are a long way from being on the current P4P rankings because they didn’t or couldn’t maintain their spots against legitimate competition from the time they were the best to today.

So when I look at Fedor opponents since Pride went under there is no way I can justify putting him in the elite fighters that reside within my top 3 which are 1.Silva, 2.GSP, and 3.Aldo  who are all dominant champions and fighting much more elite competition more consistently. Silva has fought 16 times, 12 times in the UFC since leaving Pride with his only loss being a DQ to Yushin Okami, GSP has fought 9 times since Pride collapsed 8 of those fights were title fights.  Aldo has fought 10 times since the Pride days, and has beaten the top FW who are more well rounded fighters in general in dominating fashion literally toying with them he is 18-1. Fedor has fought six times since his last fight in Pride against Mark Hunt in 2006.  His first fight being Matt Linland who is a MW, second Hong-Man Choi “The guy who fought Jose Conseco”, his third was against Tim Sylvia who was top ten at the time but went on to get KO in 9 seconds to 47 year old Ray Mercer, his fourth Andrei Alovski a gate keeper at this point and nothing special, his fifth Brett Rodgers was never top 10, and his sixth stopped by Fabrico Werdum being forced to tap out.  Now if I showed you this record, and you didn’t know I was talking about Fedor can you honestly say this is a current top 3 P4P fighter?

Let me say this first before you read the next paragraph now I don’t think these two things are directly related but do hold some relation to each other, and that is Fedor, and Tito Ortiz.  I already pointed out Fedor’s last 6 fights.  Tito Ortiz is on no one’s top 15 of anything.  Tito’s last  6 fights are starting at his last fight with Ken Shamrock who he TKO’d, next Ortiz was stopped by a prime Chuck Liddell and current LHW champion at the time, then a draw (because Ortiz had a point deduction) to Rashad Evans a future LHW champion, next fight a decision loss to Lyoto Machida another future LHW champion, next is a split decision loss to Forest Griffin who he had beaten before and Griffin since the first meeting was also the LHW champion at one point, and a decision loss to Matt Hamill 5 out of 6 were champions in their near future and one current champion, and or on the rise as fighters.  With only one loss not going to a decision.  Now what can these two things have in relation.  It’s more of question both fighters were only stopped once.  But is it better to be winning against fighters that are irrelevant, or on the decline and some borderline freak shows, or to be losing decisions, and split decision to prime fighters, and fighters on the rise to championship status?

The fact that I can even correlate the two fighters when talking about their competition further strengthens my opinion that Fedor can’t be included in the elite top 3 of the P4P when you compare this to what Silva, GSP, and what Aldo have done.  This has nothing to do with the term “Zuffa Zombie” nor does it make you one if you agree with me you don’t have to be a “Pride drone” to acknowledge and recognize the current MMA scene and the talents of all the fighters in our great sport.  When you do your rankings take your emotions, and how you feel about organizations and emotions from how you feel about fighters, and hold everyone accountable to the same criteria, and be fair in the way you judge all other fighters.  Your top 3 may vary from mine but if you are honest with yourself, then you will find Fedor outside of the top 3 P4P also.