The best mixed martial arts fighter in the world, heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, continued his winning streak today in Tokyo with a dramatic first-round submission over the South Korean giant Hong Man Choi. Emelianenko, who spurned the American Ultimate Fighting Championship because Japanese promotions offered him more money and more freedom than UFC, showed once again that he's got both the strength and the technical precision to dominate mixed martial arts.
The 7-foot-2, 360-pound Choi gave it a game effort and landed a couple of rough strikes, badly bruising Emelianenko's face. But Emelianenko has much better MMA skills, and as soon as they went to the ground, it was clear that Emelianenko was going to win.
Although Choi was on top and landed a few solid strikes to Emelianenko's face, Emelianenko quickly got Choi's arm locked in a textbook submission hold, and Choi had no choice but to tap out.
The fight was part of a New Year's Eve event in Tokyo that has become one of the biggest annual sports traditions in Japan. Emelianenko gave the Japanese fans a good show.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-31-2007 @ 1:47PM
preston said...
"best mixed martial arts fighter in the world"? Wouldn't you have to fight someone with a pulse in the last few years to maintain that title? A victory over this can Choi does nothing.
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12-31-2007 @ 7:51PM
nico said...
UFC offers better fighters and if Fedor is the best why is he not fighting in the UFC. Money is not everything for a fighter. And untill he fights Randy, Gonzaga, or even Tim Sylvia he will never be #1 in my book.
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12-31-2007 @ 9:06PM
yoshi said...
The UFC is not the only MMA fighting league in the world. Not every skilled fighter is under contract by the UFC and that is clear through randy couture's refusal to continue under the UFC and through fedor's reluctance to sign with them.
couture is the champion and only wants to fight fedor but fedor will not give in to dana white's constraining conditions: so the UFC looses both the no 1 ranked heavyweight and their own heivyweight champion. can we honestly say that this is the only elite ligue in the sport that holds neither champion nor top rank???
i think not.
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1-02-2008 @ 12:53AM
doomzday said...
Fedor is #1 in Randy Couture's book
...as well as in every other fighter's book.
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1-02-2008 @ 7:34PM
M. said...
Fedor did not sign with UFC, although he would have like to, because Dana White would not bend the contract a bit to allow Fedor to compete in Russia's annual combat sambo tournament. Russians do not sell out, bottom line.
Hey Preston, did you miss all of Fedor's fights? Especially in Pride? How about when he whooped Mark Coleman from the UFC just a year ago?
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1-08-2008 @ 12:32PM
Valentine said...
Fedor has no real rivals now. He is truly an ultimate champion. Russian school rules! =)
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1-10-2008 @ 3:00PM
dan said...
Anybody that has followed this sport and knows what the are looking at would say fedor is the best in his class. He has the striking ability when he needs to use it and the ground game to, most of all he has paitience at what he does he doesnt get all hyper the first time he gets hit in the face. He sits back and looks to see how and what way is best to attack the other person to get them to tap or go down for the count
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