Total-MMA.com

By Dave Walsh

Affliction Banned draws closer and closer, and as it does, it is impossible to ignore all of the hype leading up to the main event of the evening, Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko facing off with Tim “The Maineiac” Sylvia for the newly created WAMMA Heavyweight Championship. The fight itself at this point means a lot more than the title does, as the title seemed more or less created for this card, to help hype up the Affliction show and validate the whole WAMMA thing by establishing their champion as either Fedor or Sylvia. Having either man as their champion means instant credibility, as Fedor never lost the PRIDE Heavyweight Championship, it basically just disappeared when PRIDE was taken over by Zuffa, and Sylvia exited the UFC in a Heavyweight title match, as well as holding the title numerous times. What we get is the biggest heavyweight showdown since Fedor vs. Cro Cop from PRIDE.

In Tim Sylvia, we have an unlikely underdog. If you look at the betting lines, it is +300 for Sylvia right now on BetUS, and while I understand Fedor is, well, Fedor, this paints the picture of how fight fans and industry insiders view Tim Sylvia. Tim Sylvia has never really been a respected fighter, more or less due to his personality, fight style and his history of sort of “ruining” fights for fans by defeating the favorites or dragging them out into a not-so-exciting fight. That, on top of goofy antics, in-ring bowel movements, stealing food off of my plate at Mohegan Sun and wearing his belt everywhere he went as champion have led to Tim Sylvia being one of the most talented and least respected heavyweight fighters in history. Tim has to go into this fight with a careful game plan, and without a cage, one of his usual tools to smothering his opponents, he has to make sure his plan is flawless, as pushing Fedor against the cage and laying into him with knees and short elbows won’t be an option here. Tim has to look to utilizing his reach advantage standing up, while I don’t see Tim Sylvia knocking Fedor out, I could see him winning a decision working a smart offense of jabs, hooks when he gets in close enough, and push kicks to keep the distance. He also has to take advantage of clinching in the corner when he can and going for takedowns on Fedor. If this does go to the ground, Tim has to be careful to look out for a surprise armbar or it could be history for him.

The scary thought is that Tim has all of the skills to win this fight, which could leave the hardcore fans upset for a second time in the span of 2 weeks, with Rampage losing a close decision to Forrest Griffin, Tim Sylvia as WAMMA Heavyweight Champion due to a close decision is a very real scenario. Fans right now seem to have the blinders on when it comes to Tim Sylvia winning this fight and defeating he who looks unbeatable. I am doing my best to hammer home the point that Tim Sylvia is not the most exciting fighter in the world, he has his problems, his weaknesses and ability to fill his pants up on a moments notice, but he does have the ability to dominate top name competition. Randy Couture went into the fight with Tim looking to outbox Tim, and did his best to nullify Tim’s reach advantage with head movement while standing, which we most likely won’t see happen against Fedor. Fedor is generally known as a better and more powerful striker on his feet than Randy Couture, but he, like most Russian fighters, is not known for his head movement, which was what helped Randy overcome Sylvia in their title fight. The other reality is that Tim could bust Fedor open and win that way. Remember, this was Matt Lindland’s strategy against Fedor, and while Lindland was submitted to Fedor, he did start the fight off with a hard overhand right that cut Fedor pretty badly, to the point where Fedor knew he was in trouble and was hiding his face from the ref as he fought for the armbar. If the fight had gone past that point, there is no doubt that cut could have been a problem or even stopped the fight.

Fedor Emelianenko is a fighter that is more notorious than any other fighter in Mixed Martial Arts history. While fighters like Cro Cop, Takaonori Gomi, BJ Penn and Chuck Liddell have all had similar auras and hype surrounding them, they were all brought back down to earth and had their flaws exposed at one point or another. Fedor has shown on occasion that he can give up offense to another fighter, but as opposed to being seen as a weakness, the ways in which Fedor fights out of these bad positions and turns them into a positive for him has made him look unstoppable. From being spiked on his head with suplexes by Randleman, taken down and worked over on the ground by Mark Hunt, against one of the best submission artists in the world with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, kicked in the head by Mirko Cro Cop, the only time Fedor has ever lost a fight was what many consider a bad stoppage in RINGS against Kohsaka, a win that was avenged in PRIDE at a later date, in a brutal, one-sided win for Fedor. Fedor has become a larger-than-life figure in Mixed Martial Arts history, and rightfully so. Fedor is seen, by many still, as the best pound for pound fighter ever in Mixed Martial Arts. He may have dropped off of many lists recently, but that is more due to inaction than it is degradation of his skills. A win over Sylvia here will easily put him back on P4P lists everywhere.

For Fedor to win this fight he needs to be smart. While his stand up is generally good, and he hits incredibly hard, standing against a man with 8 inches on him is probably not the greatest idea. Tim’s reach advantage is something that could easily frustrate Fedor and take this fight to the ground. In his most recent fight against Hong Man Choi, Fedor made very little effort to keep the fight standing up, respecting even a mediocre giant’s reach advantage and understanding his best bet was on the ground. While Choi wasn’t the biggest challenge, figuratively, he was physically. Fedor did take some heavy blows on the ground, bruising almost right away, but was always looking to improve his position, and locked on an armbar twice, the second time being too much for the giant as he was forced to tap out. Against the 6′8″ Tim Sylvia it won’t be as easy, but a similar game plan wouldn’t be a bad idea. Look to take things on the ground, Fedor is usually pretty comfortable from his back, so work from there while trying to take minimal damage and look to submit Tim. It is entirely possible that Fedor will get on top of Sylvia, from there he has incredibly impressive ground and pound, with the ability to easily end the fight from even inside of Tim’s guard.

Fedor is, in many regard, a robot. He will not be knocked out, no matter how much you hurt him, he won’t show the pain on his face, he will simply continue on fighting until he gets what he wants. He can and has been compared to The Terminator on many occasions for his cold, icy expression and demeanor in the ring. What Fedor needs to remember is that while his skull is made of stainless steel, his flesh is not. His flesh actually has a good build up of scar tissue on it, and a nasty cut above his eye is very much a reality in this fight. Tim knows how to strike to cut, and knowing that this is Fedor’s only real weakness, there is a good possibility that Tim will look to cut Fedor early on and either work that cut until it is bad enough to stop the fight, or enough to temporarily blind him to set up for a big finish for himself. Fedor has to also remember to try not to stand and bang with Tim, as his head movement simply isn’t there and the chances of him getting caught with jabs, hooks or even a Tim Sylvia high kick are very good. While it was very impressive that Fedor ate a high kick from Cro Cop and simply brushed it off, what it did show was that he really didn’t have much in the way of defense for it. Even if Tim can get Fedor stunned with a punch or a kick, this could be bad for Fedor, as Tim could take him down and work some ground and pound on him.

This is, without a doubt, the heavyweight fight, taking place on American soil this weekend. The only other fight that could be any bigger is Randy Couture vs. Fedor Emelianenko, but until Randy’s contract woes are figured out, this is not a bad consolation prize. The threat that Tim Sylvia poses to Fedor is real, very real, and the only guarantee that we have is that this fight will be interesting, and the ramifications to the heavyweight division in MMA are unquestionable.