Sonnen: Fedor is definitely overrated, history won’t reflect well on him
“The average human being doesn’t have the foggiest idea of who he is. And history is not going to reflect well on Fedor Emelianenko, as far as his MMA career goes.”
Retired UFC fighter and current color commentator Chael Sonnen appeared recently on the 300th episode of Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and discussed among other topics Fedor Emelianenko.
“He’s definitely overrated,” said Sonnen as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting. “But he’s not that highly rated. The people who listen to your show, the people who listen to my podcast, we have some hardcore fans. They watched him over in Japan. They watched some of those matches and they’re more than happy to forget when he came over to the states and actually did a sanctioned fight with a real referee that’s not wearing an earpiece. They forgot about those. The average human being doesn’t have the foggiest idea of who he is. And history is not going to reflect well on Fedor Emelianenko, as far as his MMA career goes.”
“Here’s what you want to do: You want to fight the easiest guy that you can for the biggest paycheck. Fedor, he’s doing that really well. Who’s in Japan right now? What’s the parity? Who are they gonna match him up with? There’s not even a sweepstakes for Fedor right now. There’s no division whatsoever, so the likelihood that he gets an easy draw and sells a bunch of tickets doing it, I think there’s a pretty good chance there.”
“Fans assess Fedor constantly. They have no idea what they’re talking about. I hear things said about Fedor where I’m just sitting there rolling my eyes. I had to live through this with Kimbo Slice. I had to live through this where the fans’ perception gets so far off that they don’t know what they’re seeing. Fedor can give you a very good assessment of himself. He knows where he’s at. So when he puts himself over there in Japan and goes, ‘I can make a few bucks doing this, I can stay busy and I don’t have to fight those guys in the UFC,’ that ends the argument. His fans always want to come out, ‘You’d do so well in the UFC.’ If he’s telling you that he won’t, you’ve gotta listen to him.”
“I think for his skillset and where he’s at, I think (staying out of the UFC) makes sense. Don’t forget, he’s not coming back to win championships. He’s coming back to make some money.”
Fedor next fights on New Years Even in Japan, for the “New Pride” event Rizin. His opponent is rumored to be failed Indian/Japanese kickboxer Jaideep Singh.
(39:40 mark)