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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor
Fedor Emelianenko will fight for a Japanese MMA promotion called Rizin Fighting Federation. He's likely going to fight some guy most of us have never heard of, but that's all right. Human clickbait Chael Sonnen was recently asked about Fedor and he went on some spiel about fans being way off base about "The Last Emperor" and his place in MMA, and at one point even said he lived through something like this with Kimbo Slice. That ends the conversation right there, you've proven that you're talking out of your ass and trying to be controversial.
Fedor was the best fighter in the best heavyweight division in PRIDE when he was in his prime. To suggest that he doesn't have the credentials to be called the best heavyweight ever, and possibly the best fighter ever, says everything right there. It's just dumb to say that, to be blunt.
Now, Sonnen is correct in that Fedor is seemingly only interested in money, but if that's the case it's still OK. I don't blame a guy for wanting to get as much money as he possibly can, while he can. It's not like Fedor was likely to beat any of the top guys in the UFC anyway. The time for that is over. We can debate how well prime Fedor would do against the current top heavyweights, but to say that he isn't anywhere near as good as fans think is just dumb as hell. Sonnen just wants his attention, and I guess he got it.
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T.J. Dillashaw has left Team Alpha Male, and there's hurt feelings abound as a result. Urijah Faber has said that Dillashaw has left the family that helped him. I definitely understand where this mentality comes from because you grow close to guys over time, especially those you share tough times with. However, Dillashaw is going to get paid to train. As it stands now, he paid in to Team Alpha Male to train. This is an enormous benefit to him. He wants to take care of his family, and he needs money to do so; I understand the negative feelings, but Dillashaw has to do what's best for him and his family, and this will help tremendously. The growth of the sport will (hopefully) lead to more instances of this happening. I mean that more with fighters being paid to train, not so much the teammate drama and hurt feelings. I'm not a big drama guy, I try to avoid it, but you can't fault Dillashaw for doing this.
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Brendan Schaub announced this week that he was stepping back from active competition. He had a parting shot for the UFC-Reebok deal as well, talking about how he can't imagine himself wearing a Reebok fight kit. When the dollar amounts were announced initially, many people said that there would be fighters who would have to retire because they just weren't going to get enough money. Making it where the fighters can't get their own sponsors handicaps them to a severe degree. Schaub can make more money doing other things, but I think we'll see more fighters retiring because they just can't make enough money to support their families. It won't be an epidemic or anything, but it is an issue. I also think that there will be fighters who can't reach their full potential because they have to take a day job to pay the bills. We won't hear those stories, but we've heard Schaub's story and we'll hear others like his. I just hope the UFC is listening. It's not good for the sport when fighters have to choose between fighting or paying the bills.
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Nick Diaz was recently suspended for testing positive for marijuana. We've seen that headline before. However, Diaz was suspended for five years by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. That's just beyond absurd, but the reason I bring this up is because Cher recently tweeted her support for Diaz. That's surreal. Cher is a pop legend, quite frankly I didn't think that Diaz would be on her radar. It's just kind of a weird story, and I like weird.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank
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