FEDOR

So, some of you may not no about the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Mixed Martial Arts started in the early 90's as a form of pitting one martial art against another to find out which martial art was the best. Karate guys would fight wrestlers. Boxers would fight kick boxers and all types of crazy. In order to keep any one practitioner from complaining about the rules the guys who created the tournament, the legendary Gracie family of Brazil, said ok we won't have any. So a lot of street fighters and all around "tough guys". stepped into the ring and at first it was really brutal because all of these guys were tough but none of them really had the skill to finish a fight. To give the super short version in the end the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which noone really outside of Brazil had heard of, was undeniably victorious. But Mixed Martial Arts was looked at as a type of human cockfighting for a very long time and most people actually knew of it by it's more crude name of Cage Fighting or no-holds-barred fighting.

Through the work of some incredible organizations and a lot of regulations and rules the sports credibility has been restored and the athletes that compete in the sport today are often ex-professional athletes and former Olympians. It's by far the most exciting sport in the world to watch. In fact, once you actually get into watching people fight you can't really go back to watching any other sport because you realize that really all other sports are an outlet for violence and it becomes super boring to watch grown men run around trying to put a piece of round leather inside a basket or across a line when you could be watching them knock each other out.

Anyways, how does this tie into light. Well, in this world where every guy is incredibly tough, trained to in combat and all around ruthless in the ring there is a single fighter who is considered the most dominant fighter to have ever lived. His name is Fedor Emelianenko and he's this Russian mixed martial artist that has been revered as the most dangerous man to ever walk the face of the earth. And it's no rumor, it's no exaggeration this guy has been the reigning heavy weight champion for the past 6 years. The guy has won 31 fights and has only one loss due to a doctor's stoppage because he was cut open by an opponent illegal elbow. And whatever great fighters you may know of because of popular culture such as your Ali's or Tysons, would just be absolutely demolished by this guy bar none. Why? Because no fighter has ever been so complete. He's an amazing striker, he's got insane power, his grappling is world class, he can submit you at will from his back, and his conditioning is through the roof.




What's really amazing about Fedor is the mystery that surrounds him. He's a super quite, modest guy who trains in the middle of nowhere high in the mountains in Russia. He doesn't use any conventional free weights he basically trains in what you would imagine a crazy old Soviet gym would look like. He trains with a pull up bar, Russian Kettle bells(which are those super old school round iron weights with a handle on it that you may remember from old cartoons), and a sledgehammer & tire.



Anyways, what's become just as notorious as Fedor is his entrance. Fighters have talked about what it feels like to stand opposite of him as he enters the arena and it's supposed to be like if someone was rolling out a bear to come fight you. It would just make you crap your pants. His entrance is this super intimidating light and music show that uses tons of moving spotlights. What I've noticed is that they usually use either almost full cool lights (blue) or full red lights in the when he first enters and gradually bring in more colors and all types of different strobes. But that first color really sets the precedence of what this man is. He's so cold and machine like that it's hard to concentrate on anything else as soon as that music starts playing. Also the spots they drop onto the ring are usually at these weird stark angles that add to the already ominous attitude this guy exudes.

With no further delay here is one of Fedor's entrances from a few year back when he was fighting in Japan.