Fedor Emelianenko has widely been considered one of the best MMA fighters in the world, and one of the best of all time. As you know, he lost to Antonio Big Foot Silva at Strikeforce’s Heavyweight Grand Prix on Saturday — his second straight loss. When a fighter with Fedor’s reputation loses two straight matches after previously having gone undefeated, people start to wonder.
Silva completely dominated Fedor on Saturday, swelling his eye shut so badly that the doctor stepped in and stopped the fight. Given the level of respect Fedor has earned in the MMA world, many people were shocked and searching for answers to explain the defeat. Emelianenko’s trainer, Vladimir Voronov, offered a perfectly reasonable example for the loss on Wednesday — Fedor was hypnotized.
According to a translation by Camel Clutch which has been validated by LBS colleague Diana Klochkova (who writes at “WTF? Panama” check her out here) and Google translator, Voronov told a Russian website that “forbidden psychological technologies,” or hypnosis, were used by Silva’s team and as a result Emelianenko wasn’t himself. Now, we’ve heard it all. It’s one thing to make up bogus excuses about losing a fight that have to do with a lack of effort, training, or focus, but pulling the voodoo card? That borders on insanity.
WATCH: VIDEO OF FEDOR-SILVA FIGHT
After the loss, Fedor said he was contemplating requirement. Is he really thinking about calling it quits, or was he still under the trance? Someone should catch up with Voronov and ask him how long it took for the hypnosis to wear off so we can get a better idea.
