Fighters Only

Issue 098

February 2013

This is your page to tell us what you think of all things Fighters Only and MMA. Get your feelings off your chest where it really matters – in print! Send us your best pictures with your favourite fighters, or copies of FO, and we’ll print them too.

GOOD COP, BAD COP

Just wanted to drop a line about how much I disagree with the fantastic John Morgan’s most recent column (‘No More Mr Bad Guy, Eh, Chael?’ Issue 97). How can you possibly think Chael Sonnen, the duke of douchery, could ever come out of TUF looking like the good guy?

My point is two-fold. One, the guy’s just programmed to be an idiot. He made me so mad with everything he said about Brazil, Anderson Silva and all those guys I wanted to get in the Octagon with Anderson and give him a pasting as well. There’s no way someone like that could come off well. Two, for TUF to make Chael Sonnen look good, it has to make the man who could be the biggest star in America the sport has ever seen, UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones, look like an arse. Would that happen? Probably not. So, Mr Morgan, I love reading your stuff, but on this rare occasion, you’re wrong.

Aaron Ern, via email

FORLORN FOR FEDOR

I’ve got to be honest, FO. When I heard Dana White say he’d tried to coax Fedor Emelianenko, the greatest fighter on the planet ever, out of retirement but couldn’t, my heart sank a little. I might have even got a bit depressed.

Seeing what he did in Japan, destroying everyone and going on a massive win streak, was amazing. I don’t care that he only went 3-3 in the US and suffered his first knockouts and a submission afterward.

To know he’s pretty much never going to make a comeback, and he’s unlikely to ever enter the UFC Octagon, is a massive loss for the MMA community. One that I’m sure will be felt for eternity. I wanted to see him come into the UFC, beat up everyone and take the title.

I always thought he would one day, but now I know he won’t and it sucks. For me and the rest of the old guard, we’ll always have old Pride DVDs to watch to help remember him how he was, but it’s not quite the same. He meant a lot to me. Thank you, Emelianenko Fedor.

Peter Berry, via email