They’ve Never Heard of Fedor in Australia?

Apparently they’ve never heard of Fedor in the land down under. Let me explain. I was reading what was a fantastic article about Minotauro from the Sydney Morning Herald. It recounted the story of Big Nog’s terrible childhood accident when he was run over by a truck and almost died at age 11.

They were doing the story because UFC 110 is coming up later this month in Australia. It was a great piece until I got to the part about Big Nog facing Cain Velasquez. Nogueira was quoted as saying, “So when I face a really hard opponent or I’m having a difficult time, I just remember there is nothing worse than what I’ve already overcome.”

And this was the next paragraph:

“Nogueira must summon all the motivation he can from his experience for his next opponent, probably the toughest of his career in rising phenomenon Cain Velasquez.”

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira has fought Fedor Emelianenko. Not once. Not twice. But 3 times. He’s recently fought Randy Couture and Frank Mir. He’s fought Cro Cop in his prime. Dan Henderson. Mark Coleman. And did I mention he’s fought Fedor 3 times?

Cain Velazquez is not the toughest of his career, even if he loses, even if it’s his last fight. Cain has 7 pro fights. Do some homework. Show some respect to the great fighters of PRIDE that came before and paved the way for fighters like Cain. And if not for those reasons, do it so you don’t sound like a complete n00b. We’re watching you, Australia.