Fedor still facing criticism despite first-round knockout of Arlovski

With the first-round KO, Fedor Emelianenko (top) improved to 29-1 with one no-contest. Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images Josh Gross's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Josh. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Minutes after telling the press he felt "totally comfortable" with a 6-foot-5, 237-pound speed merchant buzzing rights and lefts past his ears, Fedor Emelianenko decompressed in the Honda Center's aptly named Red Room.

No, he would say late Saturday, Andrei Arlovski's speed wasn't all that bothersome. No, the former UFC champion didn't hurt him. No, he was never in trouble.

"I felt in the ring that I was in control," Emelianenko said at the post-event press conference. "I felt that any attack that Andrei launched was basically thwarted, was controlled. There was never a time when he launched an attack that he got to the next level with me."

That was not necessarily the feeling in the building as 13,288 fans watched with the unfair expectation that the Russian, now 29-1 with one no-contest, was something other than human. Tension built from the opening bell as Emelianenko, 32, had difficulty finding the range from which to connect against his longer, equally quick challenger. He couldn't close the distance. He lunged with right hands. It was not Emelianenko's finest hour.

Watching Fedor "made me nervous tonight," said Josh Barnett, who set himself up as WAMMA's No. 1 heavyweight contender with a third-round stoppage over Gilbert Yvel during the Affliction "Day of Reckoning" co-feature.

Since 2005, when he reigned as UFC champion, Arlovski envisioned a fight against the 6-foot, 230-pound Emelianenko. It was thought the Belarusian, who resides in Chicago, could make good use of his physical gifts -- size, speed, power and agility -- and stymie the sheer force of will the stout champion carries into fights. And for three minutes that's exactly what happened.

From the opening bell, 29-year-old Arlovski fell into rhythm. His footwork and pacing and timing were beautiful to watch until they faltered under the weight of the moment, when the prospect of defeating Fedor became tangible.

Boxing the champion into a corner, Arlovski sprung upwards to connect with a jumping knee. Emelianenko instantly recognized what was coming and responded with a wildm, yet perfect, overhand right to the jaw that froze Arlovski in mid-air before he landed face first on the canvas.

"I just think he made a mistake," Fedor concluded. "I saw an opening and my automatic reaction was to throw a right hand."

"One thing about that guy," said Arlovski, now 14-6, "he throws his punches very accurately at the target."

If criticism can be levied against a performance ending with a knockout that will be mentioned among the best of 2009, Emelianenko's longtime trainer, Vladimir Voronov, seemed happy to do so. Several whiskeys into celebrating his fighter's first defense of the World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts heavyweight belt, the 43-year-old trainer stood just outside his camp's jubilant dressing room and spoke as if Emelianenko had stolen something.

"He's obviously got unbelievable potential, but he had some distractions getting ready for this fight," Voronov said through an interpreter. "The movie. The commercials. If Fedor wants to keep winning, and winning well, he needs to train professionally. Right now he won with his old tricks."

"The fact that Fedor won, don't get me wrong, I'm very happy about. But he won this fight because of the training before this fight. The experience he had before this fight. The trainers did everything we could to get him ready. But for title fights, we can't train the way we trained for this one."

Voronov's attitude reflected much of the reaction following Emelianenko's seventh win in as many fights against men who have held some form of the UFC heavyweight belt. The only person fine with the effort was apparently Fedor, who seemed curious of critical media assessments after disposing of his 26th consecutive opponent -- one of the most dangerous of his career -- in about the time it takes to boil water.

"Just based on feeling myself in the ring," he said, "I felt it was an even fight at the point when I knocked him out."

Knowing how close he felt he was to becoming the first fighter to blemish Emelianenko's stellar record since 2000, Arlovski sighed while answering questions. "Tonight was a great opportunity for me to make history," he said. "It was not meant to be."

Next in line (though probably not for at least four months as Affliction, M-1 Global, Golden Boy and Showtime work to find a date) appears to be Barnett. Perhaps understandably when a "poor performance" yields a brutal knockout in three minutes, 14 seconds, the youngest heavyweight champion in UFC history didn't go out of his way to call out his good friend.

"We'll fight each other," conceded Barnett (24-5). "I'm sure of that because we're professionals. If it can happen, it'll happen. We're just out there trying to be the best fighters we can be. That's all that comes down to it."

The specter of Barnett forced Voronov to take a breath. It means a serious training camp, he said, more than the month they took for Arlovski.

"Barnett is a thinking fighter," explained the man who's known Fedor for 20 years. "I think Barnett is much more dangerous than Arlovski. If Arlovski is a master in chess, then Barnett is a grandmaster."

For Emelianenko, worn under the strain of heavy fight-week obligations and the pressure to be perfect, Barnett, a big submission savvy grappler, can wait.

"Right now," said the best heavyweight mixed martial arts has seen, "I just want to go home."

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