



In the early 2000s, there was a holy trinity of heavyweights who were considered head and shoulders above all others in mixed martial arts, and they served as a look ahead to the future of the division (a future which we are largely still waiting on). Those men were the lightning fast kickboxer, Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic, the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu master, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and the Russian Sambo specialist, Fedor Emelianenko.

The trilogy of bouts between Nogueira and Emelianenko remain favourites amongst the MMA fanbase to this day. At the time of their first meeting, Nogueira was the heavyweight kingpin—considered the new breed—and Fedor was a respectable heavyweight who had really only beaten Heath Herring in his short PRIDE FC tenure. The first match between the two would surpass all expectations and establish Fedor Emelianenko as the number one heavyweight in the world.

What is often forgotten, because of the lop-sided nature of the first and third bouts, is the curious second fight. Prematurely halted by a cut from an accidental clash of heads—the bout was easily Nogueira's best showing in the trilogy and forced Emelianenko to change his approach entirely for their final fight.

Before we look at the details of the trilogy, I want to warn you that I am trying something new in this article. Today, instead of my usual mix of gifs, diagrams and stills, I am going to be using annotated gifs with slow motion to demonstrate my meaning. So give the gifs below a chance to load, then let's commence our technical study in Fedor vs Nogueira.

Fedor versus Nogueira I: Battle in the Guard

One of the most shocking aspects of the first meeting between Nogueira and Fedor was Fedor's willingness to jump into Nogueira's guard. Nogueira was never a great takedown artist, and made a speciality of shooting in on and opponent, getting sprawled upon, and then pulling half guard.

No matter what kind of pasting he took while on his back, it was never enough to put Nogueira out, and he was always just a couple of inches away from a triangle or a back take. He had submitted Mark Coleman, Volk Han, Enson Inoue, and plenty of other guys who were “good” on the ground where Nogueira was already an all time great.

Fedor, meanwhile, had established himself as a ferocious ground and pounder. Emelianenko had fought most of his career in the RINGS organization, whose curious rules prohibited punching the head of a grounded opponent. Fedor would batter opponents' midsections while standing over them, but something was always missing. Against Heath Herring, in his second bout with PRIDE FC, Fedor demonstrated just what he could do with full contact allowed on the ground, recording a stoppage over Herring after—as Stephen Quadros put it—putting him through the meat grinder.

The story of the first fight was Fedor's posture. As an accomplished judoka, you would expect a rod of iron up his back, and this helped him enormously against Nogueira. It is, of course, almost impossible to submit someone from closed guard without opening your legs at some point.

As soon as Fedor felt a knee sliding in front of his biceps or chest, he postured and sat back hard.

Fedor's game from the guard was not one of looking to pass, as a Jiu Jitsu fighter might, but a mix of judo and boxing. Each time Nogueira got a grip, or Fedor gave him a grip, Fedor would strip or break the grip, and look to land a punch while Nogueira had no control.

Fedor using a basic grip break. Similar to the Y-break which Xande Ribeiro teaches

Nogueira relied on looking for Kimuras throughout the fight because Fedor would often stay “broken down” in Nogueira's guard by choice. Whenever Fedor felt Nogueira's hands linking, he would rip his arm out and look to come down on Nogueira with a punch.

Notice, again, that it is as soon as Fedor feels Nogueira's ankles open that he explodes upwards. Sweat aids a fighter enormously in this kind of position.

Emelianenko writes about training specifically for this in his book, and points out that if the opponent's hands are already locked, you have waited too long. By Fedor's own admission, he left this escape a little late.

Another method which Fedor used several times in this bout to strip Nogueira's legendarily strong grips was the shin on forearm break. I personally love this technique—I'm a rubbish Brazilian Jiu Jitsu player, but this I have had tremendous fun surprising training partners with this one. If you're quick you can attempt to keep the arm and pass it underneath the back for Mario Sperry's favourite one armed man pass.

The most well remembered flurry of the fight (and perhaps Fedor's career) came off of a combination of grip break attempts.

Notice that Fedor misses his shin on wrist grip strip, but still postures and is able to strip the grip.

While Fedor dominated the fight, Nogueira exposed chinks in the Russian's groundwork armour. When Fedor wasn't postured down in Nogueira's guard, Nogueira was keeping Fedor off with knee shields, and holding wrist control. From here, Nogueira had a good deal of success kicking through to half guard.

Mostly, Nogueira would look to arm drag on the side of the half guard (a favourite of Caio Terra) but his success came mostly with the simple wrist control sweep as he kicked through to half guard.

If it looks familiar, that's because it is the sweep which basically won Nogueira the UFC title from Tim Sylvia on its own.

And it wasn't just a chance sweep. Nogueira did exactly the same thing again at the end of a round. The disappointment on Nogueira's face as the referee breaks them betrays how direly he needed that sweep.

I highly recommend studying Nogueira's book to see these techniques explained by the man himself.

Fedor versus Nogueira II: Nogueira Strikes Back

The rematch was a remarkable improvement on the first for Nogueira. He came out and immediately pulled guard (where he was hammered with strikes on the feet and fell to his back in the first). Nogueira immediately set to work with a variety of attacks, including rolling for a knee bar which stifled Emelianenko.

He had clearly gone back to the drawing board and watched the first fight, because he attempted his knee shield to half guard arm drag / sweep combination three times in the opening minutes. Here Fedor manages to base on his head, free his trapped wrist and then base on that, denying the sweep:

The bout came to an abrupt end, however, as Nogueira kicked through to half guard again, this time attempting the arm drag on the near arm. Fedor leapt forward to keep Nogueira from sneaking out the side, and their heads collided.

Fedor denied the arm drag, and Nogueira was clearly fuming—attacking with upkicks as the referee attempted to stop the fight to look at the enormous gash which had opened on Emelianenko's head. In his own book, Nogueira contends that the head butt was a deliberate move as Fedor knew he was about to give up his back. It was the closest Nogueira had got, so who knows, it could have been.

Fedor versus Nogueira III: Keeping it Standing

The second fight had a profound effect on Emelianenko's strategy in the third. Though the second was a no contest, Fedor had been on the back foot the entire time. He had not managed to get off any of those crackling ground punches because he was constantly fighting for his own safety. In the third bout, he looked completely different.

Throughout the bout, Emelianenko would back up, baiting Nogueira forwards. In karate, the circling of the hands to distract is called enshin—and Emelianenko used this throughout. By walking Nogueira forward, Emelianenko could walk him onto power punches and higher percentage takedown attempts.

Pretty much the perfect combination for starting and stopping a fight down the pub.

What you will notice in Fedor's attacks is that regardless of whether he connects or not, his head always changes levels after he punches. Throwing his first punch, Fedor might connect a hard blow and follow with a takedown. If he doesn't connect, his head moves so the opponent misses their counter punch and exposes their hips to him regardless. This is something you will see Cain Velasquez doing time and time again with the same level of success.

Here Fedor slips with his right hand, executing a trip on the opposite side to the norm.

Once he got Nogueira to the floor, Emelianenko didn't leap on him like last time. Instead he stood over Nogueira and attacked with kicks and stomps.

Fighters learn though. Most won't walk forward as readily if they keep getting hammered. Nogueira wasn't always keen to chase Fedor, and so Fedor missed a good few punches throughout.

But when Nogueira did step forward with strikes, he almost always collided with Fedor as the latter came in. An attempt at a low kick turned into a hug counter right into a takedown.

Fedor's hand traps—an integral part of his boxing game—were also on display. Fedor made his name using the outside hand trap—his right hand checking the opponent's left to set up his own left hook—but against Nogueira, whose lead hand was way out in front, Fedor hand success with the inside hand trap.

After 15 minutes of heavy punches, takedowns and kicks to a downed opponent, Fedor spent the last round in Nogueira's closed guard, just stifling the Brazilian. Nogueira, for his part, had little energy left to work. He had been playing catch up all fight and eating strikes en route.

The trilogy between Fedor Emelienenko and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira remains one of the best heavyweight rivalries in MMA, and to my mind, they remain the best showings which Fedor put forth—showing all of the aspects of his tremendous game. And there is certainly no arguing with Nogueira's heart to keep trying his sweeps against a man who punished him for every attempt.

Pick up Jack Slack's new ebook, Fighting Karate at his blog Fights Gone By.Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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