To be honest, I think whether a fighter should retire or not, or if it's the right time, is really up to the fighter, but if he feels he could still compete, still dedicate himself to the sport, and he can fight, that's up to him. In Fedor's case, he said that it's time to spend more time with his family and be able to watch his kids grow. He just doesn't have the desire to put in the hard training because it takes away from his family, so who could argue with that. Plus, he is a very religious guy, so God may have told him that it's time to quit, and who is gonna fuck with that? It's just up to the individual fighter. There are some that are so bad off speech-wise and mechanics-wise, where it's like somebody needs to tell this guy that it's time to quit. Fedor obviously haven't reached that point in his career, so is it the right time? Probably yeah; depends on how you want to go out and what you want to do.
As far as his legacy, I'll be honest, I'm one of those guys who is of the opinion to throw around words like "greatest of all time" is kind of silly. I don't think there is such a thing as "greatest of all time". I think he is the greatest of his time, just like Anderson Silva will be the greatest of his time, and Royce Gracie was the greatest of his time, and Muhammad Ali was the greatest of his time. When you start throwing around terms like "greatest of all time", that's a pretty heavy load. How do you judge that? It just opens up an open-ended debate that has no right answer or no wrong answer. I think that I would say that Fedor is amongst the greatest fighters in mixed martial arts history, for sure. Greatest ever? No. I don't think any man can be the greatest ever. I think the best that you can hope for is to be the greatest of your time. Capture a time period in your career, in your sport, whether it's mixed martial arts, baseball, basketball, or football, and excel and be the best. It's like, is Michael Jordan the greatest basketball player of all time? Some say yes, but what do you base it on? I think Fedor is definitely a name to remember and is somebody not to be taken lightly for his accomplishments, and he has his place in history in mixed martial arts, but I think the fairest assessment is to say he is the best of his time.
Unfortunately, a lot of fans feel his legacy will be hurt because he never competed in the UFC. And to answer the question of do I think it hurts his credibility for never competing there, you have to set a standard of what is mixed martial arts. Is mixed martial arts a sport or is UFC a sport? If UFC is a sport, then Fedor has no place in history at all because he's never fought there, so his contribution to the sport of the UFC is non-existent. If you look at mixed martial arts as a sport, and the UFC being the largest organization today, don't forget, when Fedor was kicking serious ass, Pride was the #1 organization in the world and the UFC was #2. So what does that say? What does that say about Fedor, who has beaten a lot of the guys that later came to the UFC and are talked about as the greatest heavyweights; Nogueira, Mirko, and so on and so forth. He was beating them when they were in their prime and young. When he beat Nogueira, Nogueira was unbeatable. I think that those kinds of statements come from ignorance. I think that the way the sport is kind of confused by marketing, we're starting to lose ground. Some say mixed martial arts and some say the UFC, and others say Ultimate Fighting; which one is it? If you look at it as the sport of mixed martial arts, then obviously Fedor has a huge impact on it and should be considered one of the greatest. So for those fans who are open-minded and look at this as a sport of mixed martial arts, Fedor will always have a place. If you are a diehard UFC fan and you only care for the UFC, then obviously Fedor means nothing to you because you feel he's never done anything because he's never fought in the UFC.
I know a lot of people speculate on how Fedor was managed, but I don't know. I don't think no one knows. They don't just sit there in private offices and hear private conversations between Fedor's management and Fedor. I think for a long time, there was the perception that Fedor lived in the middle of nowhere, had no cell phone, ate berries and stew and had no clue on what the hell was going on. They just bring him in for the fight, he fights, and then goes back. I think that it's been made very clear in the recent past that the UFC was after Fedor and they have made substantial offers, so unless Fedor literally lives in the middle of nowhere and has no access to any form of communication whatsoever, it's kind of hard to believe that this man doesn't have Google and he couldn't look the shit up. So does his management deceive him that much? I don't know. Who knows? I have no idea. But I don't think Fedor is as gullible as everybody thinks he is. The guy trains in Holland, he travels all over the world, he's vacationed all over, and he's done movies before, so it's not like some dude who they just let out of a cave and he fights and then he goes back to eating stew and drinking Vodka in cold Russia. I think it's pretty safe to say that Fedor knew his market value was high and that the UFC was making offers and that the UFC has deep pockets and could have paid him a lot of money. So I'm sure if he really wanted to, at the end of the day, he would have said, "Listen, this is what I want to do; you guys go get it done." There is some speculation that M-1 is connected to the mafia. Listen, they are not connected to the mafia. They connected with some wealthy people; sponsors who give them money, who are obviously very powerful. But they love Fedor, so they are not just gonna push this guy around. If Fedor wanted to make a phone call and be like, "Hey, these guys are screwing me," at the end of the day, he's the star. I just don't see these billionaire backers being up M-1's ass to the point where Fedor is getting screwed over and deprived of shit and he doesn't know anything about it. I actually met a guy named Pododin a long time ago in Japan and he was the Vice President of Combat Sambo in all of Russia. It was actually a pretty powerful position because Combat Sambo is a national sport there. So he was pretty high up there, and he was actually the first guy to bring Fedor to rings in Japan and fight him and he was his manager and mentor. They had a very good relationship, and Vadim lured Fedor away from this guy because of money. He said, "Listen, this guy doesn't really know business and you could be making millions." Fedor left, so obviously this dude knows money. He's not in la la land and thinks everything is free and he's wearing a Casio watch and a wooden cross like, "I'm a modest guy; I don't want anything." This dude knows wassup. Even the priest I saw him in the hotel with, Adidas uniforms and fucking IPads, so I don't think he is as retarded as everybody thinks he is.
As far as is there anyone I wanted to see him fight before he retired, I personally admire Fedor as an athlete and a fighter, but I was never a Fedor fan, so I don't really care. I just enjoyed whoever he has fought. So it's difficult for me to say. If I was a fan, it would be like, "I would have loved to see him fight this guy or that guy," but in reality, I'm not, so I admire what he has done and I like watching him fight, but not to the point of caring who he fights or doesn't fight. I think the most talked about fight that never happened was the fight with Randy Couture. I mean, there were lawsuits being thrown around and Randy left the UFC and Mark Cuban was behind the scenes trying to make it happen, so I think that was the biggest fight that was cooking that never really cooked. Would I have liked to see it? I wouldn't not see it, but I'm okay with it not happening either, but I think a lot of fans wanted to see that one.
Most guys, when they retire and they can't stay away, it's because they are broke. No super successful rich guy walks away and just goes, "I'm dying to go back in there and get my face smashed," knowing that he is at the wrong age and his speed is not the same and he doesn't have in his head all of the things that made him a champion. Most of the guys that come back, it's just because they are broke and they want to come back and make that run for the money. Maybe I don't know Foreman's finances, but maybe he was one of the only guys to come back when he wasn't completely broke. I think he had some type of spiritual awakening is why he walked away. But just speculating, it happened to be right around the time when his grill came out, so maybe he decided to go punch a few people, make people remember him, and make $180 million a year in fucking royalties off of this thing. I think Fedor is secure financially and it probably is the last we have seen of him.