Customer Reviews

Fedor: The Fighting System of the World's Undisputed King of MMA

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Written by Jacob Regar

There is no one hundred percent fail-proof recipe for unarmed combat. Practitioners must learn all they can to prepare themselves for any possible fighting scenario. Techniques alone do not ensure victory in the modern fighting chess match that is MMA. Subtleties like footwork, combinations set up off of evasive movements and offensive feints, and timing, are the essence of fighting success. These variables are difficult to perceive, let alone define, and the ability to fuse them with game-tested techniques against a skilled and prepared opponent marks the clearest indication of a modern fighting master.

In FEDOR: the Fighting System of the World's Undisputed King of MMA, the martial arts public can finally find answers to their ongoing question: how does Fedor Emelianenko do what he does in the ring? He writes in the introduction to the book's section on "counter attacks:"

"The goal in any fight is to constantly remain on the offensive and either rack up enough points to earn a judges' decision or put your opponent to sleep. If your opponent is timid or dramatically outclassed, achieving your goal can be quite easy. You simply beat on him until he drops. However, the majority of opponents you face will climb into the ring or cage with the exact same goal as you, which means you'll have to contend with his attacks. The only way to remain offensive against an opponent who is also offensive-minded is to learn how to counter his attacks. By attacking, evading his strikes, and then immediately launching counterattacks, your opponent will be locked in defense mode even though he is throwing every strike in the book at you. And as long as he is constantly defending, you'll be winning the fight."

The above excerpt is just a taste of the abundant nuggets of world-class fighting philosophy that can be found in FEDOR. His thoughts are expertly drafted into workable instructions with the help of famed MMA writers, Glen Cordoza and Erich Krauss. The book is filled to the limit with clear photographs of Emelianenko displaying the precise body movements necessary to execute each featured technique. Additionally, most featured techniques are accompanied by a section of highlighted "key concepts" to keep in mind.

While studying the book, you will undoubtedly recognize many of the same movements and techniques that have worked for Emelianenko in his fights against the world's best heavyweight fighters. In addition, the book includes many new and exciting techniques like the "Reverse Bridge Summersault Escape" from mount where he literally summersaults horizontally over his shoulders to roll his opponent over to the bottom position.

Widely known for possessing some of the fastest and most devastating hands in the business, Emelianenko presents an in-book clinic on his powerful striking techniques. You will notice in the book's photographs his familiar tendencies to maintain head movement; shift his feet to compensate for his changing offensive angles; and deliver his strikes with his fists rotated beyond the traditional norm. His explanations are not so much a surprise, but they will aid readers in adopting his unorthodox style into their own game.

FEDOR covers every area of MMA: from fundamental striking and slick submissions, to fight-effective takedowns and mindfully defensive techniques. What once could only be ascertained through careful analysis of his legendary fights can now conveniently be learned step-by-step in his first instructional book. FEDOR is both intriguing and brilliant. A must have for any serious martial artist. It is the new standard for MMA instructional books.

I have had probably a hundred martial arts books over the years and this is one of the best for "down to earth" nothing fancy fighting techniques that work. I was very impressed with the knowledge of Fedor about strikes, balance, and always covering with the other hand when you strike. I was a boxing coach for ten years and had state champions. If there is one thing I have seen that is the number one flaw I see with mixed martial artists is when they punch they generally drop their other hand. Something basic but of utmost importance. Fedor covers it better than any martial arts books with the exception of "Jeet Kune Do" by Bruce Lee who was light years ahead of those of his time. He spoke of mixing martial arts back forty years ago. This book covers strikes, checking kicks,(which many don't cover) takedowns, throws, ground submissions and just common sense wisdom by a man that has tested these techniques in the fires of real combat. He even states that you have to consider your body frame and use what works best for your type of frame. Which I believe is real wisdom. A tall lanky fighter uses his strength of reach and leverage in striking while a short stocky fighter uses his physical strength and grappling to stay with his strengths. The best part I liked in this book was mixing the techniques and formulating them into a fighting system. Is it the best system? It is for Fedor! Use what works best for you but this book is a sound book no fighter should be without.

_Fedor: The Fighting System of the World's Undisputed King of MMA_ is one of the best books I've read in regards to the basics of fighting. It contains over 200 pages of techniques covering all three of the major fight ranges (striking distance, the clinch, and grappling). These techniques are explained both through the use of multiple full-color photographs and informative captions. Together, they do an excellent job of allowing readers to understand what they are reading so that they can duplicate it while practicing. This is the textbook for Mixed Martial Arts 101, and should be in the library of every new student of the fighting arts.

The book's strength as a beginner's guide, however, is also its biggest weakness. The authors devote an entire page to showing readers how to get into the proper stance; two more pages and 12 photos on how to throw a straight snap jab; two more pages and nine photos detailing how to throw a straight long jab; two pages on how to throw a left hook; etc, etc, etc... Beginning fighters should love this, as it will allow them to understand almost exactly how Fedor fights; more experienced fighters with their own styles will find themselves skimming page after page of this book trying to find something that they don't already know. Those nuggets of gold are in there, but they tend to be rare because so much of the book is devoted to the basics. With such a grand title as "The Fighting System of the World's Undisputed King of MMA," many readers will expect a book that has more uniqueness to it. What they get is an excellent guide to the basics of Fedor's style, but little else beyond a beginner to intermediate technique manual.

The exact contents of the book are 90 pages devoted to striking, 53 dealing with the clinch, and 100 concerning ground techniques. The contents can be additionally broken down as follows:
- 24 pages on punching. Everything from multiple versions of the jab to the stepping in uppercut are covered.
- 8 pages on kicking. The kicks are very basic and do not go above middle-height.
- 9 pages on checking. This is a form of blocking strikes.
- 33 pages on counter attacks. This section puts together what was taught in the earlier striking sections. Strikes that happen after or while the opponent is attacking can often surprise an opponent and result in stronger blows.
- 12 pages on combinations. Multiple strikes thrown together as a combination often lead to a knock-out. My favorite is the setup for the "superman punch" that starts on page 106.
- 8 pages on combinations from the clinch. The short distance between opponents means that strikes must be thrown in a slightly different way to be successful.
- 8 pages on the Muay Thai Clinch. The Muay Thai Clinch could actually be a book in itself. The authors cover the basics of how to throw knees from it, counter it, and escape it. That's it.
- 32 pages on throws. Taking an opponent from the clinch to the ground can win a fight. This section covers throws from wrestling, judo, and other martial arts and applies them to MMA.
- 5 pages on takedown defense. There are only two techniques here: the basic sprawl to rear naked choke and the single leg defense. This section seems a bit empty, but takedown reversals have also been covered in other sections.
- 100 pages on ground techniques. This section is a mixture of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, wrestling, and other grappling techniques. There are some interesting chained sequences in this section, but there is also one big failing: the basic positions of grappling such as the guard and mount are not significantly explained. Considering that the simple jab got a two-page treatment, I'd have thought something as important as the guard would get at least one - but it didn't. It seems as if the authors just expected everyone to have some prior experience in jiu-jitsu. The moves in this section tend to be relatively advanced, so I'd recommended someone new to jiu-jitsu pick up an additional book if they need to learn the very basics of ground fighting.

My final verdict on this book is: it is definitely worth purchasing if you are a beginning fighter or MMA enthusiast. More experienced fighters may be disappointed with the lack of advanced moves, but they will still take something away from this book if they read it completely.

Note: For those that don't know, Fedor Emelianenko is a professional MMA fighter that, at the height of his career, was considered the best heavyweight in the world. He has fought in organizations including Affliction, PRIDE, Bodog, and Rings, but not in the UFC (at least not at the time of this writing). He has wins over name fighters including Renato Sobral, Heath Herring, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Gary Goodridge, Mark Coleman, Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic, Matt Lindland, Tim Sylvia, and Andrei Arlovski.

It's great to see a book from the champ that's well laid out, and not too expensive. Would have liked to have read more discussion of fighting philosophy, which is the only knock on this book. The illustrations and explanations are first rate for anyone who practices MMA, or who just wants to understand technique and strategy.

Probably the best book about MMA fighting.
I have seen some instructional books and dvds about the subject and many are full of worthless fancy techniques. Not this one!..This one goes straight to the point. If you have seen Fedor fighting you'll see he teaches you the same techniques. I would highly recommended for any serious practitioner.

10/10 This is 263 pages of Fedors mma system
Every page you read is like being personaly coached
Very acurate explanations and photos
From punching to kicking to ground game, defense and offense
In the book he shows in great detail all his best moves
You will recognise them if you have seen videos of his fights
But at full speed its hard to understand some techniques
This book shows it all, i also suggest watching his seminar videos
Awesome book thankyou for this Fedor!
Peace David (T666) D

FEDOR
The Fighting System of the World's Undisputed King of MMA
by Fedor Emelianenko
with Glen Cordoza & Erich Krauss (Victory Belt)
© Marc Wickert November 26, 2008
www.knucklepit.com

The beauty of our modern age for anyone interested in combat sport or self-defense is that ultimate fighting has revealed which are the world's best fighting systems and which disciplines and techniques are impractical.

This high-tech age also enables MMA enthusiasts to be personally coached in their own homes by the best competitors and instructors on the planet - all for the price of a book or DVD.

Fedor is a classic example: Here readers have access to Fedor Emelianenko, the "Undisputed King of MMA". And his book definitely delivers the goods - without being pretentious or flowery. "Many of the techniques might not seem as fancy as the ones demonstrated in other books, but I guarantee that the ones on the following pages have all been tried and tested in battle," says Fedor.

Emelianenko covers striking techniques, counterattacks, clinching, throws and takedowns, ground techniques (top and bottom), submissions and escapes... On each occasion he also explains what separates his techniques from those of other combatants, e.g., "With most of my punches I turn my hand over more than most fighters."

Fedor is an elaborately illustrated book with every move shown clearly through multi-angled photos and graphic type so nothing is left to the reader's interpretation. What could be better than having Fedor Emelianenko in your corner?

Fedor's book is well written and easy to understand for the MMA enthusiast, Fedor was the sole reason I left the UFC as a fan years ago and converted to a PRIDE fan (I really miss PRIDE). With that note, I purchased the book to research more about Fedor's training regime and found out that the book does not cover his fight training secrets. The book is technically detailed in which it explains Fedor's fight mechanics in the proper way of punching, kicking (just to note, you will not see Fedor doing karate kid kicks-he is a heavey weight), takedowns, take down defense, and his famous ground and pound strategies.

I give the book four stars for the reason that the book is again well written and easy to understand; the wanna-be MMA fighter who fights at the local fair grounds and bounces at the local bikini bar to fight drunken junior college frat boys will be able to read it and hopefully understand the pictures.

I do agree with the fella from NYC, the book should have come with a DVD, to see Fedor explain and train in his daily workout regime.

We all know who is Mr Emilianenko, so no need to talk about him. But about book.In book description is writen Fedors "cardio training". But in book is not even a paragraph about it. Description of Fedor techniques is 4 star, but his winning is not only from his techniques. Without his coordination, speed, strength and stamina he would not be a "Fedor". But in book is also not a word about it. When you look at Fedor, you do not see a muscle guy, like many other MMA fighters, he looks more like a big guy from neighborhood, who do not care about bodyfat and muscle quantity. But he beat tham all very efectively. There are many MMA guys with excellent technique, but without Fedors speed and strength( I do not mean squat and bench preess strength). Again, in book description is writen " this book leaves no stone unturned", do you thint is it true? At the end, that is why this book is far from my expectations, and the author is maybe preparing a new book about the missing things.

Very well organized book. Broken down by strikes, counters, defense, kicks and all sorts of combos, ground stuff etc. It's quite technical and the descriptions are very helpful in applying the steps shown in the images.

I recently looked through Gregg Jackson's book which is set up in a similar organized and thorough fashion. If you like Jackson's book you'll also appreciate the way this one is presented.