Most dominant sports-people of all time?

[andmark]

Phil Taylor is a possibility

[King Pietersen]

As is Fedor Emelianenko. This guy should be one of the most famous sportsmen in the world. He is far and away the most successful Mixed Martial Artist of all-time. He has a 32-1 professional MMA record, but that 1 loss shouldn't have been recorded as a loss. He was fighting in a RINGS tournament, and was caught by an elbow (which were illegal in that organisation, unless elbow pads were worn, which they weren't in this instance). The elbow opened a cut which he had sustained in a previous fight, which meant he couldn't continue in the tournament, and because of the tournament format this meant it was put down as a loss on his record. Outside a tournament format the bout would have been declared a No Contest or a DQ victory for Fedor.

Throughout Fedor's career, he was won a whole heap of trophies and tournaments. He's won 2 RINGS tournaments, the PRIDE FC Heavyweight title, the PRIDE FC Heavyweight GP and is the current WAMMA HW champion, with 2 successful defences to his name. No-one else has managed to dominate the sport of MMA like Fedor Emelianenko. He's beaten top level competition in the form of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (twice), Ricardo Arona, Renato Sobral, Heath Herring, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic, Mark Hunt, Gary Goodridge, Matt Lindland, Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski and Brett Rogers.

The guy is just an incredible Martial Artist. Not only does he have the MMA trophies and belts, but he is a multiple time World and Russian Sambo Champion and Russian Judo Champion. He's been in some incredible fights, his war with Cro Cop, the 3 battles with Nogueira, the oh-so-impressive comeback against Kevin Randleman after being slammed on his head, the picture perfect knockouts of Andrei Arlovski and Brett Rogers. What a fighter, one of the truely under-appreciated sportspeople in the world. If you're a fan of combat sports and you've not seen anything of Fedor Emelianenko, then I urge you to watch the fights linked above, especially the Randleman fight if you're new to MMA. Pretty sure any fan of sports can appreciate that fight.

[Goughy]

As is Fedor Emelianenko. This guy should be one of the most famous sportsmen in the world. He is far and away the most successful Mixed Martial Artist of all-time. He has a 32-1 professional MMA record, but that 1 loss shouldn't have been recorded as a loss. He was fighting in a RINGS tournament, and was caught by an elbow (which were illegal in that organisation, unless elbow pads were worn, which they weren't in this instance). The elbow opened a cut which he had sustained in a previous fight, which meant he couldn't continue in the tournament, and because of the tournament format this meant it was put down as a loss on his record. Outside a tournament format the bout would have been declared a No Contest or a DQ victory for Fedor.

Throughout Fedor's career, he was won a whole heap of trophies and tournaments. He's won 2 RINGS tournaments, the PRIDE FC Heavyweight title, the PRIDE FC Heavyweight GP and is the current WAMMA HW champion, with 2 successful defences to his name. No-one else has managed to dominate the sport of MMA like Fedor Emelianenko. He's beaten top level competition in the form of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (twice), Ricardo Arona, Renato Sobral, Heath Herring, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic, Mark Hunt, Gary Goodridge, Matt Lindland, Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski and Brett Rogers.

The guy is just an incredible Martial Artist. Not only does he have the MMA trophies and belts, but he is a multiple time World and Russian Sambo Champion and Russian Judo Champion. He's been in some incredible fights, his war with Cro Cop, the 3 battles with Nogueira, the oh-so-impressive comeback against Kevin Randleman after being slammed on his head, the picture perfect knockouts of Andrei Arlovski and Brett Rogers. What a fighter, one of the truely under-appreciated sportspeople in the world. If you're a fan of combat sports and you've not seen anything of Fedor Emelianenko, then I urge you to watch the fights linked above, especially the Randleman fight if you're new to MMA. Pretty sure any fan of sports can appreciate that fight.

Does a fan of combat sport exist that has not heard of Fedor?

Anyway, agree 100%. The guy is amazing. A fighting machine and I get chills before every fight.

Fedors only loss BS IMO

[King Pietersen]

There shouldn't be an MMA fan that isn't familiar with Fedor Emelianenko, but there are. Fedor isn't anywhere near as big a name in the US as he should be. He's starting to become more recognisable by the Mainstream now that he's fighting for Strikeforce, but I'm sure there are quite a few "fans" of MMA that don't believe there is anything going on outside the UFC. I'm sure there are boxing fans that aren't familiar with Fedor too. He should be one of the most recognisible sportsmen in the world, unfortunately for Fedor, most of his success came in early-mid 2000's when MMA was a far smaller sport, and the large majority of his success came outside the US, which really stopped him reaching the mainstream fans until recently. That doesn't take away from his dominance though, still one of the greatest sportsmen of all-time in my eyes.

[janicejryan]

Don't know about you guys. But I think Manny Pacquiao is a champion in his own right. 7 boxing championship belts in his name.

[ohtani's jacket]

There's no way that Fedor qualifies. Unquestionably dominant but the match making leaves a lot to be desired. I can think of far more deserving candidates from more legitimate forms of fighting.