But will anyone still care if and when these two finally hook 'em up?

"At some point me and Fedor, I said to him, I go, 'look, the only people that can beat you. I can beat you and you can beat me. If we actually have to lose, if there's any reason we have to lose to anyone,' and I preferred it be like that, but this is fighting and things happen. Fedor was careless with his offense and his movements and he got caught in a very bad spot by a guy who one of his specialties is the triangle off his back. When you put yourself in that kind of position with a guy like Werdum, it's not by chance that you get put in a triangle or an armbar. People lose, and it doesn't diminish anything in my eyes about Fedor or the importance of a fight between the two of us. I'm sure it will happen at some point, and it will be just as amazing, at least for me anyways, as it would have been."

Despite the "Babyface Assassin's" sales pitch on MMA Weekly Radio, some of the luster has worn off this former superfight now that "The Last Emperor" has finally been defeated. That, coupled with Barnett's checkered past with performance enhancing drugs, and the fight that sunk Affliction MMA may now be nothing more than heavyweight filler on a Showtime televised event. Do the hardcore fans still find any merit in this potential bout? Or did this ship go down with "The T-shirt Guys" in August 2009?