Strikeforce: Fedor vs Rogers
MMA is back on CBS tonight, as Strikeforce put on the biggest MMA card for free TV to date. In the main event is a Heavyweight fight between the undefeated Brett "The Grim" Rogers (10-0) and arguably the greatest Heavyweight and mixed martial artist of all time "The Last Emperor" Fedor Emelianenko (30-1, 1 NC). After rejecting the UFC's contract offer following the collapse of Affliction Entertainment in favour of a deal with Strikeforce MMA that involved a co-promotion deal with his management group M-1 global Fedor received a lot of criticism for allegedly ducking greater competition. Whatever you think of the man this is going to be a great fight as he takes on Rogers, a real life Rocky Balboa story as he was working for Sam's Club as recently as April 09 who is coming off a quick KO win over former UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski, the last man Fedor beat. Fedor will be the big favourite as nobody has come close to beating him and he is a great all round fighter, but Rogers will have a puncher's chance because of his dangerous hands. Expect a Fedor win by submission but Rogers isn't someone to count out.
In the co-main event, the Strikeforce Middleweight Title is on the line as Jake Shields takes on Jason "Mayhem" Miller after Cung Le vacated the title because of his film career. Shields is coming off a first round submission win over the last EliteXC Middleweight Champion Robbie Lawler and will take down the host of MTV's Bully Beatdown and Dream Middleweight contender Miller. I'm a Shields fan and can't stand the cocky Miller, so I'm expecting a submission win for Shields. The winner will probabaly take on the winner of Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza (Mayhem's Dream nemesis) and Matt "The Law" Lindland.
In a non-title Light Heavyweight match, Strikeforce champion and former Dream Middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi takes on Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou. This was supposed to happen in Dream as part of the Super Hulk tournament before Mousasi pulled out with a shoulder injury. Expect a Mousasi win after he takes down the overrated "African Assassin" and win quickly with strikes or a submission, as he is a class above Sokoudjou.
The final fight on the main card will be a Heavyweight fight between Fabricio Werdum and the only EliteXC Heavyweight Champion Antonio Silva, in Silva's first fight in the US since failing a drugs test (which he blamed on his gigantism condition) after taking a fight in Dream. This should be a close fight as both have excellent BJJ though Werdum's striking is suspect, as proven by the defeats in the UFC to Arlovski and Junior Dos Santos. I think that the bigger man Silva will be too much standing for Werdum and will be too big for him to takedown, hardest fight for me to call though. The winner will face the Fedor-Rogers winner, then the winner of that fight will take on Alistair Overreem in the Dutchman's first defence of the Strikeforce Heavyweight title since winning it 2 years ago.
The show starts at 9pm ET tonight on CBS. A repeat will be shown in the UK on Sunday at 9pm on Bravo. After tonight's Haye-Valuev boxing match in which Haye won by a majority decision (should have been unanimous) to become the first British Heavyweight to win a world title (WBA). Hopefully Strikeforce can keep up the momentum and make up for a disastrous few weeks in MMA in which fights have been cancelled and decisions have been poor. Fedor making his debut on US TV is huge, hopefully the card will live up to expectations.
Fedor Emelianenko vs Brett Rogers
Jake Shields vs Jason Miller
Gegard Mousasi vs Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
Fabricio Werdum vs Antonio Silva
Discuss this card or any MMA and boxing news below.
Great fight, Werdum gets the decision. Silva looked superb in the first round and had Werdum badly hurt then made a mistake trying to grapple with Fabricio in the second and from that point it was Werdum’s fight, taking down Silva a couple of times, passing guard and going for submissions, coming close with a knee bar.
I scored it as a draw because I gave Silva the first 10-8 but Fabricio definitely took the second and third so no complaints over the decision going to him.
TKO for Mousasi in the second, Soko used some nice judo throws but showed how dumb he is by trying to grapple with Gegard, as soon as he ended up on his back he gave up and got beaten to a pulp before the ref stopped it. Mousasi showed the difference between a well rounded fighter and a one dimensional one tonight, hopefully he’ll get to face a quality opponent in his next fight.
Jake Shields wins by UD, Mayhem had him in a tight RNC in the third but he was saved by the bell. Also Mayhem got a couple of big slams in the first, the rest of the fight was all Shields taking down Mayhem, passing guard and attempting submissions. I really enjoyed the fight, great grappling showcase, shame the Chicago crowd booed it but balls to them they’re obviously only fans of striking fights. Mayhem made me eat my words on the ground but he shouldn’t have relied on Shields gassing as it cost him the early rounds. Great win for Shields, hopefully he’ll face Jacare next.
First viagra now men pissing too much, American adverts are fucked up…
Fedor wins, tough fight for him and he had his nose broken from a Rogers straight left but Fedor’s a class above every other HW, counterpunched Grim and KO’d him in the second. That’s why Fedor is the man and Rogers was no can. Looks like it’ll be Fedor-Werdum next, winner faces Overreem.
I thought Brett Rogers exposed Fedor, even though Fedor won, I saw Brett Rogers was able to stifle Fedor and had he been more experienced on the ground he might of been able to pull the upset.
Rogers broke Fedor and fedor fell on what he knew. Brett got cought plain and simple any heavy handed MMA fighter has that punchers chance. Had Brett not let Fedor load up on that right and kept his body or gloves on fedor That would have been a TKO on the side of Rogers.
Punchers chance plain and simple got Fedor through that fight
Brett looked good, but he was far too timid standing. When by pure strength he got off his back it proved to me that Fedor would have fits fighting a big strong wrestler like Lesnar or Carwin, even Cain would give him problems. I agree Arron, if Grim had more experience then he’d have had a chance at taking advantage and beating Fedor. However Fedor was too quick for Brett standing and had the better cardio, which helped him win the fight. That right hand was beautiful, perfectly timed just as Grim threw a left. Same thing happened to AA, he got sloppy and was caught on the chin by the quicker fighter. You don’t get lucky twice, that punch was based on skill.
That’s why I want to see Fedor fight someone like Silva or Machida at a CW because they are both quick and accurate strikers and may have the speed advantage on Fedor, would be interesting to see how he copes with a well rounded smaller fighter. Arona gave him a lot of trouble when they fought and was unlucky to lose a decision, so quality LHWs have a chance at beating Fedor.
Werdum will get smashed by Fedor as his striking sucks, though a fight with Overreem would be interesting and I’d like to see how Fedor deals with Alistair’s kickboxing, if he ever bothers to fight in the US again.
Once again…I think this is why Fedor ended up going to Strikeforce instead of the UFC. He goes to the UFC, he gets beat, plain and simple.
Lex, an MMA podcast? plz
Lex, do any podcast period. Even if you’re anti-Fedor
. Seriously I think that it was good to see him challenged.
The reason he joined SF was the money, as like Affliction and Bodog they’re happy to give M-1 Global co-promotion rights, so they take half of the profits. Since Fedor has a 20% stake in M-1 he is set to get 10% of the profits from every card that is co-promoting with M-1, add to that his large contract and you can see how Fedor will make more money from that sort of deal than an exclusive one with the UFC. EA are probabaly paying him a decent amount for the video game as well, compared with THQ paying the fighters nothing for the UFC game.
Rogers was a legtimate challenge as Werdum will be and Fedor is still in my eyes the top HW in the world, especially with Lesnar struggling with the flu (with a guy as unreliable as Lesnar who knows if he’ll fight again period, look at how suddenly he left WWE, the NFL and NJPW) and Big Nog beating Randy, as Fedor beat Nog soundly twice in Pride when they were both in their prime.
Fedor may struggle with the big wrestlers and the world-class LHWs of the UFC but I’m convinced that he chose the money over competition, as he feels that he’s already proven himself in Pride and he doesn’t care what the media or the American fans think.