StrikeForce Upset: Fabricio Werdum Defeats Fedor Emelianenko
By Scott Heritage
The inevitable end to Fedor Emelianenko’s unbeaten run came at the hands of Fabricio Werdum in a fight that Fedor was expected to win with relative ease. A single moment of over aggressiveness though lead to a fight ending triangle choke/arm bar, which the uncrowned champion was forced to tap to after a brief few seconds of struggle. From the opening bell Fedor was obviously looking for the knockout, and in the very first exchange he dropped the Brazilian with a series of punches. Believing Werdum to be more seriously hurt than he was, Fedor jumped into his guard and attempted to end the fight.
The loss was something of an anticlimactic end to Fedor’s more or less unbeaten career run, and the entire fight lasted a little over a minute. After which Fedor was unhurt and characteristically emotionless. As fans of MMA we are perhaps now too used to dominant champions falling in a dramatic manner. Matt Hughes was eventually outclassed and thoroughly beaten by Georges St. Pierre. Chuck Liddell has been knocked out in four of his last 6 fights. And even the until then inscrutable Lyoto Machida was undone with a dramatic knockout loss to a resurgent Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
Even with rumblings of his retirement on the horizon though, the game doesn’t appear to have passed the Russian Juggernaut by just yet. Undoubtedly his critics will now say that Fedor was exposed, or that he isn’t the same fighter as he once was. Above all else it’s important to keep the loss in perspective though. This time Emelianenko got caught, but it happens, and it isn’t really indicative of anything else at this point.
After the upset it appears that StrikeForce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem might be left out in the cold while Werdum and Fedor have a rematch. The winner of their first tilt was scheduled to have the next crack at the hulking Dutchman, but it now seems he will probably be left to take on yet another challenger who hasn’t really earned his shot at the title. Antonio Silva is probably the most likely candidate, given that he is coming off of a win over Andrei Arlovski, although having lost to Werdum recently also it’s difficult to justify having him as the top ranked contender. Still Overeem did leave StrikeForce in the lurch for nearly two years, so he hardly has room to complain if he isn’t getting the fights he wants right off the bat.
Asking for an immediate rematch is something of a strange move on Werdum’s part, given that Emelianenko would be the strong favorite in a rematch and that he has already beaten the current heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem in the past. Granted that was back before Overeem made his full ascent into the 260lb monster that he is today, and he seems to have improved in leaps and bounds since then. If Werdum took the alternate rout of taking on Overeem first, then he could conceivably rematch Fedor as the champion, creating much more intrigue than a non title affair and probably justifying a return to CBS rather than the much smaller Showtime channel. StrikeForce boss Scott Coker though seems receptive to an immediate rematch for some reason.
Elsewhere on the card, San Shou champion Cung Le put on a devastating display of control and technique in beating his former conqueror Scott Smith in two rounds. Much like the first fight, the early going was all Le, but unlike last time he took a measured and disciplined approach. No doubt eager to avoid the gas out that led to him being knocked out by late comeback specialist Smith in their last encounter.
Before the fight it was announced that the winner would take on Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza for the presumed to be vacant middleweight title. However with current champion Jake Shields perhaps not leaving the company for the UFC as most assumed this plan might go out the window. Shields was initially pictured alongside Dana White at a UFC event, and White said in several statements to the press that Shields was as good as signed, after his StrikeForce contract expired after his last fight. Despite this though Shields attended the StrikeForce event, and Coker has confirmed that talks are ongoing, leading many to believe that whatever offer Shields received from the UFC was less than he was expecting.
Another possible question mark over the middleweight title is how committed Cung Le is to regular competition. At the age of 37 and with acting projects taking up the majority of his time, it isn’t clear whether he intends to vie for the title or continue to fight sporadically against opponents who can put on an exciting fight. Certainly Le was motivated to beat Smith, although that might just have been due to his previous loss, and previously to the first fight filming commitments kept him sidelined for the best part of two years.
Also on the main card Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos did as expected and dominated challenger Jan Finney en route to a second round stoppage. Despite being on a four fight winning streak coming into the fight, few gave Finney much chance of an upset, and from the offset it quickly became apparent that an upset wouldn’t be happening. Finney is a brawler by trade, and some experts predicted Santos would take the fight to the ground rather than go for the more risky option of standing and trading. True to previous form though, Cyborg quickly out struck Finney and despite the challenger’s toughness the fight was largely one sided.
Having embraced women’s MMA in its early stages, StrikeForce appear to be having trouble matching Cyborg up against credible or deserving challengers, and Finney like many past opponents was a naturally lighter fighter making a jump up in weight. Outside of a few notable fighters, the landscape for the time being remains barren for female fighters, and until that changes, Cyborg will probably reign as champion without much threat of being beaten. On a positive note though, the exposure that the likes of Cyborg and Gina Carano have given to the sport has already begun to be felt, and over the coming years we will probably see female fighting take off as new challengers become prominent.