By Elton “Hobbie” Hobson
Last night, for the hundredth time in Mixed Martial Arts, the impossible happened.
Over his long career, Fedor Emelianenko has fought an (almost) steady diet of some of the best and meanest fighters in the world, and he has never known defeat. He was riding a winning streak of 27 straight fights (going back to his only loss, a cut stoppage in a tournament). In today’s constantly shifting MMA landscape, such consistency was a rarity. Now it is consigned to the history books.
In front of 12,000 fans at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, the man many consider to be the greatest fighter in the sport’s history took to the cage to obliterate another hopeless, overmatched challenger. To most fans, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Fedor would win. Fedor always wins.
Almost immediately, the mythic Russian knocked “Vai Cavalo” off his feet with his signature power shots. He dove into Werdum’s guard to finish the fight, but the 2 time ADCC champion and BJJ black belt recovered quickly. He locked on an armbar, then transitioned fluidly into a triangle choke in the scramble.
Checkmate. Fedor was caught, and with one quick tap of his hand, the Last Emperor stepped down off his throne. Fans were shocked. Commentators were speechless. The internet imploded.
For ten years, Fedor Emelianenko stood in the center of the coliseum and conquered all challengers. Last night, the greatest gladiator in the game was, at long last, carried out on his shield. Fedor has lost. Quickly. Badly. Utterly.
There’s going to be a lot said about this loss in the coming days and weeks. What does it mean for the Heavyweight division? First and foremost, it means that Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin will now be meeting for the #1 ranking in the Heavyweight division when they clash on July 3rd. If Fedor loses while Brock Lesnar wins in the same week, I think we may have to put a lot of PRIDE fan boys on suicide watch.
For long-time haters and critics of Emelianenko, this loss is a goldmine, beyond simply the fact that the Russian lost. The last image most have of Fabricio Werdum is of him being run over by Junior Dos Santos at UFC 90, a loss which saw him cut from the UFC. Fedor has been accused of fighting UFC castoffs for years now, and actually losing to one is going to give plenty of ammunition to his detractors. Dana White is probably still in a diabetic coma.
And Strikeforce, once again, has shot itself in the foot. By rights, what should now follow is Fabricio Werdum vs. Alastair Overeem for the HW title, a rematch of a 2006 PRIDE fight. The problem is that no one in the world really cares about that fight, and the winner doesn’t have a hope of snatching the #1 title back from the UFC’s top crop of up and coming heavyweights. Simply put, a Heavyweight title fight without the Russian (or more to the point, without his mythic, living legend appeal, now forever shorn) is not a marketable proposition.
And that, kids, is why you don’t put all your eggs in one basket. What does Strikeforce do with Fedor now? He has one fight left on his contract, and has given every indication that he intends to retire following that fight. The only way Strikeforce could have hoped to keep him around was through a champions clause following a win over Overeem, which is clearly what Scott Coker and company were angling for. Now what?
Shockingly, sadly, if recent history with the Le/Smith series is any indicator, we’re going to get Werdum vs. Emelianenko 2. Fedor’s really too expensive to feature in a build up fight and really too expensive not to be considered an undefeated monster. Since Werdum can’t hope to draw interest in a title fight on his own, he’ll be forced to jump through the same hoop he just jumped through. They’ll book the rematch, hope Fedor actually wins this time, hope he reconsiders his retirement plans, hope he and M-1 don’t bend them over a barrel in contract talks again, and hope he can Alastair Overeem to come back from the land of K-1 and horsemeat to defend his belt.
So basically, right back where we started. Gotta love Strikeforce.
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