(…. ….*crickets* …. …. PhotoProps: Strikeforce)
In the days and weeks following Fedor Emelianenko’s stunning loss to Fabricio Werdum inside the Strikeforce cage on Saturday night, some jerk with a website or internet radio show will proba…
In the days and weeks following Fedor Emelianenko’s stunning loss to Fabricio Werdum inside the Strikeforce cage on Saturday night, some jerk with a website or internet radio show will probably try to tell you that he saw this coming. When that happens it will be important for you to remember that, aside from a very, very select group of individuals, those people are goddamned liars.
In retrospect – and retrospect always feels cheap – maybe it’s not shocking that Emelianenko lost a fight down the stretch of his storied MMA career. Regardless of the nonsensical stuff Frank Shamrock told us at the top of last night’s broadcast about Fedor’s “impenetrable shield of invincibility,” Emelianenko himself has taken pains to remind us again and again that he is, in fact, just a man; a man who puts his traditional Russian garments on one leg at a time like everybody else.
But to lose this fight? Admit it, you didn’t see that coming.
Filed under: Strikeforce, M-1 Global, NewsThe best fighter in the history of mixed martial arts lost in a shocking upset on Saturday night, as Fedor Emelianenko was submitted by Fabricio Werdum early in the first round of their Strikeforce fight in San…
The best fighter in the history of mixed martial arts lost in a shocking upset on Saturday night, as Fedor Emelianenko was submitted by Fabricio Werdum early in the first round of their Strikeforce fight in San Jose.
Fedor knocked Werdum down with a combination of hard punches at the start of the fight, doing exactly what he wanted to do and taking control early on. But then he made a huge tactical error, going to the ground with Werdum, who’s the best Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioner in the sport.
Fabricio Werdum defeated Fedor Emelianenko on Saturday night in what may have been the biggest upset in MMA history at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum. The video is here.
Fabricio Werdum defeated Fedor Emelianenko on Saturday night in what may have been the biggest upset in MMA history at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum. The video is here.
Fedor entered the fight with a 31-1 record, and the one loss was highly controversial, as he was cut with an illegal elbow strike. But there’s nothing controversial about this one: Werdum is the best Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioner in the world, and he showed it by sinking in both a triangle choke and an arm bar and forcing Fedor to tap at the 1:09 mark of the first round.
(Damn, what an unflattering picture of Werdum. It’s just one of those things where the camera catches you at the exact wrong moment, and you wind up making a strange expression that you’d never make again in a million–OH SHIT. / Photo courtesy of M-1G…
(Damn, what an unflattering picture of Werdum. It’s just one of those things where the camera catches you at the exact wrong moment, and you wind up making a strange expression that you’d never make again in a million–OH SHIT. / Photo courtesy of M-1Global.com.)
Round-by-round results from the "Fedor vs. Werdum" Showtime broadcast will be piling up after the jump beginning at 10 p.m. ET; refresh your browser every few minutes for all the latest. (The show is delayed on the West Coast, so beware of spoilers.) And yes, "Tucson" is misspelled on Fedor’s t-shirt in the above photo, but that’s what happens when you do all your shopping at consignment shops in Stary Oskol. Humble guy, this Last Emperor.
(“Mr. Fedor thinks you are a very amusing little man. He would enjoy it very much to see you dance for him … Dance! Dance, I say!” PicProps: Fedor’s Website)
Even by his own lofty standards for peculiarity, Fedor Emelianenko …
(“Mr. Fedor thinks you are a very amusing little man. He would enjoy it very much to see you dance for him … Dance! Dance, I say!” PicProps: Fedor’s Website)
Even by his own lofty standards for peculiarity, Fedor Emelianenko had a pretty enigmatic week in America leading up to his second appearance inside the Strikeforce cage. When he wasn’t no-showing scheduled appointments or turning interviews into literal games of telephone by funneling his quotes through a comically long series of interpreters and middlemen, Fedor plodded through his obligations to hype tonight’s fight against Fabricio Werdum with the same kind of indecipherable stoicism he usually shows his doomed opponents.
Amid rumors that his retirement was imminent and that he was planning a life in politics at home in mother Russia (both of which he’s denied), the whole circus served only to remind us how little we really know about Fedor. Aside from a few half-hour Showtime specials, a handful of feature stories — the best known of which was actually written by M-1 executive Evgeni Kogan, so it has to be considered no more substantive than an M-1 press release – and his own stilted and translated post-fight interviews, there is shockingly little primary source material on Emelianenko.
What we’re told, over and over again, is this: Because of his old-school Soviet sensibilities and deeply religious nature, Fedor has no need for fame or for money and apparently has no desire to be known or understood by the fans who’ve elevated him to near God-like status in hardcore MMA circles. He’s a simple, conservative-minded man who chooses to live in relative seclusion, train with a select group of close friends and views nearly everything else as bothersome, needless distraction. Yeah, that last part made him sound a little bit more like Brock Lesnar than any of you are comfortable with admitting, huh?
But as much as he remains a mystery outside the cage, he’s given us ample evidence of what’s capable of inside it. In preparation for tonight’s bout with Werdum, we give you our choices for the 10 fights that have, in different ways, defined his career thus far …
The best fighter in the history of mixed martial arts lost in a shocking upset on Saturday night, as 
