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By Brent Henderson, MMATorch Specialist
ANTONIO “BIGFOOT” SILVA VS. FABRICIO WERDUM
Round 1: The round starts out with both men throwing heavy hands early and often. Each punch Werdum lands is being countered with much more force by Silva. Both men look to be in great shape and out to prove a point. Werdum’s strikes are precise, but Silva is absorbing the punishment and hurting Werdum frequently. Werdum is in trouble as Silva is trying to finish this thing inside the first frame, and sticking to his game plan by refusing to go to the ground and making Werdum stand with him. Werdum survives the first round, and I’ve got it scored 10-9 Silva.
Round 2: This round starts off the same as round 1. Werdum lands a couple of solid punches within the first ten seconds, but Silva counters with one punch that drops Werdum. Silva makes his first real mistake a little over a minute into the round by abandoning the whole “let’s stand and trade strikes” as he gets pulled to the ground with Werdum landing several solid strikes from half-guard. Silva’s able to make it back to his feet after just a few seconds, but eats a knee to the face on the way up. Werdum takes him down again and tries a couple of unsuccessful submission attempts as the round ends. 10-9 Werdum
Round 3: Silva appears to be gassing quickly, but I attribute that to him having to carry that massive head around for the first two rounds. Werdum takes Silva down, has his back, and is raining down punches. Werdum goes for a rear-naked choke, but Silva uses the cage to help get out of that position, and starts throwing punches again. Werdum takes a page straight out of Anderson Silva’s defense strategy by just simply ducking and dodging repeated punches from Bigfoot Matrix style. Werdum takes it back to the ground and pounds on Silva until the horn sounds. Great fight to start off what is sure to be a great night of fights. 10-9 Werdum
The judges have reached their decision, and they all score the bout 29-28 for Werdum. This just goes to show if you can dodge a punch, you can dodge a loss.
MOUSASI VS. SOKOUDJOU
Round 1: Mousasi is stalking early with jabs, but Soko retaliates with a leg kick. Unfortunately Mauro has just made a Lady Gaga reference, and even more unfortunate is the fact that I picked up on it. Mousasi misses with a couple of head kicks, but Soko counters with a beautiful left as he apparently is hit below the belt. The action continues almost immediately with Soko complaining again of another low blow, and Mousasi argues that he hit nothing but leg. In Soko’s defense, he is African-American, so if the rumors are true, then he very well could’ve been kicked in the wang. Mousasi starts going off on Soko, but gets a little over-aggressive and gets thrown with Soko ending up in dominant position. They trade good positions and reversals for the remainder of the round. This is the best I’ve seen Sokoudjou look since his fight with Arona. With that being said, I still give the round to Gegard, but honestly it could go either way.
Round 2: The round starts with them trading kicks and then going straight to the clench. Mousasi is throwing knees to the stomach, inner and outer thighs of Soko. Gegard starts to unload! He’s landing punches left and right, but Sokoudjou is covering up well. Mousasi tries for a takedown, but Soko counters and ends up in Mousasi’s half-guard. Gegard goes for a kimura attempt, but Soko rolls out of it. Mousasi gets on top and just starts raining punches and hammerfists with Sokoudjou doing nothing to defend himself. The ref steps in and calls a stop to the contest with 1:18 left in the 2nd round.
I’m actually more impressed with Sokoudjou in his loss than I am with Gegard. Even though Gegard wasn’t ever really in trouble of being finished in the fight he looked a little slow to get started, but he finished strong and that’s all that really matters. Sokoudjou really needs to work on his conditioning if he really wants to be a factor in the title picture for any organization.
JASON “MAYHEM” MILLER VS. JAKE SHIELDS
Mayhem comes out to the ring with a bevy of hoochie mama cheerleaders lining either side of the walkway from the backstage to the cage. Mayhem also has a reversed “red stripe of death” hairstyle. I’m not sure if this would be considered a “black stripe of death” or if we should just chalk it up to a bid decision.
Round 1: There’s a lot of Shields just holding Miller without trying to improve position, or inflicting any damage. Shields eventually gets Miller’s back, but Miller escapes, picks Shields up, and slams him down to the mat. Miller actually is doing a lot less work, but he’s making the most of everything he does. He’s landing the crisper punches, reversing positions rather easily that Shields is working hard to get. Miller gets the slight edge in round 1, 10-9.
Round 2: This round is featuring a ton of high-level Jiu Jitsu that is just incredible to watch. Miller lands a left that opens a cut on the forehead of Shields that starts bleeding immediately. Mayhem is once again in control of this round, and he’s expending as little energy as possible in case the fight goes the full five rounds. Round 2 ends with Mayhem now being up two rounds to zero by my scorecard.
In between round two and three we see that it was an inadvertent headbutt that opened the cut on the Shields, and not a punch.
Round 3: Mayhem and Shields trade takedowns to start off the third frame. Shields is dominating so far, and transitioning easily from side mount, to full mount, to taking Mayhem’s back. Mayhem does a beautiful “monkey roll” to reverse position and Mayhem lands a spinning back fist during the exchange. Big John calls a time out to have the corner come in and fix tape that’s been dangling from both of Mayhem’s gloves for the better part of the round. The fight resumes with Shields taking Miller down and just kind of hanging out. Miller takes Shields back, but he’s fighting the clock more than Shields at this point. Shields was literally saved by the horn at the end of this round. If Mayhem had two more seconds in round three Shields would have either been choked unconscious or been forced to tap out. Another 10-9 round for Mayhem.
Round 4: Shields is definitely not fighting to win over the crowd, or the fight at this point by just trying to control Mayhem instead of trying to finish him. Mayhem throws a couple of quick knees, but gets taken down again, as Shields and Mayhem continue to transition like they’re putting on a grappling clinic. This is the first obvious round that Shields has won. I’ve still got it 3-1 for Mayhem, but a lot of the rounds have been very close. If the fight goes to a decision, the winner of the fifth round could definitely be taking the belt home with them.
Round 5: Nothing going on yet, and with only three minutes left this is still anyone’s fight. Shields has Mayhem’s back again, but Miller doesn’t seem to be in any real danger of being submitted. Mayhem gets back to his feet, but Shields takes him right back to the ground and seems to be content to lay on Mayhem to finish the fight. Shields takes this round 10-9.
By my scorecard I’ve got Mayhem winning 48-47. Let’s see what the judges think. The judges have reached a unanimous decision. The first judge has it 48-47, and the other two have it 49-46 for the new Strikeforce Middleweight champion Jake Shields.
I have no problem with Shields getting the victory because a lot of the rounds were very close, but Shields did little to try to finish the fight. He basically took Miller down, layed on him, and waited for the horn to sound. Don’t get me wrong, he did what he needed to do to win the championship, but it made for a completely boring fight with the only bright spot being the incredible (mostly defensive) Jiu Jitsu displayed by both men.
Now it’s time for the MAIN EVENT!
BRETT “THE GRIM” ROGERS VS. FEDOR “THE LAST EMPEROR” EMELIANENKO
Round 1: I’m saddened to report that I’m already hearing chants of “U.S.A, U.S.A”…way to be classy, Chicago. Rogers lands an innocent looking jab, but now Fedor is bleeding heavily from the bridge of the nose. Rogers is pressing Fedor into cage, they separate, and Fedor landed a hellacious left hand that would’ve dropped most men. Fedor and Rogers exchange a barrage of punches, but the round ends with Rogers being the first man to make it into the second round with Fedor since 2006. I give the first round to Fedor even though I don’t think there will be any need to score this fight because there’s no way this is going to a decision.
Round 2: Once again, in a scene straight out of Rocky IV, the fans are chanting “U.S.A.” as if Obama was having a knife fight with Putin with the winner being the undisputed champ of world domination. Rogers is looking more and more confident with each passing second, as he now withstands an onslaught of punches. Rogers backs away from the cage and is actually bouncing around somewhat and looking extremely relaxed. HOLY S***!!! Fedor just unloaded a fight ending right hand to the jaw with 3:17 left in the second round, and just like that Fedor silences his critics again!
I’m now on the lookout for Jean-Claude Van Damme to climb into the cage to give Fedor the creepy “I look like a sexual predator” wink again. Fedor gets molested by Van Damme.
They interviewed Fedor after the fight, and he was nothing but gracious and thanked the fans for all of their support.
Rogers was a different story all together. He blamed the fact that he doubted himself as the reason for the loss, and that if he had thrown his hands more he would’ve won. Not throwing your hands didn’t put you flat on your back, Fedor did. Look Brett, you just got beat by the greatest MMA fighter the world has ever known, show some respect so you don’t come across as a total douche bag with nothing but excuses. You got beat by FEDOR. Everybody gets beat by Fedor. Thank him for humoring you by letting you get in the same ring with him, and then walk away.
Check out the live reports on this show from MMATorch supervising editor Wade Keller (covering the CBS broadcast) and MMATorch editor-in-chief Jamie Penick (covering the show in person in Chicago from the press suite). Jump back to the MAIN LISTING
[Gegard Mousasi photo provided to MMATorch courtesy Strikeforce]
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