Strikeforce Aftermath: Fedor Falls to Werdum
Fabricio Werdum shocks the MMA world in defeating Fedor Emelianenko at Strikeforce & M-1 Global's Fedor vs. Werdum event
Strikeforce & M-1 Global featured the Fedor vs. Werdum event on Saturday night, June 26, live Showtime which featured four exciting fights. Josh Thomson & Pat Healy lasted 3 rounds before Thomson scored the submission victory and Christiane "Cyborg" Santos dominated Jan Finney in the women's middleweight title bout. Cung Le avenged the lone loss of his career beating Scott "Hands of Steel" Smith in a rematch of their December 2009 fight, and history was made as Fedor Emelianenko fell to Fabricio Werdum via 1st round submission.
The Fedor fight truly shocked the MMA world leaving many to wonder if "The Last Emperor" is no longer at the top of his game. Meanwhile others, Dana White no doubt included, will questions if the mysterious Russian was ever truly deserving of the top pound for pound fighter in MMA reputation. While this will no doubt calm the hype around Fedor's next trip to the USA to fight, the biggest losers in all of this are Strikeforce & Showtime (and potentially CBS to a lesser degree). There's no doubt that Strikeforce wanted to see a Fedor vs Overeem fight to headline a potential CBS card, and even if the CBS relationship is not as steady as they like, that would have made for one hell of a Showtime event.
> Check out the official Strikeforce June 26 Fedor vs Werdum results after the fights become official and historic Strikeforce results online at ProFighting-fans.com!
Looking ahead, Strikeforce has already made public mention of holding a 8-man middleweight tournament, and Alistair Overeem should be defending his belt once again. The promotion would be wise to have a couple of solid late-summer or early fall events with all of their heavyweights on display along with the 185 pounders. Have a Overeem vs Werdum event with Fedor vs Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva as the co-main event or have each fight headline alongside a Dan Henderson tournament fight. The Fedor vs. Silva winner would get a title shot, assuming Fedor chooses to return to Strikeforce after his 3-fight deal is up (Rogers and Werdum were his first two fights on this deal). In addition, keep Brett Rogers in the mix as continuing to build on younger prospects like Antonio Silva and Brett Rogers is key to Strikeforce's long-term success. Put fights including Matt Lindland, Jacare Souza, Dan Henderson, Jason "Mayhem" Miller, and maybe a title defense for one of the Strikeforce Champions beside this group and Strikeforce should continue to be a major player for many months, if not years, to come.