Fedor Emelianenko - The Last Emperor Retains His Crown By Jim Genia (Nov 8, 2009) DoghouseBoxing
Fedor Emelianenko, the “Last Emperor” and widely hailed as the greatest heavyweight fighter in the world, weathered an early storm of leather to land a crushing right hand and score a technical knockout, capping off a night of battles on Strikeforce’s CBS-broadcast “Fedor vs. Rogers” event.
Opponent Brett Rogers had Fedor in trouble early, scoring with a straight jab in the opening exchange that bloodied and broke the Russian’s nose. He followed it up with bombs when Fedor was on his back, and when time ran out in the first round, Rogers was clearly ahead. But Fedor, a heavy-handed sambo champion with a 31-1-1 record in MMA and undefeated since December, 2000, did what Fedor does best, which is bounce back and end things abruptly. Rogers was crumpled to the canvas just under two minutes into Round 2.
In other action, Strikeforce light-heavyweight champ Gegard Mousasi found himself a victim of UFC veteran Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou’s judo skills throughout the first, but the Armenian’s superior striking eventually shone through, and he overwhelmed his foe with punches on the ground in the second round.
In a five-round middleweight championship war, grappling master Jake Shields out-pointed MTV “Bully Beatdown” host Jason Miller to win the belt, although the technical bout was the farthest thing from a crowd-pleaser.
And in the opening match of the night, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champ Fabricio Werdum survived the hard-hitting Antonio Silva’s best in the first round to turn the tide. He took Rounds 2 and 3 with knees to the head and some ground-and-pound and garnered the unanimous decision.
