SHOWTIME IN SILICON VALLEY FOR STRIKEFORCE
San Jose, CA– Fabricio Werdum, 238, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil SUB 1 Fedor Emelianenko, 229, Stary Oskol, Belgorod Oblast, Russia. In just over one minute, Fabricio Werdum (14-4-1, 4 KOs, 8 SUBs) shocked the MMA world as he submitted Fedor Emelianenko (31-2, 8 KOs, 16 SUBs). After being dropped by a barrage of punches, Werdum immediately went to his submission game as Emelianenko overzealously jumped on him. After popping out of the first submission attempt, Emelianenko didn’t wise up and continued to attack without regard to the ability of Werdum. Almost immediately Fedor was again caught in a submission and eventually had to tap to an arm triangle that had Fedor losing consciousness and his arm. I am not too shocked that Werdum won, what was shocking was how easy he did it. It looks as if Werdum will get a crack at the Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem (33-11, 13 KOs, 19 SUBs), a man he already holds a win over. This of course unless we see an immediate rematch of Fedor and Werdum as Fedor has at least one fight left on his Strikeforce contract. In any case, congrats to Werdum on a well calculated and deserved win!
LOCAL ICON CUNG LE BACK IN ACTION
Cung Le, 184, San Jose, CA TKO 2 Scott Smith, 184, Elk Grove, CA. Le (7-1, 7 KOs) used patience, intelligence and a properly conditioned body to annihilate Smith (17-7, 14 KOs, 3 SUBs) in two brutal rounds. It was obvious from the start that Le was on a mission and that he would not let Smith back into the fight, this after losing last year to Smith. At 38, Le may not have tons of time left in the game, but while he is here, he will be a serious threat in the middleweight (185 lbs) division.
BADDEST CHICK ON PLANET ON STRIKEFORCE CARD TOO!
Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, 144, Curitiba, Brazil TKO 2 Jan Finney, 143, Dayton, OH. This was an absolute savage beat down as Santos (10-1, 8 KOs) put it on the ultra tough Finney (8-8, 4 KOs, 1 SUB). Even when Finney landed shots, Cyborg hardly blinked and kept coming. The only effective thing Finney was able to do is get hit in the back of the head causing the ref to take a point away from the champion Santos. Finally, in the second round the stoppage came as Finney absorbed a hard knee to the body and welted at the bout was stopped.
GIVE & TAKE FIGHT INVOLVES SAN JOSE FIGHTER
Josh Thomson, 155, San Jose, CA SUB 3 Pat Healy, 155, St. Louis, MO. This fight saw a lot of back and forth action as Healy (23-16, 6 KOs, 13 SUBs) showed a lot of skill and determination against the former champ Thomson (17-3, 4 KOs, 9 SUBs). Although Thomson had problems with his bigger and stronger opponent, he was always working for a submission and to better his position. Healy tried to hang on to make it to the end of the fight but ultimately had to tap from a tight rear naked choke.
Matt “All Meat” Grizzle