Fedor Loses, Silva wins on TKO doctor?s stoppage in Grand Prix

Fedor Emelianenko lost his second fight in a row in Strikeforce. After being battered and bloodied in the second round by Antonio Silva, the referee stopped the fight due to Fedor’s bad eye. Emelianenko’s eye was shut which ended the fight and his road to redemption in the Grand Prix tournament.

The story here was the weight disadvantage of Fedor. Silva had a near 40 pound advantage in the fight and used it to dominate Fedor in the second round of the fight and avoid a first round loss. Silva took Fedor down early in the second round, mounted him and proceeded to lay a vicious assault of ground and pound on the tournament favorite. Fedor wasn’t able to find an advantageous position until the remaining 10 seconds of the round which looked like he was going to pull off a remarkable heel lock submission. Instead Fedor went to the corner unable to open his eye, thus the referee stopped the fight and awarded the win to Antonio Silva.

As dramatic as Fedor’s last loss to Fabricio Werdum was, this one was huge. Fedor was a 5-1 favorite coming into the fight. Silva vs. Fedor was thought by most as an easy first round fight for Fedor. Most MMA fans were already talking Overeem vs. Fedor in the semi finals. This was a fight that Fedor had to win. He wasn’t tapped or knocked out but a loss is a loss and this is the one that will change the current perception of Fedor in the fight world until he can get another win.

Fedor looked great early on in the fight. Fedor came out swinging while Silva looked scared at times to engage. Silva started countering and nailed Fedor with a beautiful jab which backed up the Last Emperor. It appeared to me that it was at this moment that Silva started to gain confidence and get aggressive. Fedor continued to swing for the fences yet at the same time leave himself wide open for counters. I thought Fedor won the first round but it certainly could have went to Silva.

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Round 2 was a different story and one of the most dramatic rounds I have seen since Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen. Silva dominated Fedor and was just beating him ferociously. In my opinion, if it wasn’t Fedor the fight would have been stopped. Silva clamped on an arm-head choke at one point and it looked like it was over. Somehow Fedor escaped and the crowd went crazy. To me, it looked like Silva had punched himself out at this point. Silva just sat on top of Fedor for the remainder of the round, went for a kneebar, but was reversed. As the round ended I was fairly confident that Silva had blown himself up and Round 3 was going to be a much different story. Unfortunately there was no Round 3.

Antonio Silva will proceed into the semi-finals of the Grand Prix heavyweight tournament and face the winner of Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum. The elimination of Fedor really hurts the tournament to casual fans and hardcore fans that were chomping at the bit for Overeem vs. Fedor or Fedor vs. Barnett. With Fedor and Arlovski out, two of the biggest stars of the tournament are eliminated. I think it is fair to say that at this point this is Alistair Overeem’s tournament to win.

It is easy for Fedor’s critics to jump on the bandwagon and start calling him overrated. Whether he is out of his prime now or not, it would be unfair not to give credit for his great run from 2001-2006 in MMA. Whether it is Muhammad Ali, Babe Ruth, or Joe Montana nobody can dominate their sport forever. Fedor’s reign of dominance is definitely over but his legacy will live on and should be respected as one of the greatest of all time.

The future of Fedor Emelianenko in Strikeforce or MMA has to be a huge question. With two losses in a row, even the biggest Fedor fans have to wonder if the fire will be there at redemption. A Fedor vs. Silva rematch is an obvious fight. However with Silva in the tournament that fight would be unavailable until the end of the year at the earliest. The Strikeforce announcers talked about a move to light heavyweight but I don’t see it. He has been fighting at heavyweight for too long to come down at this stage in his career and I think the speed of the light heavyweights would work against him.

Get ready for an exciting Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix featuring Big Foot Silva and Sergei Kharitonov. The fate of this tournament literally rests on the shoulders of Alistair Overeem. If he goes, it’s over.

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