Figuring Fedor's future

Where do we go from here?

Fedor Emelianenko, like Vegas odds predicted, scored a victory over Brett Rogers at Strikeforce's prime-time event on CBS Saturday night.

Early in the second round, he landed a thunderous right hand that floored the bigger Rogers and finished him off with strikes on the ground, forcing referee John McCarthy to stop the fight. But up until that split-second shot, a lot of MMA experts would have scored the first round to Rogers.

The American began the fight with a snap jab which broke Emelianenko's nose and then took the fight to the ground, landing punches on the bloodied Russian. Rogers also showed some solid defense, using his brute strength to slip out of would-be arm bars and kimuras.

The rematch talk was thrown around during the post-fight interviews, but is that what mixed martial arts fans really want to see?

Emelianenko still has two fights left on his contract with Strikeforce and, pending a rematch with Rogers, will be fed a couple more tomato cans.

He's 33 years old and appears to be on the decline. He looked soft and fatter Saturday than I have ever seen. He's never been the model physic but it looks like he was hitting the buffet more than the gym.

And how motivated can you be to train for guys who were changing tires at Sam's Club a year before stepping into the cage with you?

Eventually, one of two things will happen:

Fedor's slumming eventually catches up with him. Whether it's against Rogers again or another fighter. If he continues to slide like I suspect, he will tarnish his legacy – which will always have the lack of an UFC resume.

Or, Fedor rolls his next two opponents and calls it quits. Takes the money and runs back to Russian with MMA fans left daydreaming about what could have been.

Neither of these situations involve The Last Emperor making the jump to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Fight fans won't get to see Fedor vs. Lesnar or Fedor vs. whoever.

With every fight, he gets another battle older, another battle fatter and another battle further from the UFC.

Our loss.

PS: For a card many fans poo-pooed, there were some good fights tonight. Kudos to Strikeforce. Competition makes everyone better.

Lesnar, Velasquez, Carwin, Carwin would all beat Fedor.  Fedor just beat a guy that had a full time job at Sam's Club up until 6 mo. ago.  Also,  Junior dos Santos , Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira  would give him a run.  As you can see ALL of them are in the UFC!  The only one in Strikeforce that will give him a bigger run than Rogers is Alistair Overeem but he continues to fight in Dream, K-1 etc.  This is also why Strikeforce is so far below UFC.  They really have NO true champs with the exception of the women's title that only has 3-4 fighters in the entire weight class.  Fedor ran from the UFC as he is scared!

Not sure how you could be more ignorant.

 

stfu

I love Nogeura but fedor beat him twice when he was in his pride

i really think allister overeem would give fedor a really tough fight, he has great striking and decent ground skills along with muay-tai too.   lesnar can only bull rush guys and strike, no ground game and fedor would submit him...  velazquez is a great wrestler but in-experience would be his downfall and eventually he would  get submitted or ko'd ..  carwin would have a punchers chance but ultimitely i think he would get sub'd also...  nog lost to fedor in pride and dos santos is a puncher like carwin...   to much lacking in the skills department and inexperience for these guys to beat fedor, but overeem brings alot to the table... size,strength,quickness and a variety of martial arts...

Agreed 100%. I actually think Overeem brings much more to the table in a match against Fedor than Lesnar would. The better match for the fans and for mma is Overeem vs Fedor.  Carwin is similar to Rogers not in fighting style, but in terms of being a young undefeated up & commer with an impressive win.  Being outside the UFC also keeps open the chance of a Barnette match, which would once again be better for the fans and mma than whats left in the UFC such as Cain or Dos Santos.

You guys are giving Overreem way to much credit, there is a reason he hasn't fought anyone decent recently.  He is way overrated wait until he fights someone half way decent.  Any good fighter he fought in his career has beaten him and that will continue.