Werdum Submits Fedor

In an otherwise lackluster card, except for "Cyborg" vs. "Cuddles", Fabricio Werdum pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the world of mixed martial arts by submitting "The Last Emperor" Fedor Emelianenko one minute and nine seconds into the first round.

Adding to the upset, statistics show that Werdum landed no strikes and attempted only 2 submissions, the last of which ended the fight.  In uncharacteristic fashion, Fedor was the aggressor and after he dropped Werdum, he postured up and tried to finish the fight.  Instead, Werdum threw an arm bar submission attempt then transitioned into a triangle that ultimately finished the fight.

Both fighters were very gracious, in both victory and defeat with Werdum saying that Fedor is still the greatest fighter.  Werdum jumped out of the cage and into the crowd before being corralled back for the official announcement.  The big question now is whether Werdum can repeat his performance against the current Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem.

As has been discussed many times, Strikeforce has many problems and tonights show just emphasized some of them.  Now, one of their biggest problems is that the face of their company, and the man whose organization was the co-promoter of tonights show, just lost to a fighter that was cut by the UFC in 2008.

I have said many times that Fedor cannot be considered the best mma fighter in the world until he comes to the UFC, and tonight helped to prove that.  I truly admire Fedor for his character and what he has accomplished, but until he comes to the UFC, he is not going to be the greatest of all time.

On top of the poor match-ups and below par play-by-play, one hugely poor decision was to have an "official" retirement for Frank Shamrock, who was touted by himself and his co-workers as a "legend" in mma and "prototype" of the modern fighter.  While I remember Frank being somewhat successful in the early years of mma, I don't see his career as anything legendary.  In my mind, Matt Serra and Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson's careers were just as successful.

A word of advice to Strikeforce; the next time you want to pay tribute to one of your own, don't let the person you are honoring do their own voice-over work.  A word of advice to Frank Shamrock; when paying tribute or giving thanks, don't memorize or read from a teleprompter, it does not come off very sincere.