HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. -- The best fighter in the history of mixed martial arts did it again on Saturday night, as Russia's Fedor Emelianenko beat Minnesota's Brett Rogers by second-round technical knockout in the main event of the M-1 Global/Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers show.
Rogers connected with Fedor early and made him bleed from the nose, and he more than acquitted himself in the fight, getting control of Fedor on the ground and looking better against Fedor than any opponent has in the last few years.
But there's only one Fedor, and in the second round of his Strikeforce debut, he showed why he's the greatest ever, leveling Rogers with a brutal right hand and then a couple more punches on the ground before referee Big John McCarthy stepped in to save Rogers.
The official time of the stoppage was 1:48 of the second round.
"I felt really good," the plain-spoken Fedor said through his translator after the fight. "The main thing is not to be nervous, to take some time in the first round, and then look for a weak place and use it."
Fedor said after the fight that although Rogers opened up a cut on his nose and once got on top of him and landed several hard punches, it didn't affect him at all during the fight.
"Nothing serious," Fedor said. "It happens in mixed martial arts. I was waiting for that strike but I missed it somehow. ... There were no dangerous situations during the fight. ... Brett is a very serious, very strong opponent, but the first round came out the way we thought about it and the whole fight came out the way we thought about it."
Rogers said after the fight that he felt terrible about losing a fight he thought he had a chance of winning, but that he hopes he'll get a chance to step into the cage with Fedor again some day.
"I hate it," Rogers said. "I'm coming back stronger. ... If he wants to rematch me, I would gladly take that rematch. ... The difference is I'll come out a whole lot more aggressive."
Fabricio Werdum, who defeated Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva in another fight on Saturday night's card, said afterward that he thinks he deserves to get Fedor next.
"I think it's my time to fight against Fedor," Werdum said. "I believe in my techniques and if I could get him on the ground anything could happen."
Even though it was an American taking on a Russian here in suburban Chciago, the crowd was overwhelmingly behind Fedor, who has earned the respect of MMA fans around the world for being, simply, the best.
MMA FanHouse has full Fedor vs. Rogers results, MMA Twitter updates and more.
Full Strikeforce MMA results:
CBS Bouts:
- Fabricio Werdum beat Antonio Silva by unanimous decision (live blog)
- Gegard Mousasi beat Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou by second-round TKO (strikes) (live blog)
- Jake Shields beat Jason "Mayhem" Miller by unanimous decision (live blog)
- Fedor Emelianenko beat Brett Rogers by second-round TKO (live blog)
Non-Televised Bouts::
- Marloes Coenen beat Roxanne Modafferi by first-round submission (arm bar) (live blog)
- Shamar Bailey beat John Kolosci by unanimous decision (live blog)
- Christian Uflacker beat Jonatas Novaes by unanimous decision (live blog)
- Nate Moore beat Louis Taylor by second-round submission (punches) (live blog)
- Jeff Curran beat Dustin Neace by first-round submission (injury) (live blog)
Comments (Page 1 of 8)
THE BADDEST MAN ON THE PLANET!!!!!
Rogers was game and came to fight but in the end FEDOR reigns supreme again.
GOOD RIDDANCE EXP!!!!!
WAR FEDOR!!!!
Good showing by Rogers and he has my respect for sure.
Rogers was a little salty after the fight. How about some respect dude. Damn give the man his props instead of acting like a child.
Its Rodgers first lose thats why he's so salty, like you said though give Fedor his props he deserves, Brett you got beat by the BEST HW in the world nothing to be ashamed of, just take the lose and come back stronger. Someone PLEASE get FEDOR in the UFC so he can prove to EVERYBODY why he's the BEST HW IN THE MMA WORLD TODAY...
Is there any doubt? ... Fedor is the best ever.
I have seen Fader get kick in the head twice and counted out twice, no he is not the best ever.he is one of the best.
You are confused my friend. Fedor has never been knocked out ... are you mistaking him for his brother?
Yup, I could already see "Brett Rogers is a can" or "This fight was fixed" all over these boards later on.
Same here.
@Johnny #5
I am sorry but it was clearly early stoppage. I hate John McCarthy with a passion. He made two mistakes tonight and he always does. But of course, the fake MMA fans think he is the best ref.
I am not saying Roger would have survived the onslaught but come on. Stop it when the guy lands a real punch on the ground.
But I am a man of my word. I won't come back to a freaking side where this faker MDS talks about how Fedor is the best fighter in history. He is the best heavyweight but the best fighter in history? Let's say MDS would have a better career doing some blue color job.
Cheer up, man. At the very least they are other sites out there for you.
Wow! Brett is a disrespectful child. Should've, could've, would've ... Fedor did.
He tends to have that effect on others...
I agree. This fight was a good one but I would have liked to have seen it go on. Why the stoppage?! That was pretty weak. Clearly, the guy was still defending himself from "the greatest fighter" who was bleeding all over the place.
I was surprised that it was stopped. Looking forward to a rematch with a decent ref.
Neil, just because he turned his back doesn't necessarily mean he's properly defending himself. That one punch clearly put Rogers out from the start.
I didn't think it was stopped early. Network TV wants fights stopped before they get too bloody or somebody pummels someone to badly. I hate network TV. As for John McCarthy, I've been watching MMA since UFC 1 and Pancrease tournaments back in 1995. I've coached wrestling at Grade school, high school, college, and national team levels (I don't claim to be a mma coach because other than wrestling, I don't know shit), but John McCarthy is a good ref. But you are entitled to your opinion.
I didn't have a problem with the stoppage honestly. Fedor straight up unloaded all his weight into that right hand and just dropped Rogers on his ass. I thought it was a justified stoppage to keep Rogers from taking unnecessary damage.
Rogers is the real deal though ... he wasn't outclassed or intimidated he just got caught. It happens.
your a moron...look at the pictures and video, he was down for a good 5 min and the reason it looked like he was blocking was that his body rolled like that. he got tagged with that punch 4 times in the fight....face it fedor timed him and tagged that ass
yeah rodgers had fedor right where he wanted...he must know some crazy jiujitsu move that required him to turn to his side and just cover up and wait for more punishment.
Dont leave us exp! Watching you scramble to carry out your crusade to discredit Fedor is endless entertainment for everyone here!