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)
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