I went to the Fedor fight in Chicago last night. Had great seats and got to see some fantastic undercards (other than the Shields/Miller snooze fest.
Rodgers did a lot better than expected though he used the cage illegally at least twice. Great power and much better on the ground. He hurt Fedor badly but Fedor always seems to find a way to win. I was disappointed by Rodgers post-match comments. No sir, you could not have continued fighting. I was two rows away and I thought he had broken your entire face. Fedor even pulled back before the ref broke it up as he knew it was all over.
I just caught the fight on youtube. In the first round when Rogers had Fedor on the group up against the cage I thought he was going to end the fight. Fedor just doesn’t seem to take damage. They could set him up against a kodiak bear and I’d have to think about it.
I thought shield and miller was pretty exciting. lots of escapes reversals and submission attempts. not to mention shields literally getting saved by the bell
To each his own, I’m glad someone got something out of that fight. Personally, beside the saved by the bell almost submission, I found that fight to be tedious and boring. I enjoy a good grappling match as much as the next, but the problem with 5 round matches tends to be that the fighters are more conscious about scoring points. The punches were laughable when they were on the ground and both guys seemed to spend most of the fight conserving energy, rather than actually try to damage his opponent. Miller more so than Sheilds. Shields, on the other hand, had more than a few oppurtunities to do some damage through ground and pound, but settled for a few weak pops to score points.
The Fedor fight was amazing, though! That guy has a jaw. I think that guy could drop Lessner in a heartbeat if he ever jumped ship to the UFC. Anyone know what weight class he would fall under in the UFC? I figure him to be a heavy weight, but I never caught his weight.
I watched the show on CBS and thought they had four very good fights. Wish they’d shown the undercard as well. Weakest part of the show was the commentary.
I was pretty impressed with Rogers. He’s a big strong guy and I thought that he showed a lot of composure on the ground - not that he’s got a great ground game but he didn’t lose his cool with Fedor on top of him or working submissions and he got out of some spots (like Fedor’s kimura attempt). Kind of reminded me of the Fedor-Arlovski fight with Fedor seeming to get bullied around until Arlovski made one little mistake and got knocked into next Sunday.
Fedor is a heavyweight, I believe he typically weighs in around 230-240lbs. I think the general consensus is that he’d beat Lesnar - he’s a strong puncher and can obviously take a lot of damage, plus he’s got a very strong grappling and submission background. Fighting people larger than himself is nothing new (see his dismantling of people like Tim Sylvia and Hong Man Choi).
The UFC tried pretty hard to get him recently but negotiations stalled over Fedor’s management insisting that they co-promote events (notice that the CBS show was “Strikeforce and M1” - M1 is Fedor’s promotion) which Dana White was evidently not going to have any part of. In a prior negotiation the UFC wanted to hold Fedor to an exclusive fight contract which wouldn’t have allowed him to compete in Sambo matches back in Russia. I think he’d be an extraordinary addition to the UFC and worth paying a ton of money for (which I imagine they offered him) - there’s got to be someone waiting who is going to beat Fedor but it hasn’t happened in 30 fights.
All four fights were really exceptional. We saw good wrestling and submission attempts to go with the striking that less seasoned fans seem to favor. This card was much, much better than the EliteXC cards that were on CBS last year. I think it’s really a strong step toward the increased legitimacy of MMA.
But that was an (unintentional) illegal blow resulting in a doctor’s stoppage - I think it would have been deemed a “No Contest” but it was a tournament that required a winner/loser in each fight so TK got the win.
I’d say that’s equivalent to an accidental eye-poke ending a fight. Fedor has about 26 wins and one NC after that fight.
Plus, Fedor was completely dominating TK up until that cut. I’m sure Fedor hasn’t loss any sleep over it and anyone vaguely familiar with the MMA world knows that it wasn’t a true loss by any stretch of the imagination.
Fedor’s out for the foreseable future after he reinjured his hand. Anyone else want to see Werdum and Overeem battle it out for a shot at him when he returns?
I wish someone in the audience would slap those clowns who boo the instant it goes to the ground, or do not understand the concept of sizing up an opponent.