Its always amusing to me when people question the "Last Emperor" Fedor Emelianenko going into a fight. Is he still as good as he was? Is he overrated? Then as always, the guy comes to the ring like he just awoke from a nap and destroys people. After a humble Fedor slowly meandered around the ring before the introduction, the switch flipped after the 1st strike as Fedor swarmed Tim Sylvia grabbing the back of his head for some nice uppercuts after showing his ridiculous speed to punch his way into the big man. Fedor hits Tim, Tim hits the ground, and Emelianko do what he do and chokes him out! 33 seconds later the doubters are quiet with shame. The greatest fighter of all time is back (as if he ever left) and soon Randy Couture will be left in the Russian's wake. How about that ugly ass WAMMA Heavyweight Belt they gave Fedor?
Anderson "Spider" Silva took his time in his bout going a full 61 seconds before he TKO'd James Irvin back to the bottom of the pile where he belongs. Seriously, nobody thought this jobber was going to win but he just got crushed so damn quickly. Silva catches his leg and drops him with a punch that left a huge gash under James right eye. Silva punches the bitch out on the floor and proceeds to do a very nice Muay Thai dance in celebration. Up next, a title defense against Yushin Okami, the last man to defeat Anderson.
Andrei Arlovski was also impressive in his dismantling of the properly overrated Ben Rothwell. Ben is big and has a tough noggin for sure, but flying knees, improved kicking, and beautiful combinations set up the end for the Miletich fighter. The crowd was really behind Andrei, but lets see what happens when the Belarus fighter meets someone the caliber of Josh Barnett or god forbid Fedor. Ben Rothwell has a future date with fellow underachiever Paul Buentello who barely defeated last second replacement and 70 year old punch drunk Gary Goodridge by pathetic decision. The "Battle Of The Big Guys With Big Belly's" comes soon.
Speaking of Josh Barnett, he looked very impressive dicking around with Pedro Rizzo for a minute before delivering the best KO of his career. Barnett is scary and the one man I think can actually put up a fight against Emelianenko. The guy also cuts the best Promo in the biz and is almost more entertaining in the post fight interview than in the actual fight.
Brandon Vera struggled with Reese Andy as he showed 205 may just be too much for the former Heavyweight fighter. Vera looked very skinny and obviously ran out of gas early in the fight. He still had enough to get the decision win and props for calling out the fans to support Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in his time of need. Brandon is a class act and will look much better in his next fight.
As for the rest of the UFC event, Rory Markham stole the show as he rebounded from getting his ass handed to him by Brodie Farber, only to find redemption with a head kick KO that was one of the best and most devastating seen since Cro Cop/Gonzaga. Brodie is scheduled to wake up Tuesday and welcome to the UFC Rory.
Anthony "Rumble" Johnson got poked in the eye repeatedly by Kevin Burns who ended the night by sticking his finger so deep into Johnson's eye that it was sick to watch on replay and Anthony could not continue. Then for some unknown reason, the judges awarded the fight to Burns. To Kevins credit he wasn't exactly happy with it either and wasn't trying to cheat. This will set up a nice rematch for both fighters and I fully expect the Athletic Commission to overturn the decision to a NC (no contest) in the coming weeks.
CB Dolloway put a beautiful Peruvian Necktie (how cool of a submission name is that?) on big dumb Jesse Taylor who may be fired from the UFC again. Jesse had some disparaging remarks about Rampage's recent arrests that have been getting him crucified on the net and caught the attention of UFC brass. Genius Jesse continues to embarrass himself at all occasions.
Vitor Belfort took his time but finally took out Terry Martin as his new corner men Randy Couture and Jay Hieron cheered him on. Amazing that Belfort once fought Randy 3 times at Light Heavyweight and is now training exclusively at Xtreme Couture at Middleweight. He looked unsure as always but the set up flying knee and 1-2 punch for the KO were a thing of beauty.
Babalu took out Mike Whitehead in a decision while Lil Nogueira took apart Lion's Den member Edwin Dewees in a 1st round TKO. Mike Pyle also won easily and Mark Hominick took a couple of years to learn how to put a "gimme" triangle choke on Savant Young for the victory. Matt Lindland looked rusty as hell but a win is a win is a sloppy effort. At least the "Law" is back.
Cain Valesquez just beat the piss out of Jake O'Brien and is to be watched at Heavyweight while Frankie Edgar did me proud pulling off the Upset Pick win over Hermes Franca. Frankie is just too fast and his wrestling so superior that he just out points people and makes it look easy. A big win but the kid has to learn to finish fights to be considered in the Lightweight Title hunt.
That's the jist of things and it was a great orgy of MMA this weekend and I haven't even covered the DREAM Grand Prix results yet that ended with a big upset winner! A mighty 15-3 on the picks people tell me I'm not the shit. Get out the credit card I'm going gambling.
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