By Bryan Lee
Not long ago, I was reminiscing back to my younger days when my pops and I would play basketball in our driveway and the first time I was able to really beat him (like a good father, he’d let me win on occasion). At the time, I was ecstatic; it was as if a rite of passage was taken, for both me and my father. While I was beginning to come into my own, my dad may have begun to question where it was that he was headed. Last night’s Strikeforce main event in New Jersey reminded me of this.
The images are young, yet already burned into my memory. Fedor Emelianenko standing in his corner, cut-men frantically working to cool down the rapidly swelling blood vessels beneath the weathered champion’s battered eye. Antonio Silva in his corner, arms resting on the rim of the cage, intently focused and completely unaware of his victory. His corner man emerges from the bottom of the viewing screen…”You won!”
As a fan of Fedor, last night’s fight was very difficult to watch. Not only for the beating he took but also for the sense that this was inevitably coming. No man has accomplished what the Last Emperor has in MMA and, in my humblest of opinions, he is the current G.O.A.T in the sport. That being said, he has always been a man and suffers the same vulnerabilities that we all face. Perfection is impossible in any endeavor and this is especially evident in an MMA fight.
The first round saw Fedor come out aggressive, throwing his barrage of left and right hooks and overhand rights. Bigfoot stood strong in the pocket and showed a willingness to exchange, both fighters landing punches. Silva was able to press Fedor against the fence and, at one point, lifted him off the ground for a take down, but Fedor’s world renowned balance in the clinch allowed him to put Silva on his back. After a brief ground exchange that saw Fedor jump into the Antonio’s massive half-guard, Silva was able to scramble from a kimura attempt by Fedor and get back to his feet. This is when I became nervous. Fedor backed into the cage and looked tired…really tired. I’d never seen such a look so early on the usually stoic face of the man from Stary Oskol. I immediately knew that it was only a matter of time before Bigfoot shot in and he did so with 10 seconds left in the round, securing a take down as time came to an end.
I gave the first round to Fedor, 10-9 on my completely useless scorecard, but felt really uneasy going into the second. Fedor was breathing rather heavy from the mouth, while Silva looked calm as day, fresh as can be. I remember turning to my friend saying Silva was going to shoot early in the round and in the first exchange, Fedor casted out his right hand and Bigfoot ducked under for a nice double leg into the open guard of Fedor. As they hit the mat, Fedor took a breath and visions of Silva’s ground-and-pound on Mike Kyle began flashing through my head. Silva quickly began the process of passing Fedor’s guard, moving to half to side to North South to side and into mount with surprisingly little resistance. From there began one of the most difficult viewing experiences of my life as a sports fan. Silva showed amazing control, delivering countless punches and hammer fists while maintaining a tight mount and stretching out Fedor whenever he would roll and give up his back. All credit to Fedor, who simply would not give up the TKO despite appearing somewhat helpless under the 285 pound BJJ black belt. Silva, realizing the situation, wisely moved to look for a submission, securing a pretty tight side-choke. There was just enough space for a blood to pass through the 82″ reach of Silva’s tightly triangled arms, as Fedor held on to survive the attempt. With under 30 seconds in the round, Bigfoot looked to surprise the Sambo master by going for a knee bar, that was escaped by Fedor as he then went for the ankle of Bigfoot. The round comes to an end. 10-8, Silva.
As the Showtime cameraman weaved through the mass of corner men and officials, images of the right side of Fedor’s face peeked through. It was brutal. Could he still fight? I believed so, and I would bet money he’d come out swinging for the fences, aggression akin to a wounded animal backed into a corner. It may have not been enough, but I feel that Fedor would have given it his best. Was the stoppage legit? Unfortunately, yes. It looked like some serious damage to the orbital bone and extremely impaired vision. The doctor was well within their right to suggest stopping the fight. As a fan, I wanted desperately to clutch at straws and blame the loss on the doctor stoppage, but there was simply no real argument to make.
Silva is moving on to the second round of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, to face the winner of the Alistair Overeem vs Fabricio Werdum fight. He is starting to become the fighter that many envisioned him to be when he was a prospect in EliteXC. His ability to beat Arlovski on the feet and now Fedor on the ground has truly solidified his place in the top 10. There has never been a person of his size and strength with such legit BJJ skills in MMA. If he gets top control on anyone in the HW division, they may be in for a long night. A rematch with Werdum or a fresh fight with Overeem is not necessarily what the fans were looking for in the second round, but they are both very compelling match-ups. I am very interested to see how this win boosts Bigfoot’s confidence and see if he can advance further not only in this tournament, but into the upper echelon of fighters.
So, where does that leave Fedor? Who know has suffered Back to back stoppage losses, one by submission and one, in effect, via ground and pound. He began talking about retirement before the Werdum fight and again in the cage after his loss to Silva. No official declaration has been made, but once a fighter starts talking about it so openly, it becomes an inevitability. Maybe his head just isn’t into it anymore. Maybe the march of time is claiming another sportsman. The last couple of years have seen the decline of many of that generations greats and maybe this is that time for Fedor as well. I feel that Fedor is still more than capable, but I’d hate to see him stay too long. Many fighters hold on and end up suffering one or two more beatings than they should have. Fedor is definitely a man of conviction and will decide what is best for him and he will always have a place at the top of my personal list of greatest athletes ever.
The day after I first beat my dad in basketball, we met on the driveway to go at it again. I walked out there confident, maybe even a little arrogant. The old man didn’t stand a chance. My dad proceeded to deliver a 21-9 ass whoopin’. Yeah, I finally beat him the day before but the old man still had some fight left in him.
