Fedor Emelianenko KO1 (punch) Andre Arlovski
Fedor Emelianenko won again over another top ranked opponent, knocking Andrei Arlovski out in the first round of their fight for Fedor’s WAMMA Heavyweight title. Arlovski was getting the better of the fight, using a solid one-two combination as well as hard leg kicks and front kicks which kept the former PRIDE Heavyweight Champion off balance throughout the contest. Fedor looked to be strung on a couple of occasions by Arlovski’s power but recovered quickly and fought back. Arlovski was also showing good takedown defence, avoiding going to the mat when the Sambo expert got a hold of him.
However as many other fighters have found, Fedor’s well rounded skills and patience proved Arlovski’s undoing and the one time Arlovski made a mistake Fedor ended the fight suddenly. Arlovski backed Fedor into a corner with a front kick and a right hand and then jumped in with a flying knee only to be caught in mid-air by a short overhand right and knocked unconscious. In a fight that lasted 3 minutes 14 seconds, Arlovski controlled probably 3:10 of that time and yet those few seconds is all that Fedor needed to end matters.
While Fedor did look human in this fight, Arlovski is one of the top fighters in the World and would likely destroy every Heavyweight in the UFC. The way to beating Fedor seems to be standing up but the thing is, no one has the sharp skills Arlovski has on his feet plus the wrestling skills and ground skills to keep Fedor from taking him down. It’s pick your poison with Fedor as he has more then enough stand-up skills to hang with 99% of the World’s Heavyweights and the ground skills to handle probably any of them, plus the takedowns and takedown defence to control where the fight goes. Lesnar is way too green and makes too many mistakes that a true Heavyweight with Fedor’s skills will capitilise on. Mir could catch Fedor on the ground but would likely be knocked out before he got the fight there. Fedor’s next opponent looks to be Josh Barnett and I don’t give Barnett much of a chance at all. His ground game is good, but it’s not at the level where he can catch someone like Fedor. Anyone not giving this guy his props right now is a fucking moron!
Josh Barnett Sub3 (strikes) Gilbert Yvel
Sure he got the job done, but this was a seriously bad performance from Barnett. His ground game just looked sloppy, period. His punches didn’t look to be as devastating as some of the other fighters we see who get to the same positions and his submissions were slow enough for ever Gilbert Yvel to get out of. Barnett has to get back on form or improve if that’s all he’s capable of if he’s going to be fighting Fedor next.
Vitor Belfort KO1 (punches) Matt Lindland
Wow! Vitor of old comes back (for now anyway). He blitzed Lindland in the same fashion he blitzed Wanderlei Silva and Martin Eastman and Tank Abbott and the likes those years ago. Lindland was out for a while and it was good to see him leave on his feet under his own control. A knockout like that is a potential career ender especially for a fighter in his late 30’s like Lindland. Vitor though, what a way to crack into the Middleweight elite. Lindland had a lot of hype at Middleweight as one of the top dogs even though he’s been relatively inactive so this is a huge win for Vitor. Rumour has it his Affliction contract has expired and the UFC is in need of top Middleweights. I’d definately be hyped for Belfort-Anderson Silva. Vitor’s never been knocked out before, so it’ll be interesting to see how that fight would go. Unlike Patrick Cote’ who just had a punchers chance, Vitor has that plus a BJJ black belt. Even though his heart can be questioned at times, Vitor’s as dangerous a challenger as anyone out there for Anderson Silva at 185lbs.
Renato Babalu Sub2 (Anaconda Choke) Sokoudjou
Sokoudjou looked good early, but gassed out bad and Babalu is not someone you want on top of you know matter who you are. I would really like to see Babalu vs Little Nogueira now as they seem to be the top two 205lbers outside of the UFC. Babalu took some good shots but didn’t get discouraged and finished the fight with a slick choke as we’ve seen him do before. It was also good to see him let the choke go after Sokoudjou tapped.
Antonio Rogerio ‘Little’ Nogueira KO2 (knee) Vladimir Matyushenko
Matyushenko surprised everyone including Nogueira by trying to box and he didn’t look too bad. Nogueira seemed tentative when it came to answering back thinking Matyushenko was just trying to get him to open up so he could take him down. The worst thing Matyushenko did was hurt and cut Nogueira because once he did that, Nogueira opened up and things got bad for Matyushenko. He got hurt with a solid knee to the midsection and then one to the head finished him off. The fight was strange as it was a mixture of really bad and really good.
Other Results
Dan Lauzon Sub1 (Rear Naked Choke) Bobby Green
Jay Hieron TKO1 (strikes) Jason High
Paul Buentello TKO3 Kirill Sidelnikov
LC Davis UD3 Bao Quach
Alberto Rios UD3 Antonio Duarte
Brett Cooper KO2 (punch) Patrick Speight
Thoughts
I’d love for Affliction to be able to stay around because, even though its not the UFC, it’s good to get something different with quality fights on it from time to time. Even if they just put a show on 2-3 times a year when Fedor fights I don’t care. Affliction is about the only way we’ll see Fedor in legitimate fights and they’ve delivered Sylvia and Arlovski, the two best UFC Heavyweights for a period of time already. Those two fights are among the biggest Heavyweight fights in MMA history. I hope there’s a third show, but if they do close down I hope Fedor and the UFC can come to terms so he can prove to everyone (well not everyone because there’s some morons out there) that he is the best MMA Heavyweight of all-time.
