Going to be a great weekend for MMA fans.

On Friday, 11-6-09, Strikeforce Challengers Series live on Showtime:

MAIN CARD
BILLY EVANGELISTA (9-0) VS JORGE GURGEL (13-5)
BRANDON CASH "MONEY" (5-0) VS SHANE DEL ROSARIO (8-0)
LUKE ROCKHOLD (5-1) VS JESSE TAYLOR
THOMAS DIAGNE (1-0) VS MERRIT WARREN (4-2)
ELISHA HELLSPUR (1-0) VS ZOILA FRAUSTO (1-0)

No picks as I don't know much about any of these guys other than Jorge Gurgel.


On Saturday, 11-7-09, Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers live on CBS:

MAIN CARD
FEDOR "THE LAST EMPEROR" EMELIANENKO (30-1) VS BRETT "THE GRIM" ROGERS (10-0)
JASON "MAYHEM" MILLER (29-6) VS JAKE SHIELDS (28-4) - MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
GEGARD "THE DREAMCATCHER" MOUSASI (29-2) VS RAMEAU THIERRY "THE AFRICAN ASSASIN" SOKODJOU
FABRICIO "VAI CAVALO" WERDUM (12-4-1) VS ANTONIO "BIGFOOT" SILVA (13-1)

This card is just so stacked. My picks are:

Fedor
Shields
Mousasi
Silva

What are your picks, comments?

I am ready!! Did you by any chance catch the 30 minute episode of Fight 360 on showtime last night? It was showing Fedor at home in Russia training and Rogers at his home training. Fedor seems to be a very humble guy that lives very modestly. Rogers was saying that he was going to knock Fedor out. I don't think he will win but stranger things have happened.

"Did you by any chance catch the 30 minute episode of Fight 360 on showtime last night" siggers

I did not. I will catch it either tonight or Friday when it replays.

"Fedor seems to be a very humble guy that lives very modestly."

He's not living a rock star lifestyle. He keeps focused on training and fighting. Fedor is very disciplined and focused.

Fedor is an absolute wrecking machine. He didn't get a 30-1 record by accident. I like Rogers and if he won, it would reshape the heavyweight rankings. However, I think Fedor's experience and wins over 5 former UFC champs will result in him winning the fight.

I'm not keen on who's fighting in the Challenger card either.

On the other hand, Saturday's card is going to be amazing. Well, at least it sounds awesome on paper...lol. I thought the Arlovski/Fedor fight was awesome...don't blink....over! I'll give Rogers a punchers chance and probably lay a few bucks on him. You never know.

Ah...yes...November is awesome. I do wish Lesner was still fighting, but oh well.

No big names on the Challenger Series card, but I've seen all of them. These events are excellent. A lot of hungry fighters looking to finish. They are like a WEC card. No real big names but lots of good fights.

I'll play.

Fedor
Shields
Sok
Werdum

Mousasi will probably win that one but I am not a fan of his.

Decent Friday night event. Can't wait for tonight's card on CBS. The Chicago Tribune had this story on Fedor in today's paper:

Is Fedor Emelianenko 'baddest on planet'?

By Chris McNamara
November 7, 2009

In a promotional video hyping Saturday's mixed martial arts bout, Fedor Emelianenko methodically crushes a sledgehammer into a truck tire. It's wham, wham, wham! He's barefoot and shirtless, training in a dimly lit, dank room stocked with archaic training devices and what appear to be old surgical supplies.

Then the soundtrack catches up to the hammering -- wham, wham, wham! -- and we see clips of the fighter hitting a heavy bag, running through a cold train yard and wrenching his shaved, bullet head to crack his neck. It ends with the 33-year-old winking at the camera as someone praises "Good. Good man."

Look for it online -- it's an exciting minute-long intro to the man who is considered by some the best fighter on the planet. It also highlights the incongruity of this guy as the face of this sport.

Mixed martial arts leagues such as UFC and Strikeforce, which is hosting Saturday Night Fights at Hoffman Estates' Sears Centre (WBBM-Ch. 2), have touted the sport's more regulated format in recent years in an effort to shed its underground image. Yet in this promo, the best brawler of the bunch is pictured in a dingy Russian cellar slamming a tool into a tire.

The heavyweight is not statuesque or sculpted like other MMA fighters.

He's just a plain-faced guy from a small Russian mining town with a last name so hard to pronounce that everybody refers to him by his first -- Fedor -- which doesn't have the same ring to it as "Tiger."

"The Michael Jordan, the Tiger Woods, the Rocky Marciano of our sport." MMA commentator Jay Glazer says in the promotional video.

On Sunday, Fedor stood outside Soldier Field with a posse composed of a translator in a fur jacket and a few trench-coated, long-bearded associates who looked like they had stepped out of a Tolstoy novel.

The "Michael Jordan" of MMA went unnoticed by the hordes of Bears fans save for one, who threw his arm around the Russian to snap a photo.

"Oh, I knew who he was right away," beamed Joliet's Ray Sowinski, wearing a Cutler jersey. "It used to be all NFL and baseball with me, but now MMA is right there with them."

Fedor, who holds a few championship titles in the myriad divisions of MMA, is a ferocious mix of boxer and grappler, having trained in the Sambo fighting style while serving as a firefighter with the Russian military.

Outside the ring, though, it seems as if Fedor is permanently set on zero. He's subdued, quiet and cautious in his movements. On the field before the Bears-Browns game, he studied the players as they warmed up, reporting that they weren't as large as he had imagined.

According to MMA commentator Stephen Quadros, "Fedor Emelianenko is the baddest man on the planet."

But it's hard to believe that when you see Fedor in person.

He's average looking at 6 feet and 235 pounds.

Sure, the scars under his eyes and the deep gash on the bump in his nose let you know this guy has been in a few scrapes, but he's not as physically intimidating as his upcoming opponent, undefeated Brett Rogers, whose fists seem as large as the champ's shaved head when they pose for a photo together.

But is it true -- the baddest man on the planet?

"No, I don't think so," Fedor replied with a soft smile.

When asked about his pedestrian physique, the father of two chuckled. But moments later he stood up, rolled his shoulders back and stuck out his chest, a non-vocal message that bodybuilding and fighting are two different disciplines.

"I don't think anybody's invincible ... [but] he's probably the closest thing," said Randy Couture, a five-time UFC champion.

When asked about Chicago-native Rogers, Fedor just shrugged his shoulders and silently stared back with blank eyes.

Pressed on the topic, he praised his opponent's strength, but then surmised "Everything is God's will. The fight will go the way God plans."

It usually goes in favor of the fighter nicknamed "The Last Emperor," as he has lost just once in 31 professional bouts, when Tsuyoshi Kosaka's elbow sliced his forehead 17 seconds into a bout.

If things go his way in Saturday night's nationally televised bout, his stock will rise greatly in this country.

So, who caught it?

Rogers done some damage, but Fedor landed the big one. Very entertaining fight, wish I could say the same for the rest of the card.

Shields/Miller was a snoozefest...and I couldn't help but think there are 6 or so middleweights in the UFC that would kill these two.

quote:

Originally posted by Blaker:
Rogers done some damage, but Fedor landed the big one. Very entertaining fight, wish I could say the same for the rest of the card.

Shields/Miller was a snoozefest...and I couldn't help but think there are 6 or so middleweights in the UFC that would kill these two.

All I have to say is Shields wins the gold medal in lay and pray. Holy shit....whatta boring fight.

Shields should go back to 170 lbs. He's too small to hold that belt very long at 185.

I wish Big John would have let Fedor knock Rogers unconscious while he was on the mat. I thought he called it a little soon though I know Fedor would have punished him. Too bad then we wouldn't have to hear from Rogers after the fight.

Rogers was done after that right hand. He did catch him with one on the ground. That one really probably just put the nail in the coffin.

Hats off to Rogers tho...that's quite a bit of damage coming from a long shot from the Sam's club tire department. He shoulda just let those hands fly ala the Arlovski fight.

Fedor vs. Overeem....Make it happen!!!! Just don't test

Rogers definetly is a hard hitter. I thought he was going to kill Fedor when he had him on the mat in the first.

Rogers showed me a lot in that fight. I agree with what he said after the fight about letting his hands go more.

If Fedor fights Overeem next, I hope it is for the Strikeforce HW title. Overeem won it Nov. 2007 and has yet to defend it.