No More Heroes: Fedor Emelianenko Taps Out to Fabricio Werdum

I really want people to stop and think when they reflect upon last night. So stop and think; reflect upon how you define greatness. How do you define greatness? The prognosticators are out in full force last night and today, all looking to tell us what it really means that Fedor Emelianenko, the Last Emperor, has finally dropped his first official loss and that it was in a Strikeforce cage to Fabricio Werdum. There is talk of there being no fighters outside of UFC who can claim a #1 spot, Fedor should be fighting at Light Heavyweight, that Fedor hasn't been good since 2005, and much, much more.

Something very important happened last night and it involved one of the greatest fighters in MMA's rather brief history. As I pointed out the other day, Fedor was the last holdout of an older guard, he was an anomaly within the modern world of MMA. All of the heroes from Fedor's peak had fallen off, including Frank Shamrock who narrated his own retirement highlight reel last night, Chuck Liddell who has been brutally KO'd more times than I'd like to recall, Andrei Arlovski whose bouts with depression are well known, Mirko Cro Cop whose aggression and power will never be matched, even by himself, and Wanderlei Silva whose brutal knees and kicks struck fear into everybody and now are just a distant, hazy memory. 

Fedor was the Last Emperor and last night was the night when the modern world passed him by. Fedor represents more than just the PRIDE glory days like you'll see on every nook and cranny of the web right now. You'll hear about nuthuggers, PRIDE fanboys, Zuffa fanboys, Zuffa haters, PRIDE haters. Those are all just strange justifications for opinions and for dissenting opinions, but what you won't see is discussion about how Fedor represents everything that was beautiful and magical about such a brutal, fickle and sometimes glorious sport. 

A short, chubby bald man with cold, steely eyes was able to become a superhero and for ten years went without a single loss, dispatching the greatest names in the history of Mixed Martial Arts without flinching, just enduring pain inflicted upon him and then delivering just enough to have his hand raised in victory. Last night was the night where the unstoppable samurai with his sword came face to face with a Western gatling gun for the first time and was more than willing to accept his fate; Fabricio Werdum's legs contracted around his neck like an anaconda sucking the life out of him and putting an end to his reign on the world of MMA. 

In a way, last night's fight reminds me of the film "The Last Samurai." Luke Thomas argues that Zuffa has won the battle, finally, and I agree. Last night was the final battle in "The Last Samurai;" Fedor led the last charge with his sword to an honorable death against a dishonorable opponent who will now sit atop the throne of MMA. The only thing is, Werdum doesn't fit into this equation, instead Fedor was fighting for the honor that was left for Japanese MMA, who at one time was seen as unstoppable but due to their honor system, they fell behind the western world. Last night the UFC was able to riddle whatever was left of the memory of Japan's glory days with 37mm bullets and can now lay claim to having only the best of the best, and will find a way to tarnish Fedor Emelianenko and all that he accomplished, as well as all that happened in Japan and Europe to help advance MMA to where it is today.

"And so the days of the Samurai had ended. Nations, like men, it is sometimes said, have their own destiny."

SBN coverage of Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Werdum