Rich Hansen's Take
HANSEN: Fedor's first loss in a decade tops list of "Top Stories of 2010"
Jan 3, 2011 - 7:10:56 PM HANSEN: Fedor's first loss in a decade tops list of "Top Stories of 2010"

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By: Rich Hansen, MMATorch Columnist

Throughout this week, we'll present a number of articles from MMATorch writers detailing their top ten stories of 2010. Check back throughout the week for a different perspective on the year that was MMA in 2010.

1.) Fedor Emelianenko Lost a Fight

On December 22, 2000, Fedor Emelianenko lost the first fight of his career. Nine years, six months, four days, and twenty-eight victories later, Fedor Emelianenko lost the second fight of his career. Between his controversial loss to Tsuyoshi Kohsaka in 2000 and his loss to Fabricio Werdum in 2010, Emelianenko scored victories over such luminaries as Babalu Sobral, Heath Herring, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (twice), Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Mirko Cro Cop, Matt Lindland, Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski, and Brett Rogers.

I am in full support of the criticism that Emelianenko and his management team receive for the way his career has been handled since signing with Strikeforce in 2009. I am well aware of the fact that Emelianenko hasn't fought more than twice Since 2005. I am well aware of the scorn Emelienko receives from the general MMA cognoscenti. I understand that 99% of the current fan base (myself included) became fans of the sport after his fight with Mirko Cro Cop in 2005, and that most of today's fans believe that if it doesn't happen in 'MERICA, that it doesn't matter one bit (I'm looking at YOU, Pelkey).

But everyone who chooses to dismiss the historic nature of this upset are selling themselves short. The sport is unlikely to ever see a twenty-eight fight, nine-plus year long win streak again. Just because Fedor and his management team have made decision after decision that are seemingly designed to turn him off to the modern-day MMA fan should not for one moment lessen the importance of his achievements and accomplishments in this sport. Fedor may be choosing to make his future irrelevant, but everything he did yesterday is wildly important.


2.) Strikeforce Signs Elite Heavyweights Who Never Actually, You Know, Fight

Strikeforce's Heavyweight division features such names as Fedor Emelianenko, Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett, Antonio Silva, Andrei Arlovski, Sergei Kharitonov, Brett Rogers, and Champion Alistair Overeem. In Strikeforce, Fedor has fought Werdum, Rogers has fought Fedor, Silva has fought Werdum, Silva has fought Arlovski, and Rogers has fought Overeem.

Fedor renegotiates his contract before and after every fight, doesn't care about his legacy, ducks fighters he thinks he can't beat, and manipulates both Scott Coker and his sycophant fans into believing that he still has mystique.

Overeem, the most dangerous man in the world, has fought twice for Strikeforce; once in 2007 when he won the title, and once in 2010 (a year that Scott Coker promised Overeem would fight three times). Overeem's five most recent fights are for FEG (four kickboxing fights, and one MMA fight). And in MMA alone, since winning the oh-so-coveted Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship, Overeem has fought in nine MMA fights. Only one of those fights have been under the Strikeforce banner. Due in part to Overeem's love of Japanese culture and K-1, his return to Strikeforce is yet to be negotiated.

Josh Barnett was recently signed by Strikeforce. Of course, he's been busted thrice for steroids, and doesn't know that it might be a good idea to bring an attorney to a licensing hearing before the California State Athletic Commission. He hasn't had a meaningful MMA fight since dropping a decision to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira on New Year's Eve 2006. Because he is currently unlicensed, it is unknown if or when he will debut for Strikeforce.

On November 29, 2010, Scott Coker was quoted as saying of Alistair Overeem, "I'm talking to his management and we have a game plan for Alistair and I'm sure you'll hear about it soon." Or, maybe we won't hear something soon because even the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

It doesn't matter how many names Strikeforce has signed to their heavyweight division if Coker can't coerce or convince them to fight.


3.) Strikeforce Nashville

The night that should have been the best night in Strikeforce's short history became the worst night in Strikeforce's history. On April 17, Strikeforce was granted two hours of airtime on CBS. Strikeforce, the battered wife to M-1 Global and Fedor Emelianenko, was unable to convince Fedor to fight on the CBS card, leaving THE LEGENDARY DAN HENDERSON MAKING HIS STRIKEFORCE DEBUT vs. Um, You Know, That Guy What's His Name Whom We Just Can't Sell To The General Public, Not That We Actually Tried (Check his birth certificate. Jake Shields is merely his stage name…), as the main event of the evening. Also booked on the two hour televised card were a five-round title fight between Muhammed Lawal and the expressive, outspoken, and charismatic Gegard Mousasi, and a five-round title fight between Gilbert Melendez and Shinya Aoki.

Mousasi, then the Light Heavyweight Champion, learned the hard way that in MMA, you might want to learn how to defend the takedown. Both fighters gassed out about half way through the ring intros, leading to a horrifyingly dull decision which defined the derisive term "lay and pray."

So, with approximately 42 trillion people having turned off their televisions after the Lawal fight in order to do something more pleasurable (like, drinking arsenic), Gilbert Melendez dominated the best fighter Japan had to offer. Melendez fought a great fight, to a decision. Unfortunately it was aesthetically pleasing to approximately 42 people. But to be fair, the most hardcore of American MMA fans were able to take several months worth of joy in Shinya Aoki's crocodile tears.

Unfortunately, in their infinite wisdom (I'm being sarcastic here. There was a decided LACK of wisdom in play all through the telecast), the production crew ran every pre-taped package, promotion, interview, and piece of filler that they had in the can, all in an effort to make sure that the main event between the two most charismatic figures in MMA (again, sarcasm here) did not start until minutes after they were supposed to be off the air. Of course, the one thing they did manage to cut was Lawal's ring entrance, which is the best part of his game.

Dan Henderson almost managed to salvage the evening for Strikeforce, as he dominated the first round against Shields, and was consistently three seconds away from a ref stoppage. However Shields, then the Strikeforce Middleweight Champion, turned things around and dominated Henderson with a stunning display of grappling and ground & pound, coasting to a remarkably easy one sided decision.

And that would have been GREAT news for Scott Coker. Well, except for the fact that they were just goaded into signing Henderson to a massive multi-fight contract (I'd love to know who was the actuary who ran the ROI numbers on THAT contract). Oh, and Shields was on the last fight of his contract, and it was the worst kept secret in the sport that Shields had no intentions of returning to Strikeforce after the Henderson fight.

So, to recap... Three bad fights. 45 minutes over their time window. Their golden child was just beaten like they thought they were the Vikings playing the Bears at TCF Bank Stadium. And instead of sending Shields off with a defeat, they showed him beating Dan Henderson to millions of people on national television.

And then while Shields was being interviewed, Jason Miller snuck into the cage and barged into Shields' post-fight interview and interrupted in order to demand a rematch - which led to Shields, Melendez, and the Diaz gang stomping a mudhole into him while the cage filled with officials and security desperate to break up the riot. All the while Gus Johnson calmly explained to the stunned audience of casual fans wondering where their f***ing local news was that these things happen in MMA.


4.) UFC - WEC merger

Such WEC stalwarts such as Urijah Faber, Dominick Cruz, and Jose Aldo no longer have to worry about $8,000 Fight of the Night bonuses that they were afforded as fighters in the WEC, as the UFC absorbed the WEC and added Featherweight and Bantamweight divisions to their brand. The final WEC Lightweight Champion, Anthony Pettis, may unify his title with the UFC Lightweight Championship sometime in 2011. The UFC named WEC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo as the first UFC Featherweight Champion, and did the same for Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz. Also as part of the merger, Versus will be airing four fights this year, as opposed to two UFC shows and approximately eight WEC shows.

While the merger is receiving rightfully universal acclaim, I fear that the lighter weight fighters are going to be treated like the poor unwanted step-children of the UFC. Until the ION TV deal was announced four days before UFC 125, Mike Brown (former FW Champ, top 5 FW in the world) and Josh Grispi (#1 contender for the FW Champion) were both scheduled to fight on unaired preliminary fights. Even after the ION deal was announced, Brown remained shunted to the unaired prelims because he is not the best EVAH!


5.) UFC Sells Nine Million PPVs

For a sport that has hit a comfortable plateau, they sure are peaking, aren't they? In 2010, fifteen UFC PPVs sold more than 9,000,000 PPVs, for an average of more than 600,000 buys per event. And this was in a year where the company also had three PPVs that sold under 300,000 buys, which had been considered their previous 'Floor' level.

It is hard to predict what will happen in 2011, as the future of Brock Lesnar, who headlined two of the UFC's three events that sold more than 1,000,000 buys, is yet to be determined. But considering that their average 2010 buy-rate was six times higher than the highest selling non-Zuffa MMA PPV of all time, the UFC can rest comfortably knowing that they face precisely zero competition in the immediate future.


Other big stories in 2010, in no particular order:

* Zuffa sells ten percent of the company to an arm of the Abu Dhabi government This is probably the most important thing that happened in 2010, but it's kind of like how your pancreas is super important to you staying alive, but it doesn't mean you understand a damn thing about your pancreas. Of course, if you really want to know how your pancreas helps you not die, click here.

* Chuck Liddell announces his retirement: Or, to be more accurate, Dana white announces Chuck Liddell's retirement and then benevolently allows the retiring legend to say a few words before demanding more face time for Dana.

* Chael Sonnen talked, lost, and got busted for taking steroids: Or he got busted for having itty bitties.

* The end of B.J.'s reign at Lightweight: B.J. Penn lost a fight at LW for the first time in five hundred years (or so). He lost twice. He lost twice to the same fighter. He was taken down at will by the smaller fighter. He was thrashed so handily that he left the lightweight division in order to fight in Georges St-Pierre's weight class.

* Japanese MMA is on life support: This saddens me to no end. I was never a PRIDE guy, as I got into the sport about the time Crop Cop signed with the UFC, but I understand and respect Japan's place in MMA, and it does nobody any good if Japanese MMA dies.

* Nick Diaz and Robbie Lawler resign with Strikeforce: Big fishes, meet Small Pond.