Fedor Emelianenko Stops Tough Brett Rogers In Second Round

Fedor Emelianenko stopped Brett Rogers via TKO in the second round of his WAMMA title defense from the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estate, IL. The first round saw a patient, and surprisingly technical Rogers cut Fedor with a left hand and almost finish the fight with a barrage of punches after reversing position and putting the Russian on his back.

In the second round Fedor was able to get comfortable at a distance and throw his typical lunging left hook that knocked the larger Rogers to the canvas. After three punches from Fedor, Big John McCarthy jumped in and called a halt to the action.

The Chicago area crowd was extremely supportive of Fedor and errupted after the knockdown and roared as the fight was stopped. With the fight on CBS this may finally be the starmaking performance that has eluded Emelianenko to this point in his career.

After five rounds the judges awarded a unanimous decision, and the Strikeforce middleweight title, to Jake Shields. Shields took down the host of MTV’s “Bully Beatdown” at will and controlled position on the ground with relative ease. For the what seemed to be the majority of the fight Shields was either in full mount or on Miller’s back.

The one true moment for Miller came at the end of the third round when he managed to take Shields’ back and almost finish him with a rear naked choke. Shields was saved by the bell and barely lost another second of the fight.

Shields was booed as the decision was announced and then booed very loudly upon leaving the cage.

Gegard Mousasi continued moving toward becoming an MMA star in America with a TKO stoppage of Sokoudjou. Both fighters were well received by the crowd as the put on a back and forth first round which SBNation gave to Sokoudjou based on takedowns. In the second Mousasi was able to land a big flurry of punches against the cage and once the fight hit the floor Gegard poured on a barage of punches that forced the ref to intervene.

Both fighters got loud cheers from the crowd as they left the cage. Very good fight for the live crowd and it should continue to move Mousasi toward stardom.

In the first fight of the CBS televised portion of the card former UFC veteran Fabricio Werdum won a hard fought decision over Antonio Silva. The two heavyweights kept up an impressive pace in a fight that went from the ground to striking on multiple occasions. Silva almost pulled off an impressive knockout in the first round but more and more got drawn into Werdum’s world of grappling where positional dominance won the day.

The judges scored the bout 29-28 across the board for Werdum.

Both fighters were well received and the crowd cheered both men when they left the cage.

From the BloodyElbow.com live results:

Marloes Coenen v. Roxanne Modafferi – Round 1 – David Smith is the referee. Coenen with a solid punch to start. Modafferi tries to get close and eats a hard knee for her trouble. Roxy does manage to grab a leg and drag the fight to the ground. Coenen transitions beautifully to an armbar and Modafferi has to tap out! Marloes Coenen wins by submission, round 1.

Very nice crowd response for the ladies and a really perfect set-up fight to get Coenen in the cage with Cyborg early in 2010.

Local fighter, and former WEC fighter Jeff Curran stopped Dustin Neace in the first round after Neace suffered an injury just over a minute and a half into the round. In a clinch against the fence Neace tapped out and immediately grabbed his side.

Curran received the largest crowd response of the evening to this point during his introduction.

Shamar Bailey outwrestled John Kolosci en route to a decision victory. The fight fell into a pattern early with Bailey driving for takedowns and working position before Kolosci was able to turn his body and stand back up using the fence. This continued for three rounds without interruption except for a point deduction after Shamar threw a knee to Kolosci who was in a downed position. This was the third fight of the evening and all three fights featured a point being taken from one fighter.

The official scorecards were 29-27 across the board for Shamar Bailey.

At this point the arena is filling up quite well with the “cheap seats” looking fairly full.

As the crowd continued to filter into the Sears Centre two more Illinois fighters stepped into the cage. Nate Moore was able to avoid the power wrestling game of Louis Taylor. Moore wore Taylor down with positional ground work in the first round. At the start of the second, Taylor was breathing with his mouth open and was unable to avoid the takedown of Moore.

Moore worked to the back and flattened Taylor out. As Nate threw punches to the head Taylor was forced to tap out due to strikes.

In the card opener Chicago’s Christian Uflacker defeated Jonatas Novaes by unanimous decision. The fight was a rather uneventful affair featuring Uflacker on top in half guard for the majority of the 15 minutes. In the third round Jonatas threw several upkicks to the head of Uflacker who had 3 points on the ground. The foul did appear fairly intentional and based in frustration and Novaes was penalized two points. The  pro-Uflacker crowd responded well to the decision.

Official Scorecards: 29-26, 30-25, 30-25 all for Christian Uflacker.

Just a little empty arena shot to whet your MMA appetite