The show opened with a nice video package describing Fedor as someone who you wouldn’t think was the best fighter based on appearance and then showed him knocking out Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski. And then they showed him sitting on a throne, belly roll and all.

Gus Johnson, Maura Ranallo, and Frank Shamrock (with braces) are the broadcast team. Mauro called Fedor a cerebral assassin. Hmm, I wonder where he got that from? He also threw in a reference to the American Dream, not Dusty Rhodes though.

1. Fabricio Werdum vs. Antonio Silva

Big Foot Silva looks skinny.

It was a pretty entertaining first round. Every time Werdum tried to get inside to clinch, he was met with a big right hand. Silva put him on his back and went to the ground and pound. He looked like he was possibly going to finish. But he let Werdum back up when he knew that Werdum wasn’t in trouble anymore. The rest of the round had Werdum trying to get Silva to come to the ground, and Silva wanting to stand up. Werdum threw one big right hand that allowed him to get inside, but that was it. It was Silva’s round all the way and was close to being a 10-8.

Silva started to play with Werdum on his back and he almost paid for it. Werdum got him to come down with him and reversed Silva to his back. The rest of the round was mostly about positioning, but there was a great scramble near the end of the round. Werdum was in side mount and went for an arm, then a knee bar, but Silva worked out of it. Werdum’s round.

Werdum’s strategy was to make Silva miss and then get close enough to clinch and land knees to Silva’s face. He was able to get Silva down on all fours twice and be the aggressor on the ground. Unless the first round was scored 10-8 for Silva, Werdum comes back to win this fight.

Winner: Fabricio Werdum by way of unanimous decision

2. Sokoudjou vs. Gegard Mousasi

Gus Johnson said that Sokoudjou beat Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but I think he meant his brother.

Mousasi spent the round trying to find his range with Sokoudjou and didn’t respect his power at all. But it allowed Sokoudjou to land a few wild hooks. Mousasi finally found his range, but Sokoudjou was able to take him down with a quick judo toss. They battled on the ground and then got back to their feet and Mousasi tried a throw of his own, but Sokoudjou held ground and landed on top. I scored it a close round for Sokoudjou.

Mousasi pushed Sokoudjou up against the cage and was nailing him with inside and outside knees to Sokoudjou’s legs. Mousasi tried to take him down, but Sokoudjou switched him at the end and ended up on top. But Mousasi got top position and just started pounding him. It looked like some of the fight was taken out of Sokoudjou near the end because he couldn’t do anything and it was stopped.

Winner: Gegard Mousasi by way of 2nd round TKO

Mauro Ranallo said that Scott Smith will face Cung Le on December 19th in San Jose. He also said Matt Linland will make his Strikeforce debut.

3. Jason Miller vs. Jake Shields

Mayhem Miller danced his way down to the cage with some nice little choreography. He incorporated the Strikeforce dancers and looked like he was having some fun. He also has red hair.

Miller came out and immediately threw a one-two combination and with a Pavlovian response, Shields shot and took him down. He pushed him up against the cage and went to work for a couple of minutes. Miller picked him up and slammed him out of the blue. He then tried some wacky suplexes to end the round.

These guys are working hard. It’s a cat and mouse game. Shields had the upper hand for the entire round, but Miller was so slimy and Shields couldn’t get the submissions he was working for. Their transitions and exits were so awesome that it nearly looked choreographed. Shields even put him in what Frank Shamrock called a banana split and I’ve never seen that before. Really fun round.

The third round resembled the second. Miller opened up with a huge takedown, but fought most of the rest of the round as the mouse again. Near the end of the round, Miller went for the rear naked and kind of lulled Shields to sleep a bit and then went for it. He got it with about 7 seconds left and Shields had to hold his breath to survive. The scoring will be interesting in this round because Miller won maybe about thirty seconds of the round, but those last seven seconds were the closest this fight has gone to being finished.

Shields kept it on the ground and Big John McCarthy had to stand them up once. Miller didn’t really expend much energy and when they were back up on their feet, he ran towards Shields and landed a couple of knees. But then he threw a kick and was taken down again. Shields won the round, but it was the worst round of the fight so far.

The round was similar to the fourth. Shields was working for the rear naked choke and had a figure four around Miller’s body. Miller tried for a guillotine late but it wasn’t close. Shields should get the decision. For three rounds, this was a really fun fight.

Winner: Jake Shields by way of an unanimous decision

The scores were 48-47, 49-46, and 49-46.

4. Brett Rogers vs. Fedor Emelianenko

For some reason, they didn’t show their entrances, which is fine for the undercard fights, but they should’ve showed it for the main event.

Rogers opened up the fight by busting Fedor’s nose with a jab. He pushed him up against the cage and was hitting him with knees. Fedor threw a crazy left hook and put Rogers down. Fedor worked for a kimura but Rogers got out of it. Rogers was able to get on top and started throwing some huge punches on the ground. But Fedor was back on top, but surprisingly couldn’t put Rogers away.

It took one right hand for Fedor to look like Fedor again. He knocked Rogers out loopy with a huge right hand. It was a perfect lead right hand as Rogers looked to be throwing a left hand out there.

Winner: Fedor Emelianenko by way of 2nd round TKO

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