Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Hendo

Strikeforce and M-1 Global have partnered to present one of their most impressive cards to date. Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson is sure to bring the fire. The card features two legends, and quite a few up and comers, and will take place at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, IL this Saturday.
Since the purchase of Strikeforce by UFC parent company, Zuffa, LLC, there hasn’t been much excitement about the former UFC competitor. All of the talk about Strikeforce has been centered around merging the UFC and Strikeforce, and about dream matchups between the two organizations’ stars.
The July 30th card features two bouts that fans and the fighters themselves have been talking about for a long time. Fedor Emelianenko versus Dan Henderson is a dream matchup for any MMA fan, and both fighters have been talking about it for some time now. Another of the interesting matchups on the card is undefeated Tyron Woodley versus Paul Daley.
Even the prelims feature some high level fighters, which has been unheard of in Strikeforce. Gisias “JZ” Cavalcante squares off against Bobby Green and Julie Kedzie fights Alexis Davis.
The match with the biggest implications unfortunately gets lost in the shuffle of such a monster card. Marloes Coenen will step up to defend her welterweight title against Miesha Tate, but amid all the other stars, odds are that they will go unnoticed. Thus is the casualty of trying to promote women’s MMA on such a big card.The first matchup on the main card will be Scott Smith versus Tarec Saffiedine. Both California natives are coming off loses, but to high level fighters. Coincidentally, the fighters that Saffiedine and Smith most recently lost to are fighting one another later in the evening. Smith was most recently dispatched by a knockout courtesy of Paul Daley, and Saffiedine dropped a decision to Tyron Woodley.
Smith, the former UFC fighter, has hit a rocky spot in his career but looks to use the somewhat green Saffiedine to launch his career once again. Saffiedine doesn’t look like he is going to let that happen. The Team Quest representative, Saffiedine was able to last three rounds against a welterweight elite in Woodley, and has a very underrated ground game. Saffiedine wins the fight by unanimous decision.
The second most highly anticipated fight on the card comes next. Paul “Semtex” Daley goes toe to toe with Tyron Woodley. Daley is on a road back to the top after being booted from the UFC for a late hit on Josh Koscheck in their title elimination bout in May of 2010. With wins over the aforementioned Scott Smith and BAMMA’s Yuya Shirai, Daley finds himself in the biggest fight of his career aside from the Koscheck fight.
With the Strikeforce welterweight title expected to be relinquished by champion Nick Diaz in order to fight for the UFC Welterweight title, this could very well be Daley’s second title elimination bout.
Tyron Woodley, a former standout wrestler for the University of Missouri, was a teammate of current Bellator Welterweight Champion Ben Askren in college. Woodley has finished five of his eight fights inside the first round. He has never lost in eight professional appearances, and has been campaigning for a title shot for some time. Woodley, in his latest campaign move, wore a shirt to Nick Diaz’s last title defense against Paul Daley that read: “I’ve got next.”
Woodley is incredibly driven, and is excited about the chance to possibly be fighting for the title on Saturday. With Nick Diaz giving up the title, the winner of the fight could possibly be awarded the vacant Strikeforce Welterweight title at the end of the night. Best-case scenario is that the fight ends up being for the title, the worst case is that it is for the right to fight for the title. This is a fight with huge implications either way.
This should be a great fight with a lot of action. Woodley will look to get the fight to the ground, but not desperately. Woodley is bigger than Daley, and has some solid striking skills. If the fight goes to the ground Daley is done for. If Woodley watches Daley’s right hand, and gets in and out with his jab and scores a few takedowns he will win by TKO in the second round.
The next bout on the card is Robbie Lawler versus Tim Kennedy. The fight between the two former middleweight contenders should be a battle of two opposite strengths. Kennedy had better get Lawler on his back early or it will be a short night. Lawler, who has over 80 percent of his wins by knockout, poses a serious threat to Kennedy’s consciousness. Lawler has as much to worry about as Kennedy, though in the grappling department. Lawler is very susceptible to the choke, as he has lost four times because of the submission.
The edge still goes to goes to Lawler in this fight, though by a very slim margin. If he can stay off of his back, and time his onslaughts carefully, he has the tools to end the fight with a crushing knockout early.
The women's welterweight title fight between Marloes Coenen and Miesha Tate is one shrouded in mystery. Not much is known about Tate other than the fact that she, ironically enough, trains with Urijah Faber’s Team Alpha Male. Coenen has squared off against elite female fighters like Liz Carmouche and the unstoppable Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos. She managed to survive three rounds against Cyborg before failing in her quest to capture the women’s middleweight title, losing by TKO.Coenen is a pure ground specialist, and has the ability to capitalize on any small mistake. Tate is an all around fighter, and this will play right into Coenen’s hands. She isn’t elite in any part of her game, so Coenen will look to get the fight to where she is comfortable and end the fight before Tate has a chance to get into her groove. Coenen wins by choke in the third round.
Finally, all that is left is the most exciting fight of the year, Fedor versus Hendo. Fedor is coming off of back-to-back losses for the first time in his illustrious career. Having not lost in the eight-year span from 2001 to 2009, Fedor has been considered the best fighter in the world for a long time. Entering the fight against Hendo he has just been eliminated from the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand-Prix, a tournament that he was one of the favorites to win. The question that everyone is still trying to figure out is whether Fedor is really past his prime. At 34 years old, it is not out of the question, but the fact that he was so dominant has the MMA community unwilling to believe such things.
Dan Henderson comes into the fight with as many, if not more shining credentials than Fedor. He won the UFC 17 Middleweight Tournament, won the PRIDE Welterweight and Middleweight titles, and most recently, captured the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight title. The man has belts on belts on belts, to say the least. At 40 years old, it is odd that no one is questioning his ability, but it’s because he is still smashing opponents as he always has. His last win, for the light heavyweight title, was over Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante. He won the fight in the third round with his signature right hand.
It truly does appear that Fedor is past his prime whether fans want to believe it or not. His submission loss to Fabricio Werdum was sloppy, and he was battered by Antonio Silva in his last fight. He still has the tools to win this fight, but his game isn’t as sharp and fine tuned as it once was. Dan Henderson, on the other hand hasn’t seemed to lose any power over the years, and his overhand right is as technical as it always was. This fight doesn’t look like it will end up as a technical grappling match, but more of a sloppy slugfest. Dan Henderson will retire the legend of Fedor Emelianenko, and the fighter himself after he scores TKO victory in the second round. It looks like the true “Last Emperor” may be Hendo.