A Cinderella story came to an end tonight as a Russian David defeated an American Goliath inside a cage during a highly publicized Strikeforce heavyweight bout between Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko (31-1-0) and Brett “The Grim” Rogers (10-1-0) at the Sears Center in Chicago. The event was broadcast on CBS.

The fight was much closer than I would have imagined, and I was really impressed by the six-foot-five, 265-pound Rogers, who looked like could have won the fight at various points in a tough first round. In the opening seconds of the fight Rogers connected with a jab that cut and probably broke Fedor’s nose. Fedor, who is just under six feet tall and weighs 233 pounds, landed a couple of big shots of his own in the round, but Rogers absorbed them and kept fighting.

I thought Rogers would be in big trouble when Fedor managed to take it to the ground, but the big man surprised me with a fairly effective guard and decent submission defense. He powered out of Fedor’s kimura and armbar attemps. At one point, Rogers was in top position with Fedor on his back and pressed against the cage, and Rogers was raining big, hard shots to Fedor’s face, using the broken nose as a sort of bullseye. I was worried that the fight would be stopped, but referee “Big John” McCarthy let it continue and Fedor managed to get up and keep going.

The second round started with some clinching and few shots traded until Fedor found his distance and landed a big right hook that felled his huge opponent. Once Rogers was on the ground, Fedor leaped on him and delivered a few more punches until Big John stopped the fight. I actually think the stoppage was just a little early, as Rogers was still covering up and protecting his face. But it wasn’t an egregious premature stoppage, so I’m not going to make a big issue out of it.

With this win, The Last Emperor retained his crown and continues to be regarded as the top heavyweight fighter in the world. Personally, I’m not sure that claim can really be staked without facing several of the UFC giants like heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar or top contender Shane Carwin. Fedor is a pretty small heavyweight, and he has now amassed a track record of defeating much bigger opponents, but it would be interesting to see how he would do against freaks of nature like Lesnar.

As for Rogers, he definitely impressed me tonight. I had suspected that they were hyping him quite a bit more than he deserved before this fight, but I now have a lot of respect for him. He definitely belongs in the top tier of mixed martial arts fighters, and I look forward to seeing him fight again.

One guy I’m not looking forward to seeing fight again is Jake Shields (24-4-1), who defeated Jason “Mayhem” Miller (22-7-0) by unanimous in a middleweight championship bout. Shields took Miller down over and over and over again and laid down on top of him. He didn’t do anything to him, he just laid on him. Unfortunately, Miller was unable to prevent this, or to escape, which gave Shields the win. Shields is an incredibly boring fighter, a one-trick pony who keeps hitting the same unsatisfying note over and over again.

Miller, on the other hand, is a fun guy and an exciting fighter to watch in the cage. He’s got great strikes and great jiu jitsu. He would have won the fight by rear naked choke submission, but Shields was saved by the bell at the end of the third round. Miller also has great heart and loves to put on a great show. All that was ruined by Shields’ incredibly unexciting wrestling-based fighting style. While it is true that Shields controlled the entire fight, I would have voted against him just for being so freaking boring. Yech.

The other fights on the undercard were much better. Gegard “The Dreamcatcher” Mousasi (27-2-1) got an impressive technical knockout over Rameau Thierry “The African Assassin” Sokoudjou (7-5-0) in the second round of an exciting light heavyweight contest. Also Fabricio Werdum (13-4-1) won a unanimous decision over Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva (13-2-0) in a very, very close heavyweight battle that featured good striking and grappling.

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