Strikeforce saw a massive upset as Fabricio Werdum pulled off the unlikely upset over a previously undefeated Fedor Emelianenko  on the weekend.

Fedor made the mistake of going after Werdum while he was in his guard. With the fight on the mat, Werdum was able to work from his guard to a triangle armbar that ended the fight after just 1:09.

The defeat now has most pundits questioning whether he is the top heavyweight fighter in MMA. Betting fans shouldn’t pay too much attention to the rankings. He will get his chance to prove it soon enough as he has just one fight remaining on his Strikeforce contract and now that he is no longer undefeated, he loses bargaining power with the UFC.

Fedor Emelianenko is normally humble in victory, so it’s no surprise that he’s humble in defeat. Not surprisingly, Fedor would love a rematch. He admits that a hesitation when he needed to escape gave Werdum the chance to finish his lock.

Fabricio Werdum on the other hand looks like he has won the lottery. He had better cash in now, because he was able to take advantage of a rare mistake by the Last Emperor.

Fedor Emelianenko answered some questions ahead of his Strikeforce fight against Fabricio Werdum on June 26.

Mostly he stayed away from talking about fight strategy not wanting to give anything away. He is very respectful throughout, but not much of an interview. He answers the vanilla questions with vanilla answers and avoids controversy when asked tough questions.

Among other things, he says he does not go out for revenge against fighters that have previously defeated his brother and he does answer a question about ranking the jiu jitsu skills of a number of fighters, but his answers are very safe.

Fedor is heavily favored listed at -800 in Strikeforce odds while Werdum is +500.

Fabricio Werdum talks about his upcoming Strikeforce fight with Fedor Emelianenko on June 26, his recent fights and a possible rematch against Alexander Overeem.

The Spaniard is focused on his upcoming fight and has been training hard. He compares Fedor to his brother Aleksander Emelianenko who Werdum defeated in Pride in 2006.

Fedor Emelianenko is the overwhelming favorite at -800 in Strikeforce odds while Fabricio Werdum pays +500.

Alistair Overeem was predictably happy with his first round TKO of Brett Rogers in Strikeforce Heavy Artillery. Rogers landed exactly one punch as Overeem was in control for almost the entire fight. After the fight he was more interested in setting up a match-up with Fedor Emilianenko than talking about the fight that he just finished.

Alistair Overeem is clearly the best heavyweight that Strikeforce has to offer Fedor. If it were to happen, it would probably be the best fight ever for Strikeforce in both quality and viewership. The main obstacle is that Fedor Emlianenko‘s management, M1, is notoriously difficult to negotiate with and would likely hold out for as much money as they can squeeze out of Strikeforce before allowing the fight to go forward.

Alistair Overeem TKOed Brett Rogers in the first round of their Strikeforce Heavy Artillery match-up.

Brett “The Grim” Rogers didn’t appear to learn anything from his loss to Fedor Emilianenko as he dropped his guard after some early kicks from Overeem. Overeem was then able to get him on the ground where the fight would stay for the final three minutes with Rogers just trying to limit the amount of damage he takes. Overeem eventually worked him to the cage, started setting up the guillotine choke before unleashing a torrent of heavy punches with Rogers unable to defend. (more…)