Fedor vs. Werdum: Official for Strikeforce
Fabricio Werdum will face the sport’s most accomplished heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko but the former is confident of his abilities and strength and hopes to wipe away the considerable mystique left the scales without a hiccup.
Fedor Emelianenko, former Pride Fighting Championships heavyweight titleholder checked in at 229 pounds for his showdown. On Saturday at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif, the bout will take place. At Friday’s official weigh-in, Fabricio Werdum (238.5), meanwhile, underdog challenger, Jan Finney (143.5) and Strikeforce women’s middleweight champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (144.5) were also made weight without incident in official weigh-in.
To make official their rematch, which follows Smith’s shocking come-from-behind win last December, middleweight Cung Le and Scott Smith will try to register 185 pounds
Since August 2004 duel with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, which ended in a no contest, Emelianenko has rattled off 11 consecutive wins. In November, the stoic 33-year-old Russian had last appeared. Unbeaten Brett Rogers on second-round strikes in his ballyhooed promotional debut for Strikeforce was stopped by Fedor. Wins over former champions Tim Sylvia, Mark Coleman (twice), Andrei Arlovski, Kevin Randleman, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Renato “Babalu” Sobral and Matt Lindland. Among his 31 career wins, he has 21 first-round finishes.
Werdum, in 18 professional bouts has been finished only once. He is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a black belt in judo. Since he outpointed former EliteXC heavyweight champion Antonio Silva, the 32-year-old has not fought, though in the last match he won by unanimous decision, but it was six months ago. Werdum holds submission victories over Emelianenko’s younger brother, Aleksander Emelianenko. He is also reined over Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem by submission victories. He is a two-time winner of the Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships.
For more information please check out the Strikeforce betting blog.
