The Emperor Falls

Fedor lost on Saturday night.

That was the big MMA headline from the weekend and it will have repercussions for many months to come. No longer can Fedor fanboys claim their man is invincible. No longer will Fedor have that mystique about him that may have helped contribute to some of his victories, as opponents psyched themselves out. Now, he's human. Now he'll have to earn his crown back.

Is he the #1 heavyweight? Maybe, but now it isn't just the "he hasn't fought in the UFC yet," argument that spearheads the nays, but a new "he lost to a UFC cast-off" argument has taken the lead.

Werdum is a very good fighter. At one time, he seemed to be a scary up-and-comer in the UFC. Then he lost a couple of fights and was somewhat harshly discarded by the organization. He went into his fight with Fedor as an 8-1 underdog, though. Was the betting line justified? Or was this an example of money setting the line? How many people were really betting on Werdum?

I'm not sure that I was. He had lost to power before, after all, in the form of Junior Dos Santos. That KO is on highlight reels. But I had always felt Fedor was overrated or, at least, that there were holes in his game. I haven't seen too many of his fights, but the ones I have seen showed a fighter who could knock you out at any moment, but who looked somewhat clumsy in the interim. Clumsy is the lifeblood of Brazilian jiu-jitsu; make a mistake and it's over.

Sure enough, Fedor looked very clumsy as he pounced on a fallen Werdum in the hopes of a quick finish, but it was Werdum who would end the fight with a triangle choke/armbar combination. Fedor was even given an earlier opportunity to second-guess his attack as Werdum almost caught him in a triangle seconds earlier. But Fedor fell right back into position.

Clumsy.

So what now? Fedor has one more fight on his contract. That third fight was supposed to be for the belt and, ideally, a big fat new contract as champ. But unless Fedor waits the better part of a year for his next fight, that's not going to happen. Werdum will get Overeem first.

Was this M-1's miscalculation? Were they banking on the third fight being the title fight? It seems odd, doesn't it, that the "greatest heavyweight in the world" was not getting a title fight sooner?

And what does this mean for Strikeforce? Is the organization screwed, like Elite XC was when Kimbo lost, or is this actually healthy for the organization as it gives other fighters in the division more credibility?

Time will tell, I guess. Strikeforce will have to do more work to sell their product, one presumes, as they are more reliant upon a single face than is the UFC (Silva? GSP? Penn? Lesnar? Couture? Chuck, even?).

The next few months will go a long way to determine whether Strikeforce will survive in the long term.

In the meantime, check out reactions to Fedor's loss here.