Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Monday, December 9, 2024 82° Today's Paper


Sports

Werdum stuns Emelianenko

The most dominant reign in mixed martial arts came to an end last night as Fedor Emelianenko had his 27-fight win streak snapped by Fabricio Werdum in the main event of a StrikeForce/M-1 Global co-promoted event at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

Emelianenko (31-2, 1 NC) tapped out to a triangle choke-armbar combination just 69 seconds into the fight.

Werdum (14-4-1) said after the fight that he would rather have a rematch with Emelianenko than face heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem next.

He repeatedly called Fedor "the best" despite needing a little more than a minute to hand Emelianenko his first loss since 2000.

"I’m very, very happy," Werdum said after the fight. "Fedor is the best in the world. This night I beat Fedor, but Fedor is the best."

Emelianenko entered the cage to a rousing ovation from the San Jose crowd, and put Werdum on the mat early with a flurry of punches.

He charged in to finish the fight with hammerfists on the ground, but Werdum was able to wrap his legs around Emelianenko’s head and eventually worked the submission hold that forced the Russian to tap.

"I was concentrating on strikes and that’s why I made a mistake," Emelianenko said.

While Werdum stole the headlines, Waianae’s Yancy Medeiros remained undefeated in his young career with a second-round knockout of Gareth Joseph in a preliminary bout that wasn’t shown on TV.

Medeiros improved to 5-0, while Joseph, who took the fight on less than a week’s notice, fell to 4-3.

"He did a good job and was timing me well in the first round and hit me with some shots," Medeiros said. "Second round came and he kept running away from me. I kept trying to pressure him and I rocked him up against the fence and was able to drop him again."

Medeiros said he hopes to fight again no later than September.

 

Comments are closed.