In what may have been the most shocking upset in the relatively young history of mixed martial arts, pound-for-pound legend Fedor Emelianenko suffered his first true loss when he succumbed to a Fabricio Werdum triangle choke just 69 seconds into their main event bout at Strikeforce/M-1 Global: “Fedor vs. Werdum” on Saturday night in San Jose, California.

In a fight that was more a formality than a number-one contender’s bout, the heavily favored Russian appeared well on his way to victory, and a long-awaited shot at current champion Alistair Overeem, after knocking Werdum down with one of his patented overhand rights. The blow sent Werdum falling to his backside on the mat, followed closely by Fedor, who sensed his opponent’s weariness and eagerly rushed forward in an attempt to end the fight.  

Once both fighters were on the ground, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist quickly pulled guard and transitioned through a series of submission attempts that immediately had Fedor on the defensive. Fedor first successfully fought off an armbar attempt but was almost instantly caught in a triangle choke that began squeezing the air out of the former Pride Champion. With the hold secured, Werdum began cranking on Fedor’s left arm, hyper-extending it until the world’s best fighter was forced to tapout for the first time in his storied MMA career.

For Werdum, the win not only ranks as one of the greatest upsets ever, but it puts him in line for a title bout with Overeem later this year.

Hometown favorite Cung Le used a barrage of powerful and precise strikes to defeat Scott Smith in a rematch of their December 2009 fight, which Le lost via third round knockout after dominating his opponent for the majority of the fight.

Le spent the first two minutes of the rematch on his heels, as Smith rushed out of his corner and began pushing an aggressive pace. However, the tide began to turn midway through the round when Le began finding his range. He kept his challenger at bay with stiff jabs and an occasional kick before landing a two-punch combination that wobbled Smith towards the end of the round.

Round two was all Le. The San Jose idol landed punches, knees, and kicks almost at will. The attack culminated with a highlight-reel spinning back kick that connected into Smiths right side and sent him falling to the canvas. Sensing that Smith was hurt, Le quickly followed up with punches and knees before referee Jason Herzog intervened and put a stop to the fight at 1:46 of the second round.

In a woman’s title bout, Strikeforce middleweight champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos easily defended her crown with a complete battering of an over-matched Jan Finney, ultimately winning by technical knockout at 2:56 of the second round.

Cyborg came out strong, landing several power-punches and dropping Finney four times in the opening frame. Cyborg looked every bit the dominant champion that she is, with her only real blemish coming late in the round when she was deducted a point for repeatedly striking the back of Finney’s head from top position.

For her part, Finney did well to merely survive. Despite being overwhelmed from the get-go, Finney kept pressing forward and occasionally landed punches of her own. However, it was only delaying the inevitable, and the end finally came midway through the second round after Cyborg dropped Finney with a hard right hand and vicious knee to the body. With Finney defenseless on the mat and eating a series of unanswered Cyborg punches, referee Kim Winslow mercifully stepped in to end the bout.

In other action:

Josh Thomson defeated Pat Healy by submission (rear-naked choke) 4:27- R3.

Chris Cope defeated Ron Keslar by TKO (head kick and punches) 4:32- R2.

Bret Bergmark defeated Vagner Rocha by unanimous decision.

Yancy Medeiros defeated Gareth Joseph by KO (punches) 1:19- R2.

Bobby Stack defeated Derrick Burnsed by split decision.

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