Fedor Emelianenko met his demise, beaten down on the mat by a much bigger man Saturday night at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, as Strikeforce began their 8-man heavyweight tournament.

It was not as shocking an outcome as other MMA media would like you to believe. Coming off his first loss in a decade, the 34-year-old Russian legend faced off against the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, Antonio ‘Big Foot’ Silva—a man that outweighed the great Emelianenko by 55 pounds by the time they stepped into the cage. No, it was not surprising. Strikeforce heavyweight champion and the tournament’s prohibitive favourite, Alistair Overeem, who was in the crowd watching, said afterward that Fedor “fought like a true warrior” and that the “fight could have gone either way, fifty-fifty.”

In the first stanza, Fedor came out slugging, landing, but unable to hurt Silva. Fedor then attempted a guillotine, with Silva powering out of that attempt. From there Fedor moved into a half guard, eventually attempting a kimura, but Silva again drove through that with his excessive size and strength and got back to his feet, managing to take down Fedor with 10 seconds left in the round, which painted a portrait of things to come.

In the second stanza, there were no guillotine attempts, or kimuras, and there were no images of Fedor going to work from the half guard. No, the second stanza began how the first ended, with Silva taking down Fedor again, in continuation, feeding his heavy fists into Fedor’s face from the top position, like we got so used to seeing Brock Lesnar do to Frank Mir.

Silva then moved from side position to a full mount midway through the round, throwing several more painful shots before going for an arm triangle. Escaping that, Fedor almost got caught with a knee bar, and for the final minute, sitting there, you could almost picture ‘The Last Emperor’ making it through and coming back in the third to win, because so many times had you seen Fedor levelled and bleeding from his nose and his eyes only to win in the end, somehow, like nothing we had seen before, over and over again. But it did not happen this time. His constant comebacks from all kinds of dire situations over the years that created high drama and his escapes from sure submissions that provided breathtaking theatre for the MMA world ended on this night.

This time his eye was swollen shut, and this time the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board’s doctor told referee Dan Miragliotta to stop the fight. This time we were not to find out if Fedor could reign once more. And all that we were left with was Fedor’s humble Russian voice, standing in the middle of the cage, being translated into something no one was expecting:

“I want to thank you for your support. Something was wrong from the beginning. I didn’t adjust. Maybe it’s time to leave. Yes, maybe it’s the last time. Maybe it’s high time. I spent a great, beautiful, long sport life. Maybe it’s God’s will.”

Andrei Arlovski may also be facing retirement following his knockout at the hands of Sergei Kharitonov in the other heavyweight grand prix quarterfinal earlier in the night. Kharitonov is now set to fight the winner of Josh Barnett—Brett Rogers, while Silva awaits the results of the Fabricio Werdum—Alistair Overeem fight. Both remaining quarterfinal bouts will take place on April 9. The semifinals for the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament could take place as early as June.

In other results on Saturday’s all-heavyweight televised portion of Strikeforce, undefeated Shane Del Rosario (11-0) submitted, via arm bar, to Lavar Johnson (15-4) at 4:31 in the first round, Chad Griggs (10-1) won his fifth consecutive fight, stopping Gian Villante (7-2) at 2:49 in the opening round and Valentijn Overeem (29-25) won his Strikeforce debut via submission (neck crank) over Ray Sefo (2-1) at 1:37 in the first.

NOTES:
Sergei Kharitonov, a 6-foot-4, 30-year-old native of Moscow, Russia, is best known for being the last fighter to defeat current Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem … Gina Carano announced that she is returning to MMA, but no date or opponent has been decided … Fedor’s loss left many MMA fans cramming internet forums over the weekend, calling for a super-heavyweight division … Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said that Fedor could rejoin the heavyweight tournament as an injury replacement … At the end of the Silva—Fedor match, before the official announcement was made in the arena, Antonio Silva walked across the cage, got down on his knees and bowed at the feet of Fedor Emelianenko. “I told him he was No. 1, that he is still No. 1 and that he would always be No. 1,” said Silva. “There will never be a fighter like him.”

1. Cain Velasquez: With a first round TKO victory over Brock Lesnar at UFC 121, Velazquez becomes MMA’s top heavyweight by default, for now. His toughest fight to date was against Cheick Kongo at UFC 99, a three round unanimous decision. If there is one knock against Velazquez (8-0), it is that he hasn’t faced the best. Beside Lesnar—an underwhelming stand-up fighter—and Kongo, the most talented fighter he has stepped in the cage with was a past-his-prime Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
Up next for the thick 28-year-old Mexican American kickboxer is Junior dos Santos. The biggest thing Velazquez has going for him: he’s never lost a single round in mixed martial arts competition.

2. Alistair Overeem: The Strikeforce title-holder suffered through a string of losses in 2006-2007 to Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Ricardo Arona and Mauricio Rua, but hasn’t taken more than a single round to win any of his last eight fights.

Like Velazquez, Overeem began his career as a kickboxer, though he has been far less busy of late, defending his Strikeforce crown only once in the past two years. He is currently fighting in K-1 and will be participating in the World Grand Prix Final in December and remains at least six months away from returning to the cage in North America. It will be interesting to see just how much he has improved. If he can take care of Werdum and Fedor in Strikeforce, it might be enough for him to be thought of as the top heavyweight around.

3. Junior dos Santos: Maybe the best stand-up heavyweight in mixed martial arts, dos Santos is 6-0 since joining the UFC. His wrestling skills will be heavily tested when the day comes to fight Velazquez for the title, but he has definitely earned his shot. Under the tutelage of fellow Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Anderson Silva, dos Santos has won ten of his twelve career victories in the first round.

Prior to the Lesnar-Velazquez match at UFC 121, dos Santos told MMA Junkie that it didn’t matter who was going to win the fight. “When they fight against me, I will knock them out.” Well, now he’ll have his chance.

4. Fabricio Werdum: Since beating Fedor, Fabricio Werdum has been recovering from elbow surgery, though when he’s cleared to fight he should get first crack at the returning Strikeforce champ, Alistair Overeem, who he beat in a Pride match in 2006. Of the top four heavyweights, he owns the most extensive resume, with other notable victories over Gabriel Gonzaga (twice) and Antonio Silva.

With black belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Judo, the 33-year-old Werdum has a real chance to cement his status as one of the top heavyweights of his generation, but only if he can build off the momentum gained from being the first man to ever decisively stop the great Emelianenko. But when comparing Werdum to dos Santos at this point, it’s impossible to ignore Werdum’s KO loss to his fellow Brazilian in 2008.

5. Fedor Emelianenko: It was very surprising to witness the fall of The Last Emperor play out after his error-filled loss to Werdum in San Jose in June. No mixed martial artist in history even comes close to matching Fedor’s stock, so it’s hard to discount him at this point. Until someone decisively knocks out the stoic Russian, he will remain a top five threat. And that’s not expected to happen anytime soon, with Overeem and Werdum both unavailable to fight Fedor in Strikeforce.

Meanwhile, he will remain in flux, though beating up on a lesser fighter or two might allow Emelianenko the time he needs to recapture some of that quickly forgotten legend status.

6. Brock Lesnar: Just another two and done ex-champ. Without a significant improvement in his stand-up game, Lesnar would be an underdog against any of the top five. His beating at knuckles of Shane Carwin was the beginning of the end. He was lucky to even be in the position of fighting Velazquez.

The one-time dream matchup of Lesnar-Emelianenko is now a distant memory, much like the one-time dream matchup of Couture-Emelianenko. I watched his UFC 121 loss in a huge Canadian sports bar with over 1,000 other MMA fans. The reaction of those in attendance when Lesnar was crawling around, bleeding all over the mat, spoke of one thing: he will not be missed as champ.

7. Shane Carwin: It was thought that if he could beat Roy Nelson on New Year’s Day, then he would be next in line for the winner of the dos Santos-Velazquez fight. Roy Nelson is the only fighter to date to go the distance with dos Santos, which shows you how tight the heavyweight division is. But now with the recent announcement that Carwin has pulled out of his bout with Nelson, it will take longer than expected to sort itself out.

The Engineer from Colorado will now spend the next several months rehabbing an injured back. With him and Lesnar—who will need six months to heal the gash on his cheek—both on the shelf, UFC’s heavyweight cupboard is nearly bare.

8. Frank Mir: What should be a scary thought for Mir: he may have to fight Lesnar a third time and beat his hated rival to ever have another shot at the title. A third round KO of Mirko Filipovic at UFC 119 went a little way to restoring Mir’s confidence, but he’s still a long way from re-establishing himself as a true contender.

With Dana White quickly putting an end to talks of Mir movint down to light heavyweight, it looks like the 31-year-old southpaw is here to stay, battling it out with the rest the bigs.

9. Roy Nelson: As tough as they come, he was a decision away in the dos Santos fight in August from becoming the number one contender for the UFC Heavyweight Championship.

With Carwin no longer healthy to fight Nelson on New Year’s Day, Nelson has been using his Twitter account to promote a possible future fight with Lesnar. It’s the fight he wants, but the better test would be against Carwin. Either way, Roy “Big Country” Nelson has come a long way since his early days before Ultimate Fighter.

10. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: One of the great mixed martial artists of all-time, the 32-6 Brazilian should have at least a couple of fights left in him. He beat almost everyone during his prime, except Fedor Emelianenko, and remains a threat to anyone who opposes him. He’s beaten Fabricio Werdum, but has lost to Cain Velazquez, so it’s hard to grasp exactly where he stands, except that he stands. As long as he’s around, no one will be comfortable fighting him.

Nogueira was supposed to fight Mir in UFC 119 in an attempt to avenge a previous loss to him, but pulled out with a bad knee. Surgery will keep the veteran out of the cage until 2011.