Strikeforce: Fedor v. Rogers Week - Monday Round-Up

A brief look around SB Nation at all things Strikeforce: Fedor v. Rogers.

Kid Nate of Bloody Elbow wondered if CBS was capable of successfully marketing an event with a relative unknown (Rogers) and a man who has yet to show any true drawing power in the States (Fedor):

The network audience wants sizzle, not steak. Strikeforce and CBS know this and yet are insisting on serving up Fedor Emelianenko, the definition of low-profile, no flash, high caliber sportsman.

Our own Michael Rome set the perimeters for what will be a successful broadcast debut for Strikeforce, “Anything below four million total viewers would be a disappointment for CBS.”

Kelvin Hunt at MMA For Real posed the question “Can A Naive Brett Rogers Defeat Fedor Emelianenko?”

Obviously he has some ability, is full of confidence, and has been the big fish in a small pond up until this point. He admittedly does not know a lot about Fedor, and hasn’t watched much footage on the guy. In fact, the footage that he did see presented him with a Fedor that was getting beat by the guy that he just knocked out in less than a minute before Fedor landed that Bolo punch. I think being naive can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. It can either work for Brett Rogers, or reality will set in once he gets in the cage with the best heavyweight of all time in Fedor Emelianenko.

Luke Thomas took on the featured undercard bout of the evening with his article “Will Jake Shields Submit Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller?”

Shields’ ground and pound is good, but not excellent. On the other hand, his submissions, base and positional control are outstanding. He’s a less polished pure grappler than Jacare, but a better MMA grappler as it pertains to weaving in strikes. The problem lies in that tiny space: where Jacare has overwhelming positional control, I’m not sure Shields does. And while Shields has better ground and pound, Miller’s durability is far too strong for him to be affected outside of point scoring. That may be enough for Shields to win, but it means he’ll have to go all five rounds with the very game Miller. That’s a tad disconcerting for me.

I guess what I’m driving at is that Shields is the favorite for a reason, but he’ll have to continually pour the offense on from bell to bell. Any space he gives Mayhem or time to breathe could cost him dearly. Shields has never shown a willingness to take damage to push the fight and while Miller is no Giorgio Petrosyan, he is capable of damaging Shields at any point in the fight provided they are standing.

The deep analysis of the event from Mr. Thomas continued as he looked at Fedor’s first trip into the cage in his career:

...the idea that Emelianenko is going to be bewildered and overrun by a cage-savvy Rogers seems exaggerated (short of pressing the far smaller Russian into the fence in clinches or in top control). Conversely, training in a cage or cage-like environment is not tantamount to learning specific cage tactics from experienced veterans. Emelianenko constantly harps on how his techniques aren’t as flashy as other fighters, but rather, are “battle tested” and therefore reliable. Does that mean his often sub-par and somewhat cage-inexperienced Red Devil teammates stepped aside in favor of training from those who know the ins and outs of off balancing, scooping, pressing, turning, dumping, punching, kneeing, pushing, pulling, clinch breaking and more against the fence? We won’t really know until Saturday and may even find that Saturday won’t answer many questions.

Watch Kalib Run has up odds for the event.

MMAMania has a recap of today’s conference call with Fedor and Rogers as well as Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker.

And finally via Watch Kalib Run, Brett Rogers hates dog fighting: