After an historic loss on Saturday night on Showtime, we devoted the entire show to figuring out what it all meant. For those who want to watch the UStream feed from last night (per usual, the callers cannot be heard), go here.
1. We open the show with a recitation of what actually happened in the fight, moment by moment. We try to understand James' sadness and look ahead to the rest of the show.
2. In the second segment, Seph Smith (brown belt in BJJ under Felipe Costa, black belt in Combat Sambo) of 50/Fifty BJJ in Arlington, Virginia and walked us through exactly how Fedor got trapped and tapped in Werdum's triangle. He discusses Werdum as a pure BJJ sport player, the difference in approaches to guard passing between BJJ and sambo and explains the technical mistakes Fedor makes that lead to his loss.
3. We take more calls and evaluate whether or not the UFC "needs" Fedor, the promotional ability of Fedor after this loss, whether or not Strikeforce is happy that M-1's leveraging power has been compromised, whether Fedor should drop to light heavyweight and more.
4. The calls keep pouring in, so we also evaluate how the loss to Werdum impacts Fedor's legacy. I also argue (a la Rome's great post) that if you fight consistent contenders in MMA, you eventually lose. I further argue that Fedor never belonged atop the pound-for-pound rankings, but did belong at the top of the heavyweight rankings because no one in the UFC had asserted themselves relative to the other contenders.
5. We close out the show looking ahead to UFC 116's Lesnar vs. Carwin main event. I argue a number of things (among many others): Carwin's power is better than anyone else's in the heavyweight division, Lesnar is going to be noticeably faster, Lesnar's chin may or may not be great but his risk aversion towards taking punishment combined with his natural wrestling instincts should serve him well, that's it's a gigantic red flag when a fighter's fights have all ended in the first round and that in truth, Carwin has only faced two world-class opponents.
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