2010 Bloody Elbow Reader Awards: Submission of the Year

Fabricio Werdum Triangles Fedor Emelianenko

We outlined the historical importance of Fedor's loss in the "Upset of the Year" writeup, so we'll breakdown the technical details of the sequence here. If you want to follow along, check out this footage of the fight.

1:10 - Werdum ends up on his back. Live, it appears that Fedor knocks him down with a punch, but replays suggest that Werdum simply lost his footing. In any case, Fedor goes into full Beserker Barrage mode. He whips Werdum's legs to the side in order to open a direct line of communication between his fists and Werdum's face. Werdum, however, is able to keep his hips square with Fedor and latches a weak triangle as Emelianenko dives in.

1:17 - It becomes apparent just how weak the triangle is as Fedor powers out of it. After tossing Werdum's hips aside, Emelianenko ends up in side control; and, briely, does a good job of staying tight on Werdum's leg.

1:20 - This is where Werdum changes the course of the fight. He struggles to escape out of side control as Emelianenko throws down hammerfists. He ends up rolling toward his right shoulder, and then rolls laterally to his left shoulder to square himself up with Fedor. The fence stops the momentum, and this allows Werdum to slip his left leg over Fedor's right shoulder.

1:27 - Fedor still has an opportunity to escape at this point as the triangle hasn't been locked under Werdum's right knee. He tries to yank himself out, but Werdum has a vice grip on his arm. This puts Fedor's elbow in a vulnerable position near Werdum's hips, and it forces him to re-enter the triangle. Werdum, astutely, uses this moment to tighten the triangle.

1:34 - Fedor tries to power out as he did earlier, but the triangle is too tight.

1:40 - Fedor stacks Werdum, standing straight on his legs and pushing his weight forward. He tries one last time to swing Werdum's hips over, but fails. This is where Frank Shamrock notes that Emelianenko looked like he wanted to tap.

1:48 - Fedor loses his balance and almost falls over on his right side as he tries to square back up with Werdum. Werdum starts torquing on the arm here, and Fedor taps shortly after. I'm unsure if the triangle, the armbar, or a combination of the two was cause for the tap. By this point, there had been a tremendous amount of pressure put on Fedor's neck after nearly half a minute of being stuck in the triangle of a 240-pound ADCC/Mundial champion.

Full results after the jump.