Strikeforce Fedor vs. Silva: Keys To Victory for Every Main Card Fighter

In a million years, there's a lot of things that I personally thought I'd never have to do, and one of those things that I thought I'd never have to do was start off a slideshow talking about the first fight Fedor Emelianenko will have since his first real pro loss.

Alas, now is the time when we must bring up the memory that only about half of us saw coming: the day when someone would actually beat Fedor in a fight without any controversy (specifically, a "somebody" named Fabricio Werdum)

We can talk about Werdum later in the tournament, but the bottom line is that it's the memory of Fedo rtapping out vs. a surprising-to-hear-anyone-remembers memory of a failed drug test in EliteXC for Antonio Silva.

At the end of the Strikeforce event headlined by the clash of The Last Emperor and Bigfoot, one of those bad memories will be erased for good, but that's not all.

Ray Sefo finally makes his Strikeforce debut against "The Python" himself, Valentijn Overeem, Chad Griggs is in action, and Lavar Johnson collides with the undefeated Shane Del Rosario.

It all leads up to the co-main event of Andrei Arlovski and Sergei Kharitonov and of course the main event.

So what do these behemoths need to do to make their presences felt this Saturday?

Sugar Ray Sefo's Striking

Sugarfoot is back in an MMA fight, but when you look at what he's done in K-1, you can't find too much reason to question whether he can get the job done against Valentijn Overeem -- apart from Sefo pushing 40, but then again, that subject opens up the "Randy Couture debate" all over again.

Anyways, Sefo is a striking machine who is back in an MMA fight for the first time since 2009, and despite a pretty notable K-1 record, he's only 2-0 as a Mixed Martial Artist.

His M.O. has always been to come at guys with his striking and the result of him coming straight for his man has ended multiple times with the same chain-of-events.

In other words, the fact that he's going back to wearing MMA gloves will make little if any difference, because if he hits Brovereem (yes, I seriously referred to Valentijn as "Brovereem"), that big python will eventually have no choice but to coil up.

The key for Sefo is to not only time his shots, but right out of the gate he has to close the distance as much as possible against Overeem.

Granted, Overeem has said that he won't be afraid to stand and trade strikes with Sefo, but it's been a while since we've seen the older "Reem" in action, and we don't know for sure that his striking is truly superior to Sefo's.

At this juncture, I'm going to say that if Sefo can bring the "stinging rain" early to the skin of the elder brother of the champ, it's unlikely that Overeem will last long against "Sugarfoot".

Valentijn Overeems Constricting Game (Submissions AND Striking)

The Python has sure come a long way from the days when he was choking out guys like Randy Couture.

He gets Ray Sefo this Saturday in the first main card fight of the Fedor-Silva event.

He's said that he won't be gunshy when it comes to Sefo and his own striking game, but let's not forget that Sefo is a K-1 ace with a striking game -- and at this point, that seems to be all he has.

Valentijn, much like his baby bro Alistair, has shown many of his opponents the end of the line by way of submission, so that's something that we can call a key.

Now, I did say that Sefo could win if he comes out and he takes it to Overeem early, but of course, that just means he should be the one that controls the stand-up early on in the fight, obviously using his striking to take the Older-Reem's legs out from under him before setting up the kill-shot -- whatever Sefo plans for that to be.

However, if Sefo comes out like a bat out of hell and goes ape-nuts on Overeem, he's not only risking himself getting Koed, but even if he doesn't get finished, he might gas himself out early.

In the same way that Sefo needs to strike early and control the standup, Overeem, needs to do the same, but as Sefo could potentially have the better stand up, Overeem needs to steal a play from his baby brother's book and use his powerful striking arsenal to either damage Sefo severely, or -- provided his stand-up proves slightly less damaging than Alistair's -- he needs to use it to set up an attempt or two to take the fight to the ground, where many feel Valentijn might have an edge.

He better not ignore any opportunity to at least try to take the fight to the ground against Sefo, who we haven't seen much on the ground in his past couple of outings.

In either case, he can't rely solely on his striking arsenal to get it done. He has a good submission game and even if the fight stays standing, he shouldn't be afraid to use it -- not if he wants to go from "notoriously inconsistent" to "second best Heavyweight in Strikeforce apart from his own brother".

If he plays Sefo's game and strikes the entire fight, it's a 50/50 shot of him either winning, or fueling the fanfare that will say "just call it a damn career already!"

Trust me, he may not look like he needs to, but people will say he does if he gets careless with Sefo.

Chad Griggs' Ability To Scrap From Anywhere

What does it say about any fighter -- even a relative newcomer to Strikeforce -- when he has a record of 9-1, with a loss by Kimura... and even the one submission win on his record came by way of punches?

It says "Don't scrap with this motherf**ker, you motherf**ker."

The opposite is what Chad Griggs likely wants to do with Gianpiero Vilante, and if you ask me, that is what the rather unorthodox Griggs needs to do.

It never was saying much to be the guy that handed Bobby Lashley a loss, but in the process, Chad Griggs' fists did some damage to the former WWE United States Champion and former WWECW Champion.

Perhaps showing a ground game would also help against Villante, who is a wrestler, but the key here is to find whatever opening he can and lay some shots in.

Granted, the 8-1 Villante isn't going to be as easy to do that to as Lashley was, but then again, Lashley was supposed to steamroll over Griggs, and Lashley was a guy with actual wrestling ability also.

Maybe Villante is no Lashley -- he could prove more explosive as a wrestler, but if a fist from Griggs hits him -- whether it's up at his face, down from the mount, or boomeranging from the side -- he's as good as close to wrecked.

Gianpiero Villante's More Diversified Game

Very rarely in Mixed Martial Arts will any writer say in print that the key for one fighter's victory is his whole entire game and it's equally rare that the recommended game plan is to do something as obvious as expose his opponent as being one-dimensional.

In this instance, however,  that's exactly what Villante needs to do.

The truth is, Griggs is a Boxer -- that and nothing more will define his style.

Again, the only submission win on Griggs' win column is is a submission to punches.

There's very little we can say about Villante, except that he's 7-1 and he's one of the few Wrestlers in the sport to have never gone to the judges' cards.

Neither has Griggs, but we don't know enough about the gas tanks of these two to say that one man can go longer than the other.

What Villante has to do, plain and simple, is use his Wrestling and more-or-less neutralize Griggs to where that signature on-the-back striking Griggs loves cannot be utilized effectively.

Some ground and pound might be helpful in possibly cementing his spot as an alternate selection, but considering that this is his Strikeforce debut -- and it's unlikely that even the Johnson-Del Rosario winner gets a spot in the actual tournament itself -- exposing Griggs as a one-din=mensional fighter should be just fine for his career

Shane Del Rosario's Cardio

Very few undefeated prospects in MMA have a reputation for finishing all of their opponents, but Shane Del Rosario has done exactly that.

Again, this is a dangerous striker in the division -- except one with good Muay Thai and an improving overall game, so Johnson won't be in for an easy night.

Interestingly enough, SDR has never seen round three in his career, which is somewhat surprising but not quite a first among prospects.

The way I see it, the Muay Thai is going to show either way, so all he has to do is come in with the mindset that this alternate is going three rounds and outlast Johnson for the entire fight, because I can bet you anything that Johnson will be tough to break mentally and even tougher to break in the heat of the battle now that he has a seven fight win streak going for him.

Truthfully, this is a battle of who can last longer in the cage as opposed to who has better striking or takedown defense, which you'll find when you learn that the key for Lavar Johnson's success in this fight is kind of similar/

Lavar Johnson's Cardio and KO Power

Like I said, the key to victory for Del Rosario is about the same as the key to victory for Johnson -- the difference of course being that Johnson's KO power could be a factor if he is able to blast Shane at some point during the fight.

A fairly well rounded fighter, Johnson can finish from anywhere he wants to in order to get the win, but like his foe, he's never seen the judges' cards.

Again, it's all a matter of who can outlast the other and put the other to sleep in dominating fashion.

Andrei Arlovski's Newfound Jackson Game

The prototype for Leonidas, Arlovski's hit a three fight skid in his Strikeforce career -- one that seems to have altered a tad since aligning with the Greg Jackson camp.

I don't know that he'll have any Wrestling, but Jackson can help a guy improve anywhere and everywhere in order to succeed in the cage.

Arlovski needs to use whatever knowledge he's picked up come Saturday, or else a lot more people are going to become familiar with Sergei Kharitonov -- and plead for Arlovski to call it a career.

Sergei Kharitonov's Stand-Up

Plain an simple, there is a question of whether Arlovski's stand up has improved since the Belarusian's last outing, and Sergei should look to use the ability that he is known for -- every ounce of stand up prowess -- to beat Arlovski on the feet.

The Pitbull was once one of the best Heavyweight strikers in the world during a time when most of the best fighters in the world weren't even in the UFC, and Sergei himself is a former PRIDE FC standout.

If Sergei keeps it standing, Arlovski likely won't last long.

Fedor Emelianenko's Mental Game-Planning

Either Fabricio Werdum fought with a smart game plan or Fedor lulled himself into a false sense of dominance and had to tap for his misdeeds.

I say it was both, and Fedor now just needs to make sure he gets his head on tight for this fight.

A mental error against Bigfoot could result in the same fate as Mike Kyle, Andrei Arlovski, or those who have fallen to Bigfoot in the past and have paid for it by some form of crushing defeat.

All Fedor has to do is just be careful -- he can go for the finish but he has to be weary of what Bigfoot can do on the ground and on the feet and he has to work around that jut like he's worked around every other past opponent's strengths.

If he does that, the best Heavyweight in the world will be back.

Antonio Silva's Will to Fight, No Matter Where It Goes

Antonio says he wants to treat every fight he has in this tournament as if it were the tournament final, and against Fedor, I believe he'll have no second option if he wants to win.

He can't get caught up in the fact that he's faced the arguable GOAT of the Heavyweight ranks, he can't let himself ponder on what'll happen if he should fall short in this one -- because falling short means he's out of the tournament, and most of all...

If he gets put on his back by Fedor, he better be good enough to use his limbs to combat his likely-shorter foe when he's fighting Fedor off of his back.

Fedor's signatures are his armbars and his Kimuras -- among some of the best in MMA, and if Bigfoot gets himself trapped in those or not, he's going to have to bank on Fedor losing his touch with those submissions in order to stand any shot of even escaping with a decision.