Strikeforce Fedor vs. Henderson: The Real Winners and Losers

The official results are in for Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson, but now it's time to examine who were the real winners and losers from tonight's event at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, IL.

An awesome event was capped off by an electric main event which featured two of MMA's most legendary competitors as former Pride heavyweight champion and consensus top pound-for-pound king Fedor Emelianenko fought current Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson.

While most of the media was focused on that fight for obvious reasons, there were some tremendous undercard fights as well which should not be overlooked.

Let's take a look back at tonight's fight card as we examine the real winners and losers from the event.

Loser: JZ Cavalcante

Other than the choice to stop the fight in the main event, perhaps the most controversial moment of the night came when the scores were being read for the JZ Cavalcante vs. Bobby Green fight.

Cavalcante, who was considered one of the biggest rising stars in the sport just a couple years ago, barely made it out of his fight against Strikeforce newcomer Bobby Green. Though he won the fight by a split judges’ decision, the bout could have arguably gone the other way.

Green looked confident throughout the fight and didn’t seem to be affected by anything Cavalcante threw, which is the biggest concern and why Cavalcante is considered one of the real “losers” of the night.

Most of us were expecting a far more dominating performance. 

Winner: Tyler Stinson

Former Bellator fighter Tyler Stinson ignited the crowd with his huge knockout of Eduardo Pamplona in his Strikeforce debut.

On a 10-fight win streak coming into the fight, Pamplona was considered the favorite by most but took huge damage early in the fight when Stinson completely lit him up just seconds into the fight.

This great performance should guarantee Stinson another fight on the big show and has now finished his opponent in 20 of his 22 career victories.

Loser: Scott Smith

A disappointing performance from Scott Smith has to be concerning for the Strikeforce decision-makers as their former champion has now dropped three straight bouts.

Granted, the first two were against elite-level competitors in Cung Le and Paul Daley, but this most recent loss to Tarec Saffiedine was unexpected and discouraging. Not only that but the way he lost was even worse.

It looked as if Smith was hesitant throughout the fight, and his usually aggressive style was non-existent until the final few seconds of a bout he had already lost.

Winner: Tarec Saffiedine

A unanimous decision victory doesn’t really even tell how dominant Saffiedine was on Saturday night. His dominance was obvious throughout all three rounds of the fight, and he out-struck Smith by a total count of 142 to 21.

It was such a decisive victory that one judge, Sal D’amato even scored the second round 10-8 in favor of Saffiedine, which is rare in a bout where there wasn’t a real close knockout.

Saffiedine lost his previous fight to Tyron Woodley but has now pushed his excellent Strikeforce record to 4-1. 

Loser: Marloes Coenen

A very confident Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion Marloes Coenen admitted to coming into the Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson fight card with the mentality that Miesha Tate could not submit her.

Lesson learned.

Coenen completely dominated the second round and it looked as if she may submit Tate, but was unable to seal the deal. It proved to be her demise as Coenen struggled in the first, third and fourth rounds before finally falling to an arm triangle choke.

Marloes Coenen will be back, but this was not her night.

Winner: Miesha Tate, Women’s Mixed Martial Arts

Miesha Tate is proof that hard work and dedication can pay off over time.

As someone who has been with Strikeforce since they were just a local promotion, Tate has now grown into being perhaps the new face of women’s mixed martial arts with Gina Carano and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos temporarily out of active competition.

Tate is extremely talented, and hey, she isn’t tough to look at either.

Loser: Paul Daley

Formerly considered one of the top-10 welterweights in the world, Paul Daley is beginning to slip into obscurity with his second straight loss under the Strikeforce banner.

The British welterweight came close to defeating Nick Diaz in April but was unable to seal the deal despite landing a few big shots early in that fight. He then eventually fell to a knockout from Diaz.

But on Saturday night, the loss Daley sustained may be an even tougher one for his career. It’s not that Woodley isn’t a talented opponent but that Daley was never really in control of the fight in a bout that a former top-10 fighter probably should have won.

Winner: Tyron Woodley

With Nick Diaz having departed Strikeforce for a shot at Georges St-Pierre’s welterweight title in the UFC, Tyron Woodley may have shot himself into the picture for the currently vacant welterweight title.

Woodley was never really in much trouble throughout the fight and noted after the press conference that he was not at all concerned that he would be submitted even when Daley had him in what looked to be a pretty tight omaplata.

Whether the Strikeforce welterweight championship has much value at this point is up for debate, but there is no denying that Woodley should be one of the favorites to become the division’s second champion.

Winner: Tim Kennedy

Though he would later say that he was disappointed in himself for not finishing the fight, Tim Kennedy certainly has to be considered one of the biggest winners from Saturday night’s fights.

Kennedy was fighting Robbie Lawler who has not quite broken into being am elite level competitor yet, but has been at that next level for years now. And Kennedy pretty much thoroughly dominated him, other than one punch early in the second round.

Though both Lawler and Kennedy are coming off of losses to the current middleweight champion Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Kennedy has certainly thrown his name back in the mix for a future title shot.

He also continued his vocal support of the United States military by being sponsored by the National Guard and bringing a wounded veteran into the cage after the fight to celebrate.

Loser: Fedor Emelianenko

The biggest loser of the night, of course, was former pound-for-pound king Fedor Emelianenko who may now be looking very seriously at retirement.

It is believed that this was the last fight on Fedor’s current Zuffa contract and at this point, it is hard to imagine that he will be resigned. Certainly the former Pride champion could still draw in a big audience, but the amount of money he has been asking for, in combination with the fact that Strikeforce has to co-promote with M1, is a recipe for contract stalemate.

Whether Fedor was legitimately knocked out in this one isn’t really the big question. Instead, all eyes will be on Emelianenko in the coming weeks as he decides if this was the last fight of his legendary professional career.

Winner: Dan Henderson

What a night for the former multi-division Pride champion, Dan “Hendo” Henderson.

Not only did he compete against a heavyweight for the first time in years, but he did so against the man many consider to be the greatest heavyweight fighter of all time. Then he defied the odds by becoming the first person to ever legitimately knock the Russian out.

Hendo made it known in the post-fight press conference that he would like to defend his light heavyweight title next, but who knows what Strikeforce will decide?

Maybe they’ll even decide to sneak him into the heavyweight Grand Prix tournament or something crazy like that.

Either way, it was a memorable evening for Henderson and one that will likely go down as one of the biggest victories of his career.

Loser: Strikeforce’s Finances

There were rumors that Strikeforce was no where near selling out the arena coming into the night, but it looked to be just about packed full by the time the main card began.

According to Scott Coker, the promotion sold 8,311 seats for a total gate of $638,470 at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, IL.

The previous event held in the same arena for Fedor vs. Rogers did not have its numbers released to the media but appeared to have less fans in attendance.

While the ticket sales were strong, it has to be considered that, according to reports, Henderson and Fedor alone made more than the entire gate. This has to be tough on the Strikeforce bottom line as they are, after all, a for-profit business.

Still, the event itself was absolutely amazing and may have been worth the amount of money they paid to put it together in the end.