Fabricio Werdum and Brett Rogers Won’t Fight Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction: Trilogy
Fabricio Werdum and Brett Rogers, Strikeforce heavyweight contenders mentioned as possible replacements for Josh Barnett, will not be fighting Fedor Emelianenko on August 1 at Affliction: Trilogy.
“It’s safe to say neither Fabricio or Brett will be fighting on Aug. 1,” Strikeforce Director of Communications Mike Afromowitz told MMAjunkie. “The plan is still for Fabricio to fight on Aug. 15, and we hope to have an opponent named soon. As for Brett, nothing is finalized, but he won’t be fighting on Aug. 1.”
Middleweight Vitor Belfort, who was scheduled to fight Jorge Santiago at “Trilogy,” remains the most-likely opponent for Fedor, with some reports stating that Belfort has already reached an agreement to replace Barnett, though an official announcement has yet to be made.
It appears likely that Strikeforce is working on booking Rogers to replace Alistair Overeem against Werdum at its August 15 event. Overeem withdrew from his scheduled fight with Werdum yesterday due to a lingering hand injury, and having Werdum and Rogers square off, possibly with an interim heavyweight title on the line, now makes sense.
[Pictured: Brett Rogers]
Tags: Brett Rogers, Fabricio Werdum
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Any of these replacements won’t be good enough….. this is very frustrating. I don’t want to see Vitor get smoked…he’s just coming back. I guess we’ll see.
Good thing for Werdum, Fedor would just “Junior Dos Santos” his a$$ and as for Brett Rogers, Fedor is no Arlovski
mu f’n Seth Petrazellie!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where you at at big Dogg?
This actually made me laugh when I red it the second time. Well done.
BACKPEDALING JAB FTW!
LOL – me too
Tito???
How about Royce Gracie ??? The MMA legend vs The King of MMA ….. now that would sell the show .
Although it wouldnt last very long…………..
maybe if it was the royce of 10 years ago .
maybe if royce had his GI
;0p
I mentioned this on another thread, but Tito Ortiz is the name that works here, for a variety of reasons.
1) Ortiz is a name fighter
2) he has a lot of big fight experience
3) his jaw-jacking might motivate Fedor to really put on a PRIDEful show
4) Ortiz fighting Fedor puts him back in the MMA mix, and gets people talking about him again. This attention helps Punishment Athletics sales, might boost some PPV numbers, arena ticket sales.
5) Ortiz helps himself with his UFC negotiations two ways. First off, his name is back out there and generating interest, which generates money. Dana loves the paper, and the fighters that draw. Second, if Ortiz can make a fight of it, he simultaneously increases his promotional MMA stock and weakens Fedor’s UFC negotiating position. By doing so he’d improve his already-improving relationship with Dana White.
6) In all likelihood unless Fedor has completely lapsed into semi-retirement, he should beat Tito in a few minutes.
However, if Ortiz is serious about making an MMA return, and Fedor has been lulled into a reduced state of readiness by a steady 3 year diet of weak-a$$ opposition, its conceivable that Ortiz could make a fight of it, and get out of the first round in one piece. It’s also conceivable that Tito could land an elbow that might stun Fedor for a bit, and allow Tito to make a fight out of it. The thinking here is the lobger the fight goes, the better Tito looks, and the rustier fedor looks, even though Fedor winning is a foregone conclusion.
If Tito were to by some MMA miracle make it to a 3rd round, Dana White would have to be rushed to the emergency room with a busted gut from laughing so hard, and Tito could snare a nice signing bonus when he does come over to the UFC.
Or Tito with a good showing could quite possibly write his own MMA ticket. I’m sure Strikeforce wouldn’t mind having Tito on-board, and if Affliction survives to fight another day, Tito could find another decent paycheck waiting for him under Attencio’s signature.
Lots to analyze here, and a few different ways this could play out with even a minimal applications of intelligence and initiative on the parts of Tito Ortiz, Tom Attencio, and maybe even Dana White…
Are you serious with this Tito talk? That is a losing situation for the UFC if they want Tito back. Tito will get destroyed Lidell Style and then his stock will crash and he won’t be signed! This is a Lose-Lose-Lose matchup for everyone! What makes you think Tito has been training and is ready in 10 days to fight Fedor? If Tito is smart, he won’t take that fight.
Who wants to see Fedor decimate losers like rodgers, lashley, or belfort. HOW ABOUT BROCK!!!!! He looked pretty healthy to me after the fight with mir. Now is a good a time as any!
Please dont call two humble undefeated fighters, and a vet like Belfort losers.
Thanks.
Yeah, it’s not like Brock is under a contract with the UFC or anything. Do you think at all before your fingers spew all over my screen?
a Middleweight come on Fedor has to be luckiest mu****er in MMA
GSP will now be #1 A.Silva #2 fedor has to get in the UFC if he wants to keep his P4P title they have 95% of the top heavyweights
Fedor never had a p4p title anywhere except his mind. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: No heavyweight has ever been p4p best in any combat sport. It’s the p4p part that makes it so. Since there are very good fighters half Fedor’s size (See Miguel Torres) he’s guaranteed to never hold that.
fedor would easily beat brett rogers or fabrico werdum or bobby lashley,who some1 also said could be a replacment,barnett was the best option.
But Barnett ain’t fighting in the US anytime soon. And if he takes off to Japan to fight, he’ll never fight in the US again.
Maybe they can get Jeff Monson. He’s known to take fights on short notice.
I don’t wanna sound like a baby, but, all I wanted to see was Josh vs fedor, nothing else. There is no one else. Fedor against anyone else is a squash match. I won’t be watching live now, I know that much.
I don’t think there is anyone in the world more pissed off that Cro Cop right now. Yeah, his best days are gone and Fedor would have pounded him, but he’s a name. And he’s fight ready. He could have taken Affliction to the cleaners had he not just signed a mediocre deal with the UFC.
Mediocre deal? By what accounts? Lorenzo flew out to Croatia just to talk to CroCop, I doubt that he signed a mediocre deal.