Emelianenko vs Rogers Made Official

by Robert Sargent

At a press conference in New York City earlier today, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker announced that #1-ranked heavyweight and WAMMA Unified Heavyweight Champion "The Last Emperor" Fedor Emelianenko will face Brett "The Grim" Rogers in his next fight.

The fight will pit Emelianenko against the undefeated Rogers, who has won all of his fights by stoppage and is coming off of a 22-second knockout of Andrei Arlovski.

While some may be quick to discount Rogers, he is certainly as worthy, if not more so, of challenging for a major title as UFC fighters such as Shane Carwin and even champion Brock Lesnar. Rogers is 10-0-0, with essentially all ten victories coming by knockout (one was a submission due to strikes), and his blitzing of Arlovski, a former UFC Heavyweight Champion, proved that he can compete among the best.

However, Emelianenko has made a career out of defeating opponents who are often larger and stronger than he is, and if Rogers is not able to secure a quick knockout, he will likely become just another one of Emelianenko's lengthy list of victims. Emelianenko will no doubt look to take the fight to the ground, where his famous armbars will be in full effect.

No date has been announced for the fight as of yet, but Emelianenko's Strikeforce debut is set to be an explosive one.