However, in a move many would label the righting of a wrong, Strikeforce executives announced today that both Miller and Davis would receive additional salary equivalent to the sum either would have received for winning the fight. When contacted by FiveOuncesofPain.com for clarification on matters, Strikeforce representative Mike Afromowitz went on to briefly explain the situation and confirm the supplemental payment had been issued.

“(Strikeforce) did everything we could to match (Davis and Miller) on a card taking place in Chicago on November 21st,” said Afromowitz. Neither fighter could take the fight on this date, however, due to different circumstances. Given this situation, we felt the next best solution would be to pay them their respective win bonuses as well as their purses.

This is the first time in Strikeforce history that anything like this has occurred.”

No official word has surfaced on what is next for either Mixed Martial Artist or if they plan to face each other at a future event, Strikeforce or otherwise.

It looks like the event met an average of 4.04 million viewers, while topping out at the 5.46 million viewer mark at it’s peak.

The card delivered significant gains in a variety of areas for the CBS time slot, most particularly among males between the ages of 18 and 34, where the broadcast outrated competing sporting events on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2.

The broadcast was also up 125% past it’s normal season-to-date average for the time slot with all adults between the ages of 18 to 34.

THUMBS UP to Fedor being as good as advertised for his primetime debut. The pre-show hype was built around Fedor’s status as the best in the world, and he delivered upon that promise in a fantastic main event. Give some credit to Rogers (if you like) but the night obviously belonged to “The Last Emperor.” He got busted up, but a broken nose is practically a paper cut compared to some of the damage he’s taken in the past. He also hurt his hand so it may be a little while longer before he returns to the cage, and as of now it’s pretty unclear who his next opponent might be. Speaking of which…

THUMBS DOWN to the championship confusion. So if you were just hearing about Strikeforce for the first time on Saturday, how would you possibly know what is going on in the promotion? Jake Shields and Jason “Mayhem” Miller fight for the vacant middleweight belt, and that’s all well and good. Then Fedor and Rogers come out and there’s the WAMMA belt. Wouldn’t you wonder who the hell WAMMA is? Wouldn’t you also wonder why the “best fighter in the world” wasn’t fighting for the Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship? The casual viewer has no idea that the company’s title is currently collecting dust in a closet somewhere in Holland. The belts are only valuable if people care about them, and right now the Strikeforce heavyweight belt is worth about $5.

THUMBS UP to Jake Shields and his unstoppable grappling skills. It wasn’t always entertaining, but it’s the strategy we knew Shields would employ. He’s not a striker so there wasn’t much reason for him to try and stand with Miller. Instead he took “Mayhem” down at will and was able to control him almost the entire time, easily passing the guard and taking full mount several times. Shields may not have gotten the submissions he was going for but he did win in pretty dominant fashion. Some people want to call Shields boring because of the way this fight went down, but those same people need to be reminded that this is a guy that has finished his last eight opponents. Saturday night he was in against a guy that’s all but impossible to finish, and you saw the results.

THUMBS UP to “Mayhem“ Miller and his entrance. It had flash, which was sorely needed on this card. It’s too bad for him that the third round wasn’t 10 seconds longer (for some reason or another) but otherwise what could he do?

THUMBS DOWN to Gegard Mousasi‘s future in Strikeforce. I’m really happy that Strikeforce brought Mousasi to America, as he’s the kind of exciting young fighter they need. I’m also really unhappy that Strikeforce brought Mousasi to America, because I’d rather see him in the UFC.

Let’s face the facts, there is literally nothing for Mousasi to do in the Strikeforce light heavyweight division. Who’s the company’s top contender right now? Mike Whitehead? Former champ Bobby Southworth? Oh wait, he’s trying to get on the next season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” There’s Muhammed “King Mo” Luwal (who will debut in December), but he’s still relatively green as an MMA fighter and will need some building up first. I’m not sure if Strikeforce can come up with the necessary scratch to sign Dan Henderson, but if they do I’d give “Hendo” good odds to end Mousasi’s double-digit win streak. That’s just speculation though.

If Mousasi were in the UFC there would be a veritable buffet of intriguing match-ups. Machida, Rua, Silva (pick one), Cane, etc. The company is undergoing some heavy changes in their light heavyweight division, and they need all the young fighters they can get if they want the weight class to remain competitive. If I were a voice in Dana White’s head I’d be telling him to sign Mousasi at any cost.

THUMBS DOWN to not seeing the ladies. The bout between Marloes Coenen and Roxanne Modaferri was slated to be featured on the main broadcast with time permitting. The fight took 65 seconds for Coenen to get the submission win, yet they couldn’t find time to show it? Obviously the title fight ate up a lot of time, but it seems to me that they could’ve squeezed the ladies in after Mousasi finished Sokoudjou. Coenen is now slated to be next in line for a shot at Cris Cyborg’s championship, but they lost a key opportunity to create any sort of build for her on Saturday.

THUMBS UP to Antonio Silva and Fabricio Werdum opening the show. The night started and ended with heavyweights, and both fights were the best of the evening. Silva nearly finished this one in a hurry, but Werdum was able to survive and force this one to a second round. From there on he got to display his superior grappling, taking the second and third rounds pretty decisively. He called out Fedor at the post-fight press conference but with Fedor’s immediate future uncertain at the moment, Werdum may have to try and get his second win over Alistair Overeem instead.

Also, I say let’s see Silva vs. Rogers.

THUMBS DOWN to Strikeforce screwing two of their fighters. Mark Miller and Deray Davis were slated for a welterweight bout on the evening’s preliminary card. During the pre-lim fights, members of the media were informed that Miller and Davis would be fighting at the end of the night. Apparently Strikeforce wanted to make sure that the women’s bout was completed before the live broadcast started. According to reports, when the Coenen/Modaferri fight ended there were thirty minutes left before the live show. Once the main event ended, the media was asked to move upstairs for the post-fight press conference. Nobody was informed as to why the Miller/Davis fight had been scrapped. Apparently the fighters were getting ready to walk out to the cage when they were informed that their fight was off.

It gets worse. Reports are surfacing that Miller and Davis were paid their money to show, but neither man got a win bonus. According to a post on the Underground forums one of the fighters lost all his sponsorship money because the fight didn’t happen. These were two hometown fighters, each had gone through training camp and prepared for this night. There’s no logical reason as to why they didn’t get to fight. There was time during the preliminary portion of the card, since two of the pre-lim fights ended in under 2 minutes. There was also, obviously, plenty of time after the main event. Who cares if they would have been fighting in an empty arena?

Strikeforce had a contract with those two men and they failed to honor it. It’s a sour note to what was otherwise a successful evening, but let’s hope it’s a mistake they don’t make again.

Please note, these are strictly my opinions from one fan’s experience, and in no way am I trying minimize my overall good time as a whole.

So I arrived at the arena about 5:40, twenty minutes before the undercard started and the place was packed. Extremely great turnout. Of course you have your regulars, dudes tailgating in the parking lot with Tapout and Affliction shirts as far as the eye can see. But as a whole it seemed to be a very successful showing for the Strikeforce debut in Chicago.

Got to my seats and started watching Cristian Uflacker vs. Jonates Novaes bout, there was no rhythm between the fights. They just sort of ran right into each other. I understand the event was on a timeline for the CBS show, but it would have been nice to see them give better introductions for the undercard fighters. Dan Henderson walks by, further adding fuel to that rumored Strikeforce signing fire.

The arena is starting to fill up and I notice a lot of Armenian and Russians filing in to support Fedor and Moussasi, respectively. It’s never a bad thing when something like MMA can bring different walks of life into the same building. I was surprised by the people around me who were intelligently talking about MMA and not just what they’ve seen on Spike TV. This was in stark contrast to other events held in Chicago and quite refreshing to see my hometown’s growth with MMA.

So were up to the fourth bout, Jeff Curran vs. Dustin Neace, and Curran is clearly the fan favorite. Being from Chicago himself, this comes as no surprise. The fight ends quickly when it appeared Curran had broken the ribs of Neace, who subsequently tapped.

OK, four fights down, two more to go before the big show. There seems to be a bit of a hold up between fights, but I guess that’s from the quick finish from Curran. I go catch a smoke and see Big Ben Rothwell outside in the smoking section. What a nice guy. He’s taking pictures, laughing at people dumb jokes about his UFC debut loss, a real class act. I overhear some guys talking UFC as one guy is trying to remember that “welterweight Karate guy”. The other says, “Machida, yeah he just beat the hell out some dude a couple weeks ago”. So much for the MMA intelligence.

Oh, it appears the women’s fight is next. Guess Miller vs. Davis will be next. There using the main walkway now with the pyrotechnics, something that seems very WWE to me. Marloes Coenen beats Roxanne Modafferi quickly. Coenen looked very impressive, Wow, was that a slick transition into an armbar.

So its 45 minutes until the live show, and Miller vs. Davis should be up next. Very excited to see this one, Miller is an old childhood friend of mine, and I’ve never witnessed him fight live. So 7:30 rolls by, 7:45, 8:00, wait why is Fabricio Werdum standing in the walkway entrance? Guess the Miller fight got bumped, that’s disappointing.

Another disappointing feature was no build up to the main card. I guess I’m spoiled with the way the UFC goes into the live event, but it would have been nice to give some sort of notice prior to the start.

Werdum entered and it takes Silva about ten minutes before he enters. Great opening fight, but in my opinion, Silva won. From my vantage point, he did way more damage than Werdum. My friend and I both had it two rounds to one in favor of “Bigfoot”. Guess not.

Mousasi vs. Sokoudjou up next, and man people really know their MMA. Mousasi is a huge fan favorite after only his second fight in the US proves to me how popular MMA has become in my city. Another great fight, I thought Mousasi would run right through Sokoudjou, but he put on a good showing at least in the first round. It was actually surprising how easily he was tossing “The Dreamcatcher” around.

Shields vs. Miller and what an entrance by “Mayhem”. A bit too much for my liking, but the crowd seems to love it. Guess Bully-Beatdown is more popular than I thought? Overall a good fight, Shields used his wrestling ability to take Miller down and secure the victory. Crowd actually boos Shields as he walks from the cage. Maybe it wasn’t the most action packed fight of the night, but it didn’t warrant jeers towards the winner. Very disrespectful to a tough fighter in my opinion.

Fedor up next and they start to announce Brett Rogers. Rogers is an undefeated fighter who has a chance to shock the world. Boos start as walks to the cage. Unbelievable. I understand the fans are there for Fedor, but I didn’t expect the fans to boo a homegrown fighter from our own backyard. As soon as Fedor enters the crowd roars. I’ve never been to a live event with that kind buzz and excitement. Fans were up on their feet from his entrance to his leaping right hook that dropped “Grim”. Wow, where did that come from?

So the night ends as expected for Fedor, although not without taking a few lumps from Rogers, who’s shown his ability to hang with the greatest of all time, at least for a while.

As a whole the fights were great. There seemed to be more intelligent fans than not, and no controversy to speak of. I would imagine based on the turnout, Strikeforce could easily return to the “Windy City” and expect the same. For an overall grade, B+

The card left the masses with a hunger for more free MMA as Fedor Emelianenko put an exclamation mark on a wild main event, knocking Brett Rogers to the canvas in the second round with a monstrous right hand and finishing him off with a few short punches for the TKO victory.

Also in action were Gegard Mousasi, Jake Shields, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Fabricio Werdum and more.

Below is a selection of photographs of the event courtesy of Esther Lin and Strikeforce:

*Feel free to click on any image to view it in all of it’s glory.

The victory didn’t come easy Emelianenko, he was forced to endure some nasty ground and pound and a busted nose at the hands of “Grim” Rogers, but found his distance in the second round with a huge right hand that deposited the massive Minnesota native on the canvas in a heap. Just a few meaningless punches later the bout was called to a halt, and the invincible aura of Fedor remains firmly intact.

Jake Shields survived a particularly scary rear-naked choke attempt at the end of round three to edge out Jason “Mayhem” Miller via unanimous decision, utilizing a superior wrestling game to get the nod on the judges scorecards.

After being tossed around like a rag doll from the former Olympic level Judoka Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou for the bulk of the first round, Gegard Mousasi exactly why he’s wearing the Strikeforce light heavyweight strap as he came back in the second to stop the PRIDE and UFC vet with some hard shots on the canvas for the TKO victory.

Also seeing action, Fabricio Werdum gritted out a game Antonio Silva to get the unanimous decision nod in a heavyweight clash, while Marloes Coenen managed to secure a first round armbar over Roxane Modaferri to insure a championship bid against Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos in the near future.

A full list of the results from “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers” are listed below:

Fedor Emelianenko def. Brett Rogers via TKO – Round 2

Jake Shields def. Jason “Mayhem” Miller via unanimous decision (48-47, 49-46, 49-46)

Gegard Mousasi def. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou via TKO – Round 2

Fabricio Werdum def. Antonio Silva via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Marlos Coenen def. Roxanne Modafferivia submission (armbar) – Round 1

Jeff Curran def. Dustin Neace via submission (injury) – Round 1

Shamar Bailey def. John Kolosci via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27)

Nate Moore def. Louis Taylor via submission (strikes) – Round 2

Christian Uflacker def. Jonatas Novaes via unanimous decision (29-26, 30-25, 30-25)

The action is scheduled to take place from the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, airing live on CBS.

The Main event will see Fedor Emelianenko facing off with Brett Rogers in a heavyweight showdown not to miss. Other notable match-ups include Jake Shields vs. Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Gegard Mousasi vs. Rameau Thierry Sokudjou, and Fabricio Werdum will be butting heads with Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.

Below is a series of photographs from the weigh-ins courtesy of Esther Lin and Strikeforce:

Shinya Aoki

FiveOuncesofPain.com

The weigh-ins are taking place from the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, the same arena Saturday evening’s event is set to take place. You can catch all of the action tomorrow night live on CBS.

The fighters are set to begin hitting the scales right around 6 pm ET, so make sure to check back as we will be refreshing the results as they take place.

Fedor Emelianenko (232) vs. Brett Rogers (264)

Jason “Mayhem” Miller (184) vs. Jake Shields (184.5)

Gegard Mousasi (205) vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (204)

Antonio Silva (263) vs. Fabricio Werdum (242)

Marloes Coenen (145) vs. Roxanne Modafferi (140)

Deray Davis (170.5) vs. Mark Miller (171)

Jeff Curran (145) vs. Dustin Neace (149.6)*

Shamar Bailey (170) vs. John Kolosci (171)

Nate Moore (184) vs. Louis Taylor (185.5)

Jonatas Novaes (155.5) vs. Christian Uflacker (156)

*Curran agreed to a catchweight bout of 149.6 pounds after Neace failed to make weight. Neace will forfit 20% of his purse to Curran due to the foul.

Along with the main event featuring a heavyweight clash between Fedor Emelianenko and Brett Rogers, the card will also showcase match-ups of Jake Shields vs. Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Gegard Mousasi vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Fabricio Werdum vs. Antonio Silva, and a swing bout between Marloes Coenen and Roxanne Modafferi.

Esther Lin from Strikeforce was on hand to catch a variety of Saturday evening’s competitors in action, including Shields, Miller, Werdum, Silva, Coenen and Modafferi. Check out some of her photos below:

Roxanne Modafferi

Roxanne Modafferi

Marloes Coenen

Marlos Coenen

Fabricio Werdum

Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva

Jason "Mayhem" Miller

Jason "Mayhem" Miller

Jake Shields

Jake Shields

The two are set to clash this Saturday evening from the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, in a Strikeforce headlining bout to be aired live on CBS .

Below is a series of photographs of Fedor training for this highly anticipated match-up courtesy of M-1 Global.com:

To view a wide assortment of other Fedor Emelianenko and Gegard Mousasi training photos, make sure to check out M-1 Global.com.

The pair were on hand to help promote the upcoming “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers” show that will be taking place in the area this Saturday evening, November 7.

Below are a couple pics from their appearance courtesy of CBS:

credit: Esther Lin/Showtime

credit: Esther Lin/Showtime

FiveOuncesofPain.com has been able to confirm the bout through sources close to the fight.

The event is set for November 7 from the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, IL., airing live on CBS.

The bout between Curran and Thao will take place as part of the preliminary portion of the card.

Sporting a career record of 29-12-1, Curran will be looking to bounce back from a four fight losing skid that included defeats at the hands of top rated fighters in Urijah Faber, Mike Brown, Joseph Benavidez and Takeya Mizugaki in the WEC. During the course of his career, the “Big Frog” has notched wins over the likes of Wagnney Fabiano and Raphael Assuncao.

Thao will be moving up from 125 pounds to face off with Curran, who recently dropped down to 135 from 145 pounds. Holding a professional record of 4-1, Thao is known as a heavy handed knockout artist, with three of his four wins coming via TKO.

At first Werdum revealed to Tatame.com that the fight had been agreed to, but then went on to express doubt in the match-up coming to fruition, explaining, “My manager called me asking if I agree to fight him, and I said yes and that I was ready, but I think this fight won’t happen anymore. He’ll probably fight for Sengoku’s title. Strikeforce made a partnership with Dream, so my manager said I can also fight in Japan, at Dream”.

However, Silva’s manager Alex Davis has since had this to say in regards to the potential match-up between the two, “I spoke with them and they said everything is ok. I’m in Brazil and I don’t know more about it, but I think it’s gonna happen”.

Stay tuned to 5 Oz. as we continue to keep you up to date on this possible fight.

UPDATE: Since the posting of this story, all the usual sources are claiming to be the first reporting  that this fight has been confirmed by sources close to both camps.  Strikeforce has not as of this update confirmed the match up.

It was reported last week that the Hoffman Estates venue was on the verge of being approved, but was officially confirmed by Strikeforce Director of Communications Mike Afromowitz through a report from MMAWeekly.com.

In addition to the headline heavyweight bout, Jake Shields vs. Jason Miller is also set to take place with the recently vacated middleweight title on the line.

Other rumored bouts are being set, including newly crowned light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi, and women’s champion Chris Cyborg.

This event is scheduled to debut live on CBS between between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. E.S.T.

Tickets go on sale Monday, Sept. 23 at Ticketmaster.com, Strikeforce.com, and the Sears Centre box office.

According to ESPNChicago.com, Strikeforce is currently in discussion with the Illinois Athletic Commission to sanction the event at the Sears Center in Hoffman Estates, a close suburb of Chicago. Strikeforce is waiting for the commission’s approval before officially announcing the venue.

Chicago has become a hot bed for mixed marital arts with a live local scene, as well a past events held by the UFC, Adrenaline MMA, and the now defunct IFL.

The November 7 event will be headlined by Fedor’s debut for the organization against Brett Rogers, and is scheduled to air live on CBS.

A venue for Strkeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers is expected to be announced sometime next week.

Although Fedor’s first appearance was previously expected to take place on the Showtime network, it has recently been announced the the event will in fact air on CBS.

“There’s no question this is a sport that is fast becoming a force in popularity and as a business,” said Kelly Kahl, Senior Executive Vice President, Prime Time, CBS Television. “We’re excited to be the platform that will enable millions more to see the athlete regarded as the very best in his sport. The Number One heavyweight on the most-watched network has a very nice ring to it.”

Strikeforce founder Scott Coker is admittedly excited about his brand of fighting coming to CBS for the first time, as he explained,”It is an honor to have the opportunity to bring the Strikeforce brand to CBS. We are looking forward to bringing MMA back to the network and to having the world’s No. 1 heavyweight—Fedor—compete for the first time on live network television against one of America’s most promising young, undefeated stars—Brett Rogers.”

Stay tuned to 5 Oz’s in the coming days as we will continue to keep you up to date on any developments concerning the card.