With three years of inferior opposition, the status of the sport's finest heavyweight had started to drop and many questioned whether "The Last Emperor" still had it. Although he seemed as unaffected as ever, Emelianenko brought the MMA world to a hush July 19 with the most impressive performance of his career, destroying two-time UFC champion
Tim Sylvia (Pictures) in 36 brutal seconds. What's more, Emelianenko's management claims that the heavyweight ruler will see action twice more in 2008. Welcome back, Mr. Emelianenko.
Some have questioned whether any UFC heavyweight, especially the battle-tested Brazilian, can cross over into stardom. We’ll see: Nogueira will get the TUF treatment in the coming months. He’ll go head to head with
Frank Mir (Pictures) as a coach on the eighth season of the UFC's reality series, which will build toward Nogueira’s first title defense against the former champ.
Couture's legal battle continues to roll on, and it seems hard to imagine "The Natural" getting back into action anytime soon. That proposition is made all the more unfortunate following
Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures)'s destruction of
Tim Sylvia (Pictures), especially considering that the draw of a Couture-Emelianenko fight would usurp the Russian's meeting with
Mirko Filipovic (Pictures) in August 2005 as the sport's biggest heavyweight fight ever.
In the biggest fight of his career,
Tim Sylvia (Pictures) was summarily smashed by
Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) in a humbling 36 seconds. Although his missteps have come against the three top heavyweights in the world, Sylvia has lost three of his last four. That’s a difficult stat for the "Maine-iac," particularly given how sensational some of his heavyweight contemporaries have looked lately.
After being penciled in to face
Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) on Oct. 11, Emelianenko's ever-iffy hand was damaged again and nixed him from the bout. Thankfully, fans will still be treated to an elite heavyweight scrap: Arlovski will take on fellow top heavy
Josh Barnett (Pictures) to determine the next major challenge for Emelianenko.
Finally back in a major promotion with top-notch heavyweights, Barnett will look to follow his July 19 waxing of
Pedro Rizzo (Pictures) when he meets
Andrei Arlovski (Pictures) on Oct. 11. A win for Barnett would all but crystallize a much-awaited confrontation with
Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) -- one of the best heavyweight bouts that could be assembled.
Although Werdum may be
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pictures)'s most worthy challenger for the UFC throne, he will sit on the sideline and wait for the winner of the forthcoming Nogueira-
Frank Mir (Pictures) bout. In the meantime, though, Werdum will also meet fellow Brazilian Junior "Cigano" dos Santos on Oct. 25 in Chicago at UFC 90.
Gonzaga polished off
Justin McCully (Pictures) in less than two minutes on July 5, easily snatching the submission victory. To regain his hype and stature in the division, however, more will be required of the talented Brazilian in the future.
Slated to meet
Jerome LeBanner (Pictures) on July 21, "Cro Cop" opted to recover from lingering elbow and knee injuries. The Croatian KO artist may be back for September's Dream card, however.
By withstanding some serious artillery from
Andrei Arlovski (Pictures) and getting in some licks of his own even in defeat, Rothwell earned the respect of many critics who had questioned whether he belonged in the ring with elite-level heavies. The Miletich product will likely look to right his ship on Affliction's Oct. 11 card, possibly against
Pedro Rizzo (Pictures).
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