BILOXI, Miss., Feb.19 – With Kit Cope calling in sick for his fight, this setup a short-notice battle that in most people’s minds was going to be better then the original script. Robert Emerson stepped up on an eight-day notice to fight a very explosive Melvin Guillard in the main event at Reality Combat at the Imperial Palace Hotel & Casino.

This looked to be a stand up war that even an average MMA fan would appreciate. The fight started as expected with a short feeling-out session. They then engaged in an explosion of bombs, each connecting on the other’s face.

With both men tired after the striking exchange, the bout turned into more of a chess match then a free for all. But this fight still never lacked action. They did exchange many times, both doing damage. Emerson even went for takedowns and dominated that aspect of the fight.

He was able to take Guillard down and let him feel his ground-and-pound, yet wasn’t totally effective except for a point in the fight where he caught Guillard with a forearm to the side of his face. Guillard reacted by grabbing his eye and shouting, “stop.” Emerson, being the sportsman he is, actually did. After the fight Guillard stated laughingly, “I was glad he stopped; I could not see anything. He caught me good.”

Also at one point of the fight Emerson had Guillard’s back trying to sink in a rear-naked choke. Guillard held up all of Emerson’s weight on his back like if he was carrying his son on a piggyback ride. “I could not totally sink it in,” stated Emerson after the fight. “He seemed greased up a bit.”

I was never in danger,” responded Guillard. “I think the Vaseline helped and his hand kept slipping off my chin.”

This fight had a little bit of everything. Big bombs thrown, submission attempts, takedowns, Sakuraba-style circus high-flying punches, and a controversial decision.

This match had the same vibe to it as the Tito Ortiz- Vitor Belfort decision, and everyone had his opinion as to who won and who didn’t. I got the feel from one judge I talked with, Eric Meyer, that he did not really factor Emerson’s takedowns into the scheme of things. I was only able to talk to one of the judges, as the other two left right after the fight.

Meyer and I discussed at length about his decisions and what he looks for in a fight. He did have Guillard winning the decision easily. He talked about Emerson’s explosiveness, stating Guillard was way more explosive in the fight and felt that it was good enough for the decision.

In a short interview with Guillard after the bout he gave all props to Emerson. “He is a tough man and to step up on short notice,” he said. “I have all the respect in the world for him. … I’m beat up.”

I also asked him about how he felt after the fight and if he felt he won easily. “In my heart I felt I won, but I felt the decision could have gone either way,” he stated. Then in his last remark he said, “I still want that fight with Cope so I can give Tito (Ortiz) a hug after the fight. That guy is one of my heroes.”

Judging fights are kind of tough to do sometimes and everyone sees things differently. I had Emerson winning the fight two rounds to one. Overall I felt Guillard might have gotten a very close nod on the standup but Emerson got the takedowns and had the submission attempts. But what do I know? After the Tito-Belfort fight when I told my fellow sherdog.com journalists I felt Tito won, they laughed at me.