Cro Cop in no-contest; what’s next for Fedor?

Fedor Emelianenko came to Japan this week seeking a possible opponent for New Year’s Eve. And he’s still looking.

Emelianenko, the No. 2-ranked fighter in the Yahoo! Sports pound-for-pound poll, was scheduled for a press conference Monday with Satoshi Ishii, the 21-year-old Japanese Olympic superheavyweight gold medalist in judo.

Fighting Entertainment Group, the parent company of both K-1 and Dream, salivated at the thought of being able to pit the top heavyweight in MMA against the top man in one of the company’s national sports, particularly since Ishii recently said he wanted to fight Emelianenko.

But that was highly unlikely.

Ishii’s goal is to win three gold medals, which would keep him in judo until 2016. The Japanese judo federation was so against Ishii even meeting with Emelianenko that they pulled Ishii out of the press conference two hours before it was set to begin.

Rumors circulated the next day that Emelianenko would face the winner of Tuesday’s Mirko Cro Cop vs. Alistair Overeem match at the Dream 6 show at the Saitama Super Arena. The presumption was that it would be Cro Cop, whom Emelianenko beat via decision on August 28, 2005, in the biggest heavyweight championship showdown in Japanese MMA history.

But the disappointing battle between Cro Cop and Overeem ended when Cro Cop, who had mounted no offense, was unable to continue after a second hard knee to the groin, and it was ruled a no contest at the 6:00 mark.

Emelianenko was at ringside and smiled as Overeem, the one-time light heavyweight star but now a 6-5, 242-pound heavyweight, apologized for not winning in a fair way and said he believed he was the No. 1 fighter in Dream. Earlier in the show, Emelianenko talked of wanting to spend his sixth consecutive New Year’s Eve fighting on a network prime time show in Japan.

But the owners of Emelianenko’s North American contract claim this isn’t going to happen. Affliction promoter Tom Atencio told MMArated.com on Wednesday that it wasn’t going to happen.

“Fedor was supopsed to fight for them on New Year’s Eve, but he is not,” said Affliction promoter Tom Atencio, “because we extended his contract.”

But it appeared nobody told Fedor or the Dream promotion based on how they were pushing his appearance at the show.

Cro Cop, now 34, looked soft and not nearly as powerful as in his prime, when he was the most feared heavyweight striker in the sport. While he used to be known for being able to power out of takedowns from world class wrestlers, Overeem took Cro Cop down and cut his left eye and bloodied his nose with ground and pound. He seemed on the way to a dominant win, except Cro Cop got a respite from a low blow at the 3:39 mark.

When the match restarted, Cro Cop went for his trademark left high kick, but Overeem caught the foot and used it to score another takedown, and punished his ribs and head with punches. After a stand-up was ordered, Overeem threw another low knee from a clinch and Cro Cop went down hard. Cro Cop was on his back for several minutes and clearly in great pain, and it was pretty clear the match wasn’t going to continue.

But even before the illegal blows, Cro Cop once again showed no signs of being the fighter who dominated the heavyweight division in Japan in 2006. He hasn’t scored a meaningful win since.

A crowd announced at 25,000 (Japanese promoters routinely inflate attendance figures) also saw Gegard Mousasi (24-2-1) become Dream middleweight champion, winning a final-four tournament. Mousasi finished Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (10-2) from his back with an up kick to the face and Souza went out and collapsed at 2:15.

Both tournament semifinals were even quicker, with the winners taking no damage. Mousasi clamped a triangle on crowd favorite Melvin Manhoef

(22-5-1) as soon as he got the fight to the ground. Manhoef, arguably the best striker in the middleweight division, saw his ground deficiencies taken advantage of again. He tried to deliver a hard power bomb to break the triangle, but Mousasi held on and Manhoef had to tap at 1:28.

Souza, coming to the ring doing his trademark Alligator chomp, looked even slicker, when he got Zelg Galesic (9-4) to the ground, softened him up with punches, clamped on a triangle, and then used an armbar from that position for the submission in 1:27.

In the shocking and most sentimental moment of the show, Maskatsu Funaki (39-13-1), one of the key figures in popularizing Japanese MMA, defeated former stablemate Minowa-Man (40-29-8).

Funaki, 39, won his first match since beginning his comeback on New Year’s Eve. Funaki was taken down, but while on the ground, administered a heel hook for the submission in 52 seconds. The move and the win were a throwback to his high profile matches with the likes of Ken Shamrock, Bas Rutten, Frank Shamrock and Guy Mezger in the mid-‘90s in the Pancrase organization, the first high-profile MMA group in the country.

Funaki broke down in tears as many in the audience gave him a polite standing ovation for his first win in nine years.

The show was also built around promotion favorites battling opponents they were expected to easily handle, but it didn’t quite work out.

Lightweight star Shinya Aoki (18-3) had little trouble in putting away Todd Moore (9-3) with a choke at 1:10. South Korean Yoshihiro Akiyama (12-1, 2 no contests) did not look impressive in taking 6:26 to finally get an armbar on Masanori Tomooka (1-2), a 35-year-old former karate champion.

Meanwhile, featherweight favorite Hideo Tokoro (22-14-1), lost via decision to Atsushi Yamamoto (12-5-1). Tokoro was working on an armbar in the last minute, but couldn’t overcome being outstruck most of the fight.

South Korean favorite Yoon Dong Sik (4-6) was upset with punches on the ground at :30 of the second round against former karate champion Andrews Nakahara (1-1).

Recent UFC cuts went 1-1 on the undercard. Keita Nakamura (15-3-2) dominated with strikes in beating Adriano Martins (9-4) in a lightweight match. Kuniyoshi Hironoka (12-6) fell to long-time star Hayato Sakurai (33-8-2) via unanimous decision.

In another heavyweight match, Russian Sergei Kharitonov (16-3) easily outstruck U.S. former powerlifter Jimmy Ambriz (13-10-1) in winning at 2:15. The 290-pound Ambriz came in on 72-hour notice, but was out of his league in trading punches and floored, before tapping.