by Kris Bickham, XFC 170 lb champion
This is effectively my Superbowl. The entire MMA community awaits the next performance of Fedor Emelianenko, who just suffered his first legitimate loss to Fabricio Werdum. Werdum is a TOP level submission fighter, and I am of the opinion that any person could be potentially finished a fighter with such technical prowess in the art of Jiu Jitsu. Pat Militech said it best: “My heart sank not for Fedor, but for the reality of perfection that is not attainable in the sport of MMA”.
Many fans are eagerly anticipating the performance of Alistair Overeem as well. Overeem has been fighting at a peak level for quite some time now, having recently won the K1 GP with dominating victories of a slew of top level strikers, as well as winning the Heavyweight championship in Strikeforce. The fact that Overeem could actually kill someone in the ring may be partially to blame for new rules pertaining to clinch/knees (no love for Thais) in K1. Overeem, since his Pride days, has evidently spent much of his time lifting elephants and eating babies filled with growth hormone. Fair or not, after just winning the belt, he enters this tournament in hopes of simply holding onto it. 
How this match plays out will be interesting; however there is a bout with Antonio Silva that Fedor cannot overlook. I look at Antonio’s loss to Eric Pele. Aleksander Emelianenko (who has a similar style) defeated this opponent, and is much less explosive than his brother Fedor. Silva lost to Pele. However Silva has been doing quite well with a recent win over Andrei Arlovski. He is far too intelligent a fighter to fall under such hubris, however the past year has shown us that ANYTHING can and will happen in a fight.
Kris Bickham is a contributor and reporter for the “Fighter’s Perspective” series, an ongoing feature on TXMMA.com that allows local fighters to provide their insight on the fight game, both in Texas and the world. Kris is a purple belt and assistant BJJ instructor under JD Shelley at NDBJJ/NBMMA in Plano, TX, as well as the current XFC Middleweight champion.
