On top of everything else, Aleksander Emelianenko, Fedor's brother, was set to fight Paul Buentello in one of the fights on Fox, but a day before - yes, a day before - the fight was nixed, as Aleksander wasn't licensed to fight in California. "That was the one glitch," said Atencio after he'd obviously had a sip of water from a glass that was half-full. He also said, "there's a huge learning curve." Fact is, he said just about everything right in the post fight press conference. Perhaps it wasn't all that hard after the final three fights of the card - a showcase of heavyweight superiority that the event was built on - not only saved the card, but made it a great one - certainly not the greatest as it so arrogantly boasted, but great just the same.
Josh Barnett, a star in Japan, knocked out Pedro Rizzo, but was just as much a highlight on the mic, getting himself over more than anyone else on the night who wasn't made in Russia. When asked, of the four remaining heavyweights on the card, whom he would like to fight, Barnett replied without hesitation, "They're all badasses, but they ain't me." The guy was pure gold.
Former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski followed Barnett's second-round KO, with a third-round knockout of the cast-iron-chinned Ben Rothwell in what was no doubt the evening's best fight, one in which Arlovski looked every bit in his prime, and Rothwell looked every bit as game as all his doubters thought he was not.  Megadeath's fog machine was unrelenting. And then … there was more Michael Buffer telling the audience, "We're witnessing history," just in case you forgot this was the "Greatest Show in MMA History." Then, the Lets-Get-Ready-to-Rumbler proceeded to publicly announce the presence of just about every celebrity in attendance in a display of company chest-puffing the likes of which I've never seen. Here's the Undertaker, here's Manny Ramirez, here's Jenna Jameson, here's Tito Ortiz, here's a really haggard-looking Don Johnson, here‘s the guy helping us with the money, Donald Trump. And finally, here was Tim Sylvia, a former two-time UFC heavyweight champion, and Fedor Emelianenko, the last PRIDE Fighting Championship heavyweight titlist. From the moment Sylvia began his walk to the ring, nobody in the arena sat down again. Recently criticized for his lack of top-class competition, Emelianenko was facing one of his stiffest tests to date. And he promptly destroyed Sylvia in a way nobody else ever has. He was a buzz saw as he chopped the 6-8 Sylvia down before choking him out in a display of such demolition and ferocity that nobody in the crowd cared that their main event had ended so quickly. They cared that, in Emelianenko and his destruction, they had seen something to marvel. At the post fight press conference, Atencio contested that it's all about the fighters and treating them well - the party line for just about every organization these days in trying to cut down the perceived big, bad Dana White and the UFC. "I wanna try and put together matches everyone wants to see," he said. "It's not about the company, it's about the fighters." Atencio was also quick to point out that he doesn't wish to engage the UFC and White in any kind of verbal battles, it's not about them, it's about the guys fighting.
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