Hey CBS, How Fast Can You Say "Fedor Emelianenko"?
by Correspondent Written on October 16, 2009 
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How fast can you say “Fedor Emelianenko, the world’s greatest fighter comes to CBS, Saturday, November 7th.”?
One of the biggest Mixed Martial Arts events in the history of the sport is coming up on Saturday, November 7th. “The Last Emperor”, Fedor Emelianenko makes his Strikeforce cage-fighting debut in a highly anticipated battle against an undefeated giant of a man, Brett “The Grimm” Rogers. Fedor, is widely considered the best Heavyweight on the planet. Many also consider him the top pound for pound fighter in the world. He has won 26 fights in a row, has 30 wins in his career, and has only one highly controversial loss on his record. He’s beaten all comers, including well known champions, a host of former UFC champions, towering giants and several fighters that you never have and never will hear of. He is effectively 30-0, a mark that no other Heavyweight has ever attained.
Strikeforce: Fedor vs Rogers will air live on CBS. Preliminary fights start at 7:00 PM and the main card begins at 9:00 PM Eastern Time.
So how does the overall card look? Considering that this is Strikeforce with its comparatively thin ranks of talented fighters, it actually looks pretty amazing. Gegard Mousasi, the Light Heavyweight Champion will face Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Jake Shields will face Jason Miller for the vacant Strikeforce Middleweight title, and Fabricio Werdum will fight Antonion “Bigfoot” Silva. Every fight on the main card features at least one fighter who is ranked in the top 10 in their respective weight classes. And while Gegard Mousasi, Jake Shields and Fabricio Werdum are likely to easily destroy their opponents, I have to hand it to Strikeforce for coming up with a decent opponent for all three of them.
Whether you like Strikeforce or hate them; whether you love Fedor or hate him, this event represents a landmark event in Mixed Martial Arts history. This is the first time that a card this stacked with top fighters has been broadcast by one of the big four networks.
So what is CBS doing to promote this mammoth night of fights?
Well, not much so far. I remember catching something brief, and cryptic while watching the Denver Broncos vs the New England Patriots game. It was so short I thought I might have imagined it. E Spencer Kyte received a response to his article from CBS Executive VP Kelly Kahl assuring us that CBS had already aired promotional spots during several College and NFL Football games.
Okay so I know I didn’t just imagine it. There really was a promotional clip aired on CBS. Luckily I still had both NFL games saved on my DVR. So I poured through the three-plus hours of the game and sure enough, there it was:
“Fedor Emelianenko, the world’s greatest fighter comes to CBS, Saturday, November 7th.”
Only once per game, CBS aired that clip. It took five seconds maximum. It was a brief clip telling the world that somebody named Fedor Emelianenko “the greatest fighter in the world” would be on CBS on Saturday, November 7th. I had to replay it several times to get all the words down because the guy was talking too fast for me to catch it all.
Okay, so let’s look at this from the perspective of somebody who has never heard of Mixed Martial Arts. If I listened sharply enough, I know that “the greatest fighter in the world” will be on CBS on November 7th. The greatest fighter in the world? It must be a boxer or something like that. And the clip didn’t say anything about what this Fedor person will be doing. Is it a new talk-show? Perhaps a reality television show of some sort? Surely not a fight or they would have said who he was fighting, right? And surely they got the wrong picture. The man pictured in that five second clip certainly didn’t look at all intimidating.
The truth is, Fedor Emelianenko looks about as intimidating as a newborn kitten. I showed one of my coworkers his picture and the first thing that came to his mind was Fedor saying, “I like bunnies.” Then I showed him a few clips of Fedor fighting:
Fedor submitting Hong Man-Choi in the first round.
Fedor pummeling and submitting Tim Sylvia in the first round.
Fedor surviving the ugliest slam in MMA history at the hands of Kevin Randleman, seemingly unfazed. Fedor overpowering and submitting Randleman within the next two minutes.
Then he started to realize that this unassuming, un-intimidating man was actually an incredible fighter, and that there was a lot more than meets the eye to this Fedor Emelianenko fellow.
So here’s the challenge: How fast can you say:
“Fedor Emelianenko, the world’s greatest fighter comes to CBS, Saturday, November 7th.”?
With a bit of practice I can say it intelligibly in just under three seconds. How fast can you say it?
I understand that this is how it’s done: Quick blurbs to let the world know about an upcoming event. That sort of thing is pretty standard. But the clips from this past weekend were less than useless. They did nothing to inform anyone of anything.
If anyone sees more of these stealthy little promotional clips, please post them so we all know about them. If you see something a little more serious about the event, I think we’d all love to hear about it. I do hope that CBS starts taking this Strikeforce event a lot more seriously, and that they promote the hell out of it. This event will offer great exposure for several of the best Mixed Martial Arts fighters in the world. Now if we somebody can convince CBS to go all-out promoting this thing, then we'll really get some attention!
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