Cageside Seats' Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva Post-Fight Throwdown

Post-Fight throwdown returns, tonight we're discussing Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva, with the opening round of the Strikeforce World Heavyweight Grand Prix.

• Fedor Emelianenko may have retired tonight.  Some Russian speakers are saying that instead of the padded answer his translator gave, he sounded 100 percent sure that he wanted to retire.  I'm sure we'll hear word of Fedor's future soon, but win, lose, or draw, the man is a legend.  Thank you for your blood, sweat, and tears sir.
• Antonio Silva was on fire tonight.  He didn't panic when Fedor began to throw leather, and countered quite well.  He used his size to his advantage, and his well rounded game added in led to a very successful showing.  On the ground, his size allowed him to just plow through Fedor, swelling his eye shut, leading to the end of the fight.  Maybe Fedor just doesn't need to fight Brazilians? 
• Scott Coker at the post-fight press conference says that Fedor, if he doesn't retire, may fill in for a participant if they pull out.  Why have THREE reserve fighters if you're just gonna bypass them for a fallen cash cow?  I get it from a business perspective...but jeeze.  
• Dana White showed some Twitter class, tweeting a smiley face when Fedor lost, then tweeting the following "M-1 = M Done! What did I tell you Vadummy!!", Vadummy, meaning Vadim Finklestein, the face of M-1 Global, and Fedor's manager.  Not often you see the president of a million dollar company acting like this on twitter.  He's also going to war with followers on twitter.  Jeeze.
• Oh snap, don't forget, Gina Carano is returning to action in 2011!  Word is she may return in June.

After the jump, check out thoughts on the rest of the card, and where the heavyweight grand prix goes from here.

• My heart breaks for Andrei Arlovski.  He's got sharp boxing, and he looked pretty good early on against Sergei Kharitonov, then disaster struck.  His jaw failed him once again, getting dropped, then put to bed in the first round.  The way Arlovski allowed himself to get SO cornered was just ugly, there was less than a foot between his back and the cage at times, and that's a terrible mistake to make when you've got to avoid major bombs like Kharitonov throws.  
• So, Kharitonov fights Barnett or Rogers...I'd really like to see him take on Rogers, that would be a wild fight for sure.
• Shane Del Rosario is crazy hyped, but dude looked very beatable tonight against Lavar Johnson.  I suspect that a more active schedule would help avoid that kind of showing in the future, but sitting out as a reserve for a tournament that will take up the first half of 2011 will likely hurt him, more than help him.  I wonder what would have happened should Rosario face off with Griggs...he's good at killing hype.
• Speaking of Chad Griggs, way to get the job done!  He immediately came out and engaged, throwing Villante off his game.  Villante was supposed to be the superior striker, but Griggs and his mutton chops made him look horribly average.  
• At first glance, the momentary stoppage in the Griggs/Villante fight bugged me, but after getting out of "fight mode", I realize that you can't let a fighter go without a mouth piece in the middle of an all out brawl like that.  That's how people get seriously hurt, and the right call was made.  Sucks that it happened right after Villante's head kick, but hey, keep that shit in your mouth next time.
• No one should expect a guy who trains fighters more than he trains himself to be able to come from a kick boxing background and not get tapped against a fighter who knows some submissions.  Ray Sefo looked good on the feet, but didn't dominate, and then he got completely schooled on the ground by Valentijn Overeem.
• Undercard was slick, nothing to much to say about the fights though.
• HDNet presented the Strikeforce undercard well.  I thoroughly enjoyed Bas Rutten and Michael Schiavello's commentary, far more than I did the Mauro/Shamrock/Johnson booth on Showtime.  I hope Showtime continues to air prelims on HDNet, this is the second set of prelims I've watched from them and they've both been really fun.  
• So...where does the Strikeforce World Heavyweight Grand Prix go from here, with Fedor losing in the first round?  Well, their biggest US heavyweight draw is gone, and I suspect their PPV plans are gone as well.  I'm still incredibly pumped for the tournament, but they have taken a hit with Fedor's loss.  Silva's emerged as a legit threat in the tournament, and Kharitonov got the attention he needed by knocking out Arlovski in his Strikeforce debut.  Also, on a positive note, Fedor being out of the tournament likely means that the tournament is far more likely to go down without issue.