By Zach Arnold

Tim Sylvia is a former UFC champion who has quite a bit of respect amongst his peers as a very tough fighter. He’s tall, big, and great at striking. Sylvia has heart and always aims to win a fight on his terms. He’s had many memorable highlights in his professional fighting career and was the ‘ace’ of UFC’s Heavyweight division for a very long time. Sylvia has lost before to great heavyweight fighters before like Randy Couture and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Unfortunately for Tim Sylvia, he ran into a fighter who not only beat him but humiliated him on Saturday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Sylvia lost in quick fashion on the Affliction: Banned show, which is the debut MMA show for the merchandising company.

Fedor Emelianenko, the PRIDE Heavyweight champion, destroyed Tim Sylvia in 36 seconds. Fedor put his victim down to the mat with strikes and then choked him out.

Very few people inside the MMA industry gave Sylvia a chance of beating Fedor, but most of the predictors expected that Sylvia would at least give Fedor some trouble with his reach and that Fedor would eventually submit Sylvia on the ground.

However, no one could have envisioned this kind of dominating performance by Fedor. He whipped an ex-UFC Heavyweight champion like he was a pro-wrestling jobber at a TV taping.

“You never know how short or long the fight will be, but I just wanted to end it as quickly as possible,” calmly stated Fedor. “I just wanted to show the fans my skills.”

Watching Fedor destroy Sylvia was nothing short of amazing. Many internet writers and MMA media geeks have been drinking the haterade on Fedor for the last couple of years, stating the obvious — he hasn’t fought serious competition, he doesn’t fight in UFC so he doesn’t fight the very best, etc. You can throw all those arguments out the window now.

The only men left who could really test and challenge Fedor are Randy Couture and Josh Barnett. That’s it. That’s the list. Sure, you can include Andrei Arlovski in the mix, but I think even Arlovski would admit that he could use some more boxing training with Freddie Roach before jumping into the ring against such a dominating monster.

Fedor was given the WAMMA Heavyweight title belt after the match. According to WAMMA, the heavyweight rankings have Fedor, Nogueira, Couture, Barnett, and Arlovski in the top fight. After the Sylvia/Fedor fight was over, the Russian said that he was interested in fighting Couture. If Couture can somehow get out of his UFC contract, it is clear that this fight will happen.

However, there are two other options on the table.

First, let’s start off with Andrei Arlovski. After spending some time training with Freddie Roach and improving his stand-up skills, Arlovski faced IFL heavyweight star Ben Rothwell and tore him apart. Rothwell showed a lot of heart, but not much else as the ‘old’ Arlovski showed up and torched him. He finally finished off Rothwell in round three. The live audience, estimated at around 13,000, loved seeing the Belarussian in action. He clearly got the star treatment from the fans and gave them a hell of a performance.

Second, there’s Josh Barnett. Barnett showed some style and flare for the dramatic, as he faced an old rival in Pedro Rizzo. This has been a revenge match seven years in the making, and Barnett finished off Rizzo with a high-kick in the early stages of round two. If you are bullish on Couture having a shot of beating Fedor, then you should be even more bullish on Josh Barnett having a shot at taking out the Russian monster.

For the most part, everything went as expected in terms of fight results on the Affliction show. The Southern California crowd was surprisingly lively for a lot of the fights and they seemed into the product. The show itself didn’t feel like a PRIDE event, but it certainly had a serious quality to it. Given the match results on Affliction’s debut show, the matchmaking is wide open as far as possible bouts for their next event in November.

On a final note, it should be mentioned that the Vitor Belfort of old made a rare appearance. At 185 pounds, he looked really good and caught Terry Martin with a knee to finish him off in their undercard match. Belfort received a very warm welcome from the crowd, which appreciated his efforts. The question is whether they match Belfort up against Matt Lindland or Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in November or decide to book Belfort in a couple of more tune-up fights before putting him against someone the calibur of Lindland.

Main card results:

Heavyweights (265 pounds): Fedor Emelianenko def. Tim Sylvia, R1 0:36 choke sleeper hold
Heavyweights (265 pounds): Andrei Arlovski def. Ben Rothwell, R3 1:13 KO
Heavyweights (265 pounds): Josh Barnett def. Pedro Rizzo, R2 1:44 KO
Lightweights (155 pounds): Mark Hominick def. Savant Young, R2 4:25 submission
Light Heavyweights (205 pounds): Renato Babalu def. Mike Whitehead, after 3R by unanimous decision
Middleweights (185 pounds): Matt Lindland def. Fabio Negao, after 3R by unanimous decision
Middleweights (185 pounds): Antonio Rogerio Nogueira def. Edwin DeWees, R1 4:06 TKO
Welterweights (170 pounds): Mike Pyle def. JJ Ambrose, R1 2:51 choke sleeper hold
Middleweights (185 pounds): Vitor Belfort def. Terry Martin, R2 3:12 KO
Heavyweights (265 pounds): Paul Buentello def. Gary “Big Daddy” Goodridge, after 3R by unanimous decision