Emelianenko beats Rogers in rough bout

ASSOCIATED PRESS HOFFMAN ESTATES, ILL. —  Fedor Emelianenko stopped Brett Rogers in the second round in a Strikeforce M-1 Global heavyweight bout Saturday night.

Emelianenko (31-1) landed a right hook that sent Rogers (10-1) down to the mat, and Emelianenko followed with a set of punches to Rogers’ face. Referee John McCarthy ended the fight at 1:48 in the second round.

“If Brett would like to have a rematch, why not?” Emelianenko said through an interpreter after the fight.

The win didn’t come easy for Emelianenko. He landed a left hook that knocked Rogers off balance in the first round, but Rogers landed a combination of punches that left blood smeared across Emelianenko’s face.

“The main thing is not to get nervous and take time in the first round to learn a little bit,” Emelianenko said.

The 6-foot-5, 265-pound Rogers had the size advantage over Emelianenko and wanted to keep the fight on his feet. But Emelianenko, 6-feet tall and 235 pounds, beat Rogers at his own game by landing a series of uppercuts in the fight and not relying on his ground game.

Rogers had finished all of his previous fights by knockout, including one against Andrei Arlovski in June.

“I doubted myself a little bit. I should have thrown my hand a lot more. That’s the reason I failed today,” Rogers said.

Before Saturday, Emelianenko had won his last five fights in the first round.

In an earlier heavyweight fight, Fabricio Werdum (13-4-1) defeated Antonio Silva in a 29-28 unanimous decision. The win may put Werdum in line to fight Emelianenko next.

Jake Shields won a five round unanimous decision against Jason “Mayhem” Miller for the vacant Strikeforce middleweight title. Shields was saved by the bell in the third round when Miller had Shields in a rear-naked chokehold when the bell rang.