Brett Rogers

(Props: ArkhamAsylum via TheGarv)

Brilliant. Speaking of ugly defeats, Spike's "Main Events" counter-programming special that aired opposite "Fedor vs. Rogers" on Saturday night drew 2.14 million average viewers — over back-to-back airings. According to MMA Junkie, "The 9 p.m. ET/PT airing of the special drew 1.2 million viewers, and the 11 p.m. replay drew an additional 939,000 viewers." If you'll recall, Strikeforce's live show brought in a very respectable 4.04 million average viewers on CBS. (Doesn't feel good getting outgunned by a larger network, does it Dana?) With their asses chapped by the ratings drubbing, Spike sent out some data implying that Fedor is still no Kimbo-on-TUF when it comes to putting asses on couches. Our advice to Fedor? Learn English, grow a bushy beard, and knock some fools out in a boatyard. And would it kill you to start a Twitter page?

(Look familiar? Photo courtesy of this set on Combat Lifestyle.)

Though the entire broadcast of "Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers" averaged 4.04 million viewers — placing it behind Kimbo-headlined CBS cards like "EliteXC: Primetime" (4.85 million viewers) and "EliteXC: Heat" (4.56 million viewers) — the ratings for Saturday night's card shot up during the main event. MMA Weekly reports that 5.46 million home viewers were in attendance between 11:00 p.m. and 11:15 p.m., making the Emelianenko vs. Rogers match the ninth-most-watched fight in U.S. MMA history. You can check out this slightly outdated list to see where that puts them, but basically, the fight fell just 15,000 viewers short of Michael Bisping vs. Matt Hamill, and about 1.8 million viewers short of the reigning champion, Kimbo vs. James Thompson. Senior Executive Vice President of CBS Primetime Kelly Kahl was pleased with the numbers:

Not coincidentally, the 11:00-11:15 p.m. block coincides with the time when the UFC's "Main Events" broadcast on Spike had just ended — so a large part of the bump could be attributed to MMA fans switching from one channel to another. (No word yet on how Spike did that night.) The question is: Can Fedor draw even better ratings in his next CBS appearance, now that he's more of a known quantity? Will he ever approach — dare we say it — Kimbo-esque levels of stardom?

Fedor vs. Rogers post-event press conference - Watch more Funny Videos

Here's some footage I took at the Strikeforce post-event presser on Saturday night, which all the main event fighters showed up for. You've already heard what Fedor had to say, but check out the reactions from everybody else...

— Fabricio Werdum says he's earned a shot at Fedor, who Werdum believes is the best fighter in the world. After a week of rest, he'll be back to training hard.

— Gegard Mousasi says people underestimated Sokoudjou, and called the fight a learning experience.

— Jason Miller blames himself for not capitalizing on the chances he had in his fight against Jake Shields, and for not training his wrestling enough; he was not expecting a "grapplefest."

— Shields still thinks that his best weight is welterweight. Scott Coker would like to put him against Marius Zaromskis or Hayato Sakurai at 170.

— Shields thinks Cung Le is avoiding him. "That's why he vacated the belt, obviously, and fights a month later."

If you were one of the people who actually sat through the commercials with an intense focus during Saturday night's broadcast of Strikeforce on CBS, then you probably saw the impressive first ads for EA Sports's MMA game, complete with what they claim is actual gameplay footage of Brett Rogers and Fedor Emelianenko going at it.  It's no surprise that the people behind the bulk of great pro sports video games currently on the market managed to put together a good trailer for their first effort at an MMA game, but is the power of the EA Sports brand enough to compete with the UFC?  Sure, they've got Fedor.  They've got Mauro Ranallo screaming his head off.  They've got "Mayhem" Miller, even if he's not pleased with his stats.

But say, just for the sake of argument, that you are both an MMA fan and a video game enthusiast.  How many different games do you really need at your disposal?  How important is it to you to be able to play as Fedor, rather than simply making your own off-brand version in the UFC game?  Does having the EA Sports label slapped on there matter, or is all pointless if you don't have a digitized Dana White yelling at you? 

('I don't want to freak you out or anything, Brett. But having you here in my arms, it just feels right, doesn't it?' Photo courtesy of SI.com)

After a brief layoff for scheduled maintenance to its supercomputer, the Potato Index is back to sort through the winners and losers of Saturday night's Strikeforce event on CBS with its arbitrary numerical rankings system.  Huzzah!

Fedor Emelianenko +86
It’s hard to get a big boost in the Index when you’re a 5-1 favorite going into the fight, but he delivered with another right hand murderball, and even gave the casual fans a little blood for their trouble.  But were the ratings good enough to get CBS’s attention?

Brett Rogers +4
So he didn’t shock the world.  Honestly, who expected him to?  He still landed some good shots and took a couple as well, but the biggest positive for him is how he performed on the mat.  He’s still got some improvements to make, but he showed that he's not all hype and a trendy haircut.