Mike Kyle landed more strikes and lasted longer against Fabricio Werdum than Fedor Emelianenko. In the heavyweight division, that sentence had incredible implications prior to 2010. Brett Rogers once said that Fedor is the ‘God of MMA’ and that ‘if you defeat God, you inherit his powers.’ Unfortunately, Rogers just couldn’t pull together the W on November 7th 2009 to magically transform into the celestial being that he aspired to be. On that same night at the Hoffman Estates in Illinois, Gegard Mousasi fought Team Quest’s Sokoudjou and managed to finish him off in the second round via a TKO. According to a recent BJPenn.com interview, Mousasi’s win over Sokoudjou just wasn’t that impressive and Mike Kyle simply can’t believe he’s the underdog going into next month’s Strikeforce fight against the Dreamcatcher.
“I can’t see [Mousasi] beating me in any aspect and I can’t believe I’m the underdog here. I can’t believe people are picking him over me so I’m out to prove a point that I’m a top contender when it’s all said and done.
“Mousasi is a good fighter but who has he fought? He fought [Ovince St-Preux] and he went three rounds with him, that was his toughest fight. He fought “Babalu” who was at the end of his career so he really hasn’t fought anybody really tough.”
“He beat a lot of those little Japanese fighters but he hasn’t beaten anyone really impressive. The toughest fighter he faced was “King Mo” and [Mousasi] just laid on his back and kept pulling guard so we’ve never really seen him get hit.”
“Sokoudjou is a good exciting fighter but everybody knows that Sokoudjou stops in two minutes of the first round and he gets gassed. Everybody knows that I would destroy Sokoudjou so I don’t think they’re giving me enough credit here.”
Mike Kyle’s name is composed of two first names — and none of them truly fit him. Gegard Mousasi’s entire name is constructed of Castlevania level bosses — and they all fit him perfectly.