Nov 20, 2011 - Fedor Emelianenko dominated Jeff Monson for three rounds to take a unanimous 30-27 decision win at M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Monson. Emelianenko, the long-time Pride heavyweight champion dominated Monson from bell-to-bell with a blend of punches and kicks that the grappler had no answer for. 

Fedor needed the win after dropping three straight in a miserable Strikeforce run that saw him drop from the #1 heavyweight in the world to #12 in the USA TODAY/MMA Nation Consensus MMA Rankings. 

Monson's only hope was to get the fight to the ground but all he had in his bag of tricks were a few slow shots for take downs with no set up or surprise. The one time he did manage to force the fight to the ground, Fedor landed on top and quickly stood back up. In the later rounds, Monson resorted to flopping to his back in a pathetic bid to start a grappling match.

Emelianenko showed a great deal of methodical caution in the bout, resisting the urge to lunge in for the kill that cost him so dearly in his Strikeforce tenure. After the bout he said he was a "new Fedor." It will be interesting to see what kind of opponents M-1 Global can find for Fedor going forward.

Full fight card results:

Fedor Emelianenko defeats Jeff Monson via unanimous decision

Daniel Weichel defeats Jose Figueroa via KO (strikes) in round 2

Alexander Yakovlev defeats Juan Manuel Suarez via TKO (strikes) in round 2

Mairbek Taisumov defeats Joshua Thorpe via KO (strikes) in round 2

Albert Duraev defeats Xavier Foupa-Pokam via submission (triangle choke) at 2:40 of round 1

Yuri Ivlev defeats Jerome Bouisson via KO (strikes) in round 1

Alexander Volkov defeats Arsen Abdulkerimov via KO (strikes) in round 1

Salim Davidov defeats Sergey Kornev via unanimous decision

Mikhail Malyutin defeats Seydina Seck via KO (strikes) in round 1