Emelianenko pounding Sonnen (photo via Bellator)

By FCF Staff

Chael Sonnen was largely on the receiving end during his frantic, and quick bout with Fedor Emelianenko at Bellator 208, and some of those blows came after an ill fated roll.

Sonnen battled back from taking some heavy punches early on, and at one point, he took the back of Emelianenko on the ground. The decorated wrestler proceeded to attempt rolling Fedor over, but instead, wound up on the bottom. The Russian legend went on to stop Sonnen with ground-and-pound strikes moments later.

After the loss, Sonnen had this to say about the roll, and the fight’s final moments (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“The dive roll, I was going to lose that position anyway,” said Sonnen. “I was falling over the top so I tried to tuck his chin and go. I used to do that move all of the time in college and I always got it. But I missed it tonight. I rolled right over.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been ground-and-pounded like that. I thought there was opportunity there. I was covering up and I thought that he was slowing down. The referee warned me — he said, ‘If you don’t move I am going to stop this.’ But I didn’t think he would because they were gong into my hands. I thought I was blocking them. I thought I was having a rope-a-dope moment. I thought I was luring him in. That was a bad strategy it turns out. That was a bad plan.”

Emelianenko advanced to the finals of Bellator’s heavyweight grand-prix with the win, and will face Ryan Bader, January 26th.