So I’m going to spend a a little time watching the Strikeforce – Heavy Artillery PPV and might write a few lines on the fights and my thoughts on the show, this is a make or break it show in my opinion after the last PPV that ended in brawl and did terrible ratings. I’m looking forward to the Arlowski and Brett fights on the card, hopefully Brett Rogers can secure the championship as he is one of Strikeforce main draws.
Antwain Britt vs. Rafael Feijao
A entertaining fight and a pretty convincing win for Rafael Feijano in the first round, I agree with the commentators that the corner and camp has had a big impact on Rafaels stand up and overall striking game.
Kevin Randleman vs. Roger Gracie
A awkward first round, that Roger Gracie won 10-9, and Kevin looked tired towards the end of the round. Roger used his significant reach advantage through-out the entire round, not letting Kevin get of any significant offence. The second round Roger punished Kevin that looked very out of place and getting tagged a lot. And I do hate Shamrock on commentary as he is too biased to certain fighters…Kevin got caught with a bad knee and he looked totally gassed and barely survived on the ground. But when he got Kevin ‘s back and secured the body-lock with two minutes left the fight was basically over, Kevin had to tapout or blackout.
Jacare Souza vs. Joe Villasenor
This middleweight bout might be a pretty good fight, two good fighters a classic striker versus grappler match-up. Jacare almost got caught after he slipped throwing a overhand right with evil intentions. Jacare gets a good take down and ends up in top position, and transfers into a full mount, raining down punches. A high position lets Joe get back up but still cant get into striking range, Jacare gets another take down and continues with some good ground and pound. Jacare dominated the fight on the ground and with the standup, winning the round comfortable 10-9. Jacare keep out-striking the striker and getting the take-downs, but Joe keeps fighting back and connecting with a few combos as Jacare looks to be tiring. But still Jacare won the round with his takedowns and striking, but can he keep this up in the third round or will he be too tired. Jacare is way more tired than Joe and he might be in trouble, two consecutive takedown attempts is stopped but the third one is successful and might have sealed the fight in the favour of Jacare. A late standup by the referee but it ended with a takedown, but Jacare almost got caught with a flying knee as he took him down for the final time. I don’t agree with the commentators saying it was a close fight, I feel like Jacare dominated the fight from bell to bell. Jacare won the fight, two of the judges scored the fight 29-28 so they obviusly thought it was a closer fight than what I scored.
Andrei Arlovski vs. Antonio Silva
This should be a exiting fight as Antonio Silva isnt a pushover and Arlovski desperetly needs a win. Arlovski have been taken time of since his back to back losses and have reinvented himself lets see if that’s the case here or if he is a force to be reckon with again. Props to Mauro for getting a Rick Flair comment when Andrei made his ring entrance. Silvas reach advantage is allowing him to get the better of Arlovski, Andrei is doing his usual thing moving in straight lines that is going to end with him getting K.O:ed in my opinion. Silva has lots of power and Andrei having trouble absorbing punches in the past. Several big shots land on Arlovskis stout beard as Mauro put it. Silva manhandles Arlovski against the cage and manage to take him down, Arlovski haven’t been able to do anything to treaten Silva. The round is a convincing 10-9 for Silva, if this continues Arlovski wont last a second round.
Second round Silva keeps punishing Arlovski, utilizing the clinching against the cage sapping the energy from Arlovski. Big John separates them several times for not doing anything. Arlovski tries switching stance but Silva compensates and keeps punching Andrei in the last minuets of the round. This round is also a convincing 10-9 for Silva, Andrei did make it out of the second round but only due to a lack of action and energy from Silva.
Shamrock annoys me to no end in this fight.
The third round starts out slow, but Andrei needs to go for a KO or lose the decision. Silva dominates the round and should win the unanimous decision. Silva won the fight handedly, this could be one of Arlovski last fights on the big stage as I don’t think he has the drive and skills to compete any more.
I have to stop here and make dinner but ill return later to watch the main event.
UPDATE: Now I watched the last fight and Alistair destroyed Brett Rogers, which I thought would happen. So Brett was in way over his head in this fight and got picked apart throughout the entire thing. So lets talk Fedor, Alistair and Vitor Belfort are the only real treats to Fedor, currently. But in MMA anything can happen so you never know.
After watching the UFC and Strikeforce the state of MMA is in trouble at least if you look at these two events. Anderson Silva not wanting to lose the title, brings back memories of Tim Silvia only fighting to keep his title. I think that Anderson is just being a egomaniac and a head case, I read Jim Ross blogpost about the UFC and he said that Anderson looks like a head case and after 36 years in Pro-Wrestling he knows a head case when he sees one.
Another possibility is that the championship contract that the UFC has Anderson looking to get fired, the contract states that as long as you are the champion you cant vacate the title or retire and go fight somewhere else. This will stop Anderson from finishing out his contract with the UFC and going into pro-boxing as the undefeated UFC champion. But Anderson’s antics in the cage and all the unprofessional behaviour I hope that he gets to fight on the under-cards or fight nights.
The Strikeforce PPV where not as exiting as I had hoped, I had high expectations on the fights but they failed to deliver. They did however deliver an after fight brawl on live tv, so the CBS execs will be really impressed by this Im sure. On top of that they did awful ratings, in the neighbourhood of a 1.0 rating if I remember correct. And why Strikeforce booked three championship fights on an two hour show is beyond me and any other reasonable humans understanding, they went 45minites long on the show, even though CBS told them after the last show that also went long that they didn’t appreciate that and they should stick the the time allotted for them.
The brawl after the main event wasnt Millers fault be just got shoved to the ground and Shields camp started kicking on him, mainly the Diaz brothers that are douchbags of the highest degree. Having Shields defend the title and retaining in his last fight for the promotion reminds me of WCW dropping a WWF (at the time) championships belt in thrash on live tv, and Dana White is turning more and more into Vince so why not throw a little Bischof in there and start a real rivalry. I know Strikeforce isn’t a legit threat to the UFC at this point and they never will if they continue to do dumb shit like this. Another tidbit from the Strikeforce show was the commentators telling the audience that theses kinds of brawls happens in MMA and its not a cause for concern…NO these things don’t happen, way to go Strikeforce putting the sport of MMA in a bad light, portraying its fighters as roided up street fighters.
First match Booby Lasley vs. Wes Sims wasn’t a convincing win for Bobby, Wes was really out of shape coming in on short notice for this fight. Bobby was digging his fingers into Wes throat and the ref where screaming at him for this but didn’t do anything about it, a raw deal in my opinion for Wes. I didn’t think he would stand a chance in the fight taking it on short notice against Lashley but not like this, this doesn’t do anything for Lashleys reputation as a up and coming heavyweight. In a pre fight interview Wes said if he wins he would do the Hogan atomic leg drop on Lashley, and in the beginning he wanted to look up in a test of strength pro-wrestling style, it wasn’t smart angering Lashley as in his previous fight his opponent came in with a lucha libre mask and Lashley almost ripped him in half in that fight.
However Lashley need to fight a good but not great fighter too actually see how good he really is, he has only been fighting cans in all his previous fights.
The Lawler fight was really good, he was losing until he hit the big hay maker. I don’t give Hughes fight camp that much credit, I really like Matt Hughes don’t get me wrong, he is one of my favourite fighters. But I don’t think his fight camp is as well rounded as you need in this day and age, but maybe that’s just me being pessimistic and reading too much into Matt Hughes being old and not as well rounded a fighter anymore. Lawler was losing that fight getting pushed around standing and his lead leg where getting jacked up all night long, he couldn’t stand on it at the end of the fight. He said in the post fight interview that their game plan was to get beat up and when he swarmed in for the kill hit him just as he dropped his hands. It sounded like a stupid game plan to me, but it apparently worked.
The main event was as exiting as a Diaz fight will get, he out struck the Dream champion and stopped him in the first round. I know the Diaz brothers are good fighters but I find their style boring and they are obnoxious as well.
Herzel Walker out cardioed and out wrestled a bad fighter who was so nervous to be fighting on the Miami card you felt sorry for him. I hope that this was the first and only fight for Herschel but rumours have it that he will fight Concacho or however he spells his name, the former steroid using baseball player, on the next CBS Strikeforce card. Herschel might be a decent striker and has some skills in top control, but no submission skills at all, maybe it was for the best he didn’t try any submissions and lost position as I don’t know how his submission defence and if he could work from the bottom.
In the Cyborg fight she dominated the fight out striking her opponent, not taking it to the ground other than to do a bit of ground and pound. This was a more competitive fight than I have seen from Cyborgs opponents in a long time.
Ok my overall impressions of the show was above expectations, the fights where good and the video packets where kept to a minimum compared to the UFC. Or at least that’s my impression, Mauro on commentary is good as always, my favourite line was when he questioned Frank Shamrocks comment about Diaz having weak punches that didn’t hurt but he still scrambled his brain, comedic gold.
