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Quick thoughts on Showtime broadcast of Strikeforce 4/11 San Jose event
By Zach Arnold | April 11, 2009

– The announcing, for the most part, was completely useless if not downright terrible and unbearable to listen to.
– The aesthetics of the Strikeforce event were ugly. That cage looked hard to see through, and the cage canvas was ugly with that black logo in the center. What an eyesore.
– A comment was made during the second round of the Diaz-Shamrock fight that Nick Diaz’s boxing skills are better than a lot ‘at the top of their game.’ No they’re not, and KJ Noons flat out proved that in the past. I was surprised at how easy Diaz won the stand-up game against Shamrock. In fact, I thought the whole key to the fight would be Frank’s ability to beat him in the stand-up game and it simply didn’t happen. Anyone with a decent-to-good boxing skill set can easily pick Diaz apart.
– I think Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg are great athletes and tough women, but some of the actions that they have done over the last 18 months has made it hard to take women’s MMA seriously. They will profit handsomely soon when they fight, but the health of women’s MMA is in poor shape because it hasn’t been promoted seriously. I hope after both women have their mega-fight in August that they realize that it would be in their best business interests to start using their star power to create new stars and bring in new female talent to cultivate the women’s MMA scene. Otherwise, they won’t be around the industry much longer with no opponents left to fight.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 53 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Top fighters in Affliction would be fighting 3 to 4 times a year on average if they were in the UFC
The top fighters in Affliction have all been fighting far more than once a year. Barnett fought three times in 2009. Babalu only fought twice because fight #3 in California was cancelled due to the promoter having no actual money. None of the UFC’s top names will fight 4 times this year or have fought 4 times in a year in a long, long time.
Alan,
Anderson Silva fought four times in 2006 (two of those fights in UFC), three times in 2007, and three times in 2008. That’s a hell of a fighting schedule. And Barnett fought three times last year, but two of those fights were in Sengoku.
Anderson Silva, once in the UFC, no longer competed 4 times a year. No one at the elite level does. His 3 fights a year are admirable, but compare that to BJ Penn. Penn had two fights in 2006, 1 in 2007, and two in 2008. He might get in three this year. Don’t even bother with the light heavyweights or heavyweights. Once you get to title challenger/holder there, the activity level drops massively.