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« | Home | »

Strikeforce 8/15 San Jose Arena

By Zach Arnold | August 15, 2009

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In Twitter world, lots of expected comments from casual fans — I still love Gina, Cyborg is all testerone and a he-male, when do we get a re-match, etc.

Yahoo put Steve Cofield’s post on their very front page, which is why there are over 700 comments. Big push.

Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 38 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

38 Responses to “Strikeforce 8/15 San Jose Arena”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    And now we find out if Women’s MMA can survive without a good looking woman at the top. One rematch won’t change the outcome.

  2. jr says:

    “That’s what happens when you fight someone from Lithuania”-Bill O’Reilly to Gina

  3. King Famous says:

    A good quick show. Could do without the no-skin cg dummies and “Frank’s Keys.” But an enjoyable program.

    I much better enjoy the commentary on these shows as it is about the action in the cage and speaks directly to the match we are watching.

    Watch out for Gegard!!!

  4. Alan Conceicao says:

    Well, at least I won’t have to spend much time watching this show. I consider that a huge plus. What I’ve heard is that Carano gassed about 2 minutes in; yikes. Way to show that women are ready for 5 minute rounds there.

    Mousasi looks like the real story coming out of this as far as I’m concerned. Pretty badass to demolish Babalu like that. Hopefully they can find him some quality opposition not named Southworth or Ruiz. Noguiera would be nice, while Sokoudjou is a likely fight in the Monster GP. Coker must be hoping some guys get released soon like Vera or Jardine.

  5. 45 Huddle says:

    The UFC isn’t going to release any LHW’s for this very reason. At least nobody of any sort of name value.

    Mousasi puts himself as a legit contender at LHW. The problem is that he really has nobody to fight.

  6. Coyote says:

    The next i wait is:

    – Critiane justino vs Rosie Sexton or Erin Toughill

    – Gilbert Melendez vs Josh Thompson or K.J. noons (I hear he is already with strikeforce)

    – Gerard Mousasi vs Rafael Fejiao or Lil Nogueira

  7. Fluyid says:

    Any more rumors on Fedor’s first Strikeforce fight?

  8. Ivan Trembow says:

    45 Huddle wrote: “And now we find out if Women’s MMA can survive without a good looking woman at the top.”

    And you’re hoping that it doesn’t, because females lack the basic fundamentals of their male counterparts, right? lol

    On a serious note, it was a good show overall, but I disappointed that Hieron vs. Taylor was moved to the prelims, as I thought it would be airing on the main card along with the other four fights. Werdum’s fight had to be on the main card since he’s a potential title challenger, but I have no interest in seeing Mike Kyle fight after his actions against Brian Olsen.

    Gegard Mousasi looked extremely impressive, as did Cyborg. I was surprised to see Mousasi go for a takedown, and even more surprised when he knocked out Sobral on the ground so quickly. I thought Mousasi would win the fight in the stand-up.

    I was also surprised to see Cyborg attempt takedowns against Carano, and the first two were actually reversed, with Carano landing on top. At the end of the fight, it was kind of a BJ Penn vs. Sean Sherk situation in that Carano looked to be out of it right at the end of the round. There was less than one second between the stoppage and the horn sounding to end the round, but worrying about the time is not the referee’s job. The referee’s job is to look out for the health and safety of the fighters and stop the fights when a fighter is no longer intelligently defending themselves, and since Carano wasn’t at that point, the ref did the right thing by stopping the fight.

    Speaking of stopping fights, how in the hell did Yuji Shimada get licensed to be a referee in the state of California? This man makes Jason Herzog and Mario Yamasaki look like they’re actually good referees in terms of not stopping fights way too late. He has a long history of very late stoppages and should not be licensed to be a ref in the United States (or anywhere else, for that matter). Fortunately, the fight for which he was the referee (Werdum vs. Kyle) did not require him to use his judgment on when to stop a fight.

  9. Ivan Trembow says:

    “What I’ve heard is that Carano gassed about 2 minutes in; yikes.”

    Not sure where you heard that. She was definitely woozy and wobbly from the punches that she was absorbing, but didn’t look gassed out. The idea that women in general can’t fight five-minute rounds is ridiculous. If you still need convincing of that, you should watch the fight between Tara Larosa and Kelly Kobold in BodogFight, which was booked for five five-minute rounds, and was a great fight that went into the fourth round, during which Larosa won by armbar.

  10. Adam Smith says:

    45 Puddle is always such an obnoxious ass.

    Carano got beat by clearly the most talented and focused fighter, that she does not look like Gina Cheesecake Carano is irrelevant.

    Mousasi is the next Fedor, wait and see. This guy would defeat Silva because he has a superior fight IQ, something Anderson has been suspect at in the past.

    The UFC has nothing for Gegard or Fedor in the way of better competion as they have the abilty to fight all over the world on their terms, not Dana Fuckin White’s Circus as indentured servants.

    Congrats to Chris and Gegard. The show Mousasi put on was pure skill and class.

    Congrats to Scott Coker as well, your prospects are looking great with the recent aquisitions and the class shows put on with the focus on the fighters.

    Where it should be.

  11. IceMuncher says:

    “And you’re hoping that it doesn’t, because females lack the basic fundamentals of their male counterparts, right? lol”

    I don’t know why you’re laughing, if anything I think the fight showcased some deep fundamental flaws in both fighters. Cyborg pulled Carano into mount twice in one round, and Carano went for a schoolyard headlock takedown and let Cyborg slip around to her back three separate times. It was reminiscent of some of the local amateur shows I’ve attended, which is not something I was expecting from two of the top female fighters in the world. Consider me very underwhelmed with WMMA at this point.

  12. spacedog says:

    Just got back from the show and all I can say is: IT SUCKED!!!!

    I dragged a few friends along and after the show I actually offered to pay for their tickets, I felt that bad about wasting their money.

    My main gripe would be the fact that their were only four fights on the main card and we only got to see three of them. The pacing was wack, the promo’s were wack, the live interviews that those at home got to see were not played live and it just basically sucked all around. I might try to give a more cogent analysis later, but for now all I can say is that it was by far the worst liver MMA show I have ever been to.

  13. 45 Huddle says:

    spacedog,

    Compare that to UFC 101 that I went to. Some of the fights were boring, but everything ran so smoothly. One fight after the other except 20 minute break before the main card. The live experience left all the fans very satisfied. If anything, I would have preffered another 20 minute break to give me time to get more food.

    I wasn’t at the Strikeforce card, but I’ve been to two IFL events in the past. The second one was very nicely paced and was a fun experience. The first had bad pacing, and it was horrible. Too much downtime. People were leaving before the main event. And even more people left before the decision of the main event happened. It literally had the feeling that it just dragged on forever.

    While TV is still an important product, I think if word of mouth happens on a bad live experience, it can hurt the company.

  14. Zack says:

    Lil Nog vs Mousasi would be a great matchup.

  15. Mr.Roadblock says:

    Icemuncher is spot on. That those are two of if not the two best women fighters in the world doesn’t say much. Turn the sound off and watch that fight. That is 3-fight amateurs on a Tuff-N-Uff card in Vegas. Or guys just getting their first few fights in as a pro.

    There is no defense in that fight. The only punches blocked were blocked by faces and one point where Gina turtled on her feet. All 3 takedown attempts resulted in the other woman being on top.

    I know 90% of Women’s MMA supporters are just trying to come across as smarter than everyone and nice in the know guys on message boards. Please get real.

  16. Mr.Roadblock says:

    I just watched the Mousasi fight. Good job. Let’s go easy, Adam, saying the guys in UFC at 205 can’t hang with him. That’s just ridiculous. There is some real irrational UFC hate on this board. Be honest, UFC vs the world champion vs champion at every weight Fedor is the world’s best shot to have a winner.

  17. Ivan Trembow says:

    “Mr. Roadblock” wrote: “I know 90% of Women’s MMA supporters are just trying to come across as smarter than everyone and nice in the know guys on message boards.”

    Well, you’ve caught me. I was only pretending to support women’s MMA so that I could come across as smarter than everyone and a nice, in-the-know guy. But seriously, your statement makes a strong case for the importance of thinking for a moment before you post something.

    Also, Cyborg-Carano was no Griffin-Bonnar, but how much defense was there in the Griffin-Bonnar fight? How much defense was there in the Sanchez-Guida fight? They fought very aggressively and at an extremely fast pace. Even the UFC’s business partners are saying that it was a great fight. Even the UFC’s business partners determined that they couldn’t make a credible case for it not being a great fight. And you’re going to say it was like a couple of amateur fighters in there, as if there aren’t male MMA fights with just as little in the way of defense?

  18. Mr.Roadblock says:

    You should think before you post. Most of your posts are so biased against UFC that it defies reason.

    Here’s the flaw with your post slamming me. You are agreeing with me. Bonnar and Griffin were B-level prospects at best when they fought. Nobody was saying they were the pinnacle of any division of MMA. People are saying Gina and Cyborg are the two best women’s fighters and this is going to show the world how great women’s fighting is.

    What I saw tonight in Gina and Cyborg looks like about 300 or so fun, exciting amateur and young pro fights I’ve seen. Huge flaws on both sides of their games.

    The outcome was the same as almost all of those fun B-level fights. Two fighters go nuts, throw everything they’ve got and the better athlete overpowers the lesser athlete.

  19. szappan says:

    Gina vs Cyborg? The better man won… ; )

  20. Wolverine says:

    Ivan it’s not about defense but actual MMA skills. Carano and Cyborg are not the most skilled female fighters in the world, contary to how they are sometimes portrayed. Compare Cyborg stand-up skills to Sarah Kaufman or Miku Matusmoto. It was fun fight to watch because it was back and forth, but you cannot say that it was on the same skill level as Sanchez vs. Guida or even Griffin vs. Bonnar.

  21. Mark says:

    Carano and Cyborg are the biggest names in female MMA, but nobody who knows about female MMA think they’re the two best. Just because a promotion says so doesn’t mean it’s true. Remember when UFC tried to convince us Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock were the two best LHWs in MMA in 2006? It didn’t mean it was true, it was just hype.

    LaRosa alone is miles better than both of them put together. Cyborg is your standards Chute Boxe fighter, and not one of the stars like Shogun or Wanderlei in their primes. Gina is an a decent striker who was protected for 2 years by Gary Shaw, so it was really impossible to know how good she really was with that long gap in quality fights.

    I don’t know how Carano bounces back from this, she got destroyed. There’s not a ton of quality fighters at her weight to bring in to rebuild her credibility. I’m sure they’ll do a rematch, but the outcome will be the same. She’s hurt by most of the good fighters in women’s MMA being below her weightclass. And Cyborg doesn’t have any quality opponents really either. It’s time to get LaRosa to gain 20 pounds I guess.

  22. Alan Conceicao says:

    Why I didn’t watch this event, short form (I’d extrapolate on this for an article if Zach got me a profile, lol):

    -I don’t particularly care about women’s fighting, no matter how sexism some will argue that is

    -I don’t feel that Carano or Cyborg are the best in their respective sport, and feel that a belt decided between the two is worth nothing

    -One fight intruiged me for entertainment value, and I knew there was a serious chance it would end inside of one round. It ended in a minute

  23. Dave2 says:

    I knew that Cyborg’s power and aggression would be too much for Gina Carano. Gina Carano is just not that good. She’s not truly an elite female fighter. Cyborg may not be the best pound-for-pound female mixed martial artist but she is a monster at 145. Megumi Fujii is completely out of Cyborg’s weight class and Tara LaRosa is too small for Cyborg.

  24. 45 Huddle says:

    Griffin/Bonna was for a UFC contract. Cyborg/Carano was for a title. It you take away the fact that they were ladies, and watch the fight purely on technical abilities, it was the worst fight on a major show since the early UFC days…. I’m talking UFC 1-10 stuff….

    Mousasi looked impressive.

  25. 45 Huddle says:

    Coker said Rogers and Werdum were front runners to fight Fedor in November. What I don’t understand is…. What’s the hold up? There shouldn’t be any reason for a fight not being signed yet. Is M-1 using their co-promotion abilities to choose an opponent?

    I find the delay very weird.

  26. Alan Conceicao says:

    The way 45 is talking about it, I expect it to be the female version of all those FOTN setup scraps the UFC keeps booking Chris Lytle into. Realistically, I’m guessing it was for the 4:59 it went. Then again, I don’t care about those fights either. Not about to start now.

  27. Wolverine says:

    Alan believe me, in pure technique it was even worse than Lytle recent FOTNs. I really enjoyed it though.

  28. 45 Huddle says:

    The fights are online. I just wanted to see how bad it was (based on what people were saying). I wasn’t disappointed. If the UFC has C-Level kickboxing, this was f- level. And the grappling was even worse. It’s like they don’t even have the simpoliest concepts down like…. Takedowns, hip control, and how to balance yourself.

  29. Ivan Trembow says:

    “Carano and Cyborg are the biggest names in female MMA, but nobody who knows about female MMA think they’re the two best.”

    Agreed. Now, everyone else, please resume with your enlightening discussion of how horrible the Cyborg-Carano fight was. If enough of you say it enough times, it might make it true…

  30. Lester Grimes says:

    Carano vs Santos proves that the skill set of Women’s MMA is still lacking as compared to their male counterparts.

    Women’s MMA will most likely fare worse than the WNBA – a 2nd rate sports league that’s backed by a billion dollar organization (NBA). A product that no one ever watches, especially on network TV (ABC & ESPN), even after 10+ years of existence.

  31. 45 Huddle says:

    I went to UConn, and as some people know, women’s basketball was very big in that area. So I am more then familiar with it.

    Go do some research on the WNBA….

    1. Still Financially Struggling

    2. Entire Team Rosters have salary cap of under $1 Million.

    3. Many players have to compete in other leagues overseas (during off season) in order to make extra money.

    4. Attendance can be bad for certain cities.

    5. TV ratings are low. I’m talking about like less then 500,000 people on a major station.

    And people who bring up female Tennis being successful really have little clue what they are talking about. It’s a completely different sport with a completely different demographic. It’s typically played by richer people. The fans are richer. It’s just completely different. It in no way relates to any potential success of female MMA. Female Boxing has a much better likely correlation….

  32. Ivan Trembow says:

    Agreed! It’s just like the WNBA. I don’t understand why they insist on putting on these female MMA fights. They’re all so unskilled, and nobody wants to see it! They should just stop already. (sarcasm intended)

  33. 45 Huddle says:

    Ivan The Sarcastic…

    I don’t know…. The NBA not being able to make the WNBA remotely popular. Martin on the undercard of Tyson couldn’t get female boxing more popular. Ali’s daughter couldn’t either.

    I would say the proof is there that females are not a long term viable option. There might be a fight here and there that might peak the interest of fans, but not really draw. It’s good CBS type of stuff. It’s what network TV does best. Bring in a lot of casual viewers. It doesn’t mean high priced tickets or $40 PPV’s can be sold off these women’s names. And likely never will be for a very very long time.

  34. Ivan Trembow says:

    “I would say the proof is there that females are not a long term viable option.”

    Are females not a viable long-term option in the sports world?

    Or are females not a viable long-term option in life in general?

    I just want to make sure that I understand your position.

  35. Ivan Trembow says:

    And I ask that question because not just because of your disdain for women’s sports, but also because of the amount of sexist garbage that came out of your mouth shortly after your hero went off on Loretta Hunt. Your worldview of women and their place in society is becoming increasingly clear.

  36. Adam Smith says:

    45 Puddle once again filling an entire thread with Zuffa propaganda.

    Hilarious.

    Paid by the post or hour?

    Given the level of quality of your e thoughts, I’m guessing by the hour…

  37. Adam Smith says:

    Actually, I should have said unpaid intern from a quality perspective…

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