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Strikeforce 1/29 HP Pavilion (San Jose Arena)
By Zach Arnold | January 30, 2011
- Ladies 120 pounds: Jenna Castillo defeated Charlene Gellner in R2 in 3’57 by KO (knee).
- Ladies 135 pounds: Germaine De Randamie defeated Stephanie Webber in R1 in 4’25 by KO (knee).
- 180 pounds: Ron Keslar defeated Eric Lawson in R1 in 1’57 with an armbar.
- Lightweights: Isaiah Hill defeated Bobby Stack in R1 in 1’02 with a triangle choke hold.
- Welterweights: Nate Moore defeated Nathan Coy in R2 in 25 seconds by KO.
Main card
- Light Heavyweights: Roger Gracie defeated Trevor Prangley in R1 in 4’19 by submission.
- Heavyweights: Herschel Walker defeated Scott Carson in R1 in 3’13 by TKO.
- Middleweight title match: Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza defeated Robbie Lawler in R3 in 2 minutes with a choke sleeper hold.
- Welterweight title match: Nick Diaz defeated Evangelista Cyborg in R2 in 4’50 with an armbar.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 47 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Go Carson!
(I don’t really have any reason to cheer against Herschel. Just feeling that way at the moment.)
Probably because the best Strikeforce cards are when they are a complete disaster(most of them)
Kinda wish SF showed undercard fights so I could see the battle of the Nates, and Germaine De Randamie fight. Oh well decent card.
Hope Ruthless blast Jacare into another dimension. I don’t hate Jacare or anything, just a huge fan of Lawler.
The undercard will be streamed on Sherdog beginning at 8:15 Eastern Saturday.
The one women’s fight Jenna Castillo vs Charlene Gellner is on the show because they are local fighters. Strikeforce doesn’t have any 120lb fighters under contract but Castillo is a Muay Thai champ.
Germaine De Randamie is a kickboxing veteran with a 36-0 record. She is known as The Iron Lady. But she’s new to MMA and had a disatstrous first fight. Strikeforce signed her to a contract and they have high hopes for her but her inexperience means the jury is still out. Can she adapt?
Thanks for the info man. New Laptop arrives tomorrow night so I’ll be ready.
Did she get crushed in her first fight? I actually didn’t know she had a MMA fight yet.
Germaine is 1-1 and after she lost her first fight to Brazilian veteran Vanessa Porto in 2008, she admitted she needed to go back to the drawing board. She was ill prepared. It seems like she learned her lesson. BTW, Julia Budd turned down a fight with Germaine before accepting Amanda Nunes.
Hahaha, that definately didn’t work out for her.
I guess she got her butt kicked enough in their kickboxing fight, that she didn’t want to take her on in MMA.
Since this is a real Strikeforce show and not a Challengers event, would it be too much to ask for women’s fights where they have a better record than 0-0 and 1-1?
I think it’s interesting how much press Walker is doing for this fight, and it makes you wonder what’s really in it for him. He’s presumably donating most or all of his purse again right? and we can presume that he’s not planning on doing more than 2-3 more of these fights.
If he was merely trying to test himself in MMA and get some publicity for it then he could just appear on the card, Strikeforce could do some promotion on his behalf (I know, kind-of an oxymoron but still), he could agree to a couple of interview requests, Sportscenter would show the highlights and his general athletic reputation would get a boost. But he’s really taking the initiative here and doing a pretty sizable media blitz to hype this fight.
It’s weird because all the talk at first was about how he was just doing this for competition sake, but in his interview on Inside the NFL he said things like “I never do anything to to be second best” and I’m paraphrasing here “I want to be a champion some day”.
I understand competitive fire, but does he really thing he can hang with guys like Werdum, and Fedor in a couple years at 50?
When it comes down to it, he’s just hyping a fight. But aside from that, he does train with AKA so he must have some idea of his skills. I say the plan is probably for him to fight another can after Carson, but a can with a name, then have one big fight with a credible mid-tier opponent (a mike whitehead or randleman type).
I can’t see him becoming a contender, but the reality is that he’s a fantastic athlete and is in amazing shape. He loves athletics, competing and MMA, so he’s probably going to keep at it. He’s certainly a better athlete than a lot of people who embark on an MMA career.
This will basically be like a hobby to him. He’ll learn the skills, and try and build up his record through the ranks like everybody else. I see him doing this until he gets too old (whatever age that is!) or until he gets a bad loss.
He’ll never achieve anything remotely significant in the sport, but just the fact he had an MMA career at age 48+ will be a big enough achievement in it’s own right.
http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Ennistake/article_8279.shtml
I’m not spamming as I’ve hit the MMA sites for years, and the site is linked, but this was such a great article and should be read.
Walker is like an actor who goes on a late night talk show and forgets to plug his movie while on there. All kind of weird really.
Both title challengers were poorly established which kills a lot of the excitement for a 2 title fight card.
I am interested in seeing how Souza does if he can’t get the takedown for more then 5 minutes. That should be a good test for him in that manner. If he can get the takedown relatively easy then I can’t imagine him losing.
Fun fights tonight, if a little on the predictable side in their outcomes.
Jacare looked good. Robbie will always be one of my favorites to watch, but I think we can close the book on him ever being a top tier 185er. Shitty.
…and can’t you just call it a RNC Zach. đŸ™‚
The went drew around 9,000 fans.
It’s really reminding me of the WEC at this point…. Only with leas top tier fighters and more predictable matchmaking. . Exciting fights that the hardcores enjoy but shows ZERO traction of ever expanding outside if what it is currently doing.
Almost 2 years into their Showtime deal and they haven’t been able to really increase attendance numbers or ratings of their championship level shows.
They are doing a HW grand prix soon, in case you haven’t heard of it. Having Fedor, Overeem, etc all in one tournament is going to get them more buzz than any shows they have ever done before (except maybe Fedor’s fight on CBS).
I watched the last two fights and I think Jacare may be the best 185er in the world. He is a freakish athlete and an amazing grappler; I am not sure anyone in the division would be a betting favorite over him except Anderson, and that fight could go like Sonnen v Silva, except that Jacare isn’t a retard on the ground.
Diaz is one of my favorite fighters to watch; I would pay a lot of money to see him vs GSP.
A lot of buzz within the bubble. None outside of it….
And he lost the first round to Robbie Lawler. The same guy who got submitted in 3 minutes by a Welterweight….
How does that prove he is the 2nd best only to Silva?
Robbie hits hard, and Robbie connected. That’s it. Could happen to anybody. Jacare really should improve his stand up, but he isn’t 1D like Rani Yahya or Demian Maia.
And to be even more fair to Robbie, he was winning against Jake Shields as well, but got caught with the guillotine.
This doesn’t prove he’s second best to Anderson Silva (he definitely has the talent to be there) but I’m just saying.
“It’s really reminding me of the WEC at this point…. Only with less top tier fighters and more predictable matchmaking.”
For realz – like Ben Henderson, Anthony Pettis, Bart Paleswezjieejej, Jamie Varner, Mike Brown, Manny Gamburyan, Miguel Torres, Urijah Faber.
C’mon man. Once we see the FW/BW divisions sort themselves out we’ll see there was a minuscule number of top tier fighters in the WEC ranks. They lived in a more warped bubble than the ranked J-MMA fighters.
Don’t forget Chase Beebe, Manny Tapia, Rani Yahya, and Leonard Garcia!
They were top guys at the time.
I agree it will all still get sorted out but at the time of the WEC they had the best who competed in those weight divisions.
Guys like Florian are now cutting weight to FW….. It is certainly a new time….
“They were top guys at the time.
I agree it will all still get sorted out but at the time of the WEC they had the best who competed in those weight divisions.”
Uhh…no, no they weren’t. They were the top guys in the in the promotion, being billed as the top guys in the world by the promoters of that promotion. If Zuffa wasn’t the ultimate owner hyping these guys, everyone, including you, would have laughed their ass off at the notion.
So who were the real top Feather and Bantam fighters during this time?
Well, off the top of my head, among them would be
Hioki, Omigawa, Warren, Takaya, Fernandes, Sandro, Miyata, Kanehara, Maeda, Blanco, Inoue, Imanari, Reis, Friere, Ueda, Sudo.
Who knows how all would have fared, there was some crossover but to say WEC was a collection of the best in the world is untrue.
Half of your list is Japanese fighters and everytime we see those guys come stateside they instantly look undersized and overmatched. The only one likely to have success would be Hioki.
Reis is undersized and a one trick pony. I’ve seen him live and he is not impressive.
Warren wasn’t even around for half the time of the WEC and is concentrating on wrestling again.
If that’s the best you can do, then you prove my point.
The japanese guys are all on the same level as the FW’s and BW’s slowly being removed from top tier in the WEC.
“Hioki, Omigawa, Warren, Takaya, Fernandes, Sandro, Miyata, Kanehara, Maeda, Blanco, Inoue, Imanari, Reis, Friere, Ueda, Sudo.”
You can’t be serious with this stuff Gaij. Takaya was smashed by Leonard Garcia, and suddenly he’s a world beater because he beats up guys at a weight class that doesn’t exist anywhere else in MMA. Kanehara is on the same level as Brown and Gamburyan. Maeda was beat right out of the WEC then smashed a couple times in Japan for good measure. Blanco fights at 155, he’s not even top 25 there. It was proven in his last fight that if he can’t put someone away early he’s not that impressive at all. Miyata has takedowns, that’s it. He’d be guillotined in a second by a guy like Faber. Reis has lost everytime he’s made a step up in competition. Ueda draws half of Japan.
Sandro and Hioki are the guys that are on the level with the vasquez’s, Mendes’s, Brown’s, yahya’s, Nunes’s, and Omigawa.
I’m not saying that the guys in the wec should be ranked high now, but they were ranked correctly at the time. None of these guys except maybe Mendes, and Hioki are going to ranked high in the divisions within the next year. There’s big money at 145 and 135 now in the UFC. We’re going to start seeing better athletes compete there.
On reflection my list is pretty putrid. I just loathe to think that we would actually consider some of the guys that were in the WEC top 10 as “top 10” guys…but history shows they probably were correctly ranked for the most part. Not to mention my previous list of J-MMA failures probably doesn’t reflect too well on a J-MMA heavy list. But like I said that was just off the top of my head without really putting much analysis into it (so blanked on guys like Maeda and the Streetfight Bancho having their shot and falling miserably)…
I think Hioki has actually shown he’s a worthy top 5-10 (two wins over Hominick, beat J-MMA’s Aldo in Marlon Sandro). Joe Warren is a complete newb and would give anyone fits right now…he will be scary if he commits full time to mma – the guy could be a huge star if given the right opportunity and exposure.
This was a really fun event. And I gotta agree with 45 huddle, that it did feel like a WEC event. Cyborg throws some wicked-ass kicks, but Diaz sure can take ’em. Diaz does have to learn how to take low kicks. As hard as Cyborg does kick, imagine if Diaz went against Shogun Rua instead. Or Wanderlei Silva circa 2003 or so.
yes, imagine if Diaz had to deal with the power of fighters 2 weight classes above him
lol
shitI didn’t think about that. Well, Diaz can fight at middleweight (remember, he was going to be in the middleweight tournament that didn’t happen. If it does happen he can still be thrown in) and Wanderlei Silva has fought at middleweight (has been a while) so there you go. Shogun on the other hand……it ain’t happening.If it had been GSP vs. Cyborg, I get the feeling it would have been a slow decision win for Georges. Nice that Diaz moves forward, tries relentlessly for submissions, etc.
VERY exciting contest – this type of fight represents what MMA *should* be.
I would love to see Mayhem vs. either Diaz or Jacare.
MMA should be a mismatch on paper?
No, MMA should be two guys trying to finish the damn fight.
And if they’re not, UFC should bring in PRIDE’s yellow card system (which will probably be needed about 100 times during Shields vs. GSP).
There aren’t many fights in the UFC where guys are really stalling.
When you fight a high enough level of competition it makes it much harder to finish…. Even if you want to in the worst way. Guys in the UFC don’t get many if any Cyborg level fights.
Tough Man might be a better sport for you to watch.
Gotta love Diaz.
He can win in SO many different ways & lately, he always finds a way to do so.
A lot of doubters like to point out his so so run in the UFC as proof of how he’s merely a big fish in a small pond in Strikeforce, but that’s garbage IMO. Nick’s game has improved a great deal since those long ago days of dropping decisions to the likes of Joe Riggs. Any fair appraisal of him has to acknowledge that.
He’s filled out & gained strength & power as well. Allowing him to put a hurting on opponents like he couldn’t back during his UFC run.
He’s the real deal & a legit top 3 welterweight in the world.
From how I argue for Diaz on other sites, I could probably have the screenname Iluvnickdiaz.
So take that into account when I say this. Diaz is barely a top ten WW in the world. I love to watch him fight. I am in disagreement with guys like Brookhouse at BE in that I think he could win some highprofile boxing matches against the guys being discussed for him (Mayorga, Vargas… both fought as high as 154, I think Nick would just be too big an active for them now). However, in Nicks recent winning streak, there is not a serious wrestler with decent sub defense anywhere in sight. If he were in the UFC he would have to deal with the likes of Mike Pierce, Jake Ellenberger, Martin Kampman, John Howard, Brian Foster, Charlie Brenneman, Johnnie Hendricks, Dong Hyun Kim, Matt Riddle, Rory Macdonald and that’s not even mentioning upper tier guys like Story, Fitch, Koscheck, and GSP.
He’s good where he is now, fighting guys who like to stand, and staying away from grinders and good GNP guys. But there is no way in hell he is a top 5 let alone top 3 WW.
Diaz is Top 3 in the world? Based on what wins?
The guy can’t stop the takedowns of many of the top Welterweights today. At least not at the UFC level.
Why are fans so incapable of seeing that quality of opponents makes a world of difference. So he impressed against Cyborg? Honestly what does that prove? Cyborg wouldn’t even be Top 20 in the UFC.
Diaz would lose to GSP, Fitch, Penn, Alves, and Shields without question. He would really struggle and probably lose the majority of fights against Ellenberger, Pierce, Story, Kim, and Hendricks.
He would have his best success against the non-grapplers of the division like Kampmann, Hardy, Condit, and guys like that.
If the UFC wanted to, they could easily cherry pick his opponents and make him a quick 0-3 in the organization without blinking an eye.
He’s one of my favorite guys to watch. Because he brings it every time.
That said, I don’t think he’d do much better on another UFC run than he did last time. There are a ton of fights I’d like to see him have in UFC. Alves, Condit, Kampmann, Volkman, Leben at 185 and fights with BJ, Kos and GSP.
But I think he’d get taken down and dry humped by the top guys in the division. Unfortunately the way fights are being scored right now he’d lose fights like he did against Sanchez and Riggs where the other guy was busted open but Diaz was pinned down for most of the fight.
But whenever and against whomever I’m there anytime Nick fights.
As for my second fav fighter on Saturday night’s card, I hope Coker & his matchmakers at Strikeforce give Robbie Lawler the sort of match ups that allow him to engage in the type of fights that the fans want to see him in now that he’s had his shot at Jacare & the belt.
Hell, I’d love to see Cyborg move back up to ’85 & face him. That’d likely be another classic in the making alongside Lawler’s bouts with Rua, Smith & Manhoef.
I’m not saying that they should try to favor him to win with easy match ups by any means, just make the best possible fights involving him for the fans.
Something that contests with more master grapplers isn’t going to accomplish.
We want to see Robbie in firefights, not underneath someone on the canvas.
Agreed.
It sux to pretty much know that he’ll really never be a high level contender again. So your right on the money in the assesment of just getting him exciting fights. It’s funny because after the event was over I was thinking how exciting a Cyborg-Lawler fight would be. Robbie would be the favorite, but we all know how bad he is against guys with good leg kicks.
Who is next for Souza? He has already beaten his Top 3 challengers in Mayhem, Kennedy, and Lawler.
Has he cleared out his division already?
Melendez already cleared out his division and Diaz is a Daley fight away from doing so (Woodley hasn’t progressed like he should to be put in the bigger fights for a while).
Luke Rockhold? I know he’s only 7-1 but he’s probably the best fresh challenger currently in SF for Jacare. Then again, he is like Woodley at welterweight. Needs a little more seasoning. They can always bring in Jorge Santiago. There is Dan Henderson but it looks like he will be staying at light heavyweight for now.
Jorge Santiago would have to be the best option IMO.
Then if Kennedy can get a decent win, do the rematch. Hopefully by then someone else is ready, but all this really would be a perfect situation.