MMA Hot Stuff

Strikeforce Results

Guest Writer: Salvatore DeRosalia

STRIKEFORCE 

Televised Fights: 

MAIN CARD (BEGINNING AT 7:30PM): 

Gina “Conviction” Carano (7-0) vs. Cris “Cyborg” (7-1) – 145lb Female Championship Bout 

Gina and Cyborg both look calm as they make their walk to the cage.  The crowd is certainly on Gina’s side as it roars when she enters the cage.  This is quite possibly the most important in STRIKEFORCE history.  Fighters are you ready? Fans are you ready?  “Let’s go!” 

Round one starts with Cyborg staking Gina and she takes eventually takes her down after a short flurry.  Somehow Gina ends up on top but Cyborg is goes for a heel hook.  Gina escapes and Cyborg takes her back and initiates ground and pound.  Gina gets out and gets up but only to more vicious blows from Cyborg.  Gina and Cyborg go down to the ground again and Gina ends up in full mount.  She delivers her own vicious ground and pound.  Gina and Cyborg stand up and trade heavy punches in the middle of the ring.  Both fighters are tired.  Gina lands a SUPERWOMAN punch to the face of Cyborg.  Both girls are trading blows as Cyborg takes Gina down again.  Cyborg seems to be hurting Gina more then she is being hurt.  They clinch in the middle of the cage.  Cyborg falls on Gina and lands in half guard.  Cyborg attempts an Americana twice but Gina rolls out of it.  Cyborg initiates ground and pound. Gina curls up against the cage and covers her face.  The Ref yells at Gina to fight back or he will stop the match.  The Ref warns her again.  Cyborg continues to deliver horrific blows to Gina’s face as Josh Rosenthal steps in and stops the fight as the horn sounds to end the round.  There is confusion in the ring for a moment but the fight is over.  Gina is still on the mat as Cyborg runs around the ring elated with her accomplishment.  Gina fought hard but the strength of Cyborg was just too much and she is now the STRIKEFORCE WOMANS 145LB CHAMPION. 

Renato "Babalu" Sobral (35-8) vs. Gegard Mousasi (25-2-1) - Light Heavyweight Championship Bout 

First things first, Referee BIG JOHN MCCARTHY is huge. 

Bell rings and Babalu meanders to the center of the cage.  Babalu catches Mousasi kick and clinches.  Mousasi establishes side control. Babalu tries to get up but Mousasi destroys Babalu with straight hard punches to the head.  Babalu’s body goes stiff.  Mousasi wins fight by KO at1:00 in the first round and is now the STRIKEFORCE Light Heavyweight Champion 
 
 
 

Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez (15-2) vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida (18-5-1) – Lightweight Interim Championship Bout 

El Nino takes the center of the cage and spends the first 3 minutes of round 1 picking apart Ishida’s face with jabs, hooks and crosses.  Ishida shoots for and get a double leg takedown, almost secures a rear naked choke but Gilbert turns it around into his own takedown which is where the round comes to an end.  

Gilbert used his reach in round 2.  Gilbert sprawls on a shot attempt from Ishida and then uses the clinch to administer some dirty boxing and knees.  Gilbert lets his hands fly with bunches of punches to Ishida’s face.  Ishida starts bleeding from the top of his head. Ishida takes heavy knees to the torso with a 1:30 left in round 2. Round 2 ends with another takedown from Melendez, Ishida seems gassed. 

Round 3 opens with Melendez taking the center of the cage again.  The two fighters’ trade punches.  Both fighters are hanging their hands low which is opening them up for punches.  Gilbert takes Ishida down with 3 minutes left and jumps on top of him with a flurry of punches, and knees to the body.  Melendez mounts Ishida’s back delivering furious blows to side of head.  Fight is stopped by Herb Dean because Ishida is not intelligently defending himself.  Gilbert wins fight by TKO at 3:56 in round 3.  Melendez avenges his first loss to Ishida in convincing fashion and remains the STRIKEFORCE Lightweight Interim Champion! And now I'm off to his after party.. I MIGHT post pictures tomorrow. Might.

Mike "Mak" Kyle (12-6-1) vs. Fabricio "Vai Cavalo" Werdum (11-4-1) 

Both fighters come out to center of the ring and waste no time throwing kicks and punches.  Werdum shoots for single leg and ends up in Kyle’s guard.  Kyle almost secures arm bar from the bottom on Werdum, the Jiu Jitsu specialist, but Werdum fights out of it gets side control.  Werdum wraps the neck of Kyle with a guillotine choke.  Kyle tries hard to fight out of it but the fight ends a few seconds later by tapout.   

Preliminary Bouts:

Alex Trevino Defeated Isiah Hill via Submission (Side Choke) at 3:56 in the 1^st round

James Terry Defeated Zak Bucia via TKO at 1:23 in the 1^st round

Justin Wilcox Defeated David Douglas via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) at 3:16 in the 3^rd round

Jay Hieron Defeated Jesse Taylor via Unanimous Decision (30-27 on all three scorecards)

Also,  don't forget to follow me at Twitter.com/MMAHotStuff 

ESPN MMA Live: Episode 47

Miguel Torres will be defending his title against Takeya Mizugaki in his own back yard this Sunday!

Miguel called in talked about not feeling the additional pressure fighting in front of his hometown fans, they're what helped him get where he is today. He also talked about his training preparations.

He also talked about his plans to move up a weight class. I'd LOVE to see this.

Kenny confirmed the fight with BJPenn will in fact be happening and as he announced on KennyFlorian.com looks like UFC 101 August 8^th in Philly.

Lashley joined in and he talks about his performance against Jason Guida. Find out what he thought of his performance also find out if he would fight for the UFC now. Is there a possibility he'll appear on The Ultimate Fighter? Also, find out his thoughts on being compared to Lesnar.

 

Announced/Rumored Fights:

• Forrest Griffin vs Thiago Silva happening at UFC 101
• Matt Hamill vs Brandon Verra UFC 101
• Rousimar Palhares vs Alessio Sakara UFC 99
• "JZ" Cavalvante vs Tatsuya Kawajiri Dream 9
• Gegard Mousasi vs Rameau Sokokjou Dream 9

 

Versus to sign multi-year extension with WEC that could run two more years

--I'd like to see old fights hosted on versus.com.

The crew gave a Fight Night debrief. If you missed the fights check out what they had to say.

Loving the training table series keep it up guys. Although I'm still craving a whopper my way.

Nick Diaz off DREAM 5 Card

GracieFighter has reported that Nick Diaz will not be taking part in the DREAM 5 card, where he was scheduled to fight Mach Sakuri. Apparently EliteXC has sited "contractual obligations" as the reasons for not allowing Diaz to fight in Japan in July.

It seems the rumor is that EliteXC has other plans for Diaz in July, which we can only assume would be to add him to the July 26th card which will be live on CBS. Could a fight in July with KJ Noons be added to the EliteXC card? Will we be seeing two title fights that night?

We can only hope!

DREAM 4: Results and videos

As you know, our friends over in Japan hosted DREAM 4 over the weekend. We got to see a number of very good match-ups as we continue to make our way through the lightweight grand-prix! Speaking of which, Shinya Aoki advances after a display of grappling technique that was truly amazing. Aoki will now take on Caol Uno in the semi-finals, with the other match pitting Tatsuya Kawajiri against USA's Eddie Alvarez.

In a match that went the distance, Jacare beat the always entertaining Jason "Mayhem" Miller by unanimous decision to advance in the middleweight grand prix.

In one of the most entertaining fights of the night, Darren Uyenoyama took on Hideo Tokoro. You have got to see this fight. This is why I love watching these smaller weight classes. These guys grapple in and out of submissions the whole match, while throwing some bombs on their feet. Each fighter had the other in trouble, and it went the distance. Check it out!

Got HDNet? HDNet Fights has a solid line-up of MMA programming for this weekend!!

HDNet has a solid line-up of MMA scheduled for the weekend! Take a look at their commercial here. Or you can view their line-up for the weekend here.

Personally, I'm looking forward to Unfiltered: Melendez vs. Thomson, which will be airing all weekend, but it premieres on Friday, June 13th at 9:00 PM PT.

Also, HDNet will be airing DREAM 4 Live! Jason "Mayhem" Miller vs "Jacare" will be an interesting fight to watch!

Nick Diaz back on for fight with DREAM! No, really, we're serious this time!

After a lot of back and forth, it appears that Nick Diaz is now officially confirmed to be fighting on the May 11th DREAM 3 card. GracieFighter.com news reported that the issue went all the way up to the CEO of Pro Elite, Doug DeLuca, and was finally agreed to between Doug and representatives from FEG.

After all this, are they going to change their mind again? I hope not, because apparently he's on a plane to Japan as we speak!

Good luck Nick!

Nick Diaz DREAM Fight Cancelled

As I reported earlier, Nick Diaz had a very busy schedule. Now, as reported by GracieFighter.com, EliteXC has pulled Nick from his DREAM fight, stating that the May 11th fight is too close to his scheduled bout for EliteXC on June 14th.

Apparently Nick's contract with EliteXC is non-exclusive but he must gain permission from EliteXC to fight outside the organization. Sounds like a slight mix up in communication took place, and EliteXC decided it was just too close to the June 14th fight for their liking. As GracieFighter.com reported, "Unfortunately no one at Dream shared this information with EliteXC and EliteXC President, Gary Shaw, only learned of the change via the internet 2 days ago". Although we all love to see Nick fight, it's hard to fault Gary Shaw and EliteXC, especially given the postponement of the Shields vs. Ficket title fight originally scheduled for June 14th.

Too bad, but at least we can plan on seeing Nick and his exciting fighting style on June 14th!!!

Nick Diaz, a busy man. Jake Shields, a patient one.

Nick Diaz will be a busy man over the next few months. Nick was already scheduled to fight for EliteXC on June 14th against Muhsin Corbbrey, and has now been added to the DREAM 3 card on May 11th (yes, next week!). Nick (15-7), will be fighting Katsuya Inoue (16-5-3) in Saitama, Japan. The winner will Hayato Sakurai for the DREAM welterweight title.

The DREAM 3 card also features Jason "Mayhem" Miller. I gotta say, that guy is hilarious. He has what was one of the best fight entrances in MMA history when he came to the ring in a business suit. Hilarious!

While Nate Diaz is busy fighting, Jake Shields will be busy waiting... again. Jake was set to fight Drew Ficket for the EliteXC Welterweight title on March 29th in the EliteXC / Strikeforce co-promotion. Unfortunately Jake had to withdrawl from the fight due to back injury. The fight was then re-scheduled for June 14th EliteXC card, but Drew Ficket has had to pull out due to knee injury.

There has been no official date set for the match as of yet, but there is speculation that it could take place on the July 26th card, which just so happens to be the second of the "Saturday Night Fight" series on CBS. I'm sure neither fighter is pleased to have to re-schedule again, and waiting is never fun, but it can't be all that terrible if they get some major network TV time out of it.

I'm going to go ahead and choose a winner on this one. Jake Shields will become the first EliteXC Welterweight Champion... and hopefully he'll do it on network television. The world needs to see how good Jake is!

Aoki brings the rubber gaurd... and those tights!

Well, I had predicted a decision win for JZ in the long-awaited fight between him and Shinya Aoki in the DREAM lightweight tournanment. Although I did make the my caveat that if Aoki came out in some of his crazy ass tights, all bets were off. Well, his tights weren't all that crazy, but his rubber gaurd sure was... and he used it to control JZ and neutralize his striking from the gaurd to secure the victory via unanimous decision.

I was more than a bit perplexed when JZ went for a takedown early in the bout, but in comments after the fight JZ noted that part of his gameplan was "to do everything". JZ fought off some amazing submission attempts by Aoki, but aside from a few heel strikes to the face in the first round he really wasn't able to mount any sort of damaging offense.

In the end it wasn't the most exciting fight, but a very technical display of grappling by Aoki and a well deserved victory. It will certainly be interesting to see how the remainder of this lightweight tournament pans out, but Aoki has got to the be the favorite.

Todays Random MMA Thoughts and Questions

First thought... will the fight between "JZ" (Gesias Calvancante) and Shinya Aoki finally happen??? It appears so, and it's about time. First JZ had to pull out due to injury, then when the fight finally did happen as part of the DREAM lightweight grand prix, it was ruled a no contest as JZ hit Aoki with illegal elbows to the back (too close to the spine).

The ending of that last (attempted) fight was disappointing to say the least. JZ was clearly upset at the outcome, as was Aoki for not being able to continue. We can only hope that both fighters come healthy, come to fight, and give fans the lightweight battle we all want to see and expect from two of the worlds top lightweights.

Can JZ keep it standing and use his striking to beat Aoki, the slick submission artist. Or will Aoki be able to get inside and take the fight to the mat? It's a tough call, but I'm going to pick JZ by decision. Unless Aoki comes out in a pair of crazy-ass tights like some of his other fights, then all bets are off!

Second thought... You may have heard that Carlos Condit signed a contract extension with the WEC. When is this guy going to make the move to the UFC? He's widely considered one of the top ten welterweights in the world, and has all but dominated every WEC challenger to come his way. John Alessio, second round submission... Brock Larson, first round submission... Carlo Prater first round submission. Who else does the WEC have to challenge this guy?

And Condit isn't the only one that could have a future in the UFC against some stiffer competition. How about WEC Light-heavyweight champion, Brian Stann? The guy is sitting at 6-0 with all his wins coming by TKO or KO, he has yet to have a fighter last beyond the first round with him, and he's just a machine. Keep your eye out for Brian Stann, this guy could make some waves with a higher level of competition.

But the question that really needs answering is... Is the WEC a feeder system for the UFC? Or is it going to stand-alone on it's own merits? Only time will tell.