Strikeforce at the Mansion II, Playboy Mansion, Beverly Hills, CA, 9/20/2008

Live card is broadcast on SCORE in Canada and streamed on Sherdog.

Jesse Gillespie vs. Dave Martin, 190 (dark)

Brandon Thatch vs. Brandon Magana, 170

Sherdog live stream seems to be starting with round 3. Ken Shamrock commentating and sounding remarkably coherent although can't pronounce 'Magana'. Magana has gotten the TD and has mount. Now back with hooks in. Now has rolled to his back. Thatch defending the choke well and is out and standing and kicking the legs. Falls into Magana's guard. Magana sweeps into mount. Trying to G&P but not much. Magana's round but obviously I didn't see the first two.

Split decision. 29-28 Magana (Peoples). 29-28 Thatch. 29-28... Magana.

Live mic on what they think is a commercial cutaway. Live cam too. Now cam but no mic. The PbP guy seems to have the, uh, sniffles. Wow. Lotta fans disguised as empty seats.

Ken says Kazuo Misaki wants to take the fight to the ground in the main vs. Joe Riggs. Dunno about that. Times I've seen him, he seems to wanna keep it standing and use his weird bouncing style to minimize the opponent's opportunity to throw anything, and pick his spots for his own power shots, which usually come only one or two at a time but do a LOTTA damage when he connects.

Kenneth Seegrist vs. Eric Lawson, 185

Lawson taller, wrestling/JJ/Muay Thai guy, 6-2. Seegrist a 'brawler', 5-0, actually got the '80s short hair/mini pony tail going.

Ding. Seegrist tries a cheap shot off the glove touch and Lawson doubles him and slams him hard and has him against the fence. Seegrist stands against the cage with a Guillotine and pulls guard. Lawson sweeps and gets side mount, scramble up and Lawson gets the Belly to Back Suplex. Up and Seegrist has the Guillotine standing and pulls guard. Lawson pulls out and up and it's back to the standing Guillotine. Seegrist pulls Guard again. Lawson pulls out and up and drops the Superman and stands back up. Seegrist low kicks from the ground. Lawson drops the Superman again, drops in and Seegrist tries to roll and Lawson gets back with hooks in and flattens him out and sinks the RNC for the tap. That was a ton of action in a short time, if sorta repetitive.

Ken up in the ring interviews some fat slob from some record company who's sponsoring the deal. Oh good, that was only like 10 seconds. Now they're showing some stupid music video (or lipsynch 'live' performance')... or both... with some chick singer with a little bitty voice intercut with fight clips and, uh, cuts of... uh, something... uhhh... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... crowd seems underwhelmed, if they even saw it. As on the past card, I notice the Playboy Mansion pretty much guarantees a dead crowd. Okay here comes, God forbid, the next fight.

Jesse Juarez vs. Luke Stewart, 170

Juarez says he used to be a G&Per but has improved his standup and is thinking KO, 6-4, little taller. Stewart says he's Gracie JJ all the way and is looking for the sub. Got a real wrestler's cauliflower ear, 5-1. Stewart gets a mild pop, Juarez nada.

Stewart opens with low kicks. Juarez counters with a high kick and knees from Plum. Clinch. Stewart gets the Whizzer but Juarez ends up on top and drops a few punches then Stewart gets full guard. Juarez drops an elbow. Stands out and avoids the heel hook. Juarez drops back on him and Stewart twists and gets the heel hook this time. Juarez sitting behind him. Loses the leg and they're up. Juarez with rear waistlock and Juarez knees the leg and tries some footstomps. Stewart going for Kimura. Juarez pulls out and Stewart shoots and gets a double leg. Into half guard. Mount. Drops punches. Transitions to arm bar and that's it. Again, not a bad fight at all.

Trevor Prangley vs. Anthony Ruiz, 205

This was scheduled to be Renato Babalu Sobral getting a 205 Strikeforce title shot at Bobby Southworth first, then Southworth got hurt (don't blame him) so it was Babalu vs. Ruiz, then Babalu got hurt, so now it's Ruiz vs. Prangley. Should be competitive as they're both basically fringe contenders. Ruiz can be boring. Was sorta looking forward to Babalu doing something very bad to Southworth who has to be the most boring fighter in MMA but I digress.

These guys fought two years ago. Prangley armbarred Ruiz in the first round. They commentate a different sequence of the substitutions that led up to this. Eh. Whatever. Anyway, Prangley is 36, 17-5 from South Africa. Ruiz 30, 21-11, little taller.

Hey, there's Hef in his friggin' PJs. Ignoring the ring. Prangley very muscular. Two jabs from him. Clinch. Prangley pounds the body then knees. Ruiz knees him back. Knee from Prangley goes low. TO. Big high knee from Prangley but doesn't follow up. Two big overhand rights from Ruiz but HE doesn't follow up. Clinch. Ruiz knees the leg. Prangley gets the Cornish Hype into full mount. Ruiz bucks him off but Prangley gets his back seated. Pulls it back and goes for the choke but Prangley jammed against the fence and can't manuver much. Prangley puts in some shots to the head. Back to seated position. Ruiz punching backward. Prangley pulls it to his back again but still jammed into the fence. Ruiz arching and reverses into Prangley's guard. Out of guard and Prangley stands up. Trade knees. Another knee from Prangley at the bell. Prangley 10-9 but he's dropping his hands too much.

Ruiz wild with a right lead and Prangley ducks and shoots and gets the double hard into side mount. Tries to grapevine the arm and Ruiz turns in and gets off his back and Prangley has riding position. Prangley hooks to the face and knees the thigh and body. Prangley mixing his shots. Ruiz gets an ankle and Prangley counters with a waistlock and puts Ruiz on his face and lands two hard shots. Ruiz turtles and Prangley has rear waistlock and mixing his shots. Ruiz finally stands up and turns in. Prangley still has the waistlock and lands knees. Ruiz goes for a single, nada. Knee fronm Ruiz. Another big double from Prangley into side mount. Tries the grapevine again and again Ruiz uses it to get off his back. Back to riding. Prangley into full mount. Ruiz gives up his back and Prangley nearly gets the arm bar. Back to standing and Prangley tries a Kimura. Prangley 10-8 IMO for full dominance but they'll call 10-9.

Ruiz looking beat up. Ruiz lands a right. Prangley shoots and gets the slam into side mount again. Knees the body. Again tries the grapevine and again Ruiz turns in---this hasn't worked once all night---and Prangley's riding him again and dropping shots. Knees the body. They're up and Prangley still in control. Lands a knee and gets the TD again into half guard. Prangley maybe trying a side choke, nada, Prangley riding again. Back to side mount. Knees to the body and shots to the head. Ruiz rolls again and makes it up but Prangley gets the double again, real high this time, into Guard. All Prangley again, 10-8 IMO.

30-25 IMO but cards will probably be 30-27... lessee: 29-28? 30-27. 30-26. UD.

Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Justin Wilcox, 155

Ishida is the perpetual-motion wrestler who beat Melendez at Yarennoka in a great fight and got to the second round of the DREAM Lightweight tourney before being upset by Caol Uno in another great fight. Wilcox a 5-2 in indys guy. Shapes up as a squash.

Wilcox sounding less than confident on his taped promo. Says he's mainly a wrestler. He better be a good one because Ishida is a very very good one. Ishida 16-4-1, Wilcox 5-2, was on TUF. All stats equal. Ishida's mainland US debut.

Wilcox gotta lotta muscle. High kick Ishida. Short right Wilcox. Low kick Ishida. Again. Again. Wilcox charges and Ishida catches him coming in with a counter right, not much on it. Wilcox shoots. Ishida counters with Kimura, uses his momentum to flip him over backwards, transitions to arm bar on the fly, and Wilcox taps before he even finishes it off. Very impressive but... shoulda been, considering the mismatch.

Cory Devela vs. Terry Martin, 185

This looks competitive. Devela is 9-1 and on a 7 fight streak including beating Riggs back in February by breaking his back with a throw. Martin has been fighting everywhere, last seen getting KOed by Vitor at Affliction, 17-5 against much better comp, but losing 3 of his last 4. Devela 6 inches taller and 4 years younger.

Boy is this crowd dead. Martin opens jabbing and a low kick. Devela charges with a body kick then a low kick. High kick blocked. Clinch and Martin gets the slam and lands on his own head but on top. Devela stands up and into clinch. Devela lands a couple as they break. Martin gets the slam again into guard. Devela sits up and half turns and going for Kimura. Martin pounds the body. Devela stands up again with the armlock. Break. Martin left hook. Devela jabs and low kicks and lands a combo. Martin charges and Devela beats him to the punch. Everything is pittypat but keeping Martin from getting set. Devela shoots and Martin stuffs. Clinch. Knees by Devela on the break. Trading punches and Devela landing more. Jump knee short. Punchout. Both mostly missing. Devela busier but don't like how he leaves his head up in the air. High kick Devela. Jab, 1-2. Jump knee again, this one lands. Martin charges, nada. Devela beating him to the jab. Low kick Devela, Martin short with a right counter at the bell. Devela 10-9.

Two right leads Devela and a left hook. Martin on the single and gets it. Into guard. Devela half turns into that Kimura again. Gets to the fence and walks up it. Clinch. LONG clinch with nothing happening. Zzz. Ref could break 'em anytime now. They break themselves. High kick Devela blocked. Martin misses a left hook and lands a right. Devela short with jump knee. Devala shoots. Martin stuffs, has front facelock. Up and break, Devela letting his hands and feet go. Mostly missing but doing all the work, Spinning Back Kick goes borderline low. Devela 10-9 again. Martin just not getting off.

Martin needs a KO. Martin short with his punches. Devela too mobile. Devela short with his counters. High kick, jump knee, buncha punches from Devela all miss but again doing all the work. Martin gets in a couple decent rights. Devela throwing the defensive kick a lot. And counter rights, not much on 'em. Martin finally finds the range with a left hook right on the button for the KD and follows up with a hard right to the ground and it's over. Devela was out from the left hook.

Tolja I didn't like how he was leaving his head up in the air.

Josh Thomson vs. Ashe Bowman, 155

Thomson coming off his amazingly one-sided win over Melendez where he took the Strikeforce Lightweight title. Bowman a journeyman, 9-4 mostly in indys. Non title fight. This figures to just be Thomson keeping busy. Bowman trains under Ken. Melendez in to guest commentate. Ken openly admits Bowman does not have Thomson's skills. Thomson a little taller and... 2 years younger? That's not good for Bowman, as if he didn't have enough problems going in here. Thomson gets the first thing resembling a pop of the night.

Low kick Josh. High kick. Low kick that hurt. Again. Bowman short with his own. Again. Bowman short with a right and Thomson counters with his own and a 1-2 and a 1-2-1 for the KD and rains shots and that's it. Another squash.

Kazuo Misaki vs. Joe Riggs, 185

Here's the main. Misaki is the Japanese fighter with the strange, sometimes boring style who KOed Akiyama at Yarennoka (and then lectured him over the ring mic about his attitude), only to have it later declared an NC for the KO being an illegal kick, and has a win over Hendo. Riggs is the hard luck journeyman who used to be in UFC and just never seems to be able to put it together, always having some kind of fiasco from cutting too much weight or getting hurt. Misaki should win (so now watch tonight be the night Riggs gets his shit together).

Here comes Misaki bouncing down the aisle on his way to the ring. Gonna be a lotta that here. Riggs taller, younger, Misaki a little heavier. Got some Japanese flags in the audience.

Riggs looks weird somehow. Like he's had face work. Misaki circling right away. There's that weird little hop. Nothing being thrown. Riggs short with a right lead and a jab. Short with a left hook, Misaki short with a right counter. There's that hop again. And again. Both miss. Big body kick Misaki. Body shot. Ken keeps babbling about Misaki wanting to go to the ground. Another body shot. Another body kick. Body kick. Body punch. Riggs lands a body shot. Misaki short with knee. High kick Riggs. Misaki 10-9.

Low kick Misaki. Both miss. High kick Misaki. Body shot. Riggs glances a left hook. Right body shot, left hook Misaki. Body kick. Joe scores a flash KD with a left cross, Misaki bounces right up and levels Riggs with a hard right and pounces and pounds him out. Riggs protesting but I think the ref caught it at the right time as Riggs' head was starting to go loose. Misaki is a maddening guy to fight.

Sorta entertaining card overall, even with the squashes. {plug}