Strikeforce feedback
Thumbs up
Best: Kedzie Vs Tate
Worst: Amagov Vs Berry
Highlight of the night: Mike Beltran's moustache
Came in a bit late. Heard how amazing Tate Vs Kedzie was, so watched the West Coast feed, and was it ever. I agree with the commentators: if you didn't like that fight, you don't like MMA. Good back and forth match with Tate locking in the armbar for the win. Dana White needs to showcase these girls on UFC undercards, because they are just great fighers.
Was shocked to see how short the main event was. I thought Kauffman would have given her more of a challenge. Though, in fairness, I would tap out as soon as the armbar was applied too. Rousey is an absolute beast, and is a great choice for the face of female MMA. She's outgoing, smart, beautiful, talkative, and just the whole package. Hope to see more of her as her career progresses.
Amagov Vs Berry was confusing to me. Not sure what happened at the end, and was my worst of the night just because it was a weird finish I didn't understand.
The rest of the fights were good, but nothing really stood out as notable besides the knockouts. All in all, a fun night of MMA, which is always a good way to spend a Saturday night.
P.S.: Mike Beltran's stache was simply spectacular. Possibly the greatest facial hair I have ever seem
Thanks for all the great MMA & wrestling coverage.
Tom Schatzman
Thumbs WAY up. Lotsa dynamite.
Best fight: Miesha vs. Julie and Short List for Fight of the Year so far.
Worst fight: Amagov-Berry for the premature stop and missed foul
KO: Jacare & OSP
Sub: calling it a 3 way among Miesha, Smith and Ronda
Bobby Green just too athletic for Matt Ricehouse in the undercard opener. Reasonably entertaining fight.
De Randamie just way too skilled striking for Yamanaka in the first women's fight, but really should have put more combos together and closed the show.
Herb Dean has a rare bad reffing outing and misses Amagov dropping Berry with an illegal side kick stomp directly to the knee joint, than has a failure to communicate with Berry and mistakenly thinks he's verbally tapping and stops the fight. Rematch is called for.
Julie Kedzie turns in a career-best performance, battering Miesha Tate around the ring for most of the fight, but Miesha sinks an arm bar and perseveres through Julie's attempts to block and eventually gets the tap late in the 3rd. Like I said strongt FotY candidate. The finish will be seen again before the night is over. Really should have had this fight on the top card. Did Miesha get her nose done?
Top card opens with a sloppy junior high brawl between OSP and the undersized, overweight, undertrained TJ Cook. However OSP doesn't seem to have all that much gas himself and Cook is the better technical striker and the fight is competitive until OSP ends it with a one punch KO early in the 3rd, saving a very poor performance. Goofy ass looking (think bastard child of Ox Baker and Yosemite Sam) local yokel ref rewrites the 5 minute rule on the fly when OSP throws a deliberate groin kick in the 2nd to get a rest.
Very entertaining back and forth grappling showcase between Anthiny Smith and Lumumba Sayers ends late in the 1st when Smith slips on a problem spot on the canvas and Sayers pounces but right into position for a Smith triangle, achieved by slick wrist control from the bottom. Really good fight.
Tarec Saffiedine outgasses the still overmuscled Roger Bowling to sweep the decision in another competitive go.
Jacare cements his title rematch with his first KO win, clocking Derek Brunson with a lead counter right hook off a Fitzsimmons Shift in 41 seconds.
The main what can you say. Ronda is just on a different level from all these other girls (except MAYBE 'Cyroid' as she calls her on her postfight promo) and shows a little something new, beating Sarah to the punch and jabbing her way into clinch and then doing what she always does, sweeping to mount and getting the arm bar before the bell stopped ringing. Like the earlier fight, Sarah defends it well but Ronda sticks with it till she finds the angle and racks up another sub-minute arm bar submission. Judo Gene brandishes the stopwatch one more time. Ronda cuts the rasslin promo on Cris. Great.
Donde esta el dinero? Outstanding show.
Crimson Mask
Thumbs in the middle show. The fights themselves are all fairly good (save for the rather flat Saffiedine/Bowling fight), but the presentation of some of the bouts got a bit annoying. Heck, Showtime didn't have a clear angle of the Kaufman tap-out until well after the finish. Between that and Mauro Ranallo's occasionally over-the-top commentary, there were times where I yearned for Joe Rogan's relatively-restrained stylings.
And where's the great Kaufman/Kedzie fight? On Showtime Extreme, for no logical reason.
Best Fight: Ovince St. Pruex/T.J. Cook
Worst Fight: Tarec Saffiedine/Roger Bowling
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Ryan Pike
Hey Dave,
A Thumbs Up, I guess every woman needs armbar training against Rousey. WOW! Well we know who she wants next. UFC guys pay attention on to how to challenges. Best Fight JULIE KEDZIE VS. MIESHA TATE So I do think Tate does deserve a rematch as took some good shots, and dominated the ground in the fight. Worst Fight None, as the whole card was pretty darn entertaining, two really cool knockout, PREUX knockout looked really brutal. And great submissions. A Good Strikeforce show!
Kyle Schroeder
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