MMA's 3 R's 08.17.09: Does Strikeforce Strike Out?

Posted by Matt McEwen on 08.17.2009

It's an all Strikeforce edition of the R's as Matt McEwen looks at Saturday's huge Carano vs Cyborg event and breaks down the Right, the Wrong and the absolutely Ridiculous!



The Column Concept:
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of the column, here it is. The column will look at events and or happenings in the world of MMA. They will be broken down into the three categories, the Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right will be the good and great fights or positive news items of the week. Perhaps even big fight announcements. The wRong will be bad fights, bad booking decisions and the like. Finally, the Ridiculous are the things that were just the worst of the world of MMA. They get grouped in their categories, and for a show, they will get a score from 1-10, based on the 411 ratings scale.

THE SHOW


Strikeforce: Carano vs Cyborg

Undercard
Isaiah Hill defeated Alex Trevino by side choke in the 1st round
James Terry defeated Zac Bucia via TKO in the 1st round
Justin Wilcox defeated David Douglas by rear-naked choke in the 3rd round
Scott Lighty defeated Mike Cook by TKO in the 1st round
Jay Hieron defeated Jesse Taylor by unanimous decision

Main Card
Fabricio Werdum defeated Mike Kyle by guillotine in the 1st round
Gilbert Melendez defeated Mitsuhiro Ishida by TKO in the 3rd round
Gegard Mousasi defeated Renato "Babalu" Sobral by KO in the 1st round
Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos defeated Gina Carano by TKO in the 1st round

THE RIGHT:



Werdum Wins

Winning a fight in under a minute and a half is always a good thing, and it's hard to say anything bad about it. Werdum went out and beat an opponent that he was supposed to beat, did it quickly and very well may have set himself up as Fedor's first Strikeforce opponent, or at least saved himself a spot on the Russian's dance card. So, for all those reasons, his performance is under the "right" section.

But, to be honest, I was less than impressed. While he came into the fight in much better shape than he did in his last UFC fight against Junior Dos Santos, it was hardly an awe inspiring performance from a man who is supposedly a top ten heavyweight. Kyle out struck him while the fight was standing up, which was to be expected. But, Kyle almost nearly finished the supposed jiu jitsu wizard with an armbar. Werdum escaped more out of an error on Kyle's part as opposed to any skill on his part, and then sunk in the guillotine for a win. If he performs at that kind of level against Fedor, it will be another short night for Werdum, but he won't be happy about that outcome.



Sweet Revenge

He missed out on his chance to get his title back for a second time, felt like the promotion pulled a fast one on him by giving his replacement opponent an early heads up on the fight, had his camp thrown into turmoil by the Nick Diaz fiasco, and at the end of it all, Gilbert Melendez went out and put on a fantastic showing in avenging the first loss of his career.

Mitsuhiro Ishida came to fight, and he fought hard for all two and a half rounds of the fight, but he was outclassed by the better fighter Saturday night. Melendez showed a lot of maturity by coming in with a game plan and sticking to it until he had a chance to finish. He knew Ishida was going to try to "wrestle him to death" and geared his game to that. His striking stance looked a little odd - hands down, weight a bit forward - but once it became clear that Ishida had very unrefined boxing skills, it was obvious that Melendez was guarding against the takedown while still landing some shots. Every time Ishida shot, Melendez was able to sprawl and make the Japanese competitor pay for the effort. By the time the third round came along, Ishida had been pounded standing up, pounded in the clinch, and then pounded on the ground. An excellent win for Melendez, and hopefully he gets a chance to avenge his only other career defeat when Josh Thompson is finally ready to get back in the cage.



The Rise of Mousasi

While most of the talk and press coverage post event has been about where Cyborg goes from here and whether or not Carano is done in the sport now that she's lost, what is likely the biggest news of the night is getting passed over a bit.

Babalu marked a big step up in competition for Gegard Mousasi. The #10 light heavyweight in the world, Babalu had been on a nice roll since getting kicked out of the UFC and was looking for a high profile win that would likely give him good negotiating leverage when it was time for a new contract. Mousasi changed all that and introduced himself a wider MMA audience as not only one of the top prospects in the sport, but that he might already be one of the tops FIGHTERS in the sport today. He's the #20 ranked heavyweight in the world, still the #12 middleweight and, just one fight in, you could make a strong case that he's a top ten 205lber now as well.

Fedor may have been the biggest signing that Strikeforce has ever made, but Mousasi might prove to be the smartest. His English isn't great, but the quiet, unassuming demeanor he had prior to destroying Babalu exuded a kind of cool charisma that just might prove to be quite marketable. If he keeps improving - and at 24, there's every reason to think he will - Strikeforce might be able to lay claim to not only having the best heavyweight and woman fighters in the world, but one of the best light heavyweights as well.



Women Going the Distance
Carano and Cyborg went out and put it all on the line for the one round they fought. It may not have been the most technical fight in history, but it was a very entertaining brawl that, while it did not entirely live up to expectations, was far from a disappointment. And the biggest factor may have been the change to five minute rounds.

Going three minutes in all their previous fights, Carano and Cyborg have both been used to a very limited feeling out process in their fight before going for the kill. That carried over to the longer round and gave us excitement from the get go, but may also have spelled doom for Carano. Not that she wasn't in shape, because she certainly was, and she didn't gas so much as Cyborg beat the fight out of her at the end. But at the three minute mark of the round, the point when a women's fight is usually paused, you can see Cyborg take over. Carano's punches lost a lot of zip right at that point, and Cyborg started to land some more damaging blows before getting the fight to the ground and finishing the fight.

Women fighting five minute rounds has been long overdue, as a lot of fighters with better cardio were stymied by having to stop their attacks or submission set ups short. Three minute rounds on Saturday would have probably meant going into the third or fourth round, and possibly robbing us of a decisive finish. Hopefully five minutes becomes the norm as it will really open up the sport for the more skilled fighters to take their time and properly set up their attacks.

THE wRong:



I know Americans hate French, but a word is a word

You know that choke that happens when you put your opponent in a front face lock and squeeze their throat? You know...that move that Werdum won with Saturday night?

It IS NOT a "gillateen".

It IS a guillotine. Phonetically, that is "Gui-O-teen." The freaking L's are silent. This has become my biggest pet peeve in the sport, even worse than Mike Goldberg.



Marketing is Important

Outside of two quick little videos saying that he was coming soon, and Mauro Ranallo mentioning him in the opening, Fedor Emelianenko might as well have not existed really. The Carano/Cyborg fight generated about as much media interest as any Strikeforce event ever has, and the signing of Fedor got national coverage. Would it have been so hard to have him ringside for the fights? Have a video feature of some sort, even if it just showed him signing his contract? Or, if they really had a game plan, how about having Fedor step into the cage after the Werdum fight, shake his hand, and challenge him to a fight? You think that might get some people interested in his debut fight more that "Fedor....Coming Soon"? Or, if not Fedor, why not have all your top heavyweights, or in this case BOTH your top heavyweights on hand to talk about how much they want to fight Fedor and why they think they can win? Even if he's not there, they could build him up that way.

And, while on the topic of building up fighters, why, on a card that went a half hour short of it's allotted time, did they not have a second women's fight on the card to build up a challenger to the main event's winner? With one of their largest audiences yet, why not try to build someone new? I know the depth is not the greatest in the women's division, but SOMEONE is going to have to fight Cyborg.

Two chances to build up the future blown for lack of thinking.

THE RIDICULOUS:



The Keys to the Ridiculous

Gus Johnson is not really working out as a good play by play announcer. He gets excited at weird times, says weird things, and then goes silent for long periods. But, he's not exactly ridiculous.

I was ready to put Ranallo in this category when he started out with a "Keeping up with the Kardashians" comment, but that was the only awful line that stuck in my head, so that means he wasn't as stupidly annoying as usual with his horribly forced pop culture references.

The "RIDICULOUS" this week is saved for the guy, who other than one glaring problem, is actually the best part of Strikeforce's three man booth. Frank Shamrock usually has good insights into fighters' strategies and what is going through their heads at certain points, but the one problem he has is huge.

It's his "Keys to Victory".

First, they look bad. I think I could make better animation with pencil crayons than the fighting exoskeletons they use for some inexplicable reason. If you are going to do visual examples, why not just have Frank do them to a student and film it?

Secondly, the animations are actually kind of pointless. I understood them on the CBS show as way of introducing new fans to some positions and moves, but if you are tuning into Showtime to watch a Strikeforce event, chances are you know what the "clinch" or "mount" are.

Finally, beyond stupid animations and unnecessary explanations, the Keys themselves are absolutely RIDICULOUS. Starting with Ishida's Key being a knee in the clinch? A guy has no striking ability and is a great wrestler....and his key is a knee? While I was willing to let that pass, Melendez's key to victory was a triangle? A freaking triangle? Melendez has NEVER submitted anyone in his career, and his obvious and stated game plan was to stand an box.

And then it got even worse. Mousasi's Key was to take the fight to the ground, get side control and do a straight arm bar. While Mousasi has some ground skill, why in the name of God would you pick THAT as his key to victory? Personally, I was thinking he was going to try to avoid Babalu's takedowns, keep his distance and, if the fight did go the ground, make sure he had top control to ground and pound. But that's just me.....the arm bar was probably the better call.

And then, Frank went out on a low not. Babalu's key to victory - a short elbow in the clinch. Because, yes, Babalu is known for his dangerous clinch work and nasty elbows.

The 411

The main event delivered, even if the ending was not quite as decisive as I would have liked, but other than that, there were no great fights. Melendez, Werdum and Mousasi all had good outings in winning, but they all ended up being mismatches, which was apparently an issue with most of the card. Strikeforce deserves credit for putting together a respectable card in spite of all the obstacles that kept popping up, but in the end, it was a short show that is going to be remembered for being the first show women have ever headlined, rather than for the action in the cage.

SHOW RATING: 6.0