The Greatest MMA News Column 08.18.09: Strikeforce Fallout

Posted by Dan Plunkett on 08.18.2009

411's Dan Plunkett takes a look his likes and dislikes of Cyborg vs. Carano, Mousasi's U.S. arrival, Melendez running through Ishida, recent UFC cuts, the NYBA coming back to the UFC, Chuck Liddell on Dancing with the Stars and much more!

Cyborg Defeats Carano

This fight had to be the biggest news of the week. There were things I liked and disliked about the fight, so let's break them up into easy-to-read sections, shall we?

What I Liked:

The crowd. The atmosphere for this fight was incredible. The fan reaction was better than any of the previous fights on the card and most of the fights any company has put on this year. The crowd made everyone aware why this fight was the main event.

While the audience strongly favored Gina Carano, at least they weren't dead for Cyborg's introduction. Cyborg was booed, but it was a strong reaction, something which many male fighters don't even receive. That is a very positive sign for Strikeforce going forward with this division.

The "it can end anytime feeling": This made the fight very exciting. It was fast paced and both had very dominant positions throughout the fight. One thing I think helped this factor a lot was how well Gina sold Cyborg's strikes. It seemed as though Gina was hurt multiple times throughout the fight due to Cyborg's punches, only to comeback and land some punches of her own. I feel that this along with the crowd made the fight.

The "showdown" lights during the intros: I really liked this. When all the lights in the arena except those shining on the cage were turned off, and then it made a really cool sound, it highlighted how big of a fight it was. The UFC did something similar for Liddell/Ortiz II, but I think it worked event better here, probably due to the awesome sound.

The stoppage: Even though there was one second left, the referee has to stop the fight there. Gina was doing nothing to defend herself. Could she have gotten up after the round and fought in the second? Probably. But I don't think just because there is one second left in the round the referee should treat it any differently than if there was three minutes left. That simply wouldn't be fair to the other fighter, who would have forced a stoppage earlier but later in the round wouldn't have. I can see the other side of the argument, but I tend to favor the fighter who isn't just trying to survive.



Possible rematch: It's probably too early to talk about a rematch, but I'm going to anyway. Gina is going to remain a star and a good draw. The biggest fight for her is going to be revenging her one and only loss against this seemingly unbeatable beast. The rematch would be very easy to promote and like I said about the first fight, it should be on CBS. Even if the rematch is on Showtime, it would be more successful than the fight was on Saturday. It's just such an easy and interesting storyline.

What I Disliked:

Let's be honest, it was sloppy: These are two of the best female fighters in the world, but I don't think they showed that on Saturday night. I know both are better than they showed and I expect them to show their best in the future. The thing that really stuck out to me was how Gina kept covering up. I know I said in the other section that her covering up helped the fight in a way, but I think it also made it look sloppy. She just covered up and didn't try to get into a better position. It wasn't just Gina that looked sloppy though, in the first two takedowns Cyborg attempted, she landed mounted. Which brings me to…

Gina getting up from mount: This just didn't make sense to me when I first saw it. Gina had mount and could have potentially finished the fight from there. I re-watched this part of the fight and saw that Cyborg had attained half guard and presumably Gina didn't want to get caught in another heel hook. However, Gina's top control is better than that, she shouldn't have allowed Cyborg to slip back into half guard.

Strikeforce showing about 10 different replays before getting to the one everyone wanted to see: The question at the end of the fight was whether or not it was stopped before the horn sounded? So what do they give us? Some replays with the end of the fight but NO SOUND. How am I supposed to see if it was before the end of the round if there is no clock and no sound to hear the horn with? It was just stupid.


I'm very interested to see what Strikeforce does with this division from here. Will they continue to showcase it in the main event? Who will they bring in to challenge Cyborg? Will Gina Carano be in a Chuck Liddell-like role where despite not being a title holder she's the most popular in the division so she headlines shows? It's possible that I'm more interested in where the viewers will go with the division. Will they still watch the title fights, or only when Carano is in them? Only time will tell.


Mousasi Makes a Big Splash in American Debut

There were many people (including myself) wondering how well Gegard Mousasi could do in the light heavyweight division. Those questions have seemingly been answered.

Babalu Sobral is one of the best the light heavyweight division has to offer, and Mousasi just ran through him. Where does this put Mousasi in the light heavyweight division? I would have to think somewhere around the top ten, mostly because this was only his first fight in the division.



The overwhelming majority of the top talent in the light heavyweight division is under UFC contract. I'd love to see Mousasi against guys like Machida, Rampage, Rashad, and Anderson, but it won't happen anytime soon.

Mousasi still has fights left on his DREAM deal, and now he's the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight champion, so he's got some fights left on that deal as well. If and when Mousasi becomes a free agent, I expect him to become the hottest ticket in town for fight promotions. I think the UFC will throw him a big offer and Strikeforce as well. For the record, I think Mousasi will end up in the UFC.

Melendez Impresses

There's not much I can say here that won't be cliché, but wow. Gilbert Melendez was extremely impressive in defeating Mitsuhiro Ishida on Saturday.

While I believe Melendez benefited from Ishida taking the fight on short notice, the win is still impressive. It was less than two years ago that Ishida took a hard fought decision victory from Melendez, but on Saturday it wasn't even close. Ishida couldn't take Melendez down, he was outmatched on the feet, and Melendez found it fairly easy to take "The Endless Fighter" to the mat.



Before his losses to Ishida and Josh Thomson, Melendez was a very highly regarded lightweight. While he hadn't completely fallen off the map, the losses derailed him for a while. Now, with two impressive performances in a row, Melendez turns his sights to Thomson, who he has been scheduled to rematch twice – both of which were cancelled due to injury.

With a strong roster of fighters such as Melendez, Thomson, Jorge Gurgel, Conor Heun, Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm, and many more, the Strikeforce lightweight division is among the best in the company. This will be a division to watch over the next year or so.

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At Least He Rode Out on His Thunderhorse...

Actually I have no idea if Tamdan McCrory came out to Thunderhorse at UFC 101, but it's nice to think that he did. If he didn't however, I blame that as the sole reason for his loss. Now McCrory and Thales Leites are cut, some think unjustly so.

Leites should have won his fight at UFC 101; I don't know why the judges awarded Sakara the victory. McCrory did lose, but I think he should be kept on the roster solely because of his amazing post fight promo at UFC 96.

Shortly after word of their release, the news broke that Dana White would actually be bringing them back to the UFC. This news pleased me. Soon after though, word got out that Dana was "misquoted" and the pair would remain cut. I don't know how you misquote a person like that, I think Dana was just convinced otherwise later.

NYBA: THE BEST EVA!

Maybe not, but the man can dream. Phil Baroni is back in the UFC. I think he'll be a great talent for some Fight Night cards, but I don't see him accomplishing much in the UFC this time around. I always hope to see him have another knocked like the one he had against Dave Menne, so I expect my hopes to be crushed every time out.

First up for the NYBA? How about fellow New Yorker Matt Serra? Or a stand up battle against Marcus Davis? Or even a fight against Dan Hardy?

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This just in….HE RODE OUT ON HIS FUCKING THUNDERHORSE~!

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RANDOM NEWS!

- "The Iceman" Goes Dancing. Chuck Liddell will be on the next season of Dancing With the Stars. I have no idea how that is a hit TV show (celebrities dancing? GENIUS!), but it will be good exposure for Liddell and maybe it's just what he needs at this point in his career. I predict his participation on this show will lead to another light heavyweight title run, easily.

- Gina Carano Turns Down Playboy. When I saw the words "Gina Carano" and "Playboy," I nearly jumped out of my seat. Then I read the rest of the title and it brought me way back down to earth. I'm still sad about it as I write this.

- Don Frye will fight Dave Herman at Shark Fights 6. I'm picking Herman in this one, but I could never root against Don Frye. He is so many levels of awesome I can't even describe it in words.



- Diaz vs. Hieron Likely to Happen By the End of the Year. If Diaz screws this up then he should just get fired. This should have happened on Saturday, which would have made the card one of the best of the year, but due to Nick Diaz that didn't happen. Keep your fingers crossed, kids.

- Randy Couture Will Be in EA Sports' MMA Game. We knew this for months already. At least Fedor vs. Couture can happen in the virtual world.




That's it for this week. I hope you enjoyed the column. Feel free to leave feedback. I should apologize for the shortness of the column this week, unless of course you don't like reading much, but regardless. I was very busy this week but next week the column will be really long I will be on vacation, so in 2 weeks I promise you the longest, greatest, bestest column I've ever written. Don't worry, it will also have fancy pictures and such. In closing, you can follow me on twitter if you please. Thanks for reading.

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