MMA's 3R's 01.12.12: Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine, Cyborg, UFC 143 Prelims, King Mo, and More

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 01.12.2012

From Luke Rockhold's and King Mo's knockout wins on the last Strikeforce card and the heated debates over the behavior of referee Kim Winslow to Cyborg's excuses for being caught cheating, 411's Jeffrey Harris checks in with the Right, the wRong, and the Ridiculous from the week in MMA!



*The Column Concept*
Greetings loyal readers and welcome back to a brand new edition of The 3R's of MMA. The rules and format are still the same as I will be taking a look at the Right, the wRong, and the Ridiculous in the MMA world. The Right will be about the good to great fights or positive news items for the week or big fight announcements. The wRong will be the bad fights, showings or performances, and bad fight bookings. And the Ridiculous will be the worst of the world of MMA.

The best and fastest, growing weekly MMA radio podcast in the entire internet is the 411 Ground and Pound Radio Show, hosted by Mark Radulich. In the last episode, we recapped Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine and previewed UFC 142. You can listen to the latest episode here:

Listen to internet radio with Mark Radulich on Blog Talk Radio

Thanks for all the feedback for last year's column. Looks like people had a lot of things to say be it about Lesnar, judging, or the like. So let's check out some reader feedback.

From Wolvie316:

I never thought I'd see a columnist/journalist worse that Michael David Smith over at mmafighting.com but Jeff Harris takes the cake. The guy has zero class with his endless scathing remarks about Fedor and his obvious butt love for Dan Henderson. Why the hell is this guy working for this site???

I've been a writer for this site for several years now. I started in Movies/TV before spreading out to Games, Wrestling, and eventually MMA. Every I cover E3 and San Diego Comic-Con for the site. I've interviewed Academy Award winners and nominees for the site. I was also the first writer for the site to be credentialed by WWE in 2009 where I covered Wrestlemania live for the Wrestling Zone. Last year I covered two live UFC events as well. Consistently I'm also getting the early movie reviews straight from the source in Hollywood. That might give you an idea why I've written almost 800 stories for this site.

From Guest #5193:

Fedor fought cans though out his career? Really? FYI Jeffrey! Fedor opponents were slim pickings after Pride was bought by ZUffa! Mans got to eat! Choi (call him a can all you want but he is a beast!) Tim Sylvia or Arlovski cans? Don't think so! Slumps agreed! Cans no!! Please by all means show me the so called long list of cans Fedor has fought in his 11yrs of fighting!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedor_Emelianenko

Hong Man Choi is no beast. His MMA record is 2-3 with his biggest career win being Jose Canseco. While he was Pride Heavyweight Champion he fought Zuluzinho at Shockwave 2005. If the man had to eat, he could've signed with the UFC and probably made a ton of money and had the fights and challenges he supposedly wanted. He claimed he wanted to fight Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture, but those guys fought for the UFC where Fedor Emelianenko refused to do business and it irreparably damaged his career. Also he took a fight with career middleweight Matt Lindland which was an absolute joke. Instead of the Overeem fight in Strikeforce he was matched up in fights no one wanted to see him in such as Fabricio Werdum and Brett Rogers. The Overeem fight which Coker said he would "build to" never materialized.

From Fear Inc.:

In Relation to the whole "Brock Lesnar Hater's"... From: MMAs 3r's (12-01-2011)* THE wrong:

"Eduardo Dantas vs. Alexis Vila: The season five bantamweight tournament concluded here in a rather dull and uneventful fight. More and more it looks like Vila's victory over Joe Warren was an absolute FLUKE"

SO! You can hate & declare a Fighter overrated, because he KTFO yo' sugga' daddy, Joe Warren, but the rest of the World can't hate on Lesnar? Suck it up! You'll have your turn.

Alexis Vila failed to win the tournament and capture the title. Brock Lesnar won the UFC heavyweight belt and defended it twice. I will give Alexis Vila credit for being an Olympic medalist and competing at an international level. But the MMA game is different.

From Guest #6659:

You left of how Brock quit wrestling twice. First with WWE, then with New Japan; despite the fact that they made him champion in his first match he left without even dropping the belt first. Plus he's been inconsistent in his interviews. He said he really wanted to play football but did wrestling because it paid better. Fair enough, but he quit totally after getting cut from the Vikings and went back to wrestling (for New Japan). Then he said he really wanted to do MMA, but he did try to go back to WWE first, but couldn't get the same deal.

It's not so much that he quits when things get tough, it's that he won't play if he can't win. Yeah, I will give him credit for still fighting with the illness, but once it became obvious he wasn't going to get the belt back, he quit, just like we all knew he would.

Does anyone really care about that NJPW nonsense anymore? That's on New Japan I'd say for booking the title on Lesnar from when he came in and letting him have it until he left. And as I recall, Lesnar did drop the title in his last pro-wrestling match to Kurt Angle at an IGF event. And then Kurt Angle defended the "third belt" in NJPW before it was unified back again with Shinsuke Nakamura. But you are nitpicking about fake belts in a fake sport.

Regardless of Lesnar quitting or not, I don't think you can question his heart when he still became a champion and defended it. And he's still an amateur wrestling champion as well. You can't take that away from him. And all that trumps all the nonsense about this or that belt or not jobbing in NJPW which frankly no one cares about anymore.

From Guest #0073:

Castillo/Njokuani was far from an obvious win for Castillo. Castillo did nothing but cling on to Njokuani the whole fight. I felt Njokuani won rounds 2 and 3. 29-28 Njokuani.

Sorry, disagree. Njokuani's strongest round was by far the second. Castillo was dominating Njokuani and outworking him in the first and third rounds. And even then the second round was still pretty close. Castillo was taking the fight most everywhere it went. And people still booed Castillo. It's not Castillo's fault that Njokuani doesn't have great takedown defense.

From Peter:

I'm not all that impressed with Hendricks' showing. It showed he can catch Fitch with a punch. What other skills did he show over the course of 12 seconds that he should shoot right up into title contention? He gonna go into an eliminator match & KO the guy with 1 punch, then KO GSP with 1 punch too? I'm sure he's talented, but a 12 second fight doesn't quite convince me he's top level.

You might not be impressed but in what, 14 fights in the UFC no one had ever been able to do that to Fitch including the top dog at welterweight. That alone I believe makes the feat pretty impressive. As far as KO'ing GSP, GSP is out of the picture now which is why it opens things up to people such as Hendricks into the conversation. Also, Hendricks has been knocking out guys left and right since he came into the UFC and he now has 4 of his 7 UFC wins by knockout finish.

The year began anew for the MMA world. Strikeforce returned for a new event under their new extension with Showtime. So Strikeforce prelims are now on Showtime Extreme. Champion Luke Rockhold successfully defended his title. And the former Strikeforce 145 lb women's champ, Cris "Cyborg" Santos, was caught cheating and the division is pretty much down the tubes at this point.

THE RIGHT:

King Mo vs. Lorenz Larkin: Mohammed "King Mo" Lawal kept up his momentum with a TKO win over the undefeated Lorenz Larkin. Referee Kim Winslow didn't get on Mo's good side as she took quite a while to stop the fight and Larkin likely took more shots than he should've. Mo implied that Winslow and other referees explain before the fight if a fighter makes a noise or a groan in pain that's justification for the referee to come in and stop it. Still, Mo's idea of Winslow taking a fight with Cyborg was pretty hilarious.



Luke Rockhold vs. Keith Jardine: The Dean of Mean had a pretty rude awakening in his middleweight debut as the defending champ Luke Rockhold made short work of Keith Jardine to retain his title. While this was a bit of a puzzling fight, there weren't any ready opponents and Rockhold since Tim Kennedy was injured and couldn't make this fight. And a guy like Rockhold could definitely use the experience. Jardine may not have the greatest record, but he's had some pretty big wins and it's not a bad win to have on your resume for a guy like Rockhold who is still only 9-1 in the sport.


Strikeforce Middleweight Champion, Luke Rockhold, defended his title against Keith Jardine at last weekend's Strikeforce Event.

More UFC Prelims on FX: So following the announcement that the entire prelims card for UFC 142 would be broadcast on FX, news also recently made the rounds that UFC 143 prelims will also be getting the same treatment. This is great news especially for a big card like UFC 143 on Super Bowl weekend. It's good that UFC program is expanding, but Fuel TV is still an extremely limited channel and brand right now. So now UFC prelims will be shown on a channel that's available in over 100 million homes.


UFC veteran, Matt Brown, is set to face TUF alum, Chris Cope, at UFC 143. Their bout will be broadcast live on FX.

THE wRong:

Referee Kim Winslow: The referee skills and background of MMA referee, Kim Winslow, were called into question after the Strikeforce event. First is the issue in the fight with Gian Villante and Trevor Smith which was arguably an early stoppage. However, I do believe the stoppage in the fight between King Mo and Larkin was unquestionably late. Was Winslow unsure of herself because of the stoppage in the Villante/Smith? That's the type of uncertainty that can't be allowed in a combat sport. We've seen it happen between Yves Lavigne. Let's not forget his shenanigans at UFC 96 where Lavigne possibly stopped a fight too early than later in the night in a fight between Pete Sell and Matt Brown Lavigne moved in to stop the fight and basically stopped it when Sell was a beaten man then basically restarted it and called for it to keep going and Sell was beaten and hurt even worse. It was an awkward and ugly moment. Lavigne however never appeared to be reprimanded or called into question for making such a huge gaffe. Perhaps the business is short handed on quality refs, but incidents like this where fighters take way more punishment when they should, endangering their livelihood should definitely have referees scrutinized more. Judging from comments by the head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Keith Kizer, Winslow likely has little to worry about besides the court of public opinion. That's truly a shame.


King Mo and MMA referee, Kim Winslow, likely won't be breaking bread anytime soon.

Whiney Strikeforce Fighters: It seems if you are still a Strikeforce champion or fighter at this point you've got a bit of a chip on your shoulder. Strikeforce is staying for now, but your title divisions are rather thin and short on big fights and opponents. But chances are if you are a Strikeforce fighters, with the merger you probably wanted to be in the UFC. Luke Rockhold expressed displeasure with the lack of competition and opponents in Strikeforce and asked for top UFC contenders at middleweight to come from the UFC to fight him. I think guys like Rockhold need to get over this. They are being promoted by ZUFFA now and they are likely getting a pay raise over what they were getting before by staying in Strikeforce. Also, if they are upset, they only have themselves to blame because they are the ones that signed with Strikeforce in the first place. News recently came out that King Mo a short while ago signed a four fight deal with Strikeforce so he is staying there for now as well. King Mo however took to Twitter and suggested he didn't have much of a choice in the matter and Dana White and ZUFFA are making him stay there. My thought on the matter was this. These guys originally signed with Strikeforce instead of going for the UFC or taking the longer road to the get to the UFC. In Strikeforce you can make a name for yourself but ultimately you are becoming a big fish in a small pond. Luke Rockhold and King Mo are really good and tough fighters but they still became champions in a field that is much less competitive. King Mo had only won one fight in Strikeforce before he got a shot at the light heavyweight title. That wouldn't have been the case in the UFC. I also doubt top UFC contenders are heading to Strikeforce any time soon. Why should they? Like Quinton "Rampage" Jackson said, doing so would be a step down. However, these fighters that originally signed with Strikeforce made their lot their so they are going to have to deal with it. Even before the ZUFFA buyout, the divisions in Strikeforce were extremely thin and there was a small amount of contenders for titles that even guys coming off losses were granted title shots.


Strikeforce is here to stay for now.

Sean Sherk Wants in Hall of Fame: Former UFC champion Sean Sherk on an appearance on the MMA Junkie Radio Show recently expressed interest in wanting to get into the Hall of Fame. I'd say that's not likely to happen especially with only an 8-4 record in the Octagon which should be 7-5 considering he really should've lost to Evan Dunham. Sherk simply isn't fighting and in the trenches enough lately. He hasn't fought since the Evan Dunham fight in 2010. The reason he's not fighting right now is because too many injuries have piled up, but he is still apparently well enough to train every day and he's not planning to take another fight until the Spring or Summer of this year. With a track record and seldom fighting schedule like that, you aren't making it into the Hall of Fame. Sean Sherk did win a UFC title and defend it, but then he was caught cheating when he tested positive for steroids. Sherk has barely been fighting at all and his last performance was a disappointment. With barely any cage time as of late, how well is he going to do when he fights another young stud like Evan Dunham? Is it really injuries or is Sherk afraid of losing again? If Sherk is serious about wanting a spot in the Hall of Fame he needs to start fighting and winning impressively in big fights. If the injuries are a problem, how is he still able to train so much and so heavily? Now is the time for Sherk to put up or shut up because at 38 his time to forge a legacy in MMA is extremely limited. Dan Henderson put in the time and he's the type of fighter you would see in the Hall of Fame despite not being champion in the UFC yet.


Former UFC Lightweight Champion, Sean Sherk, expressed interest in pursuing a spot in the UFC Hall of Fame.

THE RIDICULOUS:

Cyborg Excuse Train: Soon to be former (if she's not already) Strikeforce 145 lb Women's Champion, Cris "Cyborg" Santos, had her camp make a statement regarding her being caught cheating. You see it wasn't her fault. She was taking diuretics she was told were supplements and that is why she pissed hot. Unfortunately, the rest of the world wasn't born yesterday. Now I'm not going to be naïve. Is it very possible other fighters are juicing and hiding it and not getting caught? Yes, but that is still no excuse for cheating. Cyborg's excuses do not hold water. In this day and age, professional athletes can't hide behind plausible deniability and say they had no idea what goes into their body. And if they are going to use diuretics, they should be checking with the commission and asking for permission first. But it's pretty obvious this goes beyond diuretics in pill form. Cyborg needs to stop deluding herself and trying to delude the fans. Her getting so big is not just dangerous for herself but her opponents as well. Hopefully this kills the 145 lb. female division which was barely hanging on as it is. After Carano/Cyborg there were no other fights to make. Carano is not at all committed to MMA and will only fight again if her movie career does not take off. MMA is merely her backup plan at this point. Ronda Rousey is planning on a move down to 135 to fight Miesha Tate. This incident is not going to save female MMA at or at the very least the 145 lb. Strikeforce women's division.


You decide.

What else is going on 411mania.com with yours truly, the 411mania Jack of All Trades?

Check out my first late breaking exclusive MMA interview of the year with Bellator Lightweight Champion, Michael Chandler.

And that's it for this week. Remember not to miss a new episode of the 411 Ground and Pound Radio Show this Sunday at 11AM EST. This weekend we'll be reviewing UFC 142, so don't miss it.

Keep rocking it loyal readers. And like the great Buckaroo Banzai says, "Remember. No matter where you go . . . there you are."

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Joe says goodbye.