MMA Analytics 10.01.07: Strikeforce Event Fails To Impress
Posted by Leland Roling on 10.01.2007
Strikeforce invaded the Playboy Mansion on Saturday Night and produced a lackluster event that only had decent matchups that lived up to the hype. The setting, production, commentating, and quality of the matchups was lacking at the event. Let's take an in-depth look at what was done wrong, what could be improved, and what needs to be done to improve Strikeforce's stance in the U.S. market.
Last night, Strikeforce invaded the Playboy Mansion in what has been hyped by the organization as an unbelievable event in MMA history. It was the first mixed martial arts event that was held at the Playboy Mansion and Strikeforce felt privileged enough to brag about it for the coming months before the event. The entire feeling was that it would feature scantily clad bunnies running around the venue with big names in MMA and film mingling with each other as fans watched and stared in fascination. What really happened? Poor production, bad camera work, atrocious refereeing, and some poor matchups that didn't live up to the hype happened. Let's take a look at why Strikeforce failed to impress at this event and what needs to be done to improve their standing in the U.S. MMA market.
Production isn't second to matchups
Strikeforce seemingly forgot that matchups are not the most important thing when an MMA event is put together. The event was held in the backyard of the Playboy Mansion. As a viewer to the event, I realized that the Mansion did not have the capacity to hold a cage and crowd within its walls. Many fans felt that the event should have been in an indoor venue. That simply wasn't going to happen. Surprisingly, the cage and crowd were perfectly set up for the audience that was viewing the event on the stream to see the action. The introductions, camera work, and commentating were three main areas that Strikeforce just wasn't paying attention to when planning this event.
Introductions in many of these MMA events are made for the fans. The extravagant introductions such as that of PRIDE and the recent K-1 event in Seoul, Korea are bonuses for fans. Specifically, the K-1 event featured a creative Japanese dancing routine that featured Samurai warriors singing in opera style that made the event seem godlike in terms of importance. It was rather unique and was reminiscent of the type of production I've seen at Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks games in Chicago. How come a regular NBA or NHL team can produce such a production every night, but Strikeforce can't produce something more prominent with a ton of time to plan before the event?
Strikeforce managed to erect a decent size stage that plumed excessive smoke from the entrance when a fighter entered the area. It wasn't exactly the smoke that killed it, but the audio track that managed to repeat the same three or four tracks over and over again with the exception of Matt Lee and Tetsuji Kato, who brought some Asian influenced music of their own. Apparently the rest of the guys picked the same Guns & Roses introduction. A little creativity is all I ask if you are going to roll into the Playboy Mansion and put on a great production.
On the camera work side of the production, there were many instances in which it seemed like the camera man hit the zoom button, and we were treated to a close-up view of the turnbuckle. There were also some times when one of the camera guys happened to run into a turnbuckle that blocked his sight, yet the angle didn't switch. I will say that this was probably due to the fact that they were working in an outdoor venue that probably was set up rather quickly.
Commentating is not opinion
Let's get one thing straight before I go into the commentating that Strikeforce used for the event. Frank Shamrock was an absolute jerk during the event. His most significant role during the matchups was to call Josh Thomson "the first openly gay fighter". Was this promotion supposed to be taken seriously? Shamrock has been a part of the controversy for quite some time. He's had numerous spats with his brother Ken. According to the broadcast, he has a huge problem with Josh Thomson. Further research revealed that in a few interviews, Thomson revealed that he would fight Shamrock. He said he would love the chance to shut him up over a few videos Shamrock made that he uploaded to YouTube. The videos apparently included comments made by Shamrock about Phil Baroni and Josh Thomson and called out both fighters. Shamrock fought Baroni and beat him, but has yet to accept any other fights. One of the things many fighters criticize Shamrock for is that he likes to say he will fight anyone, but he rarely accepts fights when they are on the table. Many fighters hate the fact that he talks a game, but never backs it up. Thomson also stated that Frank has a huge problem with the American Kickboxing Academy as well. Apparently, Frank has a problem with a lot more people than that, but we will refrain from going further into it. It's a lot of empirical proof that Shamrock is hated by a lot of fighters in the industry.
All of that brings me to my next point. If you are going to have someone like Frank Shamrock commentate, tell him to leave his ego at the door or better yet, don't have him commentate. There were so many fighters on the card that he had a dislike for, it seems unreasonable to have him commentate. Strikeforce could have easily used Glazer and Trigg, who were both there, or brought it Mauro Ranallo, Stephen Quadros, the list goes on. Guys who have proven that they are professional when commentating MMA events. A bad decision by the Strikeforce management.
Cecil Peoples is a poor referee
Luke Stewart was literally on top of Sam Liera for a good twenty seconds pounding his face into oblivion when the stream cut out. At first, it seemed as if they stopped it because they didn't want us to see Peoples's atrocious decision making skills. I ran through a live play by play to see that the fight was ended mere seconds after the cut out. It begged the question in my mind, what the hell was Peoples doing?
My thought that he was just a poor referee was confirmed during the Joe Riggs vs. Eugene Jackson beatdown. Riggs threw some crumpling shots into Jackson's face that visibly looked to knock him out multiple times during a brutal ground and pound that ended the bout. Peoples was so slow to the stoppage that Jackson literally took an extra five or six shots while flailing his arms to try to block them. Jackson was so disoriented that he didn't manage to block any of the extra blows. It looked as if he was going to have to be escorted out on a stretcher.
Bottom line, Cecil Peoples was embarrassing referees everywhere with his judgment at the event. Stick to judging, Cecil. Although I may not agree sometimes with your judgments, I'd much rather see fighters live to fight another day.
Matchups weren't horrible
Seeing Gilbert Melendez, Joe Riggs, and Josh Thomson on the same card showed some hope for some brutal knockouts and stunning wins. Although Melendez hurt his hand during the first round of his bout with Tetsuji Kato, he was still able to fend off attacks from Kato and beat him in a decision. Although impressive in the first round, I was definitely bummed when Melendez unfortunately was injured. His effectiveness was obviously toned down.
Josh Thomson had an excellent performance against a tough Adam Lynn. He showed some decent striking skills along with his already superior clinch and ground skills. Thomson scored a great combination that stunned Lynn long enough for Thomson to pounce on him while he was down to win the battle.
Joe Riggs produced some of the biggest fireworks of the night. He was able to control Eugene Jackson on the ground and mount him fairly easily. Once in the full mount, Riggs unloaded some of the most explosive punches we've seen all year on Jackson's face. The sound of the blasts could be heard throughout the venue and even on the streaming broadcast.
Masvidal also had a highlight reel knockout, pushing Matt Lee into the fence during a clinch and unloading quick elbow strikes along with a couple haymakers to drop Lee to the mat for the win. Although the matchups had some exciting knockouts, the overall battles were hugely one-sided. I know casual MMA fans may love that kind of thing, but I've always loved an overall great matchup against two equal competitors that happens to end in a great knockout, much like the Taylor vs. Pavlik boxing match the same evening.
Puder was disappointing. He showed some decent takedown defense and ground work early, but faded and made the bout boring after the first round. Evangelista vs. Coronel was a rather boring bout as well for the first round. It picked up later on, but wasn't the kind of battle that I would have expected if Njoukani would have fought instead.
To be honest, the one-sided matchups soured my attention span a bit. I'm somewhat hoping the EliteXC and Strikeforce pull off another co-promotion so we can see Thomson, Melendez, and a few other fighters get matched up against some other quality opponents. Thomson said he would fight Shamrock. It would be interesting to see at what weight they could do it at, but I doubt it would ever happen. With Diaz in EliteXC, there are some great lightweight matchups to produce. Also, Strikeforce added "Babalu" to their repertoire of fighters, so we could see some potentially great light heavyweight battles. Strikeforce is in a great position to produce some great promotions with co-promotions with BodogFIGHT and EliteXC. I hope we will see that soon.
Strikeforce needs to improve
A better production team, this promotion could improve worlds from what it produced on Saturday night. Although I was disappointed in the production, refereeing, and commentating from the event, I did like some of the excitement in the matchups. I think Strikeforce could potentially bring in some great talent and exciting matchups along with some co-promotions that could put the matchups over the top.
With the interviews that Melendez has done recently leading up to his fight, he has stated that he would leave the organization in order to fight the best out there. Word to the wise, sign a fighter like Aoki or try to enter a co-promotion with K-1 Hero's, or a co-promotion with EliteXC/K-1 Hero's to set up some type of matchup with "JZ" Calvancanti, who Melendez has stated he wants to fight. That kind of matchup would make the MMA community in the U.S. tune in no matter what.
Overall, I give Strikeforce a D+ for the event. I'd give the matchups a B- due to the exciting outcomes to some of the bouts, but overall, the event wasn't as impressive as it should have been when being done at the Playboy Mansion.
Leland Roling is the Editor-in-chief of MMA-Analyst.com
