411's Strikeforce on NBC Report 04.26.08

Posted by Randy Harrison on 04.27.2008

Eugene Jackson is the focus of this week's episode, but Paul Buentello and Josh "The Punk" Thomson get their moments to shine too...




411's Strikeforce on NBC Report

If it's an ungodly hour on a Saturday night, it's time for some Strikeforce action and we've got Josh Thomson and Paul Buentello on the card!! Cue the really cool NBC opening video!!!


Segment One

Lon McEachern welcomes us to the show, talking about how we'll start out with two of the scariest fighters in MMA.


Match One: Heavyweights
Tank Abbott (9-11) vs. Paul Buentello (20-9)


Round One

The bell rings and Abbott takes the center of the cage and they trade jabs before Buentello gets a leg kick. They're throwing WILD punches and Buentello lands some solid uppercuts from the clinch against the fence and they separate back to the middle of the cage. Shamrock plays "prognosticator" saying that someone's going to eat a right hand and sure enough, Buentello ROCKS Abbott's shit with HUGE overhand right and Abbott does a Flair flop down and out. He's cut up pretty bad laying on the mat after that shot.

Winner: Paul Buentello, KO at 0:43 of Round One

Fight Analysis: Two guys that love to throw and that's what happened. Not unlike anything you'd see in any corner bar in any small town on a payday weekend. It was entertaining, like most Abbott fights are, it just wasn't any good. Buentello REALLY has some power in that right hand though.


Segment Two

We're back from the break and already going to the next fight, as we get a profile of Eugene Jackson. He talks about his nickname "The Wolf", coming from his fighting style early in his career where he would be prowling low like a wolf. He thinks he hits pretty hard and that he'll make good work of it if he touches someone on the chin, and then makes fun of his defense, saying that people will make good work of his chin too. Guys talk about how Jackson does a lot to give back to the up-and-coming fighters and he'll train with the newer guys to make them better and Jackson says that he does it because he wants these guys to have what he didn't have coming up as a fighter and that they hopefully can move forward and make the sport better through his training. One of his students talks about how Jackson is best at integrating every aspect of the fight into their game while Jackson says that MMA is the greatest team sport that you have to do by yourself, before explaining about the need for the best coaches, the best training partners and all of it that leads to a fight and that once the fight happens it's all on you.


Match Two: Middleweights
Mike Seal (17-13-1) vs. Eugene Jackson (13-19-1)

For once, a promotion lists someone with a worse record than what they have as my numbers have Jackson at 13-8-1, but I guess it can be chalked up to a typo most likely. Seal will have a HUGE reach advantage as he's nearly eight inches taller than Jackson.


Round One

They touch gloves and Shamrock talks about the reach advantage and how Jackson will have to work inside. Jackson listens and catches Seal on the chin with an inside right hook which takes the pins out from under Seal and Jackson clamps on a guillotine choke with Shamrock bringing up a good point about how Jackson wasn't using his legs to help put pressure on the choke and that instead it was all upper body. Jackson gets the legs around Seal's hips but Seal is still fighting it and he gets all the way out and pops his head out, doing a little ground and pound from Jackson's guard. Seal works the body and then throws a couple shots to the head, landing some heavy punches before standing out of the guard. Diving back into the guard and landing another hard right hand, Seal looks to be bleeding from the nose and he catches Jackson with a knee as he gets back to his feet. Jackson gets a nice double-leg takedown and works some body shots as Seal grabs a kimura from the bottom to reverse the position. Seal grabs a front facelock and they end up separating before Seal can get any knees off. Some circling and they trade some heavy standing punches before Seal grabs the Thai clinch and hits some hard knees. A HARD right hand puts Jackson on rubber legs and Jackson is cut under his right eye so both guys are bleeding. High kick misses from Seal and a right hand from downtown misses for Jackson, but Jackson recovers first and lands some good punches that seem to stagger Seal a little. Jackson gets a hard body shot and a solid short uppercut inside and Seal catches Jackson right on the button with a HARD left hook right at the horn.

Round Analysis: A high-paced, high-action round with both guys having some good moments. Jackson had more of them though and he got much more out of the striking exchanges than Seal did, along with the guillotine attempt. Seal is tough as nails though, so he managed to stick around and even do some punishing of his own. Great back and forth round and should lead to a good second round. 10-9, Jackson.


Segment Three


Round Two

Another glove touch and Seal flashes out a leg kick before they circle. Seal with a body kick and Jackson gets a good right hand and Seal just keeps throwing kicks to the body and head, landing glancing blows to the body but missing the head shots. The pace slows down a little bit and Jackson JUST misses with a one-two before eating a body kick from Seal. WILD overhand right misses from Seal and Jackson wobbles him with a NASTY counter-uppercut. He follows that with a good combination to the body and head, but is seemingly missing an opportunity to finish the fight. Seal throws a couple of leg kicks and tries a Superman punch that just misses and Jackson presses the pace and lands a HARD combination, with Shamrock talking about how long these two can trade before someone gets caught. Jackson with a HARD takedown and it looks like Seal was trying to tap out after it but referee "Blind" Cecil Peoples misses it and Jackson just POUNDS on Seal with right hands and elbows, nearly beating Seal's face into Bolivian before there's FINALLY a stoppage.

Winner: Eugene Jackson, TKO at 2:49 of Round Two

Fight Analysis: Dominating second round from Jackson and he closed it out in style once he got that takedown and took the mount. That being said, Seal had actually tapped out after the slam, but Peoples missed it and allowed him to eat more punishment for no reason. Fuck Cecil Peoples.


Segment Four

Right back to the action with our Strikeforce on NBC main event of the evening an it looks like it should be a dandy.


Match Three: Lightweights
Josh Thomson (11-2-1) vs. Nick Gonzalez (11-4)


Round One

Thomson rocking his crazy-ass hairdo as usual and referee Herb Dean gets this fight underway. Thomson glances Gonzalez' face with a high kick and then just misses a Superman punch to follow up on it before shooting in for a takedown. He gets the takedown and takes the back of Gonzalez, sinking his hooks in almost immediately. They start hand-fighting and Gonzalez tries to turn into the back mount, but Thomson shuts it down and starts trying to sink in a rear naked choke. A couple of punches from Thomson to soften him up and he gets the rear naked choke sunk in right against up against the fence and Gonzalez has to tap out. Thomson hops the fence and then points out at someone in the crowd, talking some shit to, I believe, Gilbert Melendez since this was around when they were going to fight the first time.

Winner: Josh Thomson, submission (rear naked choke) at 1:42 of Round One

Fight Analysis: Thomson is a beast and his wrestling is possibly the best in the lightweight division. That's not just the Strikeforce lightweight division, but the lightweight division period. He got a great takedown and immediately moved into back control, sinking the choke and barely having to duck a strike. Dominating win from Thomson and I can't wait to see him and Melendez get it on in June.


McEachern and Shamrock give us their closing thoughts, McEachern pimps the website and next week's show and another edition of Strikeforce on NBC is in the books!


The Final Strike

Another solid effort from Strikeforce and they're really finding a good mix of fights and fighter profiles to put on. The only problem that I have right now is that there are the odd little slips that make it past post-production and they end up making things look a little bush league. I mean, what does it say for a promotion to do a profile piece on one of their stars and his "record" is 13-19-1 instead of 13-9-1 like it's supposed to be. A small detail, but a VERY important one. If they can tighten their ship up a little bit on things like that, everything else about the show is great. Get on it, NBC production team!!