*****
Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva vs. Fabricio Werdum
I'm really impressed with Fabricio Werdum in getting this win. In the first round it looked like he was going to get dominated, as he was clearly outplayed by a calm, scientific Silva. Werdum got rocked by some huge elbows and Silva was able to land really powerful punches on the grounded Werdum. Late in the round, Silva seemed to be getting a little tired - though he wasn't panting, he was letting his guard down, allowing Werdum to land a few solid strikes that foreshadowed the rest of the fight.
The second round started off with Silva knocking down Werdum with a big straight punch. However, instead of waiting for Werdum to have to stand up, Silva unwisely goes down to land a couple punches. This may have been the turning point of the fight, as Werdum landed a big knee and punch as the two were standing up. Most of the round involved a lot of pummeling from the Greco-Roman clinch that amounted to nothing, but finally Werdum was able to get Silva onto the ground. I'd have to say that for a hulk, Silva has impressive ground defense, being able to avoid damage from half-guard and having the mobility to escape once Werdum escaped into side control.
The third round was all Werdum. Silva definitely looked sluggish, and Werdum was able to perform a beautiful single leg takedown and land punches in big numbers. On the feet, Werdum was even able to use the muay thai specialist Silva's game against him and land some hard knees to the face. In the end, Werdum came out with a well-deserved victory in a fight that after the first round I thought he had little chance of winning.
Werdum defeats Silva by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
*****
Gegard Mousasi vs. Sokoudjou
The moral of this fight is that even the most awesome judo throws won't get you anywhere if you can't be effective once taking the fight to the ground. Sokoudjou's strength in the fight seems to be his ability late in the first round and in the beginning of the second round to toss Mousasi and to reverse Mousasi's takedown attempts and establish a good top position. However, Mousasi's ground game is great and he is able to escape or roll Sokoudjou over and establish a top position of his own. And from the bottom, there's not much Sokoudjou can do.
In the beginning of the fight, Mousasi looked invincible, displaying a lot of speed and calmness. Sokoudjou looked as tense as anything and kept ducking his head when going in for strikes. I was waiting for him to get rocked by a well-timed uppercut. Indeed, Mousasi was eventually able to capitalize on this and send a flurry of punches Sokoudjou's way. Then Sokoudjou started going to his judo game, which as we know didn't turn out so well. In the end, Mousasi is able to get the TKO victory after a series of uncontested punches to a curled up Sokoudjou's head.
Mousasi defeats Sokoudjou by TKO (strikes, Round 2, 3:43)
*****
Jake Shields vs. Jason "Mayhem" Miller
Jason Miller had the perfect game plan to defeat someone like Jake Shields and blew it. It seemed like he was convinced that he could finish the fight and not have to rely on winning individual rounds, but when you're against a good wrestler who can kill a lot of time off the clock by keeping you on your back, you can't rely on that. Anyway, Mayhem's plan was to conserve energy and explode once Shields tired out. Shields indeed seemed to start running out of gas, but Mayhem was just only attacking whenever Shields really made himself vulnerable. Most of Miller's attempts at exploding didn't last long and just ended up in a clinch, and his only shot at finishing the fight was a solid rear naked choke that came at a very bad time for him (at the very end of a round) as Shields was just able to wait the time out.
In my opinion, Miller really needed to start picking things up in round 3 (or even as early as the end of round 1) so that he could at least fall back on a decision victory, which I think he could have done. Instead, Shields is basically able to win the fight purely based on control, as in the typical Jake Shields style, his punches from the top position seem to do basically no damage to Miller.
Though Jake Shields just beat a quality opponent (well actually I think it's more Miller losing than Shields winning), I still don't think he can be considered a top fighter in either the middleweight and welterweight divisions. I think I've seen him as high as #2 on some welterweight rankings, which just puzzles me. He is an outstanding grappler and is basically able to pass guard at will. However, his striking, even by welterweight standards, is way below par and I think top fighters in both weight classes should be able to exploit this weakness. From looking at Shields's past fights, even his strikes from mount seem essentially harmless. It looks like he's not even trying to hurt his opponent - he's just trying to "score points!"
As a Mayhem Miller fan, I am truly disappointed in this fight - a fight I thought he could definitely have won, especially given his good groundwork skills. But in the end, Miller just wasted way too much time conserving energy and trying to pull a Muhammad Ali. I scored the fight 50-45 for Shields, but it seems like the judges were a bit nicer to Miller.
Shields defeats Miller by unanimous decision (48-47, 49-46, 49-46)
*****
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett "The Grim" Rogers
I think this is the most mortal I've ever seen Fedor be (even more so than his fights against Kazuyuki Fujita and Mark Hunt in Pride). Brett Rogers was using his range and sheer size early and I really thought he could seal the deal during the first round. Once he gassed out though, his chances all but disappeared. Fedor was throwing some wild punches, which are on one hand just part of his sambo style, but also in this case missing wildly in particular out of respect for Rogers's huge reach advantage.
By the end of the first round, Rogers was out of juice and was struggling to survive against someone he had been completely laying the smackdown on. And then in the second round, Fedor delivered an incredible hook that was lights out for Big Brett. This must be really disappointing for Rogers, who seemed to have a genuine chance at winning the fight on much more than a punch's chance. Instead he fell victim to Fedor's crushing punching power, and it was basically a single punch that caused his own demise. I'm sure Brett will begin to focus on his cardio, which was never really a problem for him as his previous fights were all quick finishes for him.
Meanwhile, Fedor upon winning has his usual look - one filled with an intense lack of emotion. Well it's a great thing for Strikeforce that Fedor won, otherwise it may have fallen under much like EliteXC did with the embarrassing defeat of Kimbo Slice. This leaves me wondering what's next for Fedor, as I don't think anyone in Strikeforce other than Rogers has any chance of defeating or even at least providing an entertaining fight against Fedor.
Emelianenko defeats Rogers by TKO (strikes, Round 2, 1:48)
*****
As much as I wanted to see Fedor lose (as a kind of karma thing for joining Strikeforce instead of UFC), I am more than satisfied with his fight against Rogers, and I'm glad I have the event taped so that I can save the video to re-watch, as this fight was exceptional. Particularly disappointing (once again) was the Shields vs. Miller championship fight, which was a mostly uneventful 25 minutes. I was waiting for Miller to just go crazy on Shields after his rope-a-dope tactics early on, but Shields was able to hold on to get a boring but deserved decision.
The next major Strikeforce event is Strikeforce: Evolution on December 19 and so far it doesn't have any huge names that would make me too excited to watch it. I think Strikeforce really went all out with this event to see if they can be successful on network TV, and we'll have to see what happens. In its current state, I don't think they have much left in the tank, but if they sign some more big games, perhaps they have a chance of starting some competition with the MMA behemoth promotion UFC.
Speaking of UFC, Dana White has graced us with UFC events both next Saturday and the one after that. First is UFC 105 on November 14. This event is competing with the Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto fight, at least in the US. Actually, since UFC 105 is in Britain, they'll actually be done well before the Pacquiao fight in Las Vegas even begins, but as far as I know, the TV broadcast of the UFC event is at night. Probably because of two events competing for a similar audience, UFC 105 is free on Spike TV and doesn't feature as many big names as typical UFC events. Still, in the midst of a card that showcases British fighters, we have a fight between Mike Swick and Dan Hardy that will determine the next challenger for the welterweight title against GSP. Then, the main event is Randy Couture, who is looking to redeem himself after a tough loss against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in UFC 102, against Brandon Vera, who is facing his toughest challenge in several years.
Then on November 21 is UFC 106, which is just packed with great matchups. The main event was originally going to be a heavyweight title fight between Shane Carwin and champion Brock Lesnar that was basically guaranteed to be a thriller - until Lesnar came down ill, which means the fight will either be postponed or replaced with an interim title fight. Instead, the main event is a rematch between Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz, who won their first fight in a controversial split decision. Also, making his debut in the UFC is Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, the other Nogueira's twin brother. The main card is completed with fights of some of the most exciting and some of my favorite fighters out there - Anthony Johnson, Phil Baroni, and Karo Parisyan.
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