SF Thoughts:

Was it just me or did the whole event lack energy tonight? The announcers, fights, crowd, it just seemed like something was missing. As excited I was for this event before it happened, I was equally disappointed after it ended...

One definite good thing that will come out of the UFC buyout.......Eventually no more Mauro, Gus, and Frank, man those guys are horrible, it's like a reoccuring theme after every event. And sorry to some long time Boxing fans, but Lennon Jr will not be missed either. It could just be that he doesn't fit the MMA vibe, but he's so bland, there doesn't seem to be energy or passion in his voice.

On to the fights, I'll do my best to stay focused.:


Overeem vs Werdum: So a..., what was that? It could easily be the most bizarre fight I've seen in years. It's possible that the styles of both fighters, paired with threats they offered eachother helped make it so akward, but man that was weird shit. I fully expected Reem to come out in this fight and run through Werdum. Just come out with heavy hands, knees, whatever and finish him with ease, but I'm actually left thinking Werdum won the striking battle in that fight. Between Reem allowing himself (a K-1 Champion..) to be hit so easily and Werdum shooting more predictably then Joe Rogan yelling leg kick, the fight just left me thoroughly disappointed. And I was actually thinking Werdum might get the nod based off landing more strikes too, which still seems crazy to me. For all his failed takedown attempts and Reem's inactivity in guard, it wouldn't be crazy to think some judges may have seen it for Werdum. In the end, if I came out of this fight with anything it's that Cain and JDS are clearly the best 2 HWs in the World. Overeem allows himself to be hit way to much, and guys like Cain and JDS would exploit that all day long. He also has to work on his cardio, if he even can at this point with all that muscle he's put on. I could write it off as a bad performance where Reem played it safe, but I honestly see it as more of an eye opener.

Barnett vs Rogers: Josh is back baby, for all the dumb decisions he's made in his career, there's never been a doubt on his talent, it's basically like we just added another Pride fighter who was stuck in limbo for years. The fight......I mean how couldn't you have seen that coming? Barnett's just on a whole different planet from Rogers as a fighter. Rogers is and always will be just a big guy who throws his hands and nothing more... Josh wasn't ever threaten at all, and in the 1st when he seemed to sit in mount too long, he was just so confident and taking his time looking for the finish. The finish was inevitable and he got it after easily passing to mount again in the 2nd. I'd also say that if Josh was forced to stand with Rogers he would have won the fight at some point anyways. It may seem crazy but I could easily make a case for Barnett to win the Prix at this point. With Serg in the way who I expect to get taken down by Barnett and I"m thinking decisioned, then Reem who looked eh and/or Foot (maybe the toughest next guy? maybe not), he presents a tough matchup for each guy and could endup winning this thing. Also his after fight Pro-Wrestling style speech was great, MMA needs another character.

Noons vs Masvidal: Certainly the best fight on the night, and a fantastic performance by Jorge, the best of his career IMO. Most of us expected Noons to use his superior boxing and beat Masvidal on the feet, but Jorge's counter striking was perfect tonight. He also had some of the best timed knees I've seen since Franca/Sherk. In the end he was just a better all around fighter, while Noons wanted to just box, Masvidal not only hung with him there, and beat him there, but added kickboxing, wrestling, BJJ,... he was just more complete. Seeing the fight today clearly showed he'll be a bigger challenge to Gil then Noons would have been with his limited attack, though I still expect Melendez to defend his belt. Today also kind of brings up Diaz's recent wins but I won't get into that. Second huge hematoma sighting in a month.

Cormier vs Monson: Not much to say here, just a bad matchup for Monson. Cormier could dictate where he wanted the fight to take place, and without the ability to get the fight to the ground Monson was overmatched. I was def impressed with Cormier's all around striking improvements since we last saw him, but at the same time only so much you could tell up against the Snowman in a kickboxing match. I'd like to see him get yet another step up in his next fight, hopefully one of the outsted Prix guys, guessing it'll be Rogers though.

Griggs vs Othereem: Mutten fucking chops......Startin to love this dude, he just wants to go out there and bang, and man o man is Othereem pathetic, I expected him to break to Griggs pressure but that was sad. Griggs vs Pee wee would be the dopest next fight for both guys, to bad.....

Wilcox vs JZ: In what we saw Wilcox looked great and JZ got lucky with that one. He was on his way to yet another loss. I'd say just because of how it ended and SF's lack of LW depth they should just do an immediate rematch. I also have to say the curtain is closing for JZ, it's quite possible he was really never as good as we thought a couple years back. He's still pretty young though and hope he turns it around.


Two last things, one maybe some of us were right saying the UFC HW division was always better? two, glad I always backed JDS as the best striker in the HW division.

I agree with all your comments except I had Overeem clearly winning the first 2 rounds with the 3rd a toss up.

I shouldn't have worded it like that, I actually did have Reem winning, but just mentioning how him losing some of the striking battles still leaves me baffled, and you know judges...It made it closer then it should have been.

LA wrote:

I shouldn't have worded it like that, I actually did have Reem winning, but just mentioning how him losing some of the striking battles still leaves me baffled, and you know judges...It made it closer then it should have been.

Yeah I agree. I was shocked watching Werdum hit him so much. Still don't know whether it was because Overeem was slow to react or whether it just wasn't hurting him.

Cain and JDS are clearly 1 and 2 now though.

Barnett post fight
http://mmaweekly.com/strikeforce-post-fight-video-josh-barnett-the-warmaster-expects-tougher-fight-from-kharitonov

He is now "The Warmaster" and will be sitting on a pile of skulls holding gold in his hands.

Or whatever he said.....

Just remembered, forgot to put this with Cormier, I think he should either pack on more muscle and become a tank at HW or drop to LHW someday where he could easily be pretty dominant.

Overall I liked the event. It had all the elements of a good card except for the way the main event turned out but is that more Reem's fault or Werdum's? Personally I put the blame on Werdum for constantly going for the takedown that wasn't there even when he was winning exchanges. I don't know that he had success hitting Reem because the shots weren't hurting, I think it was more that Reem was constantly expecting the takedown.

Honestly what Cormier needs to do is learn to punch with his hands closed. He rocked Monson twice with open hand strikes, imagine how that fight would have ended if he would have closed his fist and let them fly.

I liked the event but I was 2nd row, so my thougths are a bit skewed

still either way you cut it. Overeem vs Werdum was fucking disappointing. I think Overeem won, I dont care what FIght Metric says, Overeem landed the harder punches and knees, atleast thats what one would think considering everytime Werdum was touched he fucking played dead and hit the mat.

Masdival vs Noons was bad ass and man KJ just kept leaning right into those knees and that kick, props to KJ for not getting knocked out though. Something yall may have not seen from home, in between the 2nd and 3rd round Masdival went to his corner saw Bas Rutten, pointed at Bas and gave him a thumbs up, it was pretty cool.

Barnett vs Rogers went as expected, a top catch wrestler vs a guy that wont train at a legit gym.

Wilcoxs eye is fucked up bad anyone seen the pick on mmamania? fucking nasty.

Almeida lost in a fun fight on hte undercard

oh and Cormier impressed me, i figured hed just shoot for takedowns all ngiht, instead he owned the Snowman standing.

Birdofthad wrote:

oh and Cormier impressed me, i figured hed just shoot for takedowns all ngiht, instead he owned the Snowman standing.

He didn't want to go to the ground with Monson.

Monson has jack shit off his back. ADCC grappling champion or not I don't think I have ever seen him land a submission off his back. His wrestling has been what allows him to get on top and work a sub but off his back he has nothing overly threatening. I don't think Cormier deliberately avoided the ground out of fear or an abundance of respect for Monson's grappling. I think this was purely a means to test his own striking against a seasoned veteran in the sport and see if his hands could possibly carry him for three rounds if he had to fight that way.

I agree wtih Ludo

I don't. Why go to the ground and risk the chance of getting swept when he knew he would have the advantage striking. He knew he'd be able to dictate where the fight went and used the smarter approach. Monson has terrible stand up imo and had no hope in this fight unless it went to the ground.

Quote :

Two last things, one maybe some of us were right saying the UFC HW division was always better? two, glad I always backed JDS as the best striker in the HW division.

Before it wasn't clear, when Lesnar was on top in the UFC and SF had an undefeated Fedor. It is now. But let's be real here, the whole HW division looks like shit. Carwin and Lesnar haven't had a dominating or impressive performance for four fights between them(well three), and Mir is well Mir.

I always questioned Overeem's striking style in MMA and his cardio. Always. JDS would fuck that shit up yo.

I also thought Werdum did quite well in the standup, overall I thought the fight was pretty even in that dept, but when u drop to the ground every time Reem lands anything, well your not going to get many votes in your favor. I actually think Werdum let Reem off the hook in the 2nd half of that fight.


but I was really surprised at how not big reem looked out there. And he has become such a plodder. this dude used to be dynamic, explosive, high flying. But those days are gone. He is no longer my favorite to win this.

Ludo wrote:

Monson has jack shit off his back. ADCC grappling champion or not I don't think I have ever seen him land a submission off his back. His wrestling has been what allows him to get on top and work a sub but off his back he has nothing overly threatening. I don't think Cormier deliberately avoided the ground out of fear or an abundance of respect for Monson's grappling. I think this was purely a means to test his own striking against a seasoned veteran in the sport and see if his hands could possibly carry him for three rounds if he had to fight that way.

He said he wanted to avoid his ground game, and can't really test your striking to much against Monson.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Quote :

Two last things, one maybe some of us were right saying the UFC HW division was always better? two, glad I always backed JDS as the best striker in the HW division.

Before it wasn't clear, when Lesnar was on top in the UFC and SF had an undefeated Fedor. It is now. But let's be real here, the whole HW division looks like shit. Carwin and Lesnar haven't had a dominating or impressive performance for four fights between them(well three), and Mir is well Mir.

I always questioned Overeem's striking style in MMA and his cardio. Always. JDS would fuck that shit up yo.

I will agree with that, but even with Fedor the UFC's looked slightly better at the top and obviously it'll always be deeper top to bottom. Now yes it's very clear. And you know Mir has actually improved a lot, even with my hate I can't deny that. And I'll stand by Brock and Carwin beating Werdum, and add Mir who I didn't think would before, but with his improvements now would. I will at the same time admit with Cormier's all around striking improvements now being a tough matchup for Brock.


On Reem, still a fan, but as always his striking defense leaves way to many openings for guys Like Cain and JDS, even Foot could be some trouble.

captain organic wrote:

I also thought Werdum did quite well in the standup, overall I thought the fight was pretty even in that dept, but when u drop to the ground every time Reem lands anything, well your not going to get many votes in your favor. I actually think Werdum let Reem off the hook in the 2nd half of that fight.


but I was really surprised at how not big reem looked out there. And he has become such a plodder. this dude used to be dynamic, explosive, high flying. But those days are gone. He is no longer my favorite to win this.

Werdum shockingly was winning a lot of the exchanges, yeah he isn't a KO striker, but he was putting Reem in defense mode. Reem needs to work on his defense cause if Werdum can get in on him that easy, others will and put him in way more trouble. Barnett had a good point that Reem wasn't sitting down on his punches, could be fear of the shot and Werdum's bizarre game throwing him off.

I have always thought Fedor could exploit his style of defense and I still do. It remains to be seen if Fedor can regain his fabled hand speed that was noticeably lacking against Foot. Fedor is great at finding gaps in shell defenses and blasting them apart. Overeem could not survive a barrage of Fedor punches.

Fedor had it I thought, he dropped Foot once and only Foot's reach gave him problems on the feet. The rest we know was decided by size advantage.

Agree that one Fedor hard punch followed by a barrage could easily end it.

He was throwing telegraphed rights slower than usual all night. He should have been waiting for his counter shot opportunities like usual. Worst game plan I ever saw Fedor use.

Even when he beat Rogers it wasn't the best gameplan either...Time catches up with all athletes. Hendo/Fedor will still be epic, all-time epic.

Thought it was a pretty disappointing card. One of the worse SF cards in awhile. Jorge vs Noons was a decent scrap. Besides that the only other fight I'd watch again would be Griggs dominating Othereem.

I actually thought Wilcox was kind of playing it up a little bit when I first saw it. Then I saw the replay and thought maybe he wasn't. Then I saw the pic he posted and I believe him now.