Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov thoughts

Best SF card in awhile...with the added bonus of the preliminary card being strong, it might be the best SF card to date.

Fight of the Night: Ronaldo Souza vs. Luke Rockhold
Knockout of the Night: Daniel Cormier
Submission of the Night: Pat Healy

Barnett vs. Kharitonov went as i predicted. Barnett got him in the mount and in the mount they statyed untill the arm traingle head and arm choke ended it. Barnett's career is a bit marred but there is no doubt in my mind that this guy is elite and will probably be the most successful PRIDE HW stateside. in the cage. Sergei is a solid HW but very limited against somebody like Barnett. You know when Barnett gets the mount the only way out is if the round ends or Barnett finishes it.

Also, Mauro failed by not giving Barnett the mic. I figured Mauro, a huge wrestling fan would appreciate Barnett's promo cutting skills over the cookie cutter post fight interview nobody gives a fuck about, but perhaps Showtime or Zuffa got in his ear before the fight about not giving the mic up too easily..because i will say Barnett could be pretty unpredictable when given face time. I don't know whats next for Sergei, but i hope that Zuffa/GG shit is put to rest and he does not get released.

I'm sure that even those who picked Cormier..were a tad surprised on how this fight went. Cormier lit Bigfoot the fuck up. Bigfoot is normally a good counter puncher, but Cormier was able to do what Fedor and Arlovski were unable to..get in and get out..although Cormier landed with enough pop that he didnt really need to get out of the way. I gave Bigfoot the advantage standing because while Cormier was improving at a good pace, if you watched his striking in the Monson fight you would not really think he would have the advantage vs, Bigfoot but Cormier seems to improve times 20 everytime out. He looked like he's been striking his entire life..and thats amazing if you go back no more, maybe less than 2 years ago when he fought Gary Frazier on Challengers..Javier Mendes pretty much prohibited Cormier from striking because he was so pathetic and awkward in that regard. That is understandable being a lifelong wrestler who had just started training MMA, but to see how far he has come in 2 years..it's kind of freakish. Cormier is legit. no doubt and his bout with Barnett is very interesting.

Bigfoot on the other hand, will rebound unless the curse of Fedor lives on whether you beat him or not like wolf suggested in the chat. Bigfoot needs to keep his hands up. It's no surprise somebody who trained with Mike Kyle for this fight was able to exploit that. Bigfoot is too slow to be leaving his chin open like that, his reaction time is for nada.

Rockhold-Jacare was my fight of the night. It was up for interpretation. I had Jacare winning but could see a case for Rockhold as well. It's one of those toss up fights. The 50-45 judge is a moron though. There is always atleast one but i see 48-47 Rockhold or 48-47 Jacare. Once again, the gas tank was a big problem for Jacare. I wish he would have saved some energy and his takedown shots for later in the fight and just traded for round 2-3. The stand up was even enough for that strategy to be affordable.,,but you can see the gas leaking on Jacare everytime he goes for a takedown. The reason he never gassed vs. Kennedy, is because it was a stand up fight. Rockhold was winning most of the stand up, but it was close and Rockhold didnt offer much of a power threat. Jacare should have saved the explosiveness for the later rounds...easier said than done and who knows...maybe he gasses anyway.

Rockhold on the other hand was very impressive. I said he would surprise a lot of people and he did. He was quick, his striking was on target and crisp, he was hard to takedown and even harder to keep down and most of all the fact that he has not fought in ages, has never been past the first round, and had never fought anybody even close to Jacare yet went all 25 minutes WITHOUT gassing is very impressive. He didnt earn the shot, but he earned the belt. So congrats to Rockhold.

Mo vs. Gracie...i like both fighters, so i hoped nobody came out looking bad. We knew that was likely to be Gracie, and i like Roger and want him to succeed. This was fairly irresponsible matchmaking considering Mike Kyle and Fejiao were both on this card, yet even though they had two strong proven LHW's on the card they fed Roger to Mo. Kind of fucked up. Not much to analyze. Gracie had no confidence engaging nor any confidence he would get Mo down. I think he might of been hoping Mo would shoot for takedown so he could work, but Mo knew Roger was no match on the feet. Gracie gets knocked the fuck out and it should not have happened this soon in my opinion. The same thing probably happens to Gracie after 10 fights, but atleast Gracie would probably have more of a game plan.

King Mo is the fuckin man though. kiiing MO!

Healy-Blanco went as i thought it would. Blanco showed a lot in the fight, he's actually a pretty strong wrestler but not really to the bigger and stronger Heally, and he's an explosive striker but this was a bad matchup for a guy who sooner or later was going to have to make the move to 145. Thomson would have been a more favorable matchup for him, but even then, JT would have been bigger and expoloited Blanco's shabby submission defense. Healy on the other hand gains another nice W in his career of nice W's at both WW and LW and is pretty much a nice comback by JT away from being undefeated in the division. The guy would fit in with the UFC's LW division as a level boss for up and comers.

Kyle-de Lima was not really the fight i was hoping for. Mainly because de Lima didnt really pan out from the footage i saw from him. Kyle had a reserved, technical game plan and he looked good. de Lima was very disappointing though. He picked it up in the second round where he looked sick in the first round, but overall..his attack was very one dimensional and non-effective. Kyle picked him apart.

Fejiao-Romero was fuckin awesome. I like Fejiao, and Palalcio really made as ass of himself in this fight. Obviously the potential is there..he's quick, athletic, great wrestling credentials and you can see the can throw his hands..but he might of thought Cavalcante was level with the guys he fought in the past or he though he would lure Fejiao to sleep with his bullshit but he got what he deserved and hopefully learned a valuble lesson. Don't hop away from a guy the entire first round, and then when they get close enough to you to land a kick just to keep the fans from throwing shit in the cage don't taunt them with "thats all you got" when you have not shown anybody what you got. It would have been an injustice if Fejiao did not put this guy to sleep. This was a lot like the King Mo-Fejiao fight in regards to Fejiao being too big for these guys to wrestle around, Fejiao even took this guy down.

Romero showed a bit more in the second round, but got a little wild and got caught. Calvalcante's expoerience and power came through.

All that said, this is another one of those fights...why did they make it when Palcio vs. Gracie or de Lima would have made more sense. No matter what you think of Fejiao...he's not ideal for the guys 5th fight if you hope to build him up.

Mein vs. Cyborg was an excellent fight. Mein eventually picked him apart and ended it with a flury of standing elbows. The kid is impressive and is only 21 with THIRTY pro fights. I don't know too much about the grappling side of his game but maybe he should seek out GSP's camp in Canada and get the full game to go along with striking. Maybe would like to see him vs. Tarec Saffiedine next.

Amanda Nunes gassed and got worked by a better grappler in Alexis Davis. Not much to analyze. If you can't fight on the ground or have the means to avoid the ground..you can't make it that far.

Some thoughts from here.

1)We know the result of Josh vs one dimensional striker. Figured it to be so, and sure enough. So glad he fights a high level wrestler, one with solid striking skills to boot, next.

2)I was so wrong about Silva vs Cormier, after seeing Cormier look as big as dudes who fight, or should fight at 205, I figured Silva would be a monster in comparison, he was not. I've always like Cormier's striking, he's crisp, he's willing. Still think his size is a problem eventually, but has not happened yet. Oh yeah, he prob beats Brock.

No kidding around here, Silva's head is too big a target. Dude is the smallest 285 guy ever, all head.

3)I was not overly interested in Jacare vs Rockhold. I give Rockhold mad props. I think Jacare is an excellent fighter, and Rockhold imo, won it easily. I had it 49-46, gave Jacare the 1st and Luke the rest, even the rnd Luke got clipped. 50-45 was not crazy imo.

Agree that Jacare blew his load working those takedowns in the 1st, and they never panned out. Rockhold used his reach well the rest of the fight.

Another fight I was totally wrong about. I figured Jacare all day here.

But I thought this fight dragged, perhaps I was just frustated in Jacare's inability to get going, and was not appreciating Luke's performance, but kind of like the Jacare Kennedy fight, solid action for 3 rnds is great, but 5 rnds of solid, but not electric action, starts to lose some luster.

4)Mo vs Gracie. Gracie was looking so nice for a bit. So tall and long, using that reach brilliantly, keeping Mo far at bay, while Mo was wary of getting in amongst the limbs of gracie. But I think Gracie got a little overconfident, and felt because of his bjj and the fact that Mo was having trouble finding his mark, he could work on the inside without repute. He should have concentrated more on a good stiff jab to maintain that distance, not the soft one he was throwing, instead he went for the big knee , in doing so he got in close and into Mo's roundhouse, and boom.

I figured the ground game would not come into play, Mo would want no part of it, and as the wrestler could dictate what he wanted in that regard. I also figured Mo's standup would carry the day. It seems as though I was wrong, until I was right.

Mo's a top fighter(as is Cavalcante) hard to argue other wise.

Gracie. needs to continue to work the standup, he needs to be more crisp with those long rangy strikes, and more kicks would be nice as well. And while I don't blame him for dropping from the initial shot, I did not like that he stiffened up after what looked like an open handed strike. The bjj-player-who-does-not-like-to-get-hit factor may have been in play there.

5)Maximo vs Healy. Healy made Maximo look like a 135er, forget the 145. David and Goliath esque.

And props to healy for a)winning a fight on short notice b)winning a fight in which he was kicked in the head illegally 4 times, and c)winning a fight in which he was kicked in the head legally 2 other times. But I had to figure that as the much bigger guy, and a proven grinder, he would eventually wear Maximo out. He did.

Maximo on the other hand looked electric, sure it helped that he was fighting a bigger guy not at all known for his speed, but the attacks Blanco was displaying were magic. Get this guy down to 145, and put him in line to fight his fellow venezualan. That fight would be sweet.

Have yet to watch the prelims.

I thought it was a good event, maybe even a real good one, but there seemed to be something lacking in terms of greatness. Maybe it was me, maybe it was the lack of prelims, maybe I was catching the empty arena vibe, maybe the lack of prefight hype played in, but I was not as stoked as I should have been given the # of finishes.

barnett did what he was suppose to do against a second string guy with lil ground, heck look at sergeis fight with monson. Still as much as a bum barnett is its sad he is in the final. Lol at bigfoot for ever talking smack about lesnar or claimin the sf hws are in the top 5. I give mad props to daniel for exposing the hater. Imo daniel is a legit cracking top 5 guy for sure with only cain, jds,carwin and possibly the winner of lesnar/overeem having a size advantage. Other than that dude is legit. As for the jacare fight, im glqd the anderson/jacare talks will be over now. Imo rockhold is good but neither did enough to secure a decisive win. Great card though