Strikeforce thoughts

Good card.

So barring any Fabricio Werdum defeating Fedor shenanigans, Overeem vs. Fedor is very interesting IMO.

Overeem is just a terrible matchup for Rogers. Brett could give a little HW like Fedor problems with his size and power. What does he have to offer Overeem? As soon as Overeem tossed him to the ground like he was a drunk chick picking a fight, Brett was like "yeah, i have no chance" and was pretty much in survival mode. Rogers really believed he could beat Fedor, i don't think he believed he could beat Overeem.

As for AA, i know a lot of people are going to say he is done and not give Antonio Silva the due credit for outclassing AA. People said AA has no chin and that overshadows his word class talent. Well, AA rolled with the punches and some big bombs at that. This fight was on the feet, in the clinch, against the cage, and on the ground and Silva owned him everywhere. He was hurt bad and i think that played a factor in the 2nd and 3rd rounds but Silva was sharp tonight and thats a huge win for him. Giving AA a round was crazy. He never landed anything without taking something harder in return. He was stalling in the clinch because he could not match the strength of Bigfoot, he just got outclassed by whom i always viewed as a well rounded talent in Bigfoot. AA needs to build his confidence against maybe some up and coming competition. Three straight losses, a fight with somebody like Shane del Rosario would make sense for him right now.

Fuck Mauro, Gus and Frank for how they called the Jacare-Joe fight. The only thing that Villasenor had going for him was that he avoided being finished and did some nice defense on the ground and he seemingly had an oppurtunity to take over the fight when Jacare apparently gassed. He landed a punch here and there but overall Souza was winning the stand up as well as dominating with takedowns and controlling the fight on the ground. These guys were making it seem like it was anybody's fight. What the fuck? They completely took away from the fact that Jacare was outclassing a high level striker in the stand up department despite him being known for his high level grappling, in which he was also dominating. If i'm SF's promoter and i see how they called that fight later, i'm pissed that they werent show Jacare more love.

Gracie looked pretty good i suppose.

Feijao looked sloppy at first but as the fight went on he looked a lot more crisp. Lawal would smoke him though.

Fancy Pants = Winner. Though the feedback i heard says Ribiero got robbed.

The biggest thing I remember about last night was Overeem tossing Rogers like he was a child and then dominating from that point forward.

again I though Rogers looked scared(curse of Fedor), and getting tossed was due a bit to being out of sorts, but for a guy who showed decent ground work vs Fedor, he looked like Kimbo last night.

I thought Smoking Joe fought a very comendable fight vs a guy who was obviously more talented. He fought tough, and actually took it to Souza on occasion, he made souza dig much deeper then I thought he would need to 3 minutes into the first. Both guys made a good showing and they both showed great appreciation for each other after the fight.

I think we all just overated AA. He was totally outboxed by Silva last night. I thought Boxing was his strength? didn't look it. His chin showed well(though that points to Silva's lack of power which was also on display vs Werdum), but what else did he show/ good win 4 silva, but again the lack of power and stamina are concerns.

Loved the Gracie-Diaz comparison made by Frank, with that reach he should be able to patty cake some dudes around the ring, still needs work, should def train more on striking then just 20%.

Cavalcante showed an ability to get hit, but his whiskers held up well, and he has big power. in the 2 times ive seen him he sets a very slow pace, looking pretty average, but then explodes. hard to judge considering the competition though I thought Britt looked game.

Rogers was and always will be just a big guy that throws his hands, he has one claim to fame.

Exactly what I said on the fight call, WTF?

AA is finished, you may not agree, but at least as an elite guy he is, Big foot looked good, but lets not act like he wouldn't be schooled by some other notable HWs.

Gracie looks to me lke he's gonna get brutally knocked out someday

Cavalcante, well think you said it best

AA is finished, but Antonio Silva is proving himself to be a legitimate factor at HW. His hands were very very fast and sharp for a guy his size. They need to give him a fight against Del Rosario or Lavar Johnson, and from that he can springboard into title contention again.

Really capt? Silva didnt wear down one bit last night and his punches are very effective. AA was just on a mission not go down to strikes last night...they noticeably had a huge effect on AA. Arlovski's head was snapping back and side to side. The power was there, only AA showed a lot more tenacity than usual probably to silence the critics about his chin. Plus, he didnt jump into any overhand rights or take 6 clean punches to the face this time eithier.

and LA, i don't understand that one bit. Silva is an all purpose talent...and he's a broken hand and one costly mistake vs. Werdum to having only one loss on his record and probably being the one to fight Fedor. I'd give him a solid chance against a lot of the "notable" HW's, and that was even before last night as you know i've always liked Silva. The guy has chin for weeks, he has insane reach to where not being speedy is not a factor and his striking has always looked good IMO, he's a black belt in BJJ, strong in the clinch, strong with the takedown and last night he did not gas and had a good game plan throughout. I don't understand what is not to like about Bigfoot.

Well he def looked good last night, but I ca't escape the feeling that AA is shot, when I'm talking notable, I just think Fedor, Brock, Carwin, Cain, JDS, Werdum and Reem all beat him. I'm not a fan, but he moed up in my book at least.

I gotta hold out hope for AA. The guy needs to to switch up his training, seriously. I have a hard time letting go.

Yo half the time these changing of the guard fights are half one fighter being washed up and half the other fighter being good.

Were Jardine and Rashad really that good? donno maybe, but Liddell being washed up made them look better. Kind of like that.

I just see no reason to doubt Silva. The guy has a lot of talent IMO but to each his own.

What i will say about AA last night is that his mistake was he didnt use leg kicks. He did nothing to try to wear the big guy down. He was content with trying to get in on Silva's huge reach advantage but Bigfoot was too accurate with his counters last night. I was hoping to see Greg Jackson in his corner but i guess he was just training with Jackson...Jackson would have told him to kick the legs. It would have changed the fight IMO. Werdum was using leg kicks and doing anything he could to wear Silva down. Silva dominated Werdum in the early parts of the fight as well but Werdum just kept pressing and pressing to get the fight where he wanted it and he eventually got it. AA seemed to have no clue what he wanted to do when he started getting tagged and tagged often in the stand up.

there were times when Silva looked to have AA in trouble, and instead of going for the finish he clinched, and pushed him against the fence, I attribute that to stamina, and I thought stamina was a major concern in the werdum fight as well.

And i don't care how determined a guy might be for a particular fight if u have a soft chin, u have a soft chin. Silva landed some pretty good shots, yet AA survived, I have to attribute that, at least in part, to lack of power on silva's part, and I thought this was also evident in the werdum fight.

but Im not killing silva here, he looked very good otherwise, completely picked apart a guy who was known as the best hwy boxer in MMA.

but correct me if im wrong here, but did silva not weigh in much lighter vs Werdum?

Not much lighter. He weighed in at 263 pounds vs. Werdum.

Silva has never been known for his punch the fact he was rocking Arlovski and controlling the fight aint good for Andrei

timthebim wrote:

The biggest thing I remember about last night was Overeem tossing Rogers like he was a child and then dominating from that point forward.

as soon as rogers got tossed he pretty much gave up you could see it in his eyes.

rewatching the fight, Rogers damn near scrambled out at one time, and fucking scrambled and ran right into the cage, he was off balance cause Reem kinda stood up for a second, then Reem just got right back on top of Rogers and you could see the fight go out of his eyes IMO

He landed one weak punch in the fight