First and Worst is an ongoing series for MMARatings.net, where every week Adam will make his pick for the best and worst newly-announced fight of the past week (Monday to Sunday). If you’d like to see any additions to this series, hit him up on Twitter @MMAdamMartin.
First: Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza vs. Ed Herman, Strikeforce: Marquardt vs. Saffiedine
My pick for best new matchup announced this past week is
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza vs. Ed Herman, which takes place at the Strikefore
finale. Herman will become the first UFC fighter to cross over and fight in
Strikeforce, and he’ll also be the last, as the promotion announced this week
that it’s shutting down after this event.
It’s a good move by Herman that will give him some favour with
his bosses at the UFC, as well as one that can move him up in the rankings
should he win. But that won’t be easy, as Souza is one of the very best
middleweights in the world. Long considered one of the finest BJJ practitioners
in the game of MMA today, Souza is also developing his striking nicely, and
scored the first knockout win of his career in his last fight against Derek Brunson at Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman.
Herman is also a black belt in BJJ, so if this fight turns into
a grappling matchup there’s no doubt it will be at a high level. But both men
don’t mind standing and trading either, so this could very well be a
three-round standup fight instead. Regardless, this is great matchmaking on the
part of Sean Shelby, and credit does need to go to Herman for stepping up on
short notice to take this fight during the Holidays. No turkey for him
today.
Worst: Robbie Lawler vs. Josh Koscheck, UFC 157
On the other hand, I was pretty down on another Strikeforce
crossover match, this one between welterweights Robbie Lawler and Josh Koschek,
which takes place at UFC 157. Lawler will be dropping down to 170 pounds for
the first time in years, in his first UFC fight in years, and going up against
Koscheck, he’ll have trouble in this fight if he can’t land a heavy shot early
on.
We all know that Lawler has bricks in his fists, but Koscheck
can take a punch and his wrestling will likely be superior to Lawler’s.
Koscheck won’t stand and trade with Lawler, instead preferring to take him down
and work his ground and pound. And why not? Why take the risk of standing in
front of Lawler and getting your head knocked off? There’s no point.
Koscheck knows what he needs to do here, and I think it’s going
to unfortunately make for a pretty uneventful fight. I mean of course this is
MMA and anything can happen, but I just can’t picture Lawler knocking out
Koscheck, although crazier things have definitely happened before.
Let’s face it, the real reason this fight got put together was
due to money. Lawler has a huge contract and Koscheck gets paid well, too, so
the matchmakers had to pair these two up because they’re in a similar salary
bracket (see UFC 144’s Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Jake Shields for comparable
matchmaking). The fight wasn’t made based on the rankings, that’s for sure.
Look for Koscheck to defeat Lawler via decision in a fight no
one ever talks about again.
