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Saturday’s Strikeforce “Heavy Artillery” proved to be a decent night of fights. It was an entertaining, if not particularly compelling or surprising fight card.
The main card got off to a bang with Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante knocking out Antwain Britt after weathering an early storm.
Cavalcante, who trains with the likes of Anderson Silva and the Nogueira brothers, could be positioned to challenge Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal for the Strikeforce light heavy weight belt. American Britt might want to consider a nickname change, as “the juggernaut” is not quite appropriate for a fighter who has been stopped in two of his last three fights.
It was a mixed bag for Roger Gracie who submitted Kevin Randleman for the win. Randleman, who must be considered one of the all time MMA underachievers, is nevertheless a long time veteran of the sport and it should be remembered that this was only Gracie’s third MMA fight. Despite dropping Randleman with a knee, Gracie displayed rudimentary striking at best and the general consensus, which I happen to agree with, is that a top level striker would eat him up alive at this point. If Strikeforce is really interested in bringing Gracie along properly, a fight with a mid level striker, preferably one with not exactly top notch take down defense would give a good indication as to where Gracie is at skill-wise. Next up for Randleman, loser of eight of his last ten fights…retirement or a pro wrestling tag team alliance with Melvin Guillard.
Despite the absence of a highlight reel submission from Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, I think it was a good night for the BJJ black belt. Souza won a unanimous decision against a very game Joey Villasenor. Despite looking a bit sloppy occasionally while in mount and half guard, the transition from elite grappler to mixed martial artist seems to be about complete for “Jacare” as his standup and ground and pound looked very good Saturday night. The obvious next bout for Souza would be to challenge Jake Shields for his middle weight belt. Of course, with Shields defection to the UFC being a very real possibility, a fight against Dan Henderson for the vacated title might be looming.
If it’s not one thing, it’s another for former top ranked heavy weight Andrei Arlovski. Andrei’s always suspect chin withstood the test from Antonio Silva with flying colors. However, Arlovski’s boxing, always considered one of his strengths, totally abandoned him Saturday night as Silva completely out boxed him. When you take into consideration Arlovski’s desire to cross over into boxing, getting outclassed on his feet by Antonio Silva is not a good thing. For his part, Silva looked quite good Saturday night. It was by no means a performance that will vault him into title contention but he successfully neutralized Arlovski and did what he needed to do to get the win. Oddly enough, I can see Brett Rogers as being a suitable candidate for Arlovski or Silva for a next fight. Rogers would be a great test for Silva and with both Arlovski and Rogers having lost their last two fights in Strikeforce an Arlovski vs. Rogers “loser gets out of Dodge” rematch could be entertaining.
It’s great work if you can get it. After having failed to defend his Strikeforce heavy weight title for over two years, Alistair Overeem needed just 3:40 to finish off challenger Brett Rogers and retain his belt. While the end result was not surprising, most observers felt that Rogers would at least make Overeem earn his paycheck. Instead, Overeem completely bullied a surprisingly tentative Rogers. Then again, when a 6’5” behemoth, who resembles a tanned Thor, is standing across from you, perhaps excessive caution is understandable. A fight like this makes it difficult to gauge exactly how good Overeem is. A lot depends on how much you credit Brett Rogers’ skills. Despite having a ton of heart and briefly causing Fedor Emelianenko some minor annoyance, I am not a big believer in Brett Rogers. He is just too inexperienced. Nevertheless, taking into consideration Overeem’s performance Saturday night, his success overseas fighting in other MMA organizations and a successful K-1 career, it is apparent that only one Strikeforce fight makes sense for the Dutchman and that is Fedor Emalianenko.
Overall, it was good night of fights and just seeing elite grapplers “Jacare” and Gracie on an MMA card together was worth the price alone.
