By Nicholas Bailey (nbailey@mmaratings.net)
Being cageside for this event was a great experience. While the bottom of the card lacked energy, the arena was electric for every main card bout, aside from some restless periods late in the Shields/Miller fight. For all the talk of Fedor being an unknown or difficult to market, the fact is that Rogers, the US fighter was soundly booed when announced and entered, simply because he dared to challenge Fedor.
While the action on the main card provided all one could ask for, Strikeforce’s warts were still on display. One thing that has plagued them is an inability and a seeming lack of desire to develop talent organically, with terribly weak undercards. Even on a mega-card such as this, the undercard lacked any real prospects. This is a bad habit Strikeforce has held on to from its days as a regional promotion, when it would stock its undercards with local fighters to sell some more tickets and do a bigger gate. When Fedor is at the head of your card, a handful of bouts with fighters from Indiana and Illinois (the states claimed by every undercard fighter) isn’t going to significantly improve your gate, and the caliber of these fighters means they will never be someone you can put on the main card.
Instead of developing talent, Strikeforce has simply been buying main-card-ready fighters, but with the UFC hoovering up the globe’s talent, this has led to Strikeforce having exceptionally thin divisions and no talent that’s truly native to the promotion, creating a scramble to set up relevant and marketable fights for each and every event.
In reviewing the telecast, I was pleased to see the meat puppets had indeed been disposed of, but the event had awful commentary, as usual. There are far too many instances to list them all, but it’s sad that none of them recognized a twister attempt when they saw it. The live audience was energized when Shields almost had it, but, despite Mauro mentioning the twister in that same round, they couldn’t even spot the twister when most of the people in the arena did?
Fedor Emelianenko defeated Brett Rogers via TKO (Punch) at 1:48 of round 2
Rogers, despite all his talk, did come in tentatively, starting off backing up and not coming forward from the bell with the kind of salvos that have knocked out his previous opponents. This is what allowed Fedor to come forward and set up the monster right-hand lead that has put so many others down. It’s also not clear what kind of strategy Rogers had in clinching Fedor against the cage (and from cageside it was clear that Rogers was holding the cage very badly, despite repeated warnings from Big John). While Rogers did have a size advantage, continually clinching with Fedor against the cage isn’t going to wear him down much, as Rogers is supporting his own weight against the cage rather than putting it on Fedor, and it gives Fedor chances for takedowns whenever they come off the cage or Rogers moves into the clinch.
Much has been made of Rogers’ ability to survive on the ground, but it’s important to put it in context. The bulk of Rogers’ success came from simply surging to his feet with raw power during scrambles, brushing aside the much smaller man. When Fedor placed him flat on his back, he could only hold on for dear life. It’s true that Fedor was unable to pass guard, but Fedor, for all his grappler prowess, has never been a slick guard passer, choosing instead to maul from any position and simply step to an improved position as his opponent is defending.
Rogers most impressive moment in the fight was the brutal salvo of ground-and-pound. While it was flailing and some of the shots were partially blocked or less than 100% effective, it was very hard and obviously had Fedor in some serious trouble, basketballing his head a bit. Other than that, Fedor was in the driver’s seat, showing no difficulty taking the much bigger man down when they met in the open mat and Rogers couldn’t grab the fence, and simply biding his time to hunt for a single fight-ending shot (although he nearly bowled himself over whiffing on one).
The most disappointing aspect of the fight, for Rogers, is that afterwards he didn’t seem to learn much from it. It’s still early and his emotions were certainly running very high, but he didn’t seem willing to acknowledge that he had room for improvement. If he maintains this attitude, he’d doing himself a disservice. Being a big, powerful guy that can throw hands will get you pretty far in the anemic heavyweight division, but if Rogers really wants to be champ, he’s going to have to learn from this fight and improve his game.
Jake Shields defeated Jason “Mayhem” Miller via Unanimous Decision (48-47, 49-46, 49-46)
Overall an impressive showing from Shields, demonstrating greatly improved stamina and a varied and cutthroat submission attack. It’s a credit to Mayhem that he was able to survive it, but he didn’t really do much to win the bout. This fight will be discussed at greater length in a separate article.
Gegard Mousasi defeated Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou via TKO (Strikes) at 3:43 of round 2
Sokoudjou looked good, but he showed no kind of improvement. Any success he had was simply because Mousasi allowed him to have it. Sokoudjou, since he KO’d Nogueira, has had big power in single strikes and outstanding judo. He showed nothing beyond that in this fight. Mousasi has excellent trips from the clinch, but using them against a judo player the caliber of Sokoudjou was a mistake, and continuing to attempt them once it was clear that Sokoudjou had a big advantage there was an even bigger mistake.
Mousasi controlled the fight from beginning to end, showing no respect for Sokoudjou and walking him down relentlessly. Nobody in Strikeforce is ready for this man’s game, not King Mo, and not even potential signee Dan Henderson. It’s good he’s outside the UFC, though, as he’d be in line for a title shot within a few fights in that organization, and he wouldn’t have as much of an opportunity to further refine his skills.
Fabricio Werdum defeated Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
This fight showcased both men’s strengths and weaknesses.
Werdum’s ground game is top notch and he can aggressively use it in MMA, controlling positions and generally making it hell to engage with him on the ground at all. He is also a very big man and a lanky, rangy guy, which many people forget. He’s not a mutant freak like Bigfoot or Brock Lesnar, but he’s a very solid 240lbs at 6’4”. Furthermore, he is naturally tough, as he showed previously in simply outlasting Gonzaga, and has natural power in his punches and knees, even though he’s awkward, making it difficult and dangerous for opponents to try to capitalize on his mistakes standing.
Silva is obviously huge and very strong, as became apparent when he stonewalled Werdum’s takedowns early in the fight and controlled the clinch. He’s also shockingly fast for his size, and his handspeed definitely surprised Werdum on a couple of occasions.
On the other hand, Werdum again showed that he’s not a natural striker, despite having natural power, looking uncoordinated and awkward, and going so far as to carry out an ill-advised Roy Jones Junior impersonation and get tagged square in the face. While he ended up getting the fight where he wanted it, Werdum’s horrible wrestling was on display at times, as was his tendency to butt-flop embarrassingly when he gets hit (although this isn’t that bad an idea for self-preservation, as Werdum’s ground skills are such that few will enter his guard even if he’s hurt) which looks horrible to judges.
Silva’s biggest downfall in this fight was his inexperience and lack of gameplan. He’s so used to just being the big guy and mauling on guys that when he was presented with a fighter that he couldn’t deal with on the ground, he still failed to force a standup fight and ended up wearing down. However, he has fantastic physical tools and already has a lot of technique, so he will likely improve.
Marloes Coenen vs. Roxanne Modafferi via Inverted Armbar at 1:05 of the first round
This fight really got the crowd excited, although it was over very quickly. Modafferi weighed in at 140 for a nominally 145-lb fight, and she looked about half the size of Coenen, to the point where one was concerned about her getting hurt. In the brief action, Coenen did use her size to dominate Modaferri early, hurt her, and get her to the ground, but the armbar finish was pure technical superiority. Modaferri is lucky she didn’t win, as Coenen isn’t a particularly big 145lber, and a victory here would have led to Modaferri getting Godzilla stomped by Cris Cyborg. She has the talent to do well at a (much) lighter weight, however.
Coenen is now the likely challenger to Cyborg’s throne, and her slick grappling game makes her a real threat on paper, but it is difficult to picture her lasting long against Cyborg’s freight-train power and intensity.
Jeff Curran defeated Dustin Neace via Submission (Knees) at 1:39 of the first round
While Neace was considerably bigger and stronger than Curran, the big frog had no real trouble kneeing him so hard he quit, apparently injured. The audience was a big confused, but I spoke with Curran briefly and he says he broke Neace’s rib.
Shamar Bailey defeated John Kolosci via Unanimous Decision (29-27)
It quickly became clear that Kolosci had nothing to counter Bailey’s relentless takedowns and control. Neither man looked stellar here, with Bailey just executing his gameplan and Kolosci looking for some kind of knockout punch and wearing down. This was a pretty boring fight.
Nate Moore defeated Louis Taylor via Submission (Strikes) 3:24 in round 2
Moore was simply better than Taylor at everything. Taylor is used to dominating with his takedowns, and Moore had better takedown defense, leading to Taylor being completely lost and wearing down. The stoppage was more or less due to position, as Moore wasn’t really beating Taylor up, but Taylor was completely flattened out with Moore in back mount and had quit doing anything but covering up. A mismatch of talent and experience.
Christian Uflacker defeated Jonatas Novaes via Unanimous Decision (29-26, 30-25, 30-25)
This was a very dry bout, with Uflacker dominating position and Novaes just not being able to do quite enough to escape and get work in. Novaes did land some illegal kicks from one downed fighter to another, and the fouling was obviously a result of frustration.
