Tonight, Showtime was the home of the final two fights of Strikeforce’s much ballyhooed Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix with Josh Barnett fighting Brett Rogers and Alistair Overeem facing off with Fabricio Werdum.
1) To start off with, we find out that not only do we have to sit through the insufferable voice of Gus Johnson, but Mauro Ranaullo also has no hair now, as he shaved it off.
2) At 28-25, Valentijn Overeem, despite being older than his better-known brother, has a pretty awful winning percentage. In fact, it’s kind of shocking that he still has a job anywhere other than to serve as a launch pad for other big fighters.
2a) He tapped due to strikes. Chad Griggs looked pretty good, but what professional fighter taps due to strikes? That showed absolutely no heart, especially when we see him in the crowd later in the evening supporting his brother in the main event.
3) Daniel Cormier has greatly improved his striking and is tearing Jeff Monson apart. Monson couldn’t do much to combat his quickness and rarely, if ever, was able to land clean shots on Cormier. Good way to introduce and develop Cormier in front of the Showtime fans.
4) If you didn’t think that Jorge Masvidal and KJ Noons were going to put on the fight of the night, you were mistaken. Masvidal was great with his striking and the cut he split open on Noons forehead in the first round was huge. He was absolutely gushing blood all over the canvas.
5) Masvidal looked vicious and greatly outstruck Noons in the fight, as well as frustrating Noons with his takedown ability. By the end of the fight, Noons looked like he had been battered and bruised and Masvidal looked like he had barely been in a training session.
6) Everyone in this house wants Barnett into the finals for the simple fact that watching Strikeforce “commission shop” for locations for that event. Hilarity.
7) Barnett submits Brett Rogers for the first time in his career. “Grim” looked like he was just exhausted from carrying Barnett’s weight on the mat. It is still very surprising that “The Baby Face Assassin” wasn’t able to get the submission finish in the first round seeing that he had dominated the majority of that stanza.
8) Josh Barnett promos are gold. Also, taking the microphone away from Gus Johnson is the BEST THING TO HAPPEN SINCE THE KJ NOONS FIGHT…seriously.
9) I know that Alistair Overeem has put on 40 pounds since his last fight with Fabricio Werdum, but damn if his weight looks much different than Werdum’s. One guy = jacked. The other = sloppy fat. This fight is going to be lopsided.
10) Sure, the main event was a bit anticlimactic as Overeem dominated, but we definitely saw that he was more interested in not losing instead of working for a finish in the fight. Alistair Overeem might be a phenomenal fighter with tremendous power and skills, but he didn’t want this opportunity to slip through his fingers.
