I’m not quite sure who decided that booking a Strikeforce Challengers card the day before a UFC PPV was a bright idea but I’m going to go ahead and disagree with it. Strikeforce, not to mention their Challengers series, has enough trouble gaining traction without knowing that within hours of the completion of their event that all news and results surrounding it were going to be buried under an avalanche of UFC 123 news. Thanks to the most exciting fight on the card (Zaromskis vs. Spiritwolf) being scrapped just 6 seconds in due to an eye poke the card flew by and we were into the co-main event at about the 1 hour mark. To make matters worse nothing here really stood out or made the viewing worthwhile. I think Justin Wilcox, who won the main event over Vitor Ribeiro, should be injected into the upper echelon of Strikeforce’s Lightweight division, but other than that the show was something of a throwaway.
Vitor Ribeiro vs. Justin Wilcox
Wilcox’s three round domination over Ribeiro was a classic case of somebody clinically executing a gameplan to the point of boredom for the fans. Not that I’m complaining, rather I think this should send a clear message to Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker that he needs to move this guy out of the minors and into the big time because unless we pretend that Shinya Aoki is an actual member of the division we would have to admit that Wilcox is probably the #3 guy. Here he clearly went in with the intention of creating distance from Ribeiro and his submission game via his boxing and he did just that. It was a show of quiet domination. Ribeiro did himself no favors by coming out limp. He showed no sense of urgency in his takedowns and when he was able land shots to the face he was unable or unwilling to turn them into combos. The great thing about MMA is that we really do get to see the best take on the best and I for one anxiously await the next step in the evolution of Wilcox.
Antwain Britt vs. Ovince St. Preux
It gives me no pleasure to report that the co-main event was just as ho hum as the main event. The most exciting moment came very early on when Britt caught a finger in the eye and everyone waited on pins and needles to see if Strikeforce would have to cancel another fifth of their TV card. Luckily for everybody (but mostly Scott Coker) he was able to recover and continue but after a first round wherein he was smacked around and ground and pounded he may have wished that he had followed Spiritwolf’s path out of the arena. He came back strong in the second returning the favor though never really bring St. Preux to the brink in quite the same way. Both fighters seemed gassed heading into the final frame but it seemed as though St. Preux had a tad more left in the tank as he took the opportunity to take Britt down and slap him with girlie punches until the end of the fight. It proved to be enough even though the announce team was less than shy about expressing reservation as to whether or not he is ready for a main card appearance.
I’ve spoke of this issue before but one of the main advantages Strikeforce and Bellator has over the UFC is their security in speaking about other promotions. That allows the viewer to get a much more comprehensive MMA history lesson. For example, in this fight Mauro Ranallo informed us that the referee of this bout, Houston Dorr, was also a ref way back at UFC 15 (Smith vs. Abbott FYI) and while it was only a tiny tidbit of schooling I appreciated it nonetheless. On the negative side for Ranallo and company, I could have lived without their insistence upon calling St. Preux “OSP.” Pat Miletich seemed a little reluctant to engage pointing out that he wasn’t “GSP”, but in general it just made them seem second rate.
Waachiim Spiritwolf vs. Marius Zaromskis
As I mentioned above, on a lackluster card this was where I had placed all my hopes and dreams. Spiritwolf competed at the very last Challenges card and lost a highly entertaining war with Billy Evangelista. It was so good Ranallo deemed it the most entertaining fight in the history of the Challengers series. Maybe that’s true and maybe that’s hyperbole, I don’t actually have an opinion on the matter, but it was damn good either way. But as the fight started Zaromskis, perhaps trying to score style points, flew across the cage and accidentally poked Spiritwolf in the eye so bad it drew blood and the fight had to be called a no contest. However, the real fun was listening to Ranallo have another one of his rule book freak out sessions as he kept insisting that Spiritwolf was not allowed to have a 5 minute recovery period over an eye poke. I’m all for Ranallo, he’s able to balance passion and playfulness very well and knows his sport inside and out. . .I trust him. So when he says that groin shots are the only illegal blows that allow the victim time to recover I feel as though I can take his word for it. Soon, however, Strikeforce rules director Cory Schafer was on TV saying that Spiritwolf was allowed a break period. Since then digging up the actual rulebook, even with the power of the world wide web at my finger tips, has proven difficult. Even more frustrating is an interview Schafer gave after the event with MMAFighting.com where he said Ranallo was wrong but only gave vague reasons why. In any case at this point we pretty much knew this whole card was going to be a bust.
Liz Carmouche vs. Jan Finney
Finney got docked a few points on my scorecard right out of the gate as she came out in a “Jesus didn’t tap” shirt. Um, let’s say he had, would it have made any difference in the eyes of his murderers? Or, let’s say that he did, do we think that is something Christianity as a whole would have been advertising these last 2000+ years? Then the situation is made even worse when you realize that back in 2007 Finney herself tapped out in two consecutive fights. Oh well. Finney did pick up here right where she left off with Cris Cyborg playing company punching bag though this time to a lesser opponent. Carmouche, who remained undefeated and is now 5-0, certainly doesn’t have the devastating power of Cyborg but she was still able to handily crush Finney which should be all the more embarrassing for the girl known as Cuddles. A possible matchup with former champ Sarah Kaufman was discussed and is something I might be interested in.
Caros Fodor vs. Derek Getzel
Easily the best fight of the night was the one that opened the Showtime card as Fodor and Getzel engaged in a Lightweight match. It only went 4:39 and there was a lot of time spent in the clinch but both fighters looked strong. Once Fodor was able to get Getzel to the ground things got very interesting very quickly. Getzel was doing his absolute best to either escape or, at least, stay busy on the bottom. From Getzel’s guard, however, Fodor was able to pass and lock on a D’arce choke in one fell swoop ending the fight in shockingly fast fashion. Miletich, who has been around the game forever, claimed that he had never seem somebody execute that move from the guard and spoke loudly about how impressed he was with Fodor’s jiu jitsu.
Of course this card has prelims as well (including a big TKO victory for Wes Shivers) but I still like the basic concept they have going on here where their company is divided between two different castes. It allows the up and comers to be showcased and not forever buried in untelevised prelims. Look at the evolution of Tyrone Woodley, he was featured three times on the Challengers series and then when he did move up to the main show in October he easily defeated Andre Galvao and sent him directly into the casting line for The Ultimate Fighter. Some shows will be better than others and this one suffered, however it was still an education experience that gave us a chance to see the possible stars of tomorrow.
