1. Sitting down to watch Strikeforce Challengers 15 the main questions that were on my mind revolved around the fact that this would be the first Strikeforce show to happen under the Zuffa banner. Would it open with a grinning Dana White standing in the center of the cage proclaiming himself the new king of the MMA world? What would the other noticeable differences be for us the viewers? As it turns out the main Zuffa storyline that emerged was a more obvious one, elbows to the head. We knew they would be there but we didn’t know that they would result in a first round TKO victory for Justin Wilcox in the main event thus forcing that rule change onto center stage.
2. I’ve always been a proponent of those elbows but those who aren’t say that the massive damage they can inflict is so devastating that they can artificially impact the fight. Here we saw Wilcox earn a doctor’s stoppage victory after he opened a nice gash over the right eye of Rodrgio Damm. It looked bloody and painful but I’m not sure it looked deep enough to warrant a stoppage. Where the stoppage does become justifiable, however, is when you figure in just how useless Damm looked out there. He looked totally outmatched and uninterested, so when you add in to the equation that he’s also shooting blood all over the mat it is hard to disagree with the decision to stop the fight.
3. The man who emerged as a star from the show was definitely Lorenz Larkin who made one of the more startling national debuts in recent memory. He was a last second fill in for Satoshi Ishii and came out with an insatiable hunger and used it devour Scott Lighty. At first it was tough to take the man seriously, he has an appearance not unlike Koko B. Ware and he opened with some goofy looking flying jump kicks. But after he settled down he took Lighty apart with his calculated and vicious striking. Some have called for him to face Ovince St. Preux in his next bout and I would love to see it, assuming that Strikeforce places it on one of their main shows.
4. The Douglas brothers, Damian and David, did not make themselves look great despite going 1-1 on the night. It is way too obvious to everybody that they need to work on their cardio in a major way. Damian, in his fight with Wayne Phillips, started off strong but by round 2 was absurdly gassed and really only fighting to survive. Lucky for him Phillips crashed in round 3 as well and Douglas scored a controversial split decision victory. David, meanwhile, got eaten alive by Carlos Fodor who ended the fight by landing knees to the head of David who appeared to be asleep on his feet.
5. Best unscripted moment of the night? Stephen Quadros back slapping and thumbs upping Mauro Ranallo after Ranallo delivered his marginally funny line about “Who needs Botox for fat lips when there is MMA?”. I appreciate the camaraderie but there is really no reason to inflate Ranallo’s ego any more than it already has been.
6. I was half-wishing that Zuffa would bring over their popular and successful tactic of fight night bonuses. It has worked perfectly in the UFC and now that Strikeforce is under the same banner you would think that they could start throwing these guys (especially Challengers who need the cash more than others) a slightly bigger slice of the pie. You guys did it with the WEC why not Strikeforce?
7. How cute were Urijah Faber and Miesha Tate sitting next to each other. If Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi were smart enough to start breeding tennis prodigies you would think that these two could get together and pump out a litter of highly attractive, super tough mixed martial artists.
8. After watching the relentlessly boring M-1 show last Friday on Showtime I now fully appreciate just how entertaining the Strikeforce product has actually been these last few years. Sure their booking is garbage and their talent pool not as good as the UFC’s but at least they have the good sense to put their fights in a cage. If that M-1 show was any indication of what Showtime would have lined up in the absence of Strikeforce I would have to seriously consider canceling my subscription.
9. After putting together a few higher than usual quality Challengers card (see: 13) this card was back to something more typical for them. Justin Wilcox was really the only guy there who has any sort of drawing power, everybody else was there just hopping to rise above the pile of jobbers. Of course we have seen people make the transition out of the Challengers series successfully but I am starting to worry that they have made it too tough for these guys to have any mobility. Wilcox is a perfect example. Even if they wanted to square him off with Rodrigo Damm they could have at done him the solid of placing it on a main show. They never even come close to running over their alloted time so why not just tack it on to the upcoming Diaz vs. Daley card? Certainly he deserves a slot there more than, say, Keith Jardine.
10. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the pitch perfect KO by James Terry against Josh Thornburg. His execution was flawless and he got another win that moves his Strikeforce record up to 5-1. Here again is man ready to take on stiffer competition on a larger stage.
