Strikeforce Nashville was one of those cards I thought I had a real handle on. I figured I had the winners picked down to a tee (at least in the big 3 title fights). Boy was I wrong. It was a night of upsets, breakouts, and disappointments. Lets talk about them in order.
The biggest upset of the night saw Jake Shields outwrestle and outwork the legendary Dan Henderson. Wow! This was an upset not just because Shields was never suppose to be in the fight in any meaningful way, but also because this literally upset virtually every executive at Strikeforce. Dan Henderson was supposed to be one of the faces of the franchise and he just dropped a fight to a new free agent, a free agent the UFC has already begun courting. Shields wasn’t the only walking Strikeforce champion that people thought would be without gold at the end of the night. King Mo grinded out a lackluster win over a former champ that seemed less than interested in the fight. Mousassi didn’t seem to lose his cool at any point in the fight, but maybe this time he should have. It cost him his title and a lot of his mythos. King Mo however gets to laugh and dance a little longer and may start making his case for a Fedor fight sooner rather than later.
It would be a gross understatement to leave a discussion regarding the breakout of Jake Shields and King Mo at what was said in the previous paragraph. King Mo defeated a top 3-5 LHW and a man considered by many to be the 205 pound version of The Last Emperor himself. Mo now moves into the conversation now. Lets not crown him top 5 status just yet, but King Mo is here and he is a serious physical specimen to be reckoned with. His breakout would have looked a lot better if Cesar Gracie’s students hadn’t been even more impressive in their victories. Gilbert Melendez has been an up and down prospect for a few years now, seemingly plagued by inconsistency and setbacks. Those expecting a mental lapse against Aoki were disappointed as the Dream Champion got worked for 25 minutes. Melendez showed that he has to be considered a top 3 fighter in his class and perhaps the best LW in the world not under Zuffa contract. Before Nashville he was a fun fighter with a lot of upside, now he sits near the top of a very very deep, world-wide division. However, Melendez’s training partner Jake Shields made the biggest jump of all, moving from championship chum being fed to a shark to top free agent in two weight classes. Shields may not have been able to finish Henderson but that fight was not in question after the 7th minute. That means that Shields got the better of the legend for 18 minutes, no small task. Like many, I have used it all when it comes to my disbelief in Shields; he is too small for the division, hasn’t be challenged, can’t hang with top talent, can’t stand up with anyone. If there is one thing I learned from this event it was that it might, just might be time to shut up. From “over hyped zero” to Dana White’s hero, the MMA world now has a lot of time for Jake Shields.
As great as this show was for the three aforementioned winners, it was a huge disappointment to at least two big parties. Dan Henderson caused a lot of disappointment to a company that paid him well and brought him in to carry a great deal of their promotion. We would be kidding ourselves if we thought for a second that Strikeforce didn’t want Hendo to win that fight. He didn’t get that done and Strikefroce was left with less than they expected. There were no spectacular finishes and only well schooled fans would likely understand why some of these performances were praiseworthy. They didn’t get the big winner they wanted. They didn’t get the competitive fight they wanted to set up the Melendez/Aoki fight series. They didn’t even get any sympathetic characters or hero’s because their franchise fighter found himself in the middle of an absurd brawl after his moment in the sun. On top of all that, the brawl has brought nothing but bad press or “meh” press as popular sports pundits insist that we should expect no more from the brutality of MMA. Considered in whole, this might have been the most disappointing show Strikeforce has put on in a while. On paper, it came in strong and exciting. It left with a solid B+ to A- rating from this writer, but when put up against the last few shows, it didn’t deliver in the excitement, narrative development, or image improving departments… all areas Strikeforce has excelled in to this point. That said, if these are the only thing the company and fans can get disappointed about coming from a show at this level, it was a pretty good day.
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