Strikeforce Overeem vs Werdum Fallout

As the dust settles on the first round the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix there is an odd mood circulating with regard to the nights events. There seems to be a certain level of disappointment aimed at the tournament bout winners, a disappointment that I find somewhat unwarranted. Both Overeem and Barnett came out on top against very tough opponents and as much as anything seem to be criticized for smart game plans. That said, there was an air of disinterest in the card. It almost seemed as if some underdogs on the card submitted to their fate, cutting through some of the energy surrounding the fights. This seemed to happen up and down the card and that is not to say that I believe anyone gave less than their due effort but to describe the general emotion that slowly saturated the nights events.

The Prelims

If you didn’t get a chance to catch the preliminary bouts and you are not a hardcore MMA fan you likely have no reason to go out of your way but two fights deserve mention. JZ Cavalcante and Justin Wilcox was the stand-out fight on the HDNet portion of the card, but ended in lackluster disaster as Cavalcante accidentally poked Wilcox in the eye, halting the fight in the second round. To that point Wilcox seemed to have been winning the striking game and might have been on his way to the most significant win of his career. It was certainly too early and too close to determine a winner so this gets chalked up as a no decision. Conor Heun (pictured) and Magno Almeida absolutely tore down the house with the grappling equivalent of a brawl and stole all the thunder from the early portion of the event. Both men were put in tough spots throughout the fight but the second round found Heun in two submissions that looked to be sure things only for the announcers to eat their words of “this fight is over” as he escaped. The early part of the third round provided more of the same but when Heun escaped this time he wound up in top position throwing everything he had left and Almeida. The action was fast paced and both fighters demonstrated incredible heart. As the bell rang Almeida wrapped Heun up one final time and perhaps dislocated his arm but not before the fight ended and Heun was awarded a decision victory, doing just enough to take the first and third. Anyone interested in grappling and/or submission fighting should make sure to see this fight, its worth the trouble

The Undercard

Alistair Overeem’s big brother didn’t quite live up to the family billing when he fell to Chad Griggs who is steadily becoming one of my favorite fighters to watch. This guy loves to fight and he loves to spoil the ascension of more highly touted fighters than himself. He accomplished this against V. Overeem by pounding him into submission. While the official results read TKO, V. Overeem clearly tapped to strikes as the referee was stepping in. After Griggs made a compelling case for himself to move up the HW ranks in Strikeforce the up and coming Daniel Cormier got his chance to break out against journeyman Jeff Monson. Monson was simply out matched on the feet by Cormier, whom’s two time Olympic caliber wrestling kept Monson from taking him down and allowed him to control the pace of the fight. With over 50 fights, Monson has only been finished 4 times in his career and this would not be the fifth. However, it would be a lopsided victory. Cormier is a dangerous up and coming heavyweight with world class wrestling and fast improving striking. It will be compelling to see just how good he can be. Both Monson and V. Overeem gave off that aforementioned ethos of accepting their fate. No doubt both men gave their all but their defeats and the way in which they came set a mood early in the night. Strikeforce took a small break from clashing titans to make room for two lightweights - two lightweights that may have just stole the show with a 15 minute, albeit somewhat one-sided, all out scrap. Jorge Masvidal (pictured) has arrived my friends and he did so by beating K.J. Noons to the punch – the punch, the kick, the takedown, the ground-and-pound, and the sweep. He did it by being better at every aspect of the game. Noons is no slouch, in fact demonstrating some ground skills that had not been put on display before. Unfortunately for him, they were not enough to be effective against Masvidal. We learn two very important things with this fight. 1) Masvidal is near the top of the heap in the Strikeforce lightweight division and has been somewhat overlooked to this point. 2) Not unrelated, Gilber Melendez has more work to do under the Strikeforce banner. Many fans and pundits have Melendez on a UFC card already but Masvidal proved here that there might be at least one more challenge awaiting the champion before serious talks of a move are had.

Main Events

All eyes were on the heavyweights participating in the Grand Prix Tournament and rightfully so. Josh Barnett (pictured) showed that he was simply in a different league than Brett Rogers, easily taking him down and controlling him on his way to a second round submission victory. The big news behind this fight is the inexplicable backlash directed at Barnett. It seems that many feel his total domination was not enough and that he should have finished the fight earlier. I am not the biggest Josh Barnett fan but I am wholeheartedly on his side here when he cites his desire to exert as little energy as possible, take as little damage as possible, and win as easily as possible. Granted his next tournament fight will not happen for quite some time but with the stakes as high as they are who can fault Barnett for not throwing caution to the wind in the first round of his first fight when he was well in control? Alas, MMA fans tend to demand more than is reasonable, a trend I hope fades as the sport grows. If fans were hard on Barnett they were slightly more justified in their criticisms of Alistair Overeem, but not much. Overeem scored a lackluster decision victory over Fabricio Werdum in a fight that at times was painful to watch but at others was quite exciting. Werdum seemed to have come in with a three-stage plan to get Overeem on the ground. Stage One: Shoot – This was a failure. Stage Two: Pull Guard – This was also largely a failure. Stage Three: Beg – This was just plain stupid. The pace picked up a bit in the second and third and saw some quality exchanges, some of which were won by Werdum but at the end of the day Overeem dictated the pace and location of the fight and scored enough points to win. Needless to say almost no one was impressed. Big Foot Silva has to feel pretty good about his chances against The Strikeforce Champion, whom will need to step up his game if he is going to progress further in this tournament.

Overall Strikeforce had a solid showing, not its best but not its worst. Fans will want to see more action from the semi-final rounds of the tournament and fights will be looking to deliver as they jockey for ranking positions and a potential shot at the UFC heavyweight crown, clearly the jewel of everyone’s eye. While the heavyweight division might be Strikeforce’s strongest it doesn’t seem prudent to try to stack cards with heavyweight bouts when lighter weight classes more consistently deliver excitement. This sort of organization will be key to the success of future cards and could give insight into how the Strikeforce/UFC relationship will progress.