Diaz captures Welterweight belt, Cyborg defends, and Lawler Survives

Nick Diaz recently captured Strikeforce welterweight belt defeating Dynamite champion Marius Zaromskis. As mentioned from my previous post, the deciding factor is which Diaz comes out come fight night and the precise striker Diaz did came and KTFO of fellow competitor Zaromskis.

Zaromskis was always within his game until he kind of gassed out and started being on the receiving end of Diaz’s attacks. Kind of gets me thinking… why do fighters from Japanese organizations upon gazing inside an octagon appear to gas out or easily be overwhelmed? Is it that they are not used to the octagon? Or is it something else? See fighters like Shogun, Wanderlei and now Zaromski to name a few.

Nevertheless, hands up to Diaz who had an amazing night come Strikeforce.

Cyborg defends her title or might I say, ‘his’ title last Strikeforce as she walked through opponent Coenen. Coenen who had great heart and great game did last up to round 3 with the Cyborg in which referree Ortiz called it a fight after seeing too much beating coming down on Coenen.

Applauding Coenen for coming in at such prepared shape and game plan to try and overrun Cyborg Santos who looked unbeatable in their concluded match. It’s such a preparation coming in to fight a fighter like Cyborg, the mental game is unbearable and as hard as the physical as Cyborg comes in packed.

Amazing win for Cyborg Santos for her first of many title defenses.

Robbie Lawler had his taste of ruthlessness with Dutch kick boxer Melvin Manhoef. Manhoef known for his barrage of attacks until you get blacked out or cry uncle was in his usual self come fight night. I salute Lawler for coming in at such great shape being able to withstand the beating as well as the mental scare that Manhoef brings into the table. Not mentioning him catching the Manhoef with a powerful right to start the beginning of the end for the Dutch fighter.

A plausible event by Strikeforce!

Diaz – Zaromskis : Strikeforce

Strikeforce never disappoints, with their recent acquisitions and signees, they continue to improve fights that they show. Diaz Zaromskis will definitely have its potential fight of the night feel or bore of the night. This all depends on who Diaz is on that night.

We know that Zaromskis is a wrecking machine, and with his run at K-1, it was a notion that this guy means business. Diaz on the other hand has good nights and bad. Lets see which Diaz shows up tomorrow night and how Zaromskis will handle it.

Weekly Rap

Not much to write about lately. Apparently I was not all that excited with all the fighting that is going on this week. Ortiz vs. Forrest, Aldo winning the WEC title, Kerry Vera vs. Kim Couture.

Well the women’s fighting was quite interesting since Randy and Brandon just fought. I wonder what the result be for the Women’s Vera vs. Couture would be.

For Griffin and Ortiz, all I can see is UFC cementing a new contender for the light heavies. Either Griffin gets back his mojo, or Ortiz makes a sounding comeback. Can’t seem to justify which is going to be more profitable for the UFC, but I am sure it will make create profit. Both fighter are crowd drawers being Ortiz as the face of the UFC when it was starting and Forrest being the face of the UFC now since the TUF 1. I put my money on Forrest though, he’s such a nice guy with a mean workout attitude. Getting his mojo back will be really great as he climbs up to contention once more. He just got to get back to his roots as a fighter and I am sure he will do well. As for Ortiz, I have no idea what’s going to happen. Yes, he did defend his title a lot of times but to whom? Can’t seem to remember any memorable fight Ortiz has other than losing to Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell. I think if Ortiz wants to really be known, now is his time to shine. I guess this is just a sarcastic way of Dana telling Ortiz that the UFC made him and not him making the UFC. UFC will bring on tough fights and if he really is the real deal then he should shine like the brightest star.

Aldo is just sick. See how he dominates Brown is just awesome. I think the next step is for him to defend like twice and then move to the UFC to challenge Penn which I believe will still hold the title for lightweights.

By the way, speaking of Mojo. Drop by Mojo Gym located at 75 Panay avenue Quezon City. Look for Jaime and tell him the MMA Guy referred you. Hehe.

Strikeforce After Math

The fight and promotion lived up to its hype. Fedor defeats Rogers to keep his well earned position in the sport as the World’s Greatest MMA Fighter and Rogers looks good in defeat.

Actually took me a while before I could watch the fight and comment on it, I could probably ride on some other reviews which were posted but I had to see for myself. Others have been saying that Fedor looked terrible.. Well the guy is human, and he is not invincible that is for a fact but a fight is a fight and what is important is the Win.

I was hesitant with all these talk that Fedor looked bad, so I decided to look for a youtube version of the video to quickly assess it. All I can say is that the first round was 1 of those most exciting rounds I have ever seen which you wouldn’t mind time to fly and oops, 1st round is over. It was action packed! It was like you are waiting and know that something might and will happen. Fedor did not disappoint me in any way nevertheless earned more respect and awe with the Russian Champion. Fedor had a broken nose in the first minutes of the fight but still he pushed the pace. He threw Rogers like Dough in Play Dough which did not seem to have a 50 lbs more or less weight advantage.

Fedor dominated the whole first round but was busted up. He was in danger at some point but was never out of composure. He threw that armbar just in time and Rogers felt it and quickly did an escape. Fedor is no robot, he feels pain and he bleeds, that makes him more of the champion he really is.

I do agree that Rogers needed a few more shots in before Big John stepped in. I believe he was still defending himself but was badly hurt. A replay of the video shows that his head snapped back and Big John stopped it. I hear he talks about this so I say Fedor should have wipped his ass a little more hopefully so he can feel the pain. When he was being interviewed after, he was like showing he wanted to charge Fedor.. I really hoped he did, and then Fedor drops him like a can of beans. Rogers was good, but Fedor was the better fighter of that night, lets not take that away from the Last Emperor.

Aside from the main event, I just watched fights with Mousasi, and the Werdum fight. I couldn’t believe Antonio Silva was beaten by Werdum. Mousasi is always entertaining to watch, I really like this fighter since he loves to fight. Saw him drop a K-1 veteran in his own game, muay thai and ofcourse who can forget his run at the Dream Tournament. Looking forward for Mousasi to fight the likes of Dan Henderson, that will be interesting. And ofcourse if possible, Anderson Silva or Lyoto Machida or even Shogun Rua. These are fights fit for Mousasi in my opinion.

The Miller fight… well it was like more for show than for the belt. Jake Shields is definitely awesome as well as Miller. But Miller just seemed aweful really.. I hope MMA will not turn into entertainment in the future.. I hope it remains to be more of the Fight and who is the best in the World of Mixed Martial Arts.

Kudos to Scott Coker, Strikeforce, and M-1 Global! It was an awesome event for me and look forward for more of it hopefully. Cung Le’s return would be real interesting!

Shinya Aoki to be fighting in Strikeforce early 2010

As mentioned before. The conglomeration of fight promotions Strikeforce and Dream will definitely be an aggressive competition to be as promotion are moving hard and fast. Sherdog.com recently published news that Shinya Aoki might make his US debut in the Strikeforce cage. Shinya Aoki known for his great submissions and his trademark yellow tights is one of the world’s best submission fighters.

His most recent win was against Joachim Hansen via arm bar.

Fight Camp 360: Fedor vs. Rogers

Fedor vs. Rogers

Was thinking of a good theme or topic to write about the fight between Brett Rogers and my all time idol Fedor Emilianenko but seems that the fight is nearing and I ain’t got nothing yet to show. Anyway, for those who don’t know Fedor, I found a youtube link to one of his highlights below:

Well I don’t have a highlight reel for Rogers, but he sure can punch I know. The intriguing part with Fedor is always his decision to stay out of the UFC. In my opinion, he should come in the UFC, but I really don’t know why he’s not jumped on the bandwagon yet. Don’t get me wrong, I am PRO UFC, but if you are an observer like I am with all the UFC fights I have watched, you can probably realize that fighters stepping in the octagon has distinct rules to follow. Fighters can’t just say anything or hype anything that is not advised by the management. When a fighter is asked, all the answers have a commonality of “Whoever or Whatever UFC wants for me”. Might that be one of the reasons the Last Emperor has evaded the most lucrative fight organizer in the world? Maybe, maybe not… I had a feeling before that probably it was that Fedor’s manager is more on the money than what’s best for Fedor, but knowing that Fedor has shares within his promotion makes it more confusing as to what really is the matter at hand.

UFC has always said that they gave the best deal.. is it or is it just hype like the Dan Henderson deal recently which UFC announced something which Dan Henderson denied.

Anyway, back to fight. I do hope the World’s Champ remains champ. Little do people know that Fedor has fought other guys with the same style as Rogers and massacred these fighters. I look forward to Fedor coming in the UFC, but before that he beats guys like Alistair Overeem which I plan on writing about soon as well. And probably Fabricio Werdum… Werdum is a competitor, but not in the same level as Fedor probably…

Good luck last Emperor! May you reign supreme in this coming fight against Rogers!

Strikeforce is Aggressive!

Strikeforce signs Marius Zaromskis, a new welterweight sensation coming out from Dream. Seems that Dream and Strikeforce are now co-promoting. Is this a way a new way for small-medium sized promotion can at least dent the UFC?

Apparently this is the tempo I am getting with Strikeforce, after they got Fedor, a lot of fighters probably got more interested in what they offer. Co-promotion – is it for everyone? Well apparently hooking up with Dream, and with Team Fedor is a good move for Strikeforce as long as they can play their hands well, this can brew into a solid promotion that will compete with the UFC.

They have a chance because in my opinion, the most recent TUF season is a flop. No solid potential, only selling Kimbo and coach-to-coach rages. Everytime I watch an episode, it’s like I say to myself, am not gonna watch the next one…. but.. I still do! hehe do you get what I mean? It’s not as solid as it was before in which it draws you in episode per episode.

Strikeforce can have a chance at co-existing if it maintains this pace. There are still a lot of fighters out there that its not just about the money. That’s how the Japanese Pride Organization went by before, and they were the Best MMA organization then. The way of the Samurai should not be underestimated, it will just be time before another Japanese Organization comes to and promotes this. This is where Dream comes in, I really think its a good partnership with Strikeforce. If they can implement the WHITE CAGE in Strikeforce, man, UFC will have their hands full soon enough!