Strikeforce: Miami and the Sunday Reflection

Strikeforce put on the first show of this year last night and there were highs and lows plus some shocking revelations post-fight. I will start with the high points of the night first which leads me to the showdown between “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler (17-5) and Melvin Manhoef (23-6-1).

I was shocked with the patience Manhoef showed once the bell rang as he is normally and very explosive fighter. I feel he is learning more about the MMA game each and every fight. Lawler’s tactics were quite odd to say the least but in the end it worked and the crowd got what it expected. The highlight reel knock out came after getting his leg battered, bruised and practically kicked off. Manhoef made one mistake by dropping his left while trying to finish the hurt Lawler. Lawler shocked many by winning the fight in the stand up game as many experts, myself included, thought he needed the fight to hit the mat in order to win.

Herschel Walker (1-0) made his media rounds to promote this fight and it had many watching the sport for the first time. It was a good thing that he won and looked as solid as he did. I will admit his stand up was atrocious as he was flat-footed, stiff legged and robotic. However he did get off a few shots and once the fight went to the ground he showed just why the guys at AKA were ranting and raving about him. He had tight control, moved from position to postion effortlessly and defended some submission attempts. His use of the crucifix was impressive as was his cardio. While I am not one to say he will be a force to be reckoned with, there are some interesting fights for him if he decides to keep fighting.

Another one of the positives for Strikeforce last night was the fight between Strikeforce 145 pound woman’s champion “Cyborg” Cristiane Santos (9-1) and Marloes Coenen (14-3). Most people gave Coenen very little chance in this fight so to sit down and end up seeing such an entertaining fight was a real treat. Coenen used leg kicks and straight punches early on to stave off the trademarked rapid fire aggression of Cyborg. Cyborg is a true champion though, found a way to get inside and use her strength to her advantage. This fight was a true highlight for women’s MMA and Strikeforce.

Strikeforce: Miami was not all lollipops and rainbows though as there were some lows to the event starting with the name. How can an organization name an event after a city unless they don’t plan on going back to that city? I think they need to work on a more creative way to name shows but this was a small low point overall.

My next issue was with the commentating during the event, especially during the Cyborg versus Coenen fight. At one point Conenen was using one of my favorite moves from the clinch, the foot stomp. Announcer Mauro Ranallo thought it would be cute to say that “maybe she doesn’t like the color of her nail polish.” Now I know that many announcers use some comedy in their broadcasts but Mauro is no Michael Shiavello. As I stated earlier, many potential new fans were watching thanks to the hype behind Herschel Walker. That being the case you want to put the fights in the best light possible. I thought the comment was demeaning to women’s MMA and to both Coenen and the champion, Cris Santos. The ringside commentators have a duty to be proffesional and to help to keep these new viewers in the sport of MMA.

Two more lows are on my list and the first is the time management of Strikeforce. Many of the main event fights ended early and yet they still had to push back the fight between Michael Byrnes (0-2) and David Zitanick (1-1) due to “time constraints” This has happened before with Strikeforce but at least the fight was not scrapped all together. If they did not interview Rex Ryan of the NFL as well as others, maybe they would have had time to fix the huge mistake I felt was the biggest low.

This would be the “Thoroughbred” Jay Hieron (16-4) debacle. Jay has been beaten up by Scott Coker and Strikeforce over and over again. He seems to be in line for a title shot but keeps getting passed over. The they put him on the under-card. Due to fan backlash EASportsMMA.com decided to air his fight against “Diesel” Joe Riggs (31-12) on their site. Sadly and much to the dismay of hardcore MMA fans, the site was ill prepared to handle the number of people trying to view the fight. Many fans could not get the feed to play and for those that did, including myself, the feed had a terrible lag and was grainy at best. This is a slap in the face to MMA fans who flock in mass to purchase video games such as the EA Sports MMA game. Strikeforce and EASportsMMA.com owe Jay an apology and a title shot but it does not seem like that will happen.

According to a report from MMAFight.com, Coker already has plans for title shots for his champions, including new champion Diaz. It seems Coker is looking to his Japanese friends to bring in “Mach” Hayoto Sakurai
(32-8-3). While I think this fight would be a gift to hardcore fans, I have to state that Jay deserves the title shot regardless of his performance last night.

Future Strikeforce events will need to get better if they want to keep fighters and keep ratings. We expect much more and they need to deliver.