BlogKick: Strikeforce Rocks!
This was a great night of entertaining and exciting fights.
Diaz vs. Cyborg
There is a sense of wonder and delight when a child sees a rabbit pulled out of a hat–that is the same feeling I had when Nick Diaz submitted Evangelista Santos. This was made sweeter knowing that one BJJ blackbelt submitted another blackbelt.
The fight opened up with Cyborg looking very good, scoring with hard leg kicks one after another, which Nick endured stoically, but you knew they hurt when Nick began to check them. Diaz didn’t kick, but moved forward, oblivious and unafraid of Cyborg’s hands. Cyborg was very busy, but only landed a couple of good shots, while Diaz got in some hard shots which rocked Cyborg.
As Cyborg tired, Nick kept taunting him to hit him, the fight became an exciting, though sloppy brawl. Nick was clearly inviting Cyborg to waste his energy hitting him, unafraid of his power. Nick got in the more damaging shots in the melee, and the 1st round ended with Cyborg looking gassed. Cyborg started losing in this round once he was gassed, and that was about half way through.
The second round opened up with Cyborg trying another whirling and unsuccessful reverse round house–which looks flashy, but was telegraphed and poorly timed and executed. After some more brawling exchanges, Cyborg tripped and took down Diaz pretty easily. What happened next was so swift and sneaky, I had to watch the video several times to see how Diaz did it.
In Cyborg’s guard, Diaz reached out lazily and underhooked Cyborg’s leg–(which I don’t know why Cyborg allowed it, BJJ 101) then he brought his legs up like he was going for a triangle, then boom, he straightened his legs around Cyborg’s neck while his left pinned Cyborgs right arm to his body. Diaz was very patient, as his victim, now startled–frantically tried to prevent the armbar, by rolling or being swept to his back. Diaz remained patient, and unhurried, delivering some hammer blows to the body, and Cyborg shifted the arm Diaz had trapped–then flash—-armbar–tap tap tap.
While Santos had some good kicks, his standup was not impressive–he just couldn’t hurt Nick with his hands. Nick didn’t even try to avoid most shots –and left himself open throughout the fight. I couldn’t help thinking what would happen if Nick tried that strategy with Thiago Alves. I also couldn’t see him pulling off the same submission with many fighters at the top level. Throughout the fight Nick had an incredible gas tank, and it showed as Santos wilted. Diaz keeps his belt.
Jacare got rocked by Lawlor early in the fight, but still dominated on the ground. In the second round, he took Lawlor down again, and as Robbie tried to escape, he pounced, got his back–and soon, RNC’d him. Jacare retains his title–but he did show vulnerability in the first round.
Don’t ever think old guys can’t fight–you would be making a big mistake. Herschel Walker manhandled Scott Carson in impressive fashion, and walked away with a quick and decisive TKO. For such a green fighter, Walker has shown a lot of progress in MMA, at 2-0, maybe he is ready for a little higher level.
Roger Gracie displayed his heritage again submitting Trevor Prangley with an RNC late in the 1st round. Gracie moved like a python, gaining positional advantage step by step until his struggling victim panicked, and gave up his back. Once the hooks were in, Gracie patiently tightened his lock until Trevor tapped.
The bottom line is, this was an entertaining night of fights. Somewhere out there is the sound of Dana White gnashing his teeth.
