Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley Results

Strikeforce put together one of their best cards in organization history last night. The event featured a pair of title fights and numerous Top 10 fighters. Here is a quick look at how the action went down.

MAIN CARD:

• Champ Nick Diaz def. Paul Daley via TKO (strikes) - Round 1, 4:57 - to retain Strikeforce welterweight title


• Champ Gilbert Melendez def. Tatsuya Kawajiri via TKO (strikes) - Round 1, 3:14 - to retain Strikeforce lightweight title


• Gegard Mousasi and Keith Jardine fight to a majority draw (29-27, 28-28, 28-28)


• Shinya Aoki def. Lyle Beerbohm via submission (neck crank) - Round 1, 1:32

UNDER CARD:

• Robert Peralta def. Hiroyuki Takaya via split decision (30-27, 30-27, 28-29)


• Virgil Swicker def. Brett Albee via TKO (strikes) - Round 1, 1:46


• Joe Duarte def. Saad Awad via submission (armbar) - Round 2, 2:45


• Herman Terrado de. A.J. Matthews via TKO (punches) - Round 1, 4:16


• Rolando Perez def. Edgar Cardenas via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)


• Casey Ryan def. Paul Song via submission (triangle choke) - Round 1, 1:39

-Keefe

Fedor: Over & Out

The once indestructible Fedor Emelianenko lost last night in the 1st round of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix to Antonio "Big Foot" Silva. The fight was called due to a doctor's stoppage following the 2nd round. The picture above (thanks to Yahoo! Sports) shows you why.

Fedor has now lost his last 2 fights. He did not have 2 losses in his first 32 fights. Dana White is certainly smiling right now. His losses (Fabricio Werdum & Silva) came against good not great heavyweights. His chances against Alistair Overeem, Junior Dos Santos, Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez? Not good.

But don't forget just how dominate Fedor was. It's rair to retire in the fighting biz on top of your game. If you think you still have something you go into the cage/ring, but it doesn't take long to find out the truth. Even Muhammad Ali didn't retire on top.

Like Chuck Liddell, Fedor is likely done (at least as a #1 fighter) but his legacy should live on. If you aren't familiar with Fedor as a top guy check out some of the old PRIDE fights against the likes of Big Nog, Cro Cop, Coleman, Herring, and others. He was the best.

Also in the Strikeforce tourny, Andrei Arlovski lost to Sergei Kharitonov. I thought Overeem was going to win the whole thing to begin with so I feel pretty good about that.

-Keefe

Strikeforce Heavyweight Tournament

I am a huge fan of tournaments in MMA, something you will never see in the UFC, unless Dana White changes his mind. Strikeforce announced an 8-man grand prix for their Heavyweight division. Not all of the details have been determined yet, such as will Alistair Overeem's belt be on the line in his 1st match up with Fabricio Werdum, and if so will all the fights be 5 rounds to make it fair.

One question I have, who the hell came up with the bracket? Overeem (champ), Werdum (#1 contender), and Fedor Emelianenko (once seen as #1 heavyweight in the world) are all on the same side of the bracket. What? Either way I am looking forward to it, and finally Overeem will get some good match ups in the U.S.

-Keefe

Fedor!

The man, the myth, the legend, Fedor Emelianenko is fighting on Saturday night at Strikeforce & M-1: San Jose. His opponent is former UFC and Pride Heavyweight Fabricio Werdum. Check out the story and highlight video courtesy of BostonThrowdown.com

Fedor Fights

-Keefe

Who is Shinya Aoki?

Following B.J. Penn’s unanimous decision loss to Frankie Edgar for the UFC Lightweight title, who is the best 155 pound fighter in the world? I nominate this man, Shinya Aoki. He makes his United States debut this Saturday night in Nashville, Tennessee fighting for the Strikeforce Lightweight Championship against Gilbert Melendez. But what do we really know about this Japanese submission specialist.

Aoki’s MMA Record (23-4) (4-0 Pride, 7-2 DREAM)

Notable wins: Mizuto Hirota, Joachim Hansen (2), Vitor Ribeiro, Eddie Alverez, Caol Uno, JZ Cavalcante, George Sotiropoulos

Notable losses: Hayato “Mach” Sakurai (2), Joachim Hansen

Titles: DREAM Lightweight Champion, Shooto Middleweight Champion, WAMMA* Lightweight Champion

*WAMMA = World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts, they currently have only 2 champions as Dana White and the UFC are not on board with WAMMA’s goal of having just 1 champion per weight class regardless of organization. Therefore Fedor (Heavyweight) and Aoki (Lightweight) are the only WAMMA champs at this time.

Aoki may be best known as the guy wearing pants who pulls off crazy submissions like gogoplatas and such. He is not imposing and at 5’11-155 often looks much weaker than his opponent. However strength is not a big part of Aoki’s game. Positioning, a crazy rubber guard, and of course submissions (14 of his 23 wins are by submission) are what make him great.

This past December, Aoki showed fight fans a different side of himself. He was scheduled to fight Kawajiri, but a short notice switch had him battle Mizuto Hirota. Aoki caught Hirota in a submission (jump to the 2:55 mark), pulling his arm behind his back until it broke, then immediately after, the normally calm, reserved fighter gave his fallen opponent the finger a la Brock Lesnar. The guy has fire.

On Saturday many American MMA fans will be introduced to Aoki, who will not be allowed to wear his signature pants. Die hard fans are well aware of Aoki’s significance in the sports, pointing to wins over JZ Cavalcante, Bellator Lightweight Champ Eddie Alverez, Sengoku Lightweight Champ Mizuto Hirota, and DREAM Lightweight Grand Prix Champ Joachim Hansen.

Perhaps if those wins were over Kenny Florian, Sean Sherk, Diego Sanchez, or even Joe Stevenson, Aoki would be a bigger name for the casual fan. Not participating in the UFC can be seen as not fighting the best fighters in the world, but not in the Lightweight division.

The 155 pound class, to me, is the only division (of the 5 UFC divisions) that if you did a competition pitting the UFC vs. The Field (Strikeforce, DREAM, WEC, Bellator, Sengoku, etc.) The Field would win. In many divisions, Light Heavyweight and Welterweight it wouldn’t even be close in favor of the UFC.

In a hypothetical 16 man Lightweight Tournament (something Dana White would never sign off on) the 8 best UFC Lightweights take on the 8 Best Non-UFC Lightweights. I will pick the teams right now off the top of my head.

UFC: B.J. Penn, Frankie Edgar, Kenny Florian, Gray Maynard, George Sotiropoulos, Diego Sanchez, Sean Sherk, Clay Guida. (For argument sake Diego stays at 155)

The Field: Shinya Aoki, Eddie Alverez, Joachim Hansen, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Josh Thomson, JZ Cavalcante, Gilbert Melendez, Benson Henderson

How great would that be? Who do you think wins? I still say Penn wins the tournament, but I like The Field to send more guys to the 2^nd and the 3^rd rounds.

I guess my point is, the Lightweight division is a little bit different. Fighters like Aoki, who have not been in UFC, still get to face some of the toughest challenges that their division has to offer. That is why I am really looking forward to the Aoki vs. Melendez fight on CBS this Saturday.

And who knows, Aoki turns just 27 next month, he could fight in the UFC after all, but I don’t think he has to.

Strikeforce is putting on a potential “Card of the Year” with Saturday night’s event that boasts a ridiculous 3 title fights…

Light Heavyweight Championship: Gegard Mousasi vs. Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal

Middleweight Championship: Jake Shields vs. Dan Henderson

Lightweight Championship: Gilbert Melendez vs. Shinya Aoki

And did I mention that these fights are completely free? No pay-per-view here, just CBS this Saturday night. Enjoy the fights!

(Article courtesy of BostonThrowdown.com)

MMA Rankings 2-10-10

Heavyweight

1. Fedor Emelianko

2. Brock Lesnar

3. Frank Mir

4. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera

5. Randy Couture

6. Josh Barnett

7. Cain Velasquez

8. Shane Carwin

9. Alistair Overeem

10. Brett Rogers

Junior Dos Santos, Gabe Gonzaga, Fabricio Werdum, Ben Rothwell, Cheick Kongo

Light Heavyweight

1. Lyoto Machida

2. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

3. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson

4. Anderson Silva

5. Rashad Evans

6. Gegard Mousasi

7. Forrest Griffin

8. Thiago Silva

9. Antonio Rogerio Noguirea

10. Randy Couture

Luiz Cane, Rich Franklin, Jon Jones, Brandon Vera, Keith Jardine

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva

2. Dan Henderson

3. Vitor Belfort

4. Chael Sonnen

5. Nate Marquardt

6. Jake Shields

7. Robbie Lawler

8. Yoshihiro Akiyama

9. Michael Bisping

10. Yushin Okami

Demian Maia, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Ronaldo Souza, Nick Diaz, Wanderlei Silva

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre

2. Jake Shields

3. Jon Fitch

4. Thiago Alves

5. Nick Diaz

6. Paulo Thiago

7. Josh Koscheck

8. Paul Daley

9. Martin Kampmann

10. Matt Hughes

Dan Hardy, Marius Zaromskis, Matt Serra, Jay Hieron, Mike Swick

Lightweight

1. B.J. Penn

2. Shinya Aoki

3. Eddie Alverez

4. Joachim Hansen

5. Tatsuya Kawajiri

6. Kenny Florian

7. Diego Sanchez

8. Frankie Edgar

9. Gilbert Melendez

10. JZ Cavalcante

Gray Maynard, Mizuto Hirota, Satoru Kitoaka, Sean Sherk, Josh Thomson

-The Sports Brief

Upcoming MMA Events

We are now nearly 3 weeks into 2010, and I can not possibly think of a better time to take a look at some of the major upcoming MMA events and highlight the key fights at each one.

January 30th: Strikeforce

Best fight: Nick Diaz vs. Marius Zaromskis

Worth watching: Robbie Lawler vs. Melvin Manhoef; the MMA debut of Herschel Walker vs. Greg Nagy; Bobby Lashley vs. Yohan Banks; Jay Hieron vs. Joe Riggs

February 6th: UFC 109

Best fight: Nate Marquardt vs. Chael Sonnen

Worth watching: Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman; Matt Serra vs. Frank Trigg... what year is it? Couture/ Coleman and Serra/ Trigg could have happened 10 years ago... Demian Maia vs. Dan Miller; Paulo Thiago vs. Mike Swick

February 21st: UFC 110

Best fight: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria vs. Cain Velasquez

Worth watching: Wanderlei Silva vs. Michael Bisping; Keith Jardine vs. Ryan Bader; Mirko Cro Cop vs. Ben Rothwell; Stephen Bonnar vs. Krzysztof Soszynski

March 6th: WEC 47

Some good little guys on this card including Brian Bowles vs. Dominick Cruz for the Bantamweight title; Miguel Torres, Leonard Garcia, and Jens Pulver also expected to be in the cage.

March 21st: UFC on Versus 1 (if you don't have VS you'll be steamin when you see this card)

Best fight: Jon Jones vs. Brandon Vera

Worth watching: Junior Dos Santos vs. Gabriel Gonzaga; Anthony Johnson vs. John "Doomsday" Howard; Cheick Kongo vs. Paul Buentello; James Irvin vs. Alessio Sakara; Eliot Marshall vs. Vladmir "The Janitor" Matyushenko; Brendan Schaub vs. Chase Gormley

March 27th: UFC 111

Best fight: Georges St. Pierre vs. Dan Hardy & Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin

Worth watching: Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves; Martin Kampmann vs. Ben Saunders; Nate Diaz vs. Rory Markham; Jim Miller vs. Mark Bocek

Some good fights coming up, look for an updated MMA Rankings from The Sports Brief in the near future.

Keefe's Pick 3 for Week 15 & Strikeforce

Saints (-7) over Cowboys
Eagles (-8.5) over 49ers
Seahawks (-6.5) over Buccaneers

Last week: 3-0
Overall: 23-16

Strikeforce Saturday Night

Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza over Matt Lindland
Gilbert Melendez over Josh Thompson
Cung Le over Scott Smith

Last Week UFC 107: 3-0
Overall: 11-4


RIP- Chris Henry- what a sad and tragic story. The guy had cleaned his life up, and he was only 26, father of 3. How do the Bengals respond to a fallen friend and teammate?


-Keefe

The Sports Brief's MMA Rankings 11/23/09

There has been 3 big MMA events since our last rankings, Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers; UFC 105: Couture vs. Vera; and UFC 106: Ortiz vs. Griffin II. Needless to say the rankings have changed since last month. Coming up in December we have The Ultimate Fighter Finale, UFC 107: Penn vs. Sanchez, Strikeforce: Thompson vs. Melendez, WEC 45, and another SENGOKU event. But before all that let's take a look at the rankings heading into the last month of 2009.

Heavyweight

1. Fedor Emelianko

2. Brock Lesnar

3. Josh Barnett

4. Frank Mir

5. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera

6. Randy Couture

7. Cain Velasquez

8. Shane Carwin

9. Alistair Overeem

10. Brett Rogers

Junior Dos Santos, Cheick Kongo, Gabe Gonzaga, Fabricio Werdum, Ben Rothwell

Light Heavyweight

1. Lyoto Machida

2. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

3. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson

4. Anderson Silva

5. Rashad Evans

6. Forrest Griffin

7. Gegard Mousasi

8. Thiago Silva

9. Antonio Rogerio Noguirea

10. Randy Couture

Luiz Cane, Rich Franklin, Keith Jardine, Tito Ortiz, Babalu Sobral

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva

2. Dan Henderson

3. Vitor Belfort

4. Nate Marquardt

5. Robbie Lawler

6. Yoshihiro Akiyama

7. Jake Shields

8. Michael Bisping

9. Chael Sonnen

10. Yushin Okami

Demian Maia, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Ronaldo Souza, Nick Diaz, Wanderlei Silva

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre

2. Jake Shields

3. Jon Fitch

4. Thiago Alves

5. Josh Koscheck

6. Paul Daley

7. Martin Kampmann

8. Matt Hughes

9. Dan Hardy

10. Mike Swick

Paulo Thiago, Marius Zaromskis, Jay Hieron, Nick Thompson, Carlos Condit

Lightweight

1. B.J. Penn

2. Shinya Aoki

3. Eddie Alverez

4. Joachim Hansen

5. Tatsuya Kawajiri

6. Kenny Florian

7. Diego Sanchez

8. Frankie Edgar

9. Gilbert Melendez

10. JZ Cavalcante

Gray Maynard, Mizuto Hirota, Satoru Kitoaka, Sean Sherk, Josh Thomson

The Sports Brief's MMA Rankings (11-5-09)

A pair of big free fight weekends coming up here in November. This Saturday CBS will be showing their Strikeforce event featuring the #1 Heavyweight in the world Fedor vs. the #10 Heavyweight (according to The Sports Brief) Brett Rogers. Also on the card Jakes Shields fights Jason "Mayhem" Miller at middleweight and Gegard Mousasi battles Sokoju. (You'll find 3 out of those 4 names below.)

And then a week from Saturday you get UFC 105 from Manchester, England, Live and Free... (well tape delayed and free) on Spike TV. Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera at Light Heavyweight is the headliner, but it also features Mike Swick vs. Dan Hardy, and Michael Bisping vs. Denis Kang.

These rankings are sure to change after those two cards are complete, but let's take a look at where we stand right now.

MMA RANKINGS

Heavyweight

1. Fedor Emelianko

2. Brock Lesnar

3. Josh Barnett

4. Frank Mir

5. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera

6. Randy Couture

7. Cain Velasquez

8. Shane Carwin

9. Alistair Overeem

10. Brett Rogers

Junior Dos Santos, Cheik Kongo, Gabe Gonzaga, Ben Rothwell, Heath Herring

Light Heavyweight

1. Lyoto Machida

2. Quentin “Rampage” Jackson

3. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

4. Anderson Silva

5. Rashad Evans

6. Forrest Griffin

7. Gegard Mousasi

8. Luiz Cane

9. Thiago Silva

10. Babalu Sobral

Rich Franklin, Keith Jardine, Brandon Vera, Antonio Rogerio Noguirea, Tito Ortiz

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva

2. Dan Henderson

3. Vitor Belfort

4. Nate Marquardt

5. Robbie Lawler

6. Jorge Santiago

7. Yoshihiro Akiyama

8. Chael Sonnen

9. Yushin Okami

10. Demian Maia

Michael Bisping, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Denis Kang, Ronaldo Souza, Nick Diaz

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre

2. Jake Shields

3. Jon Fitch

4. Thiago Alves

5. Josh Koscheck

6. Mike Swick

7. Paul Daley

8. Martin Kampmann

9. Matt Hughes

10. Paulo Thiago

Marius Zaromskis, Jay Hieron, Nick Thompson, Dan Hardy, Carlos Condit

Lightweight

1. B.J. Penn

2. Shinya Aoki

3. Eddie Alverez

4. Joachim Hansen

5. Tatsuya Kawajiri

6. Kenny Florian

7. Diego Sanchez

8. Frankie Edgar

9. Gilbert Melendez

10. JZ Cavalcante

Gray Maynard, Mizuto Hirota, Satoru Kitoaka, Sean Sherk, Josh Thomson

-Besse & Keefe

The Sports Brief's MMA Rankings (9/21/09)

Heavyweight:

1. Fedor Emelianenko

2. Brock Lesnar

3. Josh Barnett

4. Frank Mir

5. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

6. Alistair Overeem

7. Shane Carwin

8. Randy Couture

9. Cain Velasquez

10. Brett Rogers

Junior Dos Santos, Chiek Kongo, Andrei Arlovski, Gabriel Gonzaga, Ben Rothwell, Fabricio Werdum, Heath Herring, Aleksander Emelianenko, Mirko Cro Cop

Light Heavyweight:

1. Lyoto Machida

2. Quinton Jackson

3. Rashad Evans

4. Anderson Silva

5. Forrest Griffin

6. Gegard Mousasi

7. Maurcio ‘Shogun’ Rua

8. Luiz Cane

9. Thiago Silva

10. Babalu Sobral

Rich Franklin, Keith Jardine, Brandon Vera, Chuck Liddell, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Tito Ortiz, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Vladimir Matyushenko, Jon Jones

Middleweight:

1. Anderson Silva

2. Dan Henderson

3. Vitor Belfort

4. Yushin Okami

5. Nathan Marquardt

6. Robbie Lawler

7. Jorge Santiago

8. Yoshihiro Akiyama

9. Demian Maia

10. Cung Le

Michael Bisping, Thales Leites, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Matt Lindland, Denis Kang, Chael Sonnen, Paulo Filho, Patrick Cote, Nick Diaz, Kazuo Misaki, Ronaldo Souza, Jake Rosholt

Welterweight:

1. Georges St. Pierre

2. Jake Shields

3. Jon Fitch

4. Thiago Alves

5. Josh Koscheck

6. Mike Swick

7. Paul Daley

8. Martin Kampmann

9. Matt Hughes

10. Paulo Thiago

Marius Zaromskis, Jay Hieron, Nick Thompson, Dan Hardy, Karo Parisyan, Matt Serra, Carlos Condit, Marcus Davis, Drew Fickett, Frank Trigg, Ricardo Almeida

Lightweight:

1. BJ Penn

2. Shinya Aoki

3. Eddie Alverez

4. Joachim Hansen

5. Tatsuya Kawajiri

6. Kenny Florian

7. Diego Sanchez

8. Frankie Edgar

9. Gilbert Melendez

10. JZ Cavalcante

Gray Maynard, Mizuto Hirota, Satoru Kitaoka, Sean Sherk, Josh Thomson, Takanori Gomi, KJ Noons, Nate Diaz, Victor Ribero, Joe Stevenson, Roger Huerta

Pound 4 Pound

1. Anderson Silva

2. Fedor Emelianenko

3. Georges St. Pierre

4. BJ Penn

5. Lyoto Machida

6. Mike Brown

7. Quinton Jackson

8. Brian Bowles

9. Gegard Mousasi

10. Brock Lesnar

-The Sports Brief

Check out how The Greek did in his Week 2 NFL picks, below.