Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg

[INDYjon22]

For the record, the promotional poster for this card is AWESOME! I absolutely love it. As for the card itself, well, it should be rather good. Two title fights, a Gracie, and Herschel fucking Walker. It has something for everyone. Here is the card, some fights have yet to be made official as usual.

Strikeforce Welterweight Championship
Nick Diaz (c) vs. Evangelista Santos

Strikeforce Middleweight Championship

Ronaldo Souza (c) vs. Robbie Lawler

Roger Gracie vs. Trevor Prangley
Herschel Walker vs. Scott Carson
Eric Lawson vs. Ron Keslar
Nathan Coy vs. Nate Moore
Germaine de Randamie vs. Stephanie Webber
Jenna Castillo vs. Charlene Gellner
Isaiah Hill vs. Bobby Stack
Lucas Gamaza vs. James Terry
Anthony Dariano vs. Alan Perez
Niko Jackson vs. Ricky Jackson
Sam Bracamonte vs. Amir Safiari​

Nick Diaz vs. Cyborg Santos should be an entertaining fight. Diaz is great at hyping a fight up but the thing is he hasn't really said anything about this fight. He has said that Santos is a tough fighter but there has been little to no trash talk, at least that I have heard. Santos is a hell of a striker, so Diaz will have be aware of that. Santos could easily knock Diaz out, however I don't think he will. Diaz is very good at counter striking and punching while moving backwards. Santos has only been submitted once in his career but Diaz is excellent at working submissions. Should be a nice little chess match.

Jacare has been on a hot streak as of late, while Lawler has been kind of bouncing between wins and loses. Lawler will have the advantage as long as the fight stays standing, but once it hits the ground it will be Souza's to win. This fight has some sort of award written all over it, be it submission, KO, or Fight of the Night.

Roger Gracie is coming off of an impressive submission win over Kevin Randleman a few months back, while Prangley is coming off of the Keith Jardine win. Gracie will have to execute his submissions with precision because Prangley is a master at working hard for his wins. I believe Gracie will get the submission but it will only depend on how well his grappling is, I can't imagine he won't be on top of his grappling game seeing as he is a Gracie.

Herschel Walker looked good in his first fight and will definitely make for a nice "freak show" fight. I don't know much about his opponent, Scott Carson, but he is coming off of a first round KO. He isn't a complete can though, he has a record of 4-1. This could have an upset written all over it.

I don't know to much about the undercard, but I can't imagine to many of the fights will make it to the main broadcast anyways. The card looks great and should make for a very entertaining night that should set up some awesome fights down the line as well. Very good card put together for the first main Strikeforce show of the year.

 

[ArcherCC]

I'm looking forward to the Roger Gracie fight more then anything on else on the card. I mean this dude has not lost via submission since he was a blue belt, and dominated every grappling tournament in the world for years now. 10 time world BJJ champ, 3 time open weight world BJJ champ, 3 time ADCC champ, 62-7 overall in Grappling tourneys, and all losses by points and 5 of those loses are to the same two men, so yea I am calling this one Roger by Submission.

 

[jmt225]

Nick Diaz vs. Evangelista Santos isn't going past the 1st Round. Diaz will either knock him out or submit him. Cyborg has size and strength on Diaz, and is a very powerful puncher, but he's nowhere near the boxing level Diaz is. Plus, if Cyborg is able to land a couple of shots, Diaz chin is strong enough where he could take them and not be phased. Going to be a fun main event though. Looking forward to it.

Jacare vs. Robbie Lawler all depends on Jacare's intelligence. Jacare has thought of himself as a stand-up fight as of late, and if he stands up against Lawler, he's getting knocked the fuck out. Guaranteed. However, if Jacare is able to get the fight to the ground, then he stands a great chance of tapping Lawler out. It won't be easy to get Lawler to the ground (Lawler has great TD Defense), but if Jacare is relentless or simply pulls guard, he should still be able get the fight there. If he chooses not to though, then he's in deep shit and we will see a new Strikeforce Middleweight Champion.

Roger Gracie vs. Trevor Prangley is an interesting match-up. Prangley is pretty underrated, while Gracie is very inexperienced. But, Roger Gracie is a Gracie, which means he's absolutely incredible on the ground. So, this fight could go either way. If Prangley can keep it standing then he'll be just fine, if not, however, then he could get himself in serious trouble.

And Herschel Walker vs. Scott Carson... don't care. I just hope Walker doesn't get hurt. He's a great guy.

 

[Buffalo Dave]

Man, this was a pretty damn good card. Flew bye, most likely because there were only 4 fights shown and two of them were stopped in the first round.

Prangley/Gracie I missed most of, because I had to shit. (Thought I'd share that) but came back to Gracie controlling the fight on the ground and putting it away with a RNC. I hope Gracie stays fighting consistently, because he has looked pretty good in his last two fights over the last year and Strikeforce can use some depth at Light Heavyweight.

Herschel Walker looked damn good in his fight. He seem to went into a rage once he got caught by a head kick early in the fight, he caught Carson with a left that dropped him and just beat Carson's ass on the ground until the fight was called. Like I said in the LD I'm sure Walker will get fights like he has in his first to opponents, basically cans with little to no experience. Either way it's just awesome to see Herschel succeed. Hopefully he gets a fight before a year again.

Lawler/Jacare was exciting. Lawler came out strong in the first round and had Jacare stunned for a little bit even knocking Jacare down. But Jacare finished the round strong though. In the second round Jacare just took over the fight and almost finished it twice by two Armbars, Lawler was able to get out of both of them nicely. The third round was all Jacare as well, as he took Lawler down and subbed him with a RNC early in the round. Like the commentators said, the submissions are Lawler's achilles heel. Jacare showed he is quickly climbing the ranks as a top Middleweight in the World, has to be in top 5 now.

Diaz vs. Cyborg what a great great slugfest. Cyborg came out strong throwing and landing some nice inside leg kicks. Diaz was just eating them, didn't seem to mind them as he wasn't blocking them to much. Cyborg started to mix it up and throw some heavy punches that didn't really connect, that's when Diaz started to box and started his onslaught that backed Cyborg up against the cage and Diaz just started to unload to the face and body. Second round is much like the first, Cyborg is the more aggressor but Diaz is landing more punches. But we can see that Cyborg is slowing down as he seems to be gassing some. Cyborg then goes for his biggest mistake of the fight and secures a takedown, but just as fast as Cyborg gets him down Diaz has the upper hand and latches onto Cyborg's arm with two quick punches to the body he gets the arm fully and locks on the Armbar and the fight is over with 10 seconds left. Just another very impressive performance by Diaz. I'll give some credit to Cyborg as well, because he came to brawl and looked good, hopefully he fights like the way he did tonight from now on.

 

[INDYjon22]

Man was this an awesome card to watch. Great performances all around.

Very sad to see Prangley get submitted, but at least it was to a Gracie. Finally there is a Gracie who is making some waves in MMA once again. Roger has looked phenomenal in his last two fights and has some seriously sick BJJ. This kid could be huge some day. Prangley will rebound, he always does.

Herschel Walker is a monster. What a great investment he has been for Strikeforce. He will probably never contend for any titles but my god is he fun to watch. Total dominance.

Lawler looked great at the beginning of the fight but Jacare definitely took over in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. His BJJ is some of the best in MMA today. Also, I love seeing him do his alligator bit at the end of his fights. He is beginning to distance himself from all of the other Middleweights in the division.

Diaz vs. Cyborg was an absolute war. Cyborg had some nasty kicks and body shots that were certainly hurting Diaz, but Diaz is one of the toughest mother fuckers in all of MMA and he showed it tonight. Diazs peppering punches definitely sapped the energy from Cyborg and his BJJ is still great. That arm bar was sick as hell.

Also, I hope we learn some more about who Diaz was talking with outside of the cage. I would love to see Diaz get some revenge on Joe Riggs if it was him. That rematch has been years in the making. If it was Mayhem, well that just adds fuel to the fire that that fight needs to go down. And if it was Josh Koscheck, well, I would absolutely love to see that one go down. Two of my favorite fights and shit talkers.

Overall, great show that was definitely worth watching. Strikeforce has been large and in charge since 2011 began and hopefully that will continue when the SF Grand Prix begins in a few weeks.

 

[jmt225]

Yeah, this really was a great show from top to bottom.

Nick Diaz vs. Cyborg was fucking awesome. However, Nick Diaz should be the one called Cyborg. No matter what you hit this guy with, he keeps moving forward. And it's not like Cyborg has pillow hands. The dude can bang. Ask Shogun. For Diaz to take his best shots and continue to move forward and act like it didn't affect him whatsoever is truly incredible. Just as incredible was when Diaz was able to tap out a legit BJJ Black Belt as soon as the fight hit the ground. All around tremendous performance by Diaz, and props to Cyborg as well, who fought his heart out.

Jacare vs. Lawler was another great fight. Lawler caught Jacare and seemed he could have had the fight won, but for some reason Lawler was gassed by the end of that flurry. You could tell at the beginning of the 1st round he was acting different by showing so much emotion and bouncing around in there. That's not the Robbie Lawler we're used to seeing. Usually Lawler is calm and composed on the feet, but man... he was pumped for the Jacare fight, and unfortunately for him, when that adrenaline wore off, Jacare took advantage of it and took Lawler to the ground and made him his bitch before finally getting the RNC. It was still a great fight, but man... I wondered what would have happened if Lawler never gassed.

Herschel Walker looked fantastic. That's all there is to it.

And Roger Gracie was a fucking beast. Unbelievable performance from him. He looked good standing-up, and of course on the ground he was simply amazing. The guy has to be the best BJJ Practitioner in the entire sport of MMA. If he can continue his improvement on the stand-up, this guy will be pretty much unbeatable.

All around, fantastic show. Every fight had a finish, and each competitor showed up to FIGHT, not lay down. You got to love Strikeforce more and more with each show.

 

[ArcherCC]

And Roger Gracie was a fucking beast. Unbelievable performance from him. He looked good standing-up, and of course on the ground he was simply amazing. The guy has to be the best BJJ Practitioner in the entire sport of MMA. If he can continue his improvement on the stand-up, this guy will be pretty much unbeatable.

There is no doubt, Roger is the number one GRAPPLER not just BJJ guy in the world with the exception of maybe Alexandre Ribeiro.

Overall i gotta say I watch all the promotions (UFC, SF, Belletor) and this was the first SF card I thought was 100% worth the money. From top to bottom a great card, worst match was the main event, for the flat out fact of Cyborg handed Diaz that win.