Strikeforce: Los Angeles

[jmt225]

Main card

• Catchweight (195 lbs) bout: Robbie Lawler vs. Renato Sobral
• Welterweight bout: Marius Zaromskis vs. Evangelista Santos
• Middleweight bout: Tim Kennedy vs. Trevor Prangley
• Lightweight bout: Conor Heun vs. KJ Noons

......................................................................................​

Surprise, surprise... only 3 weeks away from this event, and only 3 fights are scheduled.

Seriously, what the fuck? Listen, I know it was a blow to lose Lashley, but there's honestly no excuse for this. You're having a big show most people are going to have to pay for, and three weeks before it there are only three fights listed. If that's not a horribly run business, then I don't know what is.

Anyways, on the bright side, two of the three fights aren't bad at all.

Robbie Lawler vs. Renato Sobral could go either way. It really depends on which Babalu shows up to fight. If it's the one who we saw against Chael Sonnen and David Heath, then he'll undoubtedly win the fight; however, if it's the Babalu we saw against Chuck Liddell and Gegard Mousasi, then he'll get knocked out in the first round. I'm very interested in seeing which Babalu indeed shows up. Hopefully it's the former, so we can end up with perhaps a FOTY canidate.

Evangelista Santos isn't really anything special, but Marius Zaromskis is fucking awesome and should kick Santos' head off. That alone will make the fight worth watching.

And Tim Kennedy vs. Trevor Prangley.... meh, both have great records, but neither have really beaten anybody and neither have fought on big shows... so what can we really expect from these two? Hopefully it just turns out to be a war, and one of these guys get made.

And well, that's it I guess. I'll make sure to keep this thread updated whenever the card gets updated, which is hopefully sometime soon.

 

[Buffalo Dave]

WOO HOO!! We have another fight scheduled for this card. Shane Del Rosario vs. Lolohea Mahe. Bet everyone is wondering same thing as me, Who in the hell are these guys? Well Mahe just fought a WEC veteran Lavar Johnson and lost to him back in March. Also fought to a draw with TUF 10 particpant Scott Junk. Well Rosario is basically an up and comer. Having finished all 9 of his opponents inside a round besides one which he finished a little over a minute in the 2nd round. Pretty much Strikforce's Cain or JDS except he doesn't have any credible wins against known opponents like Cain or JDS.

I'll wait to review the rest till the card is finalized even though that probably won'y happen till the day of the fight because this is Strikforce were talking about, thank God this wasn't a CBS card, cause they would probably sever ties with them. Even if Lashley was still on the card, its still baffles me that the card isn't completed yet. That would barley cover the main card if he was still on it. Way to go Coker!! Just fold already so Fedor and M-1 have no choice but to come to the promise land along with Melendez and Diaz.

 

[jmt225]

Main card has been updated.

Conor Heun vs. KJ Noons is now set for the card.

KJ Noons was originally set to have a fight against "Krazy Horse" Charles Bennett at the Fedor Strikeforce show later this month, but Krazy Horse had to pull out due to complications from another fight he's scheduled for.

On one hand, that sucks, because I was REALLY looking forward to Noons/Bennett 2. I was really curious to see if Noons would be able to avenge that loss, since there's no doubt he would stand and bang with Krazy Horse just like last time, which is something most fighters are afraid to do.

On the other hand, Noons being added to this card is definitely a good thing. He's a guy who ALWAYS has exciting fights because of his style; I just wish Krazy Horse could have been kept as his opponent, instead of this Conor Heun guy, who is basically a nobody at this point.

 

[jmt225]

Just a reminder everyone, this show is TONIGHT at 9 P.M. Eastern timing, 8 Central. If you have Showtime, make sure to check this show out. It's not a great card by any means, but that main event should be a LOT fun, and you never know what kind of fights you could get from these guys with little name value, now getting a chance to show the World what they can do on a national stage.

Also, it's been announced that if Robbie Lawler wins tonight, he will be granted a shot at the vacant Strikeforce Middleweight Championship, most likely against Jacare. So, it's actually a pretty important fight; it's going to be interesting to see how it turns out.

 

[Buffalo Dave]

Hmmm seems like me and JMT are the only ones that are gonna watch this tonight lol.

While I was on Strikeforce's website it is 100% confirmed that if Lawler does win he faces Jacare for the middleweight belt, but for some miracle reason they resign Jake Sheilds then I guess plans change. Also Coker said that if Sorbal wins and looks good doing it he will get a title shot at the light heavyweight champion King Mo. Now Sorbal has stated he doesn't really want to Lawal because of their friendship, but his manager has said this,

If that’s the fight on the table because the fans are clamoring for it, then we’ll do what we have to do.

So I guess now we just wait to see how this fight pans out to see who does what. Definitely should be a good fight, Lawler had that stunning KO his last fight and Sorbal hasn't fought in almost a year. What makes it interesting is that each fighters defeats are the others winning ways. Out of Lawlers 5 losses he lost 4 by submission and out of Sorbal's 8 losses 4 are by KO.

Kennedy vs. Prangley
Should be a pretty good fight, I see this going to a decision. Whoever wins will definitely move up SF's middleweight title picture. I'm just not sure who is gonna win.

Santos vs. Zaromskis
Well like you said JMT hopefully we see Marius take out the lesser Cyborg gotta suck to know people care more about your wife fighting than you. It shouldn't take long at all for Marius to dispose of Santos.

Koons vs. Huen
Sucks the orginal fight that was supposed to happen isn't going down because of Bennet's conflict with another fight that he ended up losing anyways two weeks ago. So now we have another striker vs. submission specailist. Still should be a good fight though.

 

[jmt225]

Good show last night.

I thought KJ Noons vs. Conor Heun was easily FOTN. Both guys went at it, and I was really impressed with Conor's chin/heart. The decision... well, I thought under Pride rules, Noons won the fight, but under American judging criteria, Heun won. Heun definitely received more damage in the fight, but I gave him the 1st and 3rd rounds at the same time. But, it is what it is. Hopefully we see more of these two in the future.

Tim Kennedy was impressive. Definitely looking forward to seeing more from him in the future. Don't know anything about him except what we found out from last night's fight.

I was really bummed at Marius Zaromskis' fight against Cyborg. I think though that Marius just needs to move down to 155. The Welterweights are way too big for him, as we saw in his last two fights. The reason why he gets away with fighting at 170 in Japan and kicking ass there is because naturally, all those Japanese guys should be at 155 themselves, if not 145 in some cases. So, yeah... I still have a lot of faith in Marius Zaromskis, just not in the Welterwieght Division. As a Lightweight though, I think he can become a top 10 fighter in the division.

And Robbie Lawler vs. Renato Sobral was a great little technical fight. Robbie Lawler was cautious most of the fight, making sure to avoid the takedown, while also looking to land that one hard shot to put Babalu to sleep for good, but to Babalu's credit, he kept his hands up and had some nice head movement throughout the fight, which was important since he threw so many kicks, because that usually leaves you vulnerable to a devastating counter. But anyways, I agreed with the decision. Babalu's leg/body kicks were enough for him to take the fight, since he was controlling it with them, no doubt.

It'll be interesting to see now what happens with those two. Babalu said after the fight that he does not want a title shot against King Mo, since the two are friends, but rather he would prefer a fight against Dan Henderson. I, for one, would be down for that. And as far as Lawler... he vs. Jacare will still most likely happen, even with this loss. However, if I were Strikeforce, I would NOT make that a MW Title fight. No, I would set up Nick Diaz vs. Mayhem Miller for the vacant MW Championship, with the winner of that first title defense against the winner of Lawler/Jacare.

 

[Buffalo Dave]

This was definitely a good little show. I'll still think Strikeforce needs better commentatiors the ones they have are just annoying.

Noons vs. Huen turned out to be a really good fight. I give Huen a lot of credit for taking the fight on 12 days notice and putting on that good of a show. The two of them just brawled for the 15 minutes, both landing some really good shots, towards the end of the fight they got a little sloopy with throwing some wild punches at each other, but both were just trying to win a very close fight. I think other than Huen's face getting jacked up another reason why he lost was that he just showed he was gased, even at the end of the fight he just wanted to sit, and his corner wouldn't let him.

Kennedy vs. Prangley, Kennedy just flat out dominated Prangley on the ground once he got him there, Prangley defended Kennedy's first couple attempts, Prangley got a takedown himself but Kennedy got right back up. Then once Kennedy took him down he slapped on the rear naked choke for the win.

Zarmoskis vs. Cyborg, well my mind changed a little on Cyborg, I'll give him a little more credit as he did look good last night. He took all of Marius kicks with ease and had him timed perfectly when Marius was going in for the flying knee. You know I think your right JMT a drop to lightweight would be much better for Zarmoskis, since being finished twice both times in the first in Strikeforce, since he seems to not be able to get going and has been pretty much dominated.

Lawler vs. Sorbal, I think Babalu definitely won it. Lawler spent to much time looking for the KO, after his KO of Manhoef I think he thought he was going to do the same to Sorbal. I will give credit to Lawler for his improved takedown defense even though he was taken down in the first, he was able to get right back up. I was loving his little attempt in the 2nd round to bait Sorbal in acting like he was hurt. It really doesn't seem that we are gonna see Babalu fight Mo, he seems content with passing on the fight, I'm not sure people will be screaming for it either. However if he gets Hendo I wouldn't mind seeing that happen. Babalu seems like he wants to get revenge for that loss 10 years ago pretty bad.

I've seen that Scott Coker was tossing around the idea of having a tournament for the middleweight championship in 2 to 3 months, since it seems very very likely that Sheilds is not coming back. Probably would have to wait untill Mayhem and Diaz's suspensions are over to start it. We could see some interesting matchups take place if this goes down.

 

[INDYjon22]

I was really tired last night so I wasn't able to see the entire show but I did get to see the first fight and holy shit was it a good one. KJ Noons and Conor Heun put on one hell of a great show. It was such a good fight for those who love striking. Both men were coming off fairly long layoffs in the sport and looked very good. Heun impressed the hell out of me with his heart and his chin. The dude took some big shots and kept coming. I disagree with JMT with his scoring. As close as the fight was I do believe Noons won the second round easily and the third round in a close fight. I also found the scoring of one judge, a 30-27, to be absolutely absurd. What fight was the mother fucker watching?

I am also very glad to hear Babalu got back on the winning way. I am a big Sobral fan and have been anticipating his return for a long time now. It is very nice to wake up in the morning and read that he came out victorious even if it was against another guy I like.

 

[jmt225]

This was definitely a good little show. I'll still think Strikeforce needs better commentatiors the ones they have are just annoying.

I have to disagree with you there, man. Mauro Ranallo is my favorite MMA commentator besides Joe Rogan. I've always thought he was great, going all the way back to his Pride days. And Stephen Quadros is cool in my book, too. He's exactly like what Mike Tenay was in WCW (note, Tenay in WCW, not TNA).

However, Pat Miletich is terrible, as is Frank Shamrock whenever they use him. They should seriously bring in Bas Rutten for that third spot.

Zarmoskis vs. Cyborg, well my mind changed a little on Cyborg, I'll give him a little more credit as he did look good last night. He took all of Marius kicks with ease and had him timed perfectly when Marius was going in for the flying knee. You know I think your right JMT a drop to lightweight would be much better for Zarmoskis, since being finished twice both times in the first in Strikeforce, since he seems to not be able to get going and has been pretty much dominated.

I wasn't impressed with Cyborg at all. Nick Diaz would absolutely kill the guy.

The fact of the matter is, Zarmoskis best attributes don't work when he's in there with someone who has a big reach advantage over him, and unfortunately, if he stays at Welterweight in the States, he's going to get matched up against a lot of guys just like that. That's why he should go down to Lightweight. 90% of the guys there will be either the same height, or much shorter. I really believe he'd own that fucking division, especially outside of the UFC.