Strikeforce 2.0 on Showtime was an especially exciting card with lots of action and shocking endings!Brett "The Grim" Rogers went to the 2nd round with Ron Humphrey but used the Thai clinch to put away the undefeated Heavyweight. Docked a point in the 1st for hair grabbing, Rogers finally got his range with the BET "Champion" and brutally KO'd him with knees and punches. Rogers now looks to fight either Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem, or respected Heavyweight Fabricio Werdum possibly in June. I think either man may prove too difficult for the young 9-0 prospect.
"Femborg" Santos thrashed another Josh Barnett student, as Hitomi Akano really gave a valiant effort but was TKO'd in a lopsided affair. Akano who fights at 130 lbs. normally, fought Christiane (who missed weight due to a "female problem) who had to be around 160 lbs. The crowd cheered every time (and there were many) the camera showed the beautiful Gina Carano who will undoubtedly face Femborg next. Shame on the crowd for booing the 12 year old Hitomi who was fighting what I am guessing is really a shemale.
The "Fight Of The Night" was of course Scott Smith's amazing KO win over Benji Radach. Both men came to bang and both men were knocked down and seemingly out at different times in the 1st round, but kept coming back. In the 2nd, Smith was battered badly by Radach's all around attack as Scott was bloody and seemingly finished. In the 3rd, bleeding heavily and weary, Smith is slammed hard to the canvas. Smith rallies with a right hand and Radach is hurt. Radach retreats and then stops Smith in his tracks with a straight right. Seemingly almost out, Smith a counter right hand bomb that puts Benji out for good! Smith falls in the center of the ring as Radach stumbles groggy to his feet. Amazing fight as the"Cardiac Kid" does it again snatching a victory from immanent defeat pulling out a better comeback than Jesus on Easter!
A nice freakish skinless corpse like graphic of two bodies fighting is shown before the "Interim" Lightweight title fight. Why this is an "Interim" fight is beyond me but hey. Gilbert Melendez do what he do as he takes Rodrigo Damm to the floor and abuses him for the full round. What was unexpected, was the left right combo in the 2nd round that glazed Damm over like "El Nino" was Peter North. Completely unconscious, Rodrigo fought the referee and was out in scary fashion for quite some time as Melendez cracked Damm's egg head. Very impressive.
Pat Miletich stepped in as the color commentator for the event and did a much better job than Frank Shamrock usually does. Is was so nice to hear a well spoken intelligent veteran fighter call the action so well unlike the debacle Tito Ortiz pulled at Affliction. Pat is up there with Frank Mir as the best color commentator in the biz.
Mauro Ranallo is another story. The well rehearsed to the point of annoyance Renallo interviewed Middleweight Champion Cung Le, who proceeded to mangle and brutally rape the English language in an interview that was so hard to listen to you became embarrassed for them. Awful.
The aforementioned Tito Ortiz was in attendance and got into a war of words with Light Heavyweight Champion "Babalu" Sobral and both men had to be separated. Their eventual fight is a long time coming but 1st Renato will defend his title against the very dangerous training partner of Anderson Silva and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante.
Jake Shields will defend the "Scrap Pack" honor as he goes up in weight to face Robbie Lawler June 6th at the next Strikeforce event. Kevin Randleman has been signed to the same event though hopefully he passes his pre-fight screenings and doesn't bring along fake urine. 9-1 on the picks bitches, and damn I'm happy about the 1 bout I picked wrong!
Strikeforce Champions
- Heavyweight Champion-Alistair Overeem
- Light Heavyweight Champion-Renato "Babalu" Sobral
- Middleweight Champion-Cung Le
- Welterweight Champion-vacant
- Lightweight Champion-Josh Thomson
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