Strikeforce - Overeem vs Werdum last night
PostPosted:Sun Jun 19, 2011 10:33 am
The main event was most certainly overshadowed by the last two fights.
Josh Barnett entered the fight and, despite his kind words of confidence to Rogers, Barnett completely outclassed Brett Rogers finishing him off early in the 2nd. The first round was Rogers fighting to survive Barnett's onslaught. Barnett is looking a little... strong =P
Overeem vs Werdum makes me REEEEALLY wish that kicking downed opponents was still allowed. Overeem won by 30-27 decision; Essentially, Werdum just kept jumping on his back over and over again, thinking that Overeem would voluntarily step into his guard (the guard of a multi-time jiujitsu world champion); this is a completely non-aggressive and cowardly tactic that I see more and more by Brazilian JiuJitsu fighters; it is a blatant abuse of the current rules system. One of the legal tactics that ruins the sport of MMA in its current rule set; Bring back yellow cards or kicks/knees to downed opponents - he should have been deducted at least one point for stalling. Bottom line, the fight sucked because Werdum wasn't fighting to win, he was just in there to lose by decision and not to lose by KO.
All in all, the remaining fighters are all interesting to watch. Every possible matchup is interesting:
Semi-Finals:
Bigfoot vs Overeem - Both aggressive fighters, Bigfoot uses his jiujitsu aggressively, unlike Werdum. Although Bigfoot is not as great of a jiu-jitsu fighter. I think with Bigfoot's style, he is going to open up and Alistair will land some heavy hits. Hopefully Alistair will commit to some combos.
Kharitonov vs Barnett.... This fight will not end in decision. The most likely outcome is Sergei with a round 1 KO, both he and Barnett are very fast fighters. Sergei and Barnett are both very good on the takedowns, but Barnett will probably be able to overwhelm Sergei on the ground. Both fighters are highly aggressive. Kharitonov has 17 round 1 finishes, including round one KO victories over: Andrei Arlovgski, Semmy Schilt, Alistair Overeem, Pedro Rizzo, and Ninja Rua. Although Kharitonov has off days where he leaves himself open, and if anyone is going to capitalize, it is Barnett.
I do think that anyone left in the tournament has strong arguments that they could win it. If this were 7 years ago, it would be Barnett winning. The issue is, Kharitonov and Barnett haven't seen a lot of action recently, until their devastating finishes of their opponents in the opening round of the tournament; they look good. The winner of their fight might surprise the two higher ranked fighters (Bigfoot and Overeem).
Josh Barnett entered the fight and, despite his kind words of confidence to Rogers, Barnett completely outclassed Brett Rogers finishing him off early in the 2nd. The first round was Rogers fighting to survive Barnett's onslaught. Barnett is looking a little... strong =P
Overeem vs Werdum makes me REEEEALLY wish that kicking downed opponents was still allowed. Overeem won by 30-27 decision; Essentially, Werdum just kept jumping on his back over and over again, thinking that Overeem would voluntarily step into his guard (the guard of a multi-time jiujitsu world champion); this is a completely non-aggressive and cowardly tactic that I see more and more by Brazilian JiuJitsu fighters; it is a blatant abuse of the current rules system. One of the legal tactics that ruins the sport of MMA in its current rule set; Bring back yellow cards or kicks/knees to downed opponents - he should have been deducted at least one point for stalling. Bottom line, the fight sucked because Werdum wasn't fighting to win, he was just in there to lose by decision and not to lose by KO.
All in all, the remaining fighters are all interesting to watch. Every possible matchup is interesting:
Semi-Finals:
Bigfoot vs Overeem - Both aggressive fighters, Bigfoot uses his jiujitsu aggressively, unlike Werdum. Although Bigfoot is not as great of a jiu-jitsu fighter. I think with Bigfoot's style, he is going to open up and Alistair will land some heavy hits. Hopefully Alistair will commit to some combos.
Kharitonov vs Barnett.... This fight will not end in decision. The most likely outcome is Sergei with a round 1 KO, both he and Barnett are very fast fighters. Sergei and Barnett are both very good on the takedowns, but Barnett will probably be able to overwhelm Sergei on the ground. Both fighters are highly aggressive. Kharitonov has 17 round 1 finishes, including round one KO victories over: Andrei Arlovgski, Semmy Schilt, Alistair Overeem, Pedro Rizzo, and Ninja Rua. Although Kharitonov has off days where he leaves himself open, and if anyone is going to capitalize, it is Barnett.
I do think that anyone left in the tournament has strong arguments that they could win it. If this were 7 years ago, it would be Barnett winning. The issue is, Kharitonov and Barnett haven't seen a lot of action recently, until their devastating finishes of their opponents in the opening round of the tournament; they look good. The winner of their fight might surprise the two higher ranked fighters (Bigfoot and Overeem).