Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum - June 18

[canucksfreak19]

Main Card
Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Quarterfinals
Alistair Overeem (256) vs. Fabricio Werdum (246)
Josh Barnett (256) vs. Brett Rogers (258)

K.J. Noons (156) vs. Jorge Masvidal (155)
Daniel Cormier (239.5) vs. Jeff Monson (234)
Valentijn Overeem (234.5) vs. Chad Griggs (234)

HDNet Undercard
Gesias Cavalcante (155) vs. Justin Wilcox (156)
Conor Heun (155) vs. Magno Almeida (155)
Nah-Shon Burrell (179) vs. Joe Ray (180)
Todd Moore (169.5) vs. Mike Bronzoulis (170)
Brian Melancon (175) vs. Isaac Vallie-Flagg (170)

It took the UFC buying Strikeforce to finally get an undercard worth anything. And to think that the undercard was also supposed to have Amanda Nunes vs. Julie Kedzie and the Noons vs. Masvidal fights until Gina wasn't cleared to fight and Nunes broke her foot. Still a couple of interesting fights, more then ever before.

 

[es_19]

i only caught the last 2 fights because my friend and i went to watch green lantern but barnett's sub win was a no brainer...i thought werdum might have actually won that fight because of how persistent he was. guess not.

 

[canucksfreak19]

i only caught the last 2 fights because my friend and i went to watch green lantern but barnett's sub win was a no brainer...i thought werdum might have actually won that fight because of how persistent he was. guess not.

If anything Overeem's performance reinforced to me that the two best heavyweights in the world will be meeting at UFC 138 in San Jose.

 

[es_19]

am i crazy to think that barnett just might be able to win the entire SF HW GP??

 

[chadsexington]

That whole card was awful less Starburns putting the hurt on Oldervereem (I'll take any Overeem getting his *** handed to him any day,) the Cormier fight which was ok and of course...my boy Josh Barnett cleaning house.

The main event was so laughably bad that drying paint is more entertaining. I may be slightly biased because of my hate-on for Demolition Man, but I would've given the fight to Werdum too if only because he was the only one trying to instigate anything. Being a world class fighter isn't harnessing your ability to shrug someone off and then goading him into your fight...that fight was an absolute embarassment because of Overeem's inability to do anything but talk smack before and after the fight. Strikeforce can't afford to do this, but if it were lesser fighters, I'd DQ both from the tournament and bring a reserve in. Both fighters would've been yellow carded in PRIDE so often that they'd be paying the company back for the fight, and to be honest, I don't blame Werdum as much as I do Overeem.

 

[canucksfreak19]

Matt, I think that the worst part of the fight was Werdum's constant flopping and butt scooting. Regardless I don't know of many people that are interested in the semis, let alone the finals, also when is this thing going to drag on until? My money is on early 2012.

 

[chadsexington]

Matt, I think that the worst part of the fight was Werdum's constant flopping and butt scooting.

I'm usually pretty intolerant of that much stalling too...but when your opponent sets a precedent that he won't engage with you in anything but his own fight, I don't see what choice Werdum had.

Honestly Dave...the whole fight in general was as laughable as Shinya Aoki at the NYE Dream show, only neither fighter got kneed unconcious 4 seconds into the second round.

I don't know what Strikeforce's plans are to stretch the tourney out. It would be interesting if they combined the semis and finals onto one card ala Pride GP, but given that the Heavyweights aren't really mass cardio machines...might make for an ugly final.