I'm on my way out to the airport for the day, but Strikeforce's card definitely deserves a few words before I go. The nutshell: while it wasn't a terrible night, it definitely wasn't the sort of card Strikeforce needed to take buzz away from the UFC, marked by bad scheduling and a main event that saw their most marketable star take a big hit.
The evening began with some questionable planning by Strikeforce. The previously-promised Jay Heiron/Jesse Taylor fight, which Heiron won by unanimous decision, was moved off the main card. It was a worst-case scenario move in the event the three main card title fights all went the full 25, but knowing the fighters involved (especially considering the longest fight of either of the ladies' careers was nine minutes) Strikeforce should have taken their chances. As it went, the main card didn't last 25 minutes of fight time total as every fight went to a stoppage, three of them in the first round. Strikeforce looked silly with the scheduling; but that's the sort of mistake that they can get away with because they're not on pay-per-view.
Before the main event, though, fans were treated to three dominant performances. The best was the breakthrough of Gegard Mousasi, who obliterated Renato "Babalu" Sobral in the first minute of their fight. At a cheeky 24 years old, Mousasi used explosive strikes to knock out Babalu and take Strikeforce's Light Heavyweight Championship. Mousasi was supposed to fight for Afflication on his birthday, but was slotted into this fight instead and is going to create some serious buzz in the light heavyweight rankings. Keep in mind Mousasi's won a DREAM Grand Prix already and is involved in their Super Hulk tournament where he draws Rameau Sokoudjou next at the end of October. The other fights saw Gilbert Melendez hold onto his interim Lightweight Title with two and a half one-sided rounds against Mitsuhiro Ishida before he finished with strikes; and Fabricio Werdum exploiting Mike Kyle's utter lack of a ground game before returning to his feet and sinking a guillotine choke less than 90 seconds in.
Everybody was here for Gina Carano and Cris "Cyborg" Santos, and unsurprisingly the lady formerly known as "Crush" enjoyed a huge advantage in fan support. But nobody was ever going to mistake Carano for Tinker Bell; she needed more than applause to beat the Cyborg and last night she simply didn't have it.
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