StrikeForce: ‘Miami’ Recap and Results

StrikeForce: ‘Miami’ marked the organizational debut for many fighters tonight. In the first televised fight of the night Bobby Lashley stepped into the cage with former TUF 10 contestant Wes Sims. The fight started with Sims taunting Lashley by holding his hand in the air and challenging Lashley to touch his glove. Sims is a tall heavyweight standing at 6 foot 8 inches. The taunting failed to deter Lashley and it didn’t take long for the fight to hit the mat. Lashley teed off on Sims from inside his guard. The two fighters exchanged positions on the ground for a few minutes with Lashley remaining on top the entire time. After Sims took some shots that clearly phased him, Lashley ended up pounding on Sims until the referee opted to stop the fight. Sims immediately protested the stoppage.

Also making his organizational debut was Melvin Manhoef, best known for his kickboxing abilities while overseas in Japan. As the fight began the announcers stated that it would be best for Robbie Lawler to eventually take the fight to the ground. My first thought was, “eventually…this fight should have already been taken to the ground”. Well it turns out that the fight did end up on the ground. It just so happens that once it hit the ground, one of the fighters was unconscious. Manhoef relentlessly kicked Lawler’s legs out from under him. If I were Lawler, I’d be using a wheelchair for the next few days. Not only did Manhoef pick Lawler apart with his kicks, he also picked him apart with punches. If Las Vegas betting lines were updated live, the money line for Manhoef would’ve went up to about -1500 by the third minute of the first round. According to CompuStrike, Lawler landed a total of seven punches in this fight, but it only took one to send Manhoef to an early nap. One looping right hand. I’m not entirely sure Lawler expected the punch to land. In my mind he was purely throwing punches in an attempt to survive. After the fight, Lawler could barely walk around inside the cage. In MMA we often hear the term “I just got caught” . For Manhoef, this is the definition of that term if there ever was one.

Not only was it the organizational debut for Herschel Walker, but it was also his professional debut. His opponent Greg Nagy also made his organizational debut. Anything can happen in a fight, and surely this was a great chance for Nagy to make a name for himself, but he did not belong in a StrikeForce cage on the televised portion of a card featured on Showtime. He did not look good at any point in this fight, and despite having a chance at a kneebar in the early parts of the fight, he could not secure it. Obviously, Nagy was brought in to lose to Walker. Not many people will outright say that, but it’s the harsh reality of the business. Walker stayed on top of Nagy for three rounds and punished him with strikes. Had Walker been more experienced in MMA, the fight would’ve been over in the first round. What impressed me the most in this fight, aside from Walker’s ability to learn MMA in a short period of time, was the intelligence of the crowd. I can’t recall the exact round, but there was a time in the fight where Walker had Nagy in a standing sprawl position, and the entire crowd shouted “knee”. Sure enough, Walker threw a knee to Nagy’s body. Touche, Miami…Touche.

The women’s lightweight championship was on the line tonight in the co-main event. Bobby Lashley, Robbie Lawler, and Melvin Manhoef – all big name fighters that could’ve been featured as the co-main event and yet it was the women’s fight that took center stage. Very impressive how far women’s MMA is coming along. It was apparent from the get-go that Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos was stronger than Marloes Coenen. Cyborg controlled the fight on the feet and on the ground. I kept thinking that Coenen was going to pull out a submission, but Cyborg was too dominant and wouldn’t allow it. Credit goes to Coenen though. Everything that was thrown at her was shaken off. She continued to fight aggressively despite losing the first two rounds. Eventually, the ref had seen enough and called a stop to the bout. I originally thought that it was an early stoppage, but Coenen did not dispute the decision. She also looked pretty beat up and somewhat relieved to have the fight come to a halt. Needless to say, Coenen proved a lot in this fight but so did Cyborg. Nobody is going to beat her right now.

The welterweight championship was on the line, and for Marius Zaromskis a chance to be the first fighter to hold two belts in two major promotions was at stake. There are certain fighters that always seem to bring it and Nick Diaz falls into that category. The stare down began with fighters touching foreheads (of course Diaz initiated it) and the fight started just as furiously. Zaromskis came out with a jumping/lunging kick that missed its mark. Diaz immediately began peppering his opponent with punches. Zaromskis responded by letting his hands go, but many of the punches missed their mark, only to have Diaz counter punch. The fight took a turn midway through the first round when Zaromskis landed one of those wild punches. Diaz was stunned and fell to the mat. For a brief second I thought Zaromskis was going to win the fight. However, Diaz recovered and continued his onslaught which eventually crumpled Zaromskis. The referee stopped the fight and Diaz became the StrikeForce welterweight champion. In the post fight interview, Diaz didn’t have much to say, but he made it a point to mention that his brother Nate won his last fight (against Gray Maynard at UFC Fight Night 20), and that something strange is going on. What I found myself wondering was whether Nick was calling out the judging of MMA as a whole or if he was calling out the UFC.

Nick Diaz def. Marius Zaromskis via TKO (strikes) in round 1

Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos def. Marloes Coenen via TKO (strikes) in round 3

Herschel Walker def. Greg Nagy via TKO (strikes) in round 3

Robbie Lawler def. Melvin Manhoef via KO (strikes) in round 1

Bobby Lashley def. Wes Sims via TKO (strikes) in round 1

Jay Hieron def. Joe Riggs via unanimous decision

Pablo Alfonso def. Marcos da Matta via submission (armbar) in round 1

Hayder Hassan def. Ryan Keenan via KO in round 2

John Kelly def. Sabah Homasi via submission (rear naked choke) in round 2

Michael Byrnes def. David Zitnik via majority decision

David Gomez def. Craig Oxley via unanimous decision

Joe Ray def. John Clarke via TKO in round 1