Review and results from Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley
TIME FOR DIAZ AND MELENDEZ TO HEAD TO THE UFC
Both of the Cesar Gracie champions earned first round finishes, defending their titles and cleaning out their respective divisions of Strikeforce challengers. With no one else to fight on the horizon, the time has come to bring these two into the UFC fold and see how they stack up against the elite in their weight classes.
Each would benefit from the move for different reasons.
For Melendez, it would be a chance to determine who the top lightweight in the world is against the winner of Edgar/Maynard 3. No disrespect to Anthony Pettis, Jim Miller or Clay Guida, but there is no one more deserving of facing the winner of the UFC 130 main event than “El Nino.”
A move back to the UFC would give Diaz the chance to show he really is a top 5 welterweight. He’s proven to be the best 170-pound fighter outside the UFC Octagon over the last two or three years, but it remains to be seen how he would perform against the likes of Thiago Alves, Jon Fitch or even Georges St. Pierre.
Dana White was sitting cageside at a Strikeforce event; if that isn’t far enough from “business as usual” to make a required move like this happen, I don’t know what is.
DIAZ VS. DALEY WAS BETTER THAN ADVERTISED
I had concerns about the main event falling short of expectations. Boy, was I wrong.
For three ticks shy of five minutes, these two went toe-to-toe, trading punishing blows and trying to put the other one away. Both men got rocked at different points in the frenetic first round, and even though they only used 1/5 of the allotted time, the fans still got what they came for and then some.
Whatever your feelings on the organization, you have to give Strikeforce their due: more often than naught, we’re treated to wildly exciting fights, and Saturday’s main event was no different.
DIAZ KEEPS ON ROLLING
Saturday night was the best I’ve seen Diaz, ever. While he thoroughly outclassed K.J. Noons and has looked good along the ride to 10 straight wins, this performance was his best since the Takanori Gomi fight in 2007.
Diaz has far more poise and a much better chin than I ever knew; he took Daley’s best and was back on his feet quicker than most men would have been, and then he came forward and got the finish. Lots of guys would have gone into defensive mode for the rest of the round, but not Diaz; he pressed on, landed heavy and finished things off before the first round ended.
Despite an impressive run over the last five years, I’m not quite ready to put him in the top 5 just yet. He’s got some real easy wins mixed in with quality victories and until he tests himself against guys like Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves, I won’t be completely sold.
But a move to the UFC and a couple more performances like this would have me singing a different tune very quickly.
MELENDEZ STAKES HIS CLAIM TO TOP SPOT AT 155 POUNDS
That was some performance from Gilbert Melendez on Saturday night. From the minute Cecil Peoples did his little shuffle to start the fight, Melendez was all over Tatsuya Kawajiri, disposing of the top 10 lightweight in quick and impressive fashion.
It’s a win that makes a strong case for “El Nino” being the top lightweight in the world.
He’s won five straight, beaten Kawajiri twice, Shinya Aoki in convincing fashion and holds wins over Josh Thomson, Clay Guida and Hiroyuki Takaya to boot. There isn’t a soul in Strikeforce’s lightweight division who can beat Melendez right now, and I’m not sure Frankie Edgar or Gray Maynard could either.
Melendez asked for a title unification bout after putting away Kawajiri and it’s a fight a lot of fans (myself included) would love to see. Strikeforce was bought to eventually have all the best fighters in all the weight classes under one roof.
The time has come to make that happen in the lightweight division.
HOW ‘BOUT A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR KEITH JARDINE?
“The Dean of Mean” took a beating from Gegard Mousasi, but you have to love a guy who takes a fight on nine days notice and guts it out, bloodied and battered for 15 hard minutes.
He was swallowing big gulps of air at the halfway point of the opening round, but there he was at the end of the third, still trying to find an armbar.
After a performance like that, I’m looking forward to seeing Jardine’s debut as a middleweight in the Strikeforce cage later this year.
MOUSASI BOUNCING BACK
When Gegard Mousasi burst onto the scene and claimed the Strikeforce light heavyweight title, a lot of people (myself included) rushed him into the pound-for-pound discussion and christened him the next big thing.
Then Muhammed Lawal showed he had poor takedown defense, and everyone (I’m still included) broke their ankles jumping off the bandwagon. Since then, Mousasi has steadily and quietly worked his way back into the mix, earning three straight wins and showing improvements on the ground.
Despite the majority draw, Mousasi was clearly the better man in the cage on Saturday night. To quote Heavy’s Jeremy Botter, “Jardine looked like someone beat him with a shillelagh” at the post-fight press conference, a tribute to the Dutch fighters tremendous boxing.
The fact that he fell from grace a little last year looks like a positive; he’s had time to work on his weaknesses and shore up his strength. Now Mousasi appears ready to once again challenge for the light heavyweight title.
THE UBIQUITOUS JUDGING COMMENT
I thought I had the scoring of the Mousasi/Jardine draw all figured out.
As much as I didn’t like it, I could see the three ringside officials awarding Jardine the first because of the takedowns; a 10-9 turning into a 10-8 after Mousasi had a point deducted for a sloppy, illegal upkick.
A pair of 10-9 rounds for “The Dreamcatcher” followed, tally up the totals and you have a 28-28 draw.
One judge had it that way, while another scored the fight (as I did) 29-27 for Mousasi, the first round point deduction preventing the standard clean sweep score. The other official, however, gave Mousasi the first and final round while awarding the middle stanza to Jardine.
After getting the first round right, a frame that saw Jardine score multiple takedowns that correctly weren’t given much value, how could you possibly screw the second round up so badly?
Then again, I don’t know why I’m surprised. This is a commission that had Cecil Peoples refereeing a world title bout.
You can’t see it, but I’m shaking my head in disbelief right now.
Shinya Aoki
THE CURIOUS CASE OF SHINYA AOKI
After Saturday night, where does Aoki fit in the 155-pound hierarchy?
He made quick work of Lyle Beerbohm, has won five straight and eight of his last ten, but got thoroughly dominated by Melendez this time last year. And to be fair, one of those two losses was a bad idea bout at welterweight against “Mach” Sakurai.
Aoki is an absolute monster on the mat, capable of submitting almost anyone, and he’s got a nasty streak too; the broken arm-middle finger combo on Mizuto Hirota was gnarly.
But I can’t shake the feeling that if you put him in there with anyone else from the upper echelon of the lightweight class and he’s in trouble. Melendez showed that a strong top game can nullify Aoki’s submission skills, and his striking is far from enough to contend on the feet, so where does that leave him?
For now, he remains a top 10 lightweight, but his hold on that ranking is slipping. As we move towards an even more UFC-centric sport, Aoki will need to continue proving himself on North American soil to still be considered amongst the 155-pound elite.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ALREADY, PART I: MAURO RANALLO
I know I mention him every time there is a Strikeforce event, but every time there is a Strikeforce event, my fellow Canadian gives me reason to call him out.
What was with all the shouting about history being made at the end of the Diaz-Daley fight? The only remotely historic thing that happened is that Daley was stopped for the first time by strikes, but that’s nothing to get all squeaky about.
Here’s the worst part: the guy could be excellent. If you’ve ever heard some of his early stuff from Pride, you’ve heard a more measured and relaxed commentator who knows what he’s talking about and does the job well.
Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, Ranallo morphed into a guy who has to use 35-cent words when a 10-cent word will do just fine and takes the spotlight away from the action in the cage with his histrionics on the mic.
Settle down, man.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ALREADY, PART II: JIMMY LENNON, JR.
(You have to read this like you’re introducing a fight to get the full effect)
Now standing in the cage with a microphone in his hand, this man is a nasally voiced, over-elaborate bore who rambles on in his descriptions of fighters for 10 minutes longer than is necessary.
He finds ways to drag out an introduction longer than any man to ever handling the ring announcer duties, and seems to stumble over his words and get ahead of himself at least once per evening.
He is a boxing holdover who has never been good as an MMA announcer, introducing the worst ring announcer in the history of ring announcers, Jimmy Lennon Jr.
Plain and simple: the guy has got to go. Like Ranallo, he uses 367 words when 15 would do, and that’s brutal. Short, simple and lively is what you’re there for, not long, in-depth and capable of putting people to sleep.