Clap! Clap! Clap! Stand up and applaud Scott Coker and Showtime, at least for one evening of action. While there wasn’t much optimism from fans, at least in our own community, that Strikeforce: Los Angeles would be an exciting card, the action itself gleamed above any negative talk that the show may be a total and utter failure.
The card was almost a perfect mixture of action. The opening battle between KJ Noons and Conor Heun served as the perfect primer for the evening of action. We were able to get a glimpse at a new and improved Tim Kennedy against a solid veteran in Trevor Prangley. We saw an explosive, edge-of-your-seat exchange of artillery fire between Marius Zaromskis and Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos. And last but not least, a great main event war featuring UFC veterans Robbie Lawler and Renato “Babalu” Sobral. On all accounts, Strikeforce delivered an entertaining night of fights.
While I’ve been critical of Strikeforce’s matchmaking in the past, Strikeforce won’t be able to get it right at every event, and that’s to be expected. But surprisingly, this event makes up for some of the past blunders I’ve had to sit through. I thoroughly enjoyed the card, and hopefully you did as well.
Middleweight: Renato “Babalu” Sobral def. Robbie Lawler via decision (29-28 by all 3 judges): Very entertaining fight for fans, and we have to give a round of applause to both fighters here. Robbie’s Mike Tyson approach to fighting isn’t exactly the most effective, but lurking around with his bulky arms and suddenly blasting with quick power punching is certainly exciting and edge-of-your-seat fun. Sobral’s face was completely battered after this performance, but he showed a great chin in this fight along with a good gameplan.
The first round could have gone either way, but I think Lawler was probably right in that the takedowns ultimately sunk him with the judges. While Sobral wasn’t able to do a whole lot with them, he didn’t get knocked out either and effectively threw short shots and kicks to point. Robbie will never be a peppering puncher, so he’ll have to rely on the judges’ perception of how damage scores versus quantity, and I think that could be another reason why he lost this fight.
The second round was Sobral’s round as two heavy body kicks left a huge imprint on Lawler’s ribcage. It was obvious after Lawler’s possum play that the kicks had hurt him considerably. He kept his arm down, guarded his ribs for a lengthy amount of time, and seemed rather reluctant to throw a lot of power after those blows. Sobral began looking for the head kick, and Lawler was struggling to block it as he knew he’d have to expose his ribs. Sobral could have played a game where he threw various body and head kicks to trick Lawler, eventually landing another devastating body kick to a mutilated area. Unfortunately, Robbie’s power was still enough to stop Sobral from attempting.
I think Lawler’s stalking and aggression gave him the third round, but he never did actually land the big shot. He had some very nice uppercut combos over the course of the fight that may have laid out a lesser fighter, but Sobral showed his toughness. Solid performance by both fighters, and I think the way Robbie took the loss was commendable.
Undeniably, Robbie Lawler is a fighter that fans continue to want to see fight. I think he’d be much more effective in using a jab that isn’t being thrown to completely blast someone’s teeth out, but I don’t know if Lawler wants to play that game where he has to watch his work rate. After all, more punching may tire his arms out and lead to less of a chance of a fantastic knockout. On the other hand, I think peppering jabs could set-up his mean overhands more effectively.
What can we say about Sobral? His kicks were his greatest asset in this fight, and those second round humdingers to the ribcage changed how Lawler approached Sobral from range. His defense in the stand-up department wasn’t great, but he was able to avoid having his jaw broken at the very least. I’d love to see Sobral vs. Henderson.
Welterweight: Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos def. Marius Zaromskis via TKO, 2:38 of Round 1: This was one of those fights that was simply put together for our enjoyment, and it delivered. Both men were highly explosive in their delivery, although Zaromskis was throwing his heavy head kicks with some massive force. Zaromskis’ movement, set-up, and sudden charge into battle was great to watch, but in thinking about how effective it was — it certainly set him up for a barrage of counter-attacks from Santos. While he was able to land quite a bit in those rushes, Santos countered as Zaromskis moved away after the initial flurry and paid the price.
Zaromskis has some thinking to do. His judgment is very poor when it comes to working in close quarters. On multiple occasions, he had avoided shots coming in, but ate heavy uppercuts and straight punches as he moved out. Normally, I’d say that Santos was precise in his shots, but Zaromskis had no real structure to how he was defending his chin as he left the close quarter combat. Santos was definitely accurate, but Zaromskis just didn’t offer any way for Santos’ massive punches to be blocked.
Interestingly enough, the final blow was almost Andrei Arlovski-esque in that Santos nearly blasted Zaromskis coming in. The initial straight punch missed, but the second bomb landed on the button — ending Zaromskis’ night quickly. I question the decision by Zaromskis to run into danger like that, especially when Santos wasn’t even showing signs of being hurt at all. I think Zaromskis would have kept himself in the fight had he maintained distance and kept a better defense. He certainly needs to look at some tape and see his errors.
Middleweight: Tim Kennedy def. Trevor Prangley via rear naked choke at 3:35 of the first round: Solid outing for Kennedy, and while I expected a dominant Kennedy — I didn’t see such a quick finish happening. Kennedy’s strength has obviously improved considerably. Prangely is well-known to be a guy who can outwork opponents by defending takedowns and using his power, but Kennedy persisted in his takedown attempt and worked his way to Prangley’s back.
The transition to the choke was also very creative because he threatened from one side and then slipped his hand over Prangley’s shoulder, put his arm under his chin, and was basically sunk on the other side within a split second. Great performance, and I think this gives Kennedy some leverage to seek out a battle for contention once the middleweight division’s title picture is straightened out.
Lightweight: KJ Noons def. Conor Heun via split decision: Noons was obviously the better striker as he used his speedy jab to pepper Heun’s face, mostly aiming for his eye as you could see in the first round of action. Heun’s flurries of activity as Noons struck were somewhat effective in that the kicks put Noons off balance and essentially stopped him from stringing together multiple combinations. While it had a limited effect, Heun telegraphed his counter combinations for the entire fight, and it was obvious to Noons that putting his guard up immediately after landing a combination was an easy way to block anything Heun offered.
Heun’s stand-up is horribly lacking any smoothness or fluidity. He seems very rigid, and his kicks, in particular, weren’t thrown in any sort of smooth transition from his strikes. Awkward is probably the best way to describe it. His bulkiness at lightweight isn’t appealing either as I think it slows him down considerably, and if we compared him in speed to most of the UFC lightweight division — Heun would come up short.
Noons wasn’t phenomenal by any means, but we have to give the guy credit where credit is due. He was tenacious enough to stave off Heun’s ground attempts, and while he didn’t have great form in properly escaping positions — his sheer determination and scrambling led to most of those escapes.
Noons reminded me a bit of how Takanori Gomi works his hands. Gomi, in his hayday, was far more accurate with his power punches, but Noons’ set-up with his whirling hands was somewhat nostalgic to see. I’m not sure he’ll ever challenge at the top of the division, but he certainly put on a performance that was entertaining.
Other Notes
– We don’t commend judging often, but the judges did a nice job tonight. The Conor Heun 30-27 score was definitely an ugly duckling in the sea of scoring, but I would imagine the speedy jab of Noons wasn’t either seen by the judge or he was mesmerized by the quick movement and pace of Heun ala Franke Edgar vs. BJ Penn.
– The commentary is what it is. Miletich was solid in his analysis role, and I thought he was spot on during his assessment of the Lawler vs. Sobral fight.