Gus Johnson began last night’s Strikforce/M-1/Showtime broadcast by welcoming everyone to the “Shank Tark” in San Jose instead of the “Shark Tank”, which set the tone early for what was to be another puzzling night for Strikeforce as it continues to carve out a niche for itself as the Triple A league of professional mixed martial arts. The fight card itself was much more entertaining than Strikeforce’s last couple of shows, but so many questions remained. How relevant is a women’s middleweight championship bout when the challenger remained a mystery, i.e. unannounced for a majority of the the key promoting phase leading up to Strikeforce’s June 26th event? Yes, it was awesome to see Cung Le do what he does best in avenging his loss to Scott Smith, but if the shoe had been on the other foot, then I doubt Smith would have received the same courtesy that Le did. Ignoring that, it boggles the mind to try and understand why Dan Henderson wasn’t on the bill, or any number of middleweight contenders who could in the near future be considered contenders for Jake Shields’ vacated middleweight belt. It’s happening people, he’s gone, and everyone knows it. Saving the Sobral vs Lawler matchup for last night’s undercard would have been a savvy move on the part of Coker, but it’s almost a given at this point that Coker and company would fail to take note of such strategic opportunities even as they pass within reach of the San Jose based promotion. That’s about as critical as I can be of the fights themselves because as stated previously, I was entertained throughout the night by what was taking place inside the cage. The real issue with Strikeforce shows on Showtime and CBS is the low level production values, as well as the sad state of their broadcast team, who I can barely stand to watch at this point, choosing instead to look away from the train wreck taking place. We are past the point of rubber necking to catch a glimpse of the carnage.

Take a look at a blog I wrote after Strikeforce’s most recent attempt at a primetime event on CBS: http://maximummma.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/the-wheel/

After reading through that article, ask yourself if Strikeforce has made any serious attempts to address the points mentioned. In addition to the organization’s pre-existing troubles, Scott Coker continues to create more problems for Strikeforce from an image standpoint. At the post-fight press conference for Fedor vs Werdum, Coker talked up a rematch between the two fighters (possibly on pay per view) rather than pursuing the path that would legitimize his organization as something more than a smaller budgeted Elite XC or Affliction, that being a match between Overeem and Werdum for the Strikeforce heavyweight championship. It’s a no brainer and key to Strikeforce’s future, post-Fedor, which is coming sooner than later at this point. There is also a question of how and why a fight card in San Jose featuring Fedor, Cung Le, Cyborg, and Josh Thompson failed to outsell past Strikeforce cards of lesser quality, like the Frank Shamrock vs Ceasar Gracie (in his one and only professional mma fight) for example? Someone dropped the ball at the most basic level of Strikeforce’s promotion of this event, ignoring the bread and butter of the organization for the last decade, that being its local support in one of the hotbeds of mma, San Jose, CA.

The big news in the Aftermath of this most recent Strikeforce/M-1 event is obviously Fedor Emelianenko’s first loss in a decade, and his first real loss ever. What are the long term ramifications of such a loss taking place on Strikeforce’s watch? It does appear that Fedor’s loss, along with Dan Henderson’s loss to the UFC bound Jake Shields, not to mention the retirement of Strikeforce’s biggest draw Frank Shamrock seems to prove that all that shit talked by Dana White for the last year is proving to be prophetic. I’m of the opinion that if this does indeed play out as predicted by Dana White, then Strikeforce and Scott Coker have only themselves to blame for making a series of shortsighted bad decisions, not to mention their non-reaction to the mounting criticism being leveled against them by fans and writers such as myself.

-Jason Emanuel

APRIL 2010

These pound for pound rankings used to be called Maximum MMA’s pound for pound rankings, but I stopped updating this blog for several months, and when I came back I realized that someone else was using the name Maximum MMA, so for now I’m just going to call these my (Jason Emanuel) pound for pound rankings. I do this for fun, as a fan, and that’s it.

1. Anderson Silva (UFC): Yes, still #1, and yes his last performance was peculiar to say the least. The two rounds of taunting Demian Maia would have been controversial no matter what, but probably less vexing for UFC president Dana White had Silva finished Maia at the beginning of round three. Unfortunately for all of us, he didn’t finish Maia, and even worse he looked gassed from all the trash talk and movie martial arts shenanigans earlier in the fight. UFC 112 bombed, Silva bombed, Renzo vs Hughes bombed, BJ Penn looked flat or injured, and arguably was robbed of his belt by inept judging (handpicked by the UFC for their event in Abu Dhabi). While all of that was noteworthy, the bottom line is that Anderson Silva remains the best there is until someone proves me wrong, and they will have to be a lot better than Maia was to do so. I would still rank him as the best at both 185 and 205.

2. George St. Pierre (UFC): GSP moves up in my rankings in part due to Fedor Emelianenko’s inactivity. GSP has cleaned out his division, and we know that because his last fight was against Dan Hardy, who no one picked to beat GSP, and everyone was correct. The next two bouts being talked about are rematches with Koscheck or Fitch. Need I say more? GSP is an all around MMA fighter, strong at everything, with particularly dominant ground skills, not to mention next level athleticism. GSP’s only weakness might be his lack of finishing power, and his current unwillingness to test himself at 185.

3. Fedor Emelianenko (Strikeforce/M-1 Global): The record is still impressive, the legend lives on, and his most recent fight against Brett Rogers was far and away more entertaining than the last Strikeforce and UFC cards combined. The questions is, when will we see Fedor fight again? M1 Global is trying to renegotiate their current contract with Strikeforce to reflect more of a partnership, or so they claim. Really, who knows aside from Fedor and Finkelstein, and maybe Scott Coker. The important thing is for a fighter to fight while he is still able to perform at the highest level. So let’s hope that we see Fedor Emelianenko’s return to the cage ASAP because the clock is ticking.

4. BJ Penn (UFC): I know this may be shocking to some, but I’m going to keep BJ Penn just where I had him before. 50-45 is beyond a joke, the compustrike backs up my impression of the fight against Edgar, which I’ve watched three times as of this writing. The UFC had the Silva vs Maia fight to distract from the shadiness and ramifications of 50-45, brought about by their own hand. After all, the UFC was in charge of bringing in their own judges and officiating. I find it ridiculous that Sherdog and other MMA sites scored the fight for Penn, claimed he was robbed, then went right ahead and dropped him in the rankings. He dominated both Florian and Sanchez, then in less than a year’s time he put his title on the line for the third time against Frankie Edgar. BJ Penn was flat, and Frankie Edgar was not. In fact, Edgar executed his game plan to a tee, but aside from the 5th round, he didn’t look the winner. Since a rematch is already in the works, Edgar may ultimately prove me and almost every other MMA blog and website wrong.

5. Lyoto Machida (UFC): We’re still waiting for the rematch, but until then I am going to keep Machida in the #6 slot. Machida could move up on my list with a dominant victory over Rua, but he will never crack the top three on my list without fighting Anderson Silva, which he and Silva both refuse to even consider, because like many MMA fans I believe that Silva is in fact the best there is at 205.

6. Jose Aldo (WEC): Jose Aldo destroyed Faber. It was a completely one sided affair on par with Anderson Silva’s dominance in recent fights, and comparable to BJ Penn’s destruction of Diego Sanchez. Many people are saying that he is top three pound for pound already, but I say that everyone should slow down a bit. He beat Faber, who had previously been dominated Mike Thomas Brown, who was just defeated by Manny Gamburyan. In other words, that is a less than stable division, and it’s hard to gauge just how good some of it’s elite fighters are. It wasn’t that long ago when many bloggers had Faber in their top ten pound for pound rankings, which seems implausible now. Jose Aldo may have to move up and defeat a top tier lightweight to truly make his claim for top three pound for pound consideration.

7. Mauricio Rua (UFC): The rematch is finally going to happen, and we’ll take it from there. If he wins, then we may get a chance to see Anderson Silva fight for the 205 title. If Rua beats Silva, then that skyrockets him in the pound for pound standings.

8. Gilbert Melendez (Strikeforce): Gil Melendez has now proven to everyone else that he is amongst the elite lightweights in MMA, top three for sure, and in my opinion he is the #2 lightweight behind BJ Penn. We had him in our top ten pound for pound ranking before, and there he remains after his one side victory over Shinya Aoki, who many considered the second best lightweight in the sport before Melendez dropped him back down to earth.

9. Jake Shields (Strikeforce): Jake Shields worked his game to near perfection against the legendary Dan Henderson in what looked to be his last fight for Strikeforce. How he survived the first round probably has a lot to do with his high level of training and conditioning, and a lot of dumb luck. A slow motion replay I watched showed that Dan Henderson may have been an inch or two from doing to Shields what he did to Bisping, but in a game on inches, Henderson missed his opportunity. Shields bounced back and put on a relentless display of ground and pound, using his superior jiu jitsu skills to negate everything Henderson had to offer for the next four rounds. Now it looks like Shields is headed to the UFC, where a match with GSP at 170 awaits him.

10. Nick Diaz (Strikeforce): What is there to say about Nick Diaz that hasn’t already been said? He wins, he’s exciting, he’s a well rounded MMA fighter with top level conditioning, and he gets better with every fight. His next fight will be in Japan, and then Scott Coker will have to figure out a challenge for Diaz because the pickings for him at 170 in Strikeforce are slim at best. Maybe a KJ Noons rematch (at 170), or a fight at 185 against Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller? Either Way, Nick Diaz could probably compete (and win) against the top ten in the world in three different weight divisons. That’s impressive.

-Jason Emanuel

This past Saturday night in Nashville, Scott Coker and Strikeforce attempted to reinvent the wheel, but lacked the tools necessary for the job. Consequently the entire promotion’s forward progress came to a grinding halt in front of a prime time audience on CBS.

The Event

For all of Scott Coker’s talk of improving the production values of Strikeforce events, they continue to fall very short of the current standard set by Dana White and the UFC. After some pretty startling and effective opening credits, the bar came crashing down and you would have thought you were tuned into an IFL rerun instead of what is supposed to be the second biggest MMA promotion in North America. Coker and his team really need to study the UFC in the same manner that a fighter would study an opponent. The details are everything. From the type of entrance the fighters make to the cage, to the music, to the introductions. It’s about creating drama and telling a story that begins when the fights are signed. It’s so simple that it’s startling how difficult Strikeforce makes it look. You announce the signing of the fights, you announce the completed bill when it’s done, hopefully with enough time to properly promote the event. It’s important to note that modern MMA fans like to keep tabs on their favorite fighter’s camps, and then there is the big press conference, which should be an event in and of itself. After the initial press conference you have your weigh-ins, which is yet another event that involves actual planning and production, and not what you currently witness at Strikeforce’s badly conceived weigh-ins. Where is the live streaming? Where are the fighter’s daily blogs? Where is the promotional programming leading up to the event? Scott Coker talks a good game, and he is a master of being able to identify the best case scenario arguments in regards to his promotion, but he is in dire need of someone capable of implementing some serious change on the production and promotional front.

First thing’s first however, and that is an entire overhaul of the announcing team. Finding another Joe Rogan doesn’t seem likely, and his value to the UFC becomes that much more apparent after every Strikeforce telecast. However, there is still a Bas Rutten out there waiting to be called into action. Let’s face it, Gus Johnson and Frank Shamrock need to go away as fast as humanly possible. In Shamrock’s case, let’s hope that means moving away from broadcasting and back into training because suddenly a Shamrock vs Henderson fight doesn’t seem as unthinkable as it did a mere 48 hours ago. The low point of a night filled with low points wasn’t the Mayhem Miller vs Team Gracie melee, but it was Frank Shamrock imploring Dan Henderson to finish Jake Shields from his ringside announcing seat.

The first nails in the coffin had to come when CBS decided not to show the event live on both coasts, which is ratings suicide in this day and age of instant results via the internet.

The Fights

Strikeforce and CBS just pissed away another prime time opportunity to make some significant gains in their steep uphill battle for respect in the UFC dominated landscape of MMA. On the heels of a disasterous UFC 112, Strikeforce dropped the ball and failed to deliver a single memorable moment on a card that featured three different title fights. To make matters worse, the most exciting fight was probably Jason Mayhem Miller’s preliminary bout against Tim Stout, which was booked a couple of weeks before the event, then left off of the televised main card (although edited highlights were broadcast on the west coast). Mayhem may have gotten the last laugh when he entered the ring just as Jake Shields was about to give his victorious post fight interview and proceeded to challenge Shields to a rematch. A melee ensued, with Mayhem appearing to take on both Diaz brothers, Jake Shields, and Gilbert Melendez all at the same time, not to mention another three or four dudes who seemed to be connected to the Jake Shields camp, but in what capacity I do not know. Mayhem emerged uninjured, while Strikeforce was left with a black eye and little chance of returning to CBS any time soon.

April 17th was a night of worse case scenarios for Strikeforce. Gegard Mousasi suddenly looked his age, and I mean that in the best possible way. Mousasi is only 24, and so he has time to improve his conditioning, his striking, and takedown defense in anticipation of an eventual rematch with King Mo, not to mention the inevitability of encountering another wrestler or two in the next five to ten years. Mousasi claims that he will retire at thirty, but I’ll believe that when I see it. King Mo, for his part, took Mousasi down at will. Superior wrestling was Mousasi’s undoing, but in terms of 205 champions King Mo Lawal is going to have to do a lot more in the coming years to convince anyone that he would be able to seriously challenge any of the UFC’s top ten lightheavyweights. What does that say about Mousasi? Exactly.

Scott Coker claims to have been working on bringing Aoki stateside for over a year, but after all the negotiations and importance placed on getting Aoki, he never stepped in when he was told that Aoki wasn’t training in a cage? Coker took more of an interest in Hershel Walker’s preparation for his Strikeforce debut. Ultimately it may not have mattered much since Gilbert Melendez is by far the more complete fighter at this point in their careers, but watching the Strikeforce champion negate Aoki’s jiu jitsu by simply exploiting the challengers inexperience in the cage spoke volumes about the lack communication in that organization. Did anyone even mention the name to George Sotiropoulos to Shinya Aoki’s camp? Sotiropoulos has the blueprint for getting around the no pants rule in MMA. To add injury to insult, Melendez just cleared the lightweight division in Strikeforce, so I expect to see a Josh Thompson rematch before the year is out.

It goes without saying that Dan Henderson’s suddenly looking every bit of his 39 years of age is not the best case scenario for Strikeforce, but if you were looking for positives, then you could point to Jake Shields who proved to the world that he is no fluke, and that a Strikeforce champion is capable of dominating a fighter who was next in line for a UFC title shot against Anderson Silva before he jumped ship to Strikeforce. That means something, but unfortunately that meaning will be lost in the aftermath of the post fight assault on Jason Miller, and the UFC’s inevitable signing of Shields for a run at GSP’s belt.

-Jason Emanuel

If you want to watch the film in it’s entirety, then try this link.

-MMMA

-MMMA

Here’s a post fight quote from Dana White following UFC 112, “The arena tonight was incredible. The energy was amazing, and to end it the way that we did was an embarrassment for me, the Fertittas, the UFC and the sport in general.”

So at least we know that Dana White was willing to take responsibility for the main event of this past weekend’s disastrous UFC card.  Unfortunately for those of us that bought the PPV, the entire focus of Dana White’s embarassment (as expressed to the media) has been centered around Anderson Silva’s performance exclusively, which is really just the tip of the iceberg, but it does get to the heart of one of the main problems right now for the UFC and that is its sub par matchmaking. UFC 112 exposed that glaring weakness in a manner that would have caused serious damage to the entire UFC organization were they not far and away the most dominant company in the sport of MMA.

Bad matchmaking, 3 Examples

1. Renzo Gracie vs Matt Hughes: Renzo is 43 years old, and prior to UFC 112 he hadn’t competed in a high level MMA fight for several years.  He openly admits to training seriously for only the last six months, and a good portion of that time was devoted to first getting in shape, so that he could ultimately get into MMA shape.  Since Renzo considers Abu Dhabi to be his second home, and given the popularity of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu there, it made sense to to try and include a Gracie on the bill.  We get it, but how about matching Renzo against another jiu jitsu specialist?  Give the PPV fans and maybe more importantly those in attendance in Abu Dhabi what they paid to see, a legend doing what he does best.  Matt Hughes, for his part, looked disinterested the entire time, and there was never any doubt that he would win eventually.  He knew, we knew it, and worst of all, Renzo probably knew it at  the way point of round two.  Renzo wasn’t ready, Matt Hughes wasn’t willing to go to the ground with Renzo, and in the end no one came out smelling like roses.

2. BJ Penn vs Frankie Edgar: BJ Penn’s third fight in roughly six months, which is an ill advised schedule already, but then he is matched against a fighter that has lost to Gray Maynard, who most fans consider the true #1 contender after Kenny Florian.  The result is a less motivated BJ Penn than we saw in his last two fights against Florian and Sanchez. BJ Penn’s training camp returned to Hawaii for the first time since the GSP fight, and consequently BJ looked prematurely gassed and intent on grinding out a boring decision win over the hardworking, but utterly harmless (to Penn) challenger.  If we’ve learned anything in MMA, especially the UFC’s brand of MMA (and they would claim they have no control over the refs or judges), it’s that anything and everything can go haywire as soon as you put the fate of the bout in the hands of the judges.  So, while Frankie Edgar fought a smart fight, which was the style of fight that everyone in the world was expecting him to fight, the BJ Penn camp being the lone exception apparently, he never at any point put a beating on BJ Penn, and to even insinuate that he was dominant in any manner would only serve to expose you as an Edgar family member.  Check out the fightmetric statistical breakdown. The key error in the Edgar vs Penn matchup is that it wasn’t really neccesary, and now that Penn has relinquished his belt to Edgar, the UFC has completely undermined the career of one of its biggest stars.  BJ Penn has nowhere to go at this point, which is a long way from his assumed return to the welterweight division, and ultimately another run at the welterweight title.  To make matters worse, there doesn’t appear to be anything interesting awaiting him in the lightweight division either, and it’s all too clear what happens when BJ Penn lacks motivation.

3. Anderson Silva vs Demian Maia: The main bout of the three, and again you have a world class practioner of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, which is just what the doctor ordered for the UFC’s debut in Abu Dhabi.  Unfortunately, it would be the third fight in the row to basically be contested as a kickboxing match.  Similar to the Gracie vs Hughes fight, Maia would end up with his back on the mat numerous times, but Silva like Hughes was never going to engage him there.  Anderson Silva simply stood back and waited for the ref to stand Maia up again so that he could continue to absorb punishment to his already battered face, and when we weren’t witnessing a one sided beating at the hands of Silva, we had the pleasure of watching Maia chase Silva around in circles for almost the entirety of rounds four and five.  It was as pointless for Maia as it was frustrating for the viewing audience.  Was that the first time we’ve seen this kind of approach to fighting from Anderson Silva?  Sadly it wasn’t, and I’m not buying into the shock Dana White has been displaying in response to what is only the latest in a series of bizarre performances from the number one pound for pound fighter in MMA.  To be fair, Anderson Silva, like BJ Penn was in a lose-lose situation.  If he knocks out Maia, then who cares?  If he decisions Maia, then Silva didn’t train or focus enough.  If Maia beats Silva, then his age or cutting all that weight has finally caught up with Silva.  Somehow, Silva managed to create, once again, an entirely different scenario, which is an accomplishment on some twisted level.  Let’s face it, Anderson Silva is the best light heavyweight fighter in MMA.  He is also the best middleweight, and long ago cleared out the division.  Fighters move up, not down, especially fighters that have a walk around weight of well over 200 pounds.  Friendship or no friendship he should be fighting at 205 and trying to become its champion.  The UFC wasted his talent and time, and in return Anderson Silva wasted our time and money.  All this talk of Silva cutting down to 170 is ludicrous, and if UFC 112 wasn’t damaging enough to the organization, then just wait until they try to sell a bout that will be viewed not only as unsportsmanlike, but also a blatant attempt at revenge for the “embarassment” Silva brought White and the UFC.

- Jason Emanuel