I was suppose to blog during the event but I ended up twitting the whole night. Going back and forth with Zak Woods of Watchkalibrun. The televised portion started with us finding out the Hieron vs. Taylor fight was moved off the televised portion to fill time on the undercard.
We started off with the Heavyweight fight between Werdum vs. Kyle. The fight didn’t last long as Werdum locked up a guillotine chock on Kyle a minute into the fight. This really wasn’t much of a surprise as most figured the superior ground game of Werdum would show. We next moved onto the Interim Lightweight title fight between Gilbert Melendez & Mitsuhiro Ishida. Melendez was looking for revenge having already lost to Ishida back in 2007. Melendez looked great in the first two rounds with sharp, clean punches and solid take down defense. By the third round Melendez had worn down Ishida and finished him off by ground and pound. Next up was the Light Heavyweight championship fight between the champ Babalu Sobral & Gegard Mousasi. Didn’t get comfortable in this fight as Mousasi got top position on Babalu and landed several solid power shots that KO’d Babalu. Mousasi looked calm and unfazed as if it was just another day. The night ended with the main event Gina Carano vs. Cyborg Santos. Carano the all american knock out has been dubbed the face of female MMA. Santos is the aggresive hard hitting brazilian who many in the US had never heard of…. Until now! Santos came out like a bat out of hell preasuring Carano at all times. Santos took Carano down rather easily and was noticably stronger also. Carano did land some good shots on Santos but she was never in any real trouble. Santos took down Carano late in the first round and started landing some heavy bombs. Carano could do nothing and curled up in a ball as the ref stopped the fight right before the end of the round. Santos becomes the first ever strikeforce womens champion.
Besides the Hieron fight being moved off the main card the night was full of some good fights. Where Santos and Strikeforce go from here though is going to be interesting to see. Santos is nowhere near the marketable fighter the Carano is and I don’t know if you can sell a main event with Santos alone.
I ended up going 4-1 with my predictions putting me at 9-7 overall.
The holiday season is upon us and we are just days away from the jolly one coming down the chimney to bring those who have been good a little gift. If you were lucky enough to be on the “nice” list, you’ll be expecting your favorite video game, a good book or a pair of socks under the tree.
