1) Cory Devela vs. Luke Rockhold: Rockhold has been dinged up a little and that's prevented him from getting the next big step he's earned by beating Jesse Taylor, Paul Bradley, and, uhh. Not to spoil anything here.
FIGHT: Rockhold Submission Rnd 1. Rockhold drops Devela coming in with a right hand and then adds on some more punches having taken the back, then gets a rear naked choke sunk in all of 30 seconds. (2)
2) Sarah Kaufman vs. Shayna Baszler: Baszler comes out wearing a Flying V. That's the most interesting thing about them personally. This is one of the first women's bouts with 5 minute rounds.
FIGHT: Kaufman Unanimous Decision (3)
Baszler: Baszler gets the fight down early and looks like she's gonna dominate with superior grappling...but doesn't. She goes for a funny choke using the knee to close off half of the carotid that ends up getting her swept, and from that point on she never looks totally in control of the fight. As the fight goes back to the feet, it rarely ever becomes a battle of grappling, and that means Baszler is at a huge disadvantage. She eats low kicks and punches en route to losing.
Kaufman: She clearly wins the second and third, and thusly the fight, but man, I don't like her punches. Her takedown defense is actually pretty iffy too, as Baszler gets deep with a double she doesn't set up from way outside. Good thing women's MMA is pretty weak.
3) Conor Heun vs. Jorge Gurgel: Another Gurgel fight to watch. I should have a tag for him.
FIGHT: Gurgel Unanimous Decision. This is classic Gurgel as slugger contest. (1)
Gurgel: Yet again for the billionth time, Gurgel says "Hey this guy can grapple! That's an excuse to punch and kick!" And yeah, they trade and people get shook up and Gurgel is cut in multiple places and whatever, but on a personal level, I don't care to see this any more. Its just frustrating. More than that, its just dull. The guy is a BJJ black belt who never uses his skills, which makes you really wonder whether or not his skills are half as good as they are believed to be. Gurgel still makes a lot of really basic errors like pulling straight back.
Heun: Heun is young, rangier, bigger, and yet he's inexperienced and follows Gurgel around the ring. Sure, he busts up Gurgel, but he's tagged so much otherwise that he loses 30-27 on two cards. He probably should have looked for a takedown or something. In a fight where Gurgel was at a number of disadvantages, Heun did nothing to take advantage.
4) Nick Thompson vs. Tim Kennedy: Kennedy's first big comeback fight for Strikeforce from military service. Thompson meets him having moved up to 185, and honestly, he looks bigger than Kennedy.
FIGHT: Kennedy TKO Rnd 2. This is technically a submission by strikes, but one of these days people will regroup those. Watch.
Kennedy controls this fight from the get go. He has a really fast shot that Thompson is unprepared for and he's so active on the mat that once he gets his takedowns, Thompson doesn't get up. He has the back for what seems like forever in the first and in the second is consistently transitioning between positions. Unlike someone like Ben Askren, who does a lot of positional changes, Kennedy is much more effective striking during these changes. He pops Thompson pretty fiercely in the second and that forces The Goat to turn over and tap. Tim is all basics and that's why he's successful. (3)
5) Joey Villasenor vs. Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos: Who doesn't love a fight between scrappy middleweights? Santos' prefight interview makes him look hood as fuck.
FIGHT: Villasenor Split Decision. Close fight. Could have gone either way.
Villasenor: Joey seemed to be last to tire out and it was only by a minute or so, but in the 8 minutes that he was really doing good work, I think it was clearly better than Santos'. He threw some effective leg kicks, some decent straight punches, forced Santos to come to him wildly and made him pay. But then he got tired, Santos got a takedown, and started putting together strikes of his own. Villasenor didn't win the third but it didn't matter in the end.
Santos: You can see the gameplan slowly fade away as Cyborg once more retreats into slugger mode. By the middle of the second round, he has given up on straightening his punches and they're looping and wild. He is beaten to the punch by Villasenor early on while Villasenor has snap on his straighter stuff, but once he gets wild, Cyborg can bring heat. With the Diaz fight coming up in a couple nights, it'll be very very interesting to see how precisely Diaz reacts to Cyborg's pressure and to see if Cyborg can fight a full 15, much less 25 (should it get that far) minutes. I tend to think he's gonna gas but give Nick a rough opening round. (3)
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Santos/Villasenor
KO OF THE NIGHT: Kennedy/Thompson
SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Rockhold/Devela
OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 7 out of 10. The fights were OK, and most people would probably like the Heun/Gurgel fight more than I. I've watched a few of these events recently that I haven't reviewed (at some point I'll revisit them when some more time has been put between them and now) and honestly, this is probably the best ShoMMA show I've seen. Not that it means much because so many of them are achingly mediocre, but still.
D&R Rating: 48% (12/25)
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