Brawling, Complaining and Poor Judging Punctuate Strikeforce: Noons vs. Diaz 2

Strikeforce often delivers entertaining MMA, and tonight was no exception. We had a little of just about everything, from entertaining brawls to close submission attempts, along with some post-fight complaints and a little bit of trash talk, to boot. Through it all, one champion managed to retain his title…another champion lost hers.

The not-so long awaited rematch between Nick Diaz and KJ Noons was a solid fight (though not one of the best MMA title fights ever, as Mauro Ranallo announced after apparently using a lot of hallucinogenic drugs) most notable for the brawling and consistent trash talk between the two fighters.

The two talked almost from the get-go, and it was nothing new coming from Diaz, who has talked trash during fights with everyone from Robbie Lawler to Frank Shamrock. However, it was a bit surprising to see Noons get into the action, even verbally rubbing it in when he cut Diaz (the last fight ended with a doctor’s stoppage due to a cut on Diaz’s face).

In the end, Diaz’s always-sneaky power and nice mixing of strikes to the head and body prevailed, as he took a unanimous decision by scores of 48-47, 49-47, 49-46. Afterwards, Diaz said he was better in every facet of the game than Noons and even said he’d beat Noons in a straight-up boxing match. Noons undoubtedly would not agree, but he had little to say since he wasn’t in the best position to argue after soundly losing a bout that almost entirely took place on the feet.

In what may have been a fight for a title shot, Josh Thomson squeaked out a very close decision against Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante that many will think he should have lost. The first round could have gone either way, the second was definitely Thomson, and the third was definitely JZ’s, but that didn’t stop one utterly clueless judge from scoring the bout 30-27 in favor of Thomson.

Either way, the horribly-scored third round didn’t really matter, since even a more realistic scorecard from the third judge would have resulted in the same decision in the end. The fight itself was very competitive, and Thomson would have likely lost a split decision if he hadn’t closed out the first round with a very tight arm triangle before running out of time. Cavalcante looked okay, but Thomson looked a bit less energetic than usual after what was said to be a rough training camp.

Sarah Kaufman was unhappy for a couple of reasons after her fight with Marloes Coenen. The first reason, of course, would be that she may have been on her way to a decision win before getting too aggressive on the mat and punching her way into a submission loss via arm bar. The second reason is that she obviously believed that Coenen held the arm bar for too long after she tapped. Coenen seemed to opt to wait until the referee physically stepped in to release the hold, which many Brazilian fighters choose to do. Kaufman immediately complained about the situation, though Coenen apologized profusely and Kaufman appeared to accept her apology.

Finally, Tyron Woodley may have fast-tracked himself for a shot at Nick Diaz’s welterweight title after a win over Andre Galvao. In just under two minutes of the first round, Woodley easily stopped Galvao’s takedown attempts and punished him with punches whenever possible. The stoppage came after another failed takedown and two landed punches by Woodley. It may have been a bit early, but Galvao, who tasted Woodley’s power early and didn’t appear to like it, didn’t argue the stoppage at all after the fight was over.

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Tags: Andre Galvao, Gesias Cavalcante, Josh Thomson, KJ Noons, Marloes Coenen, Nick Diaz, Sarah Kaufman, Strikeforce, Tyron Woodley