Melendez, Smith, Cerrone Victorious on a Fight-Filled Weekend

For fight fans on a limited budget, this weekend was definitely a Christmas gift from the powers that be in the MMA world, as we were treated to not one, but two great cards on Saturday night.  Versus featured WEC 45, with a main event between Donald Cerrone and Ed Ratcliff, while Strikeforce provided their “Evolution” card, featuring a lightweight title rematch and a return of the ever-popular Cung Le.

Unfortunately, Cung Le came up short in his return fight against heavy-handed veteran Scott Smith.  Smith continues to prove that he never stops being dangerous in a fight, as he took a beating for nearly three full rounds before landing a short left hook that wobbled Le, turning the tide in an instant.  Smith shook off any wear and tear he had accumulated from Le’s kicks long enough to keep the pressure on, eventually landing punches that appeared to break Le’s nose before pounding out the referee stoppage on the ground.

It was an exciting, unpredictable finish from a night that supplied a little bit of everything.  In the fight for the Strikeforce Lightweight Championship, Josh Thomson likely won the first round, but didn’t have much success after that, as Gilbert Melendez out-struck him and put him down on the mat a few times throughout the rest of the fight, winning a five-round decision.  In the fight, Thomson was less able to utilize his kicks successfully than in the previous installment, and Melendez (though he did attempt takedowns periodically) was more than pleased to let Thomson come forward and dish out punches in bunches.

Strikeforce newcomer Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal showed promise, if not a lot of class, in his quick stoppage of the well-traveled UFC veteran Mike Whitehead.  Whitehead pursued King Mo aggressively, as Lawal lowered his hands frequently and throw big, looping punches whenever given the chance.  Eventually, his heavy blows connected and he vacated Whitehead from his senses on the ground immediately after. 

Unfortunately, he decided after that to crack open his energy drinks “Stone Cold” Steve Austin-style, spilling all over the mat, those anywhere near him, and even on his fallen opponent, according to many reports.  Maybe King Mo thought he was the main event?  Spilling your nasty drink all over the mat when there are fights left to be fought is pretty bad form, especially from someone who has done a lot of talking and not a lot of walking so far in his MMA career.  You can appreciate Mo’s confidence, but bigger wins than Whitehead and Travis Wiuff would be expected before one acts like a top-level fighter who just did something amazing in the cage, right?

On a better note, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza made a great first impression on Strikeforce fans without making a fool of himself by beating a legitimate top middleweight decisively in his submission win over Matt Lindland.  For much of the fight, the fighters fought standing, with Jacare definitely throwing the crisper, more accurate strikes over his rather awkward opponent.  Jacare was actually winning the standup and when the fight hit the mat, he quickly secured a deep arm bar that appeared to nearly finish the fight halfway through the round.  From there, he transitioned to an omaplata, which Lindland escaped, but only  a couple minutes later, Lindland was tapping out to a head and arm triangle, anyway. 

Elsewhere on the card, Antwain Britt dominated Scott Lighty, who couldn’t continue to the second round, while Justin Wilcox and Alexander Crispim took unanimous decisions against Daisuke Nakamura and AJ Fonseca, respectively.

In the WEC 45 main event, Donald Cerrone moved back towards title contention with a win in an exciting bout against the game Ed Ratcliff.  Cerrone won rounds 1 and 2 for sure, but still needed a big third round, as he was penalized one point in each of the first two rounds for low blows.  Still, Ratcliff pressed on in a fight with a torrid pace throughout, until getting himself into trouble on the mat late in the third round.  At the fight’s culmination, Cerrone took Ratcliff’s back and applied an inverted triangle choke, then seized one of Ratcliff’s legs, pulling towards him in a painful-looking kneebar for good measure.  Still, Ratcliff didn’t tap (mentioning in the post fight press conference that he is very flexible), and Cerrone had to use the more traditional rear naked choke for the finish moments later.

Meanwhile, in a moment reminiscent of Yves Edwards’ kick on Josh Thomson years ago, Anthony Njokuani landed a brilliant head kick on Chris Horodecki as Horodecki turned his back and scampered away in their bout.  Horodecki was trying to get a little space between him and his opponent in the middle of a first round where Horodecki had been putting forth a good showing against the WEC veteran, and it turned out to be a huge mistake, as Njokuani was able to pound on Horodecki after the kick floored him to get the TKO win.

In a quick and explosive finish, Joseph Benavidez showed great counters to Rani Yahya’s jabs in their bout, eventually putting his opponent down for good when he countered one of the jabs with a powerful hook.  Benavidez got the stoppage directly after, and got back on the winning track after his first career loss (to Dominick Cruz) in his previous bout.

The prelims were full of hard-fought decisions with two exceptions.  Kyle Dietz tapped out to a Peruvian neck tie against Brad Pickett, who was able to control their fight with his takedowns and submission attempts.  There were plenty of wild moments in the standup portion, with both fighters swinging aggressively, but in the end, it was the lack of takedown defense that haunted Dietz and helped Pickett pick up the win.  Meanwhile, after some exciting standup with both fighters swinging for the fences, Brandon Visher overwhelmed Courtney Buck and put him away for good with a string of hammerfists just before the end of the first round.  In the other bouts, Erik Koch defeated Jameel Massouh, Chad George bested John Hosman, and Zach Micklewright topped Muhsin Corbbrey, all by unanimous decision.  Bart Palaszewski came out on top over Anthony Pettis by split decision in a very close bout, as well.

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