Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal Parting Shots

Another Strikeforce event is in the books, and with a new Showtime deal in place it will apparently be far from the last. It’s only appropriate that the promotion’s best remaining fighter, Gilbert Melendez, led us out of 2011 with a solid performance and successful title defense against the tough, but overwhelmed, Jorge Masvidal.

With apologies to both fighters, this was one of those fights that is not necessarily “boring”- the pace isn’t dreadfully slow and there’s no lack of action, per se- but is definitely a bit anticlimactic. Every now and then you get a fight where one fighter clearly displays from the onset that he does not have the right strategy to win (or the right toolset for the strategy he’s using, in any event), yet soldiers on anyway and loses one identical round after another.

It makes you wonder: did Masvidal at think he was winning? I know that fighters often have a much different perspective than us regarding who is landing the “better” shots; they may know that an opponent’s punches are not really harming them, for example. However, certainly Masvidal must have known that he was getting outworked? Maybe not, though, as he appeared to disagree with the judges’ decision, and as mentioned earlier, never bothered to increase the tempo or try a different strategy.

Conversely, credit has to be given to Melendez for wisely sticking with what was working and knowing that though the margin may have felt slim in the cage, the rounds were clearly in his favor to observers. I remarked right away in the live blog that Melendez seemed to be offended that he was advised not to stand with Masvidal, and he confirmed after the fight that he wanted to prove that he could do just that.

Despite the fact that he was much more marked-up than Masvidal, Melendez controlled the bout and appeared to land not only more strikes, but the better strikes, too. This fight provides yet more evidence that scoring based upon whose face looks worse is a bad, bad idea.

I’m not that down on Masvidal after the fight; Melendez is the second-best lightweight in the world, after all. Masvidal’s takedown defense was good and his toughness has never been questioned. However, I do worry about his ability to turn it up a bit when what he’s doing isn’t working well enough. His complacency is going to be a problem if he continues to be oblivious to the fact that he’s dropping round after round to a more aggressive opponent.

Cyborg vs. Rousey would be a mistake

So, we saw Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos absolutely rip through another defenseless opponent on Saturday night, proving once again that “ring rust” does not apply to those who live in the gym. Immediately after, all of the armchair matchmakers started crying for one fight in particular: Cyborg vs. Ronda Rousey.

The problem is that Rousey has been a pro for all of nine months. If you want to count her three amateur fights, you can say she’s been fighting for a year and four months. In what alternate universe does that make someone ready to face the likes of Cyborg?

I get it. The women’s 145-pound division is not exactly stacked. Why should Rousey be sacrificed due to the ineptitude of her peers, though? Fans seem perfectly happy with watching Cyborg feast upon the unwisely unwary in the cage at the time being, so just keep throwing in whatever veterans you can find in the meanwhile.

If you, like most, are making both the argument that a)Cyborg is so good that there’s a shortage of opponents for her and b)Rousey would be an ideal opponent, I think there’s a contradiction there. A 4-0 fighter with a little over a year of actual fighting experience (I’m aware of her past in judo) is the best possible challenger for the best female fighter in the world?

There is another, more troubling issue here. That issue is that very few prospects in MMA are built properly. Time after time they are forced to ascend too far, too fast, because promoters start drooling about the possibilities and simultaneously worrying that if they don’t strike while the iron’s hot, the prospect will lose and the momentum (and ticket/PPV sales) will be lost.

Look at it this way, though. Let’s say Cyborg fights twice in 2012. Meanwhile, Rousey fights three times, looking great in all three. The two finally face off in early 2013. Isn’t that a much more highly-anticipated fight, then? Whatever happened to letting anticipation build up for a big matchup? Sure, we all would have loved to have seen Silva-GSP by now, but would anyone say that there is less anticipation for that fight now than there was two or three years ago?

Adventures in Refereeing

Referee Steven Davis makes the short list of most annoying referees I’ve ever had to try to ignore in the course of an MMA bout. For fifteen minutes of Gegard Mousasi vs. Ovince St. Preux, Davis made it his mission to affect the fight himself whenever possible and make sure his voice was heard on TV approximately every twenty seconds, to boot.

It was at its worst in the second round, when Mousasi was stood up from side control halfway through the round as he was actively striking St. Preux. St. Preux got a takedown afterward, meaning that if he could control or do damage for the rest of the round, he could have conceivably won the round because of the referee’s bone-headed decision to stand it up in the first place. Thankfully, Davis waited all of fifteen seconds before he began badgering St. Preux to improve his position, which I think led to St. Preux getting too aggressive and allowing Mousasi to stand in the process.

In the third round, Davis continued to referee as if he thought that constantly talking to the fighters is the way to exert control over a bout, warning them to not hit the back of the head when they weren’t hitting the back of the head, as well as continuing to tell both men to be more active within 15 seconds of the fight hitting the mat. Someone needs to tell Davis to lay off the coffee and remind him that fights should be decided by the fighters, not the referee. A stand-up is a last resort to prevent stalling, not a way to ensure the fans aren’t disappointed when a fight doesn’t resemble a Toughman contest.

Movin’ On Up Award

It seems strange to give an award that is regularly given to prospects to Gegard Mousasi, but Mousasi has fought back from his setback to Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal and is now in line for a shot at the vacant light heavyweight title. King Mo and Mousasi will inevitably tangle again (they are what, two-thirds of the entire remaining division?), and it’ll be interesting to see if Mousasi can exert a bit more control over where the fight takes place next time around.

Holy $#!% Award

Is there anyone who regularly makes other professional MMA fighters look like untrained, intimidated victims the way that Cyborg does? Everybody she fights knows what she’s going to do, and yet they get in there and still get a look on their face like, “What the-?!?” and then wilt under the pressure.

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Tags: Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos, Gegard Mousasi, Gilbert Melendez, Jorge Masvidal, Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal, Ovince St. Preux, Strikeforce, Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal