Strikeforce Challengers Report

Sorry this is up late. Internet connection sucked and I finally got it to work after paying $15 for Verizon access on my laptop. So this better be a great fucking show!

1. Steve Hadsel beat Taylor Roberts via knockout in 17 seconds.

2. Len Bentley beat Marques Daniels via unanimous decision.

3. Landon "The Show" Showalter vs. George Stork. Showalter had a lot of fans here. Right now we're at less than 1,000 in the building (Showare seats 6,000), though I believe they moved the start time forward or at least listed an official start time that was different from what was on the tickets. I'd expect people to start showing up closer to the TV start time at 8 PM PST. Len was getting the better of the stand-up, in particular rocking him with a series of knees in the second round. People were chanting "SHOW!" I was waiting for Paul Wight to run in and chokeslam them both. George refused to quit, but had nothing left. I was baffled he survived the second round. He was just walking towards Show like a zombie in the third, eating punches the entire time. He managed to get Show down at one point, but couldn't do much except hold onto him. They had a low-level Frye/Takayama spot, with Show hitting one particularly ugly elbow. Show got the decision win.

4. Duane "Bang" Ludwig vs. Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm. Lyle is the guy in the meth article we linked to in today's news update. Last time I saw Lyle fight he wore, true to his nickname, the most obscenely absurd pair of wacky multicolored trunks you ever saw. The fans went nuts for him and chanted "BEER BONG!" Tonight, he wore the trunks, but sadly he wore a traditional pair of board shorts over the top. No buys. He took Ludwig right down and controlled him from the top. Duane started to escape, and in doing so kicked Fancy Pants right in his fancy face as Lyle was on all fours. Ref stopped it and deducted a point. Duane was literally running from the takedown, but Fancy was all over him. Lyle ended up tapping him out with an old-school cranking headlock. He looked great here.

5. Alex Zuniga vs. Brian Caraway. Caraway took him right down and started grinding on him against the cage. Alex moved to half guard but Brian got his back. He worked for a choke and finally got it with ten seconds left. Alex held on and was saved by the bell. Caraway took him down again in the second and immediately got his back, leaving him almost five minutes to try to get the choke. Alex managed to escape. Caraway landing shots on the feet, then got another takedown. Has to be 20-18 Caraway at this point. "Worst ring girls since the old UFC's," Admin Tony texted at this point. "Girls of Kent." More of the same in the third. Takedown by Caraway and domination from the top. Mauro Ranallo and his crew appeared to be doing the show open at this point, which was odd because there was a fight going on directly behind them. Caraway mounted him. Alex tried a spinning backfist with ten seconds left. Missed by a mile. Caraway rocked him with one last kick and it ended. Boring fight. 30-27 for Caraway.

Word is that they're handing out tickets so people can move down closer to the cage. I'd say maybe 1,500 in here at this point. They've already outdrawn TNA from a few weeks back.

They're plugging the Affliction PPV constantly. And I have yet to hear a single mention of Gina Carano or Cris Cybrog.

6. Justin Davis vs. Dennis Hallman. These guys didn't even get ring entrances, they just put them in the cage, introduced them, and it was on. Not sure what the concern was, as there are 24 minutes until the main card begins. Hallman then took him down, got his back and choked him out in like 10 seconds. Davis was taking this on like a day's notice, so I'm not sure what anyone expected. Huge pop for the win.

Place has filled up a bit. I'd say we're at 3,500 or so.

And we're live on Showtime.

7. Luke Rockhold vs. Cory Devela. Cory was super over with the locals since he's from the area. He was also the one that beat Joe Riggs via hard slam at the last Strikeforce show. Rockhold stunned him early with a shot, then pounced, delivered shot after shot after shot from the back, the clamped on a rear-naked choke for the submission. Devela could barely stand afterwards, all wobbly-legged. Complete destruction.

8. Shayna Baszler vs. Sarah Kaufman. They traded standing early, then Shayna took her down. She got north-south and everyone was whistling. That shouldn't make me laugh. I should note that in anticipation of Gina vs. Cyborg these were five-minute rounds. Sarah swept her. Ref got bored and stood them up. OK first round. Josh Barnett is there in Shayna's corner. Sarah was landing some hard shots in the second. Shayna needs to take her down or it's going to be a long night for her. Or a short night, however you want to look at it. Sarah chipped away at her all round, then in the final five seconds they threw a wild series back and forth. Things not looking good for Shayna. She shot in early in the third but got stuffed. At least she was on the ground, though. Sarah pounded on her from half guard. I wonder how much advance notice they got that this was three five-minute rounds, because the Carano vs. Cyborg decision was made just a couple weeks back. If they only had a week's notice, God it sucks to be them. Sarah let her up for more doom. Sarah was now taking her down, punching her a few times, and letting her back up for more. She trapped her against the cage with a minute left and unleashed a series. With 25 seconds left Shayna dropped down and tried a kneebar, but it wasn't happening. Kaufman got the unanimous decision.

I LOL'd when Quadros' first question to her is, "Going the distance twice in a row, what's going on?"

Mauro Ranallo did an interview with Josh Barnett about the Fedor fight. Yes, they're interviewing people for the Affliction PPV but still NOTHING for Carano vs. Cyborg.

9. Conor Heun vs. Jorge Gurgel, formerly of UFC fame. Conor forgot his mouthpiece or something as he suddenly, in the middle of his entrance, ran backstage. LIVE TV, EVERYONE. Gurgel looks like that one fucking guy from Night at the Roxbury. Better tan though. Chris Kattan. Gurgel was hitting hard shots standing, lots of leg kicks. Conor kept moving forward and had him on the run at points. More of the same with Gurgel in that he refused to even attempt a takedown to show off his jiu jitsu. I guess he's trying to prove they had a good reason to cut him. Conor started to land a bunch of shots standing and Jorge's face was all bloody. People were screaming for Jorge to take him down. Probably the same people that have been screaming that for years now. They had an awesome exchange and the place went nuts. Conor just kept stalking him. If Jorge loses this fight without even attempting a takedown he needs to take up a new sport. I'd say go back to school, but seriously now. On the bright side, huge standing ovation when the round was over. Conor tried a wacky spin kick in the third and people laughed. They had a scramble and actually ended up ON THE GROUND. Gurgel passed his guard. If he stands up I'm walking out. People were chanting "KNEE!" as he was in side control. Instead, HE STOOD UP. JESUS CHRIST. He started doing jumping jacks to get the people into it. Another standing ovation when the round ended. Well, they had a great fight, though somewhat irritating. So it went to the judges and they gave it to Gurgel with one 29-28 and two 30-27s. Well, I figured they would.

After the fight, Quadros basically asked why, if he had such great jiu-jitsu, Jorge basically had a kickboxing match here. Jorge said, and I quote: "Have you seen my fights?" OK, that made me laugh.

Conor cut a great promo about how you needed to set goals and ACHIEVE THEM~! He was great.

We finally got a great Cyborg vs. Carano video package. No idea why they couldn't do a live interview.

10. Nick "The Goat" Thompson vs. Tim Kennedy. Everyone around me is talking about how annoying Gurgel was to not take the fucking guy down and show off his jiu-jitsu. So it's not just me. The Goat has a shaved head and a mighty beard, making him a loveable type. He did come in looking a bit soft. They said this fight was brought to us by Affliction. They ended up on the ground within 20 seconds and Thompson went for a straight Kimura. Didn't get it and Tim got his back. They fought for position. Tim got side control, then mounted him. The Goat squirmed his way out but Tim still maintained control. Good showing by Tim this round. More of the same in the second with Tim just controlling him on the ground. I noticed for the first time the ref telling the guys to go for a submission or he'd stand them up. And this was when Tim was on top just going to work on him. Apparently this had been happening all night and was pissing people off. He was so active, in fact, that he landed a series of punches and the Goat tapped out. From strikes. Well, they say goats will eat anything and he ate a shitload of shots here. Hell of a showing by Kennedy.

Tim did an excited promo afterwards, perhaps too excited, and people didn't know what to make of him live. There were even some boos. He said he was BACK and ready to kick ASS. He did a shout-out to Fort Lewis in Tacoma and everyone cheered.

11. Main event: Smokin Joe Villasenor vs. Evangelista "Mr. Cyborg" Santos. A kickboxing match early. Cantos was landing some HARD leg kicks. Joe got him to the mat but Santos pulled him into guard. The ref was demanding action while Villansenor was in half guard. Now I can't ignore the guy. More good exchanges in the second. Someone from Chute Box kept screaming "HEY!" and if he wasn't, well, from CHUTE BOX I would have considered going over and attempting to choke him out. Apparently this was all you could hear on TV as well. Cyborg was landing lots of forearm shots. Think about how close they would have had to have been to each other to pull that off. Partial standing ovation after that round. Joe tried a takedown in the third but failed. He ended up in the guard. Joe slipped out in a great escape and it was back to the feet. Cyborg looked the more gassed of the two. Wonder how that bodes for Mrs. Cyborg going five rounds with Gina in August. He was also bleeding over his left eye. His chin was sticking out and Joey was chipping away at it. Big ovation with a minute left. They really started unloading on each other. Turned into a pretty damn good fight by the end and the people loved it. With that said, people were starting to clear out before the announcement was read.

It was a split decision. Didn't expect that. Turned out it was 29-28 Joey, 29-28 Cyborg, and 29-28 for Joey, so Joey won.

That's it from here, thanks for joining us! Dave and I will be back tomorrow after UFC!~!