Here's the video of last night's fight on the Strikeforce show. Cristiane Cyborg won by TKO at 4:59 of round one over Gina Carano to win the Strikeforce 145lb Women's Title. It went as expected. Cyborg's strategy is obvious and if Gina could have got through the last minute of the round, she might have been able to turn it around. But give Cyborg credit for sticking to her game plan and executing it. I've watched several of Gina's fights and the one thing I saw in this fight that I had never seen from her in the past was indeciseveness. She's usually very good at countering her opponent's strengths but she seemed very unsure of herself this time. Her biggest mistake was when she had Cyborg on the mat in a dominant position and got up. Frank Shamrock said something about it but there was never any follow up. A fighter must be able to adjust her game plan depending on the events of the fight but I guess Gina thought she could outpunch Cyborg. Big mistake. She should have kept pounding her. She was doing OK until Cyborg got her down with about a minute left. And it looks like that attempted V1 armbar submission took a lot out of her though Gina escaped. I see people complaining about the ref stoppage with one second left in the round but who knows if Gina could have come out for round two. Obviously it sets up a rematch. Afterwards, Randy Couture threw Gina under the bus and said she should train more consistently. Maybe you should have insisted on Gina doing a tuneup match...hmmm. So what's next for Cyborg? Marloes Coenen says she's next. But Strikeforce owner Scott Coker says that he is not only planning a 135lb title tournament bus also planning a 145lb number one contender tournament. At the same time? Yikes! It doesn't surprise me because Coker used to promote Las Vegas K-1 shows and they like to do tournaments. I think it's lazy matchmaking and also I don't think the 145lb talent pool is deep enough. I have no problem with a 135lb tournament. He could get talked out of doing a second tournament. So congratulations to Cristiane Cyborg for being the first Strikeforce Women's 145lb Champion. Enjoy the video.
Have a feeling Gina is no less surprised than myself. Those pre-fight interviews really gave it away, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteFrank, Defshepard here. Thank-you very much for the video of the fight. This fight tells me alot about the futrue of women's mma. Cyborg now set sthe pace. Thanks again. yours def
ReplyDeleteGina just didn't seem to be into this fight. I still love her though:)
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