Sunday, February 28, 2010

Sarah Kaufman is the Strikeforce 135lb Women's Champion

OK gang. Once again it's time for Big Bad Blog Video Theatre. For those of you who did not get to see Friday's 135lb Strikeforce Women's Championship match between Sarah Kaufman and Takayo Hashi, here's the complete video. Of course you may have trouble staying awake. It just wasn't very good. Hashi was the main culprit. She said last week that she wanted to trade punches with Sarah despite being a submission specialist. So Sarah knocked her down a couple of times in round one. Sarah didn't persue her on the ground and let her get up. Fans mistakenly assume that Sarah is a one dimensional fighter. She isn't but she prefers standing and trading punches. So her strategy as dictated by her coach Adam Zugec was if Hashi wants to stand up, let her. The problem was it made for a boring fight because Hashi insisted on continuing this poor strategy. Mostly she tried to avoid getting hit and didn't try for takedowns until later in the fight. And Sarah has such a low center of gravity, she's difficult to take down anyway. I guess Hashi thought she could wear Sarah out. Ain't happening. In fact, Hashi ran out of gas. She fought like she was more interested in surviving five rounds than winning. And she's an experienced fighter who should know better. Sarah explained afterwards that Hashi was backpedaling and that made her difficult to hit. But the problem was fans in San Jose left after round two stunk out the joint. Part of the problem was that the previous match between San Jose resident Trevor Prangley and Karl Amoussou ended in a technical draw when Amoussou was poked in the eye. And the fans weren't familiar with either of the women. And as I've said before, that's on Strikeforce for not promoting the fight properly. But congratulations to Sarah Kaufman and her trainer Adam Zugec for winning the title. She's going to be tough to beat. Who's next? Probably the winner of next month's Meisha Tate/Zoila Frausto match. And don't forget the 135lb #1 contender tournament is coming up. Enjoy the video.

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