Sunday, January 30, 2011

Germaine De Randamie wins her Strikeforce debut but needs to work on her ground game

So here's the match video for Germaine De Randamie's Strikeforce debut against Stephanie Webber from last night's show in San Jose. Of course Germaine is the celebrated Dutch kickboxer attempting to transition to MMA. We've seen a lot of kickboxers and boxers attempt this transition with mixed results. Germaine won in the first round by KO with a knee. She's great on her feet you'll see that she's not very good on the ground yet. Fortunately, Stephanie didn't do anything with her when she took Germaine down. So Germaine was able to get the fight standing again and finished Stephanie soon after. The fight was contracted for 135lb. But I would not be surprised to see Germaine move up to 145lb down the road.  I expect her to stay at 135 for now as there are more fighters available at that weight. But she has the size to be at 145. She was much bigger and stronger than Stephanie. And Germaine admitted in an post-match interview with Ariel Helwani that she needs a lot of work on the ground. I don't know how long it will take for her to develop. Based on this performance, she's not close to being ready for someone as accomplished as Shayna Bazsler or Amanda Nunes. And she may have to fight outside Strikeforce to get the experience she needs. She needs more time but will she get it? Enjoy the video!

1 comment:

  1. Talk of being thrown to the wolves !
    Randamie has real talent and tons of fights under her belt, looks like she will fight up a weight level too.

    Give Stephanie props for heart.

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