Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Marloes Coenen vs Liz Carmouche

OK videoholics. Here's the match video from Marloes Coenen defending her 135lb Championship against Liz Carmouche at last night's Strikeforce show in Columbus, OH. Liz was a late replacement for an injured Miesha Tate. She's very strong and I thought her lack of experience would turn out to be her downfall. And that's what happened. She did great and was winning. Marloes also showed what she's made of by weathering the storm and then pulling out one of her trademark submissions. I've seen her do that before so I wasn't that surprised. So round one was a wash. Neither of them did much. But in round two, things got interesting. Marloes hooked a standing guillotine choke. She said afterwards she wasn't able to sink it in as she would have liked. There was talk on Twitter last night that Liz tapped but the ref didn't see it. I don't think she tapped and moments later she escaped and took Marloes down and pounded her for the rest of the round. So why wasn't Marloes able to escape? Liz was sitting on her very high on the upper body. And though it made a reverse difficult, it also helped Marloes defend with her elbows. Liz landed some blows but a lot of them were blocked. As Marloes said afterwards, I think it looked worse than it was. Round three was a repeat of round two with more ground and pound by Liz. So if a fighter is taking a pounding for two straight rounds, why wasn't it stopped? Because it wasn't as effective as it looked. Marloes' trainer Martijn DeJong says he told the ref that Marloes uses her elbows as defense. So Liz won both rounds 10-9 because Marloes' defense was still sound even while Liz is sitting on her. So now Marloes goes for a takedown in round four and Liz gets up and goes for a takedown. Marloes stuffs it but they both go down. So are we going to see more pounding by Liz? This time she's not sitting on Marloes. Marloes starts on the side and then Liz does take the top. But again she's not sitting on Marloes. Marloes is very dangerous in this position. She looks for an arm but doesn't get it. In her attempt to get on top of Marloes again, Liz falls into a triangle choke and it's over. Marloes retains her title by submission. That's what ten years of experience does for a fighter. Marloes Coenen took a pounding but kept her head. She didn't panic and she finished the fight when she got the opportunity. That is the mark of a great fighter. And Liz Carmouche is pretty good too and I'm sure we'll see more from her in the future. Obviously Miesha Tate is next on Marloes' dance card and she also said she wants another shot at Cris Cyborg. This was the fight of the night. Enjoy it!