I haven't had time to review the preliminary bouts yet, but I thought Strikeforce pulled off another invigorating event last night.  Strikeforce seems to demonstrate subtle improvements with each show, as I don't remember any glaring production flaws or noticeable gaffes from the commentary crew, and I always enjoy the action in the cage.


Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante overcame highly slanted odds to dismantle rising star Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal with a hostile flurry of knees and follow up punches in the 3rd round.  For a wrestler with incredible quickness and power like King Mo, Feijao executed a nearly perfect performance from a technical standpoint.  Feijao's footwork and reaction time was uncanny, he employed masterful use of underhooks and position in the clinch, and punctuated his stellar defensive tactics with tight combinations and aggressive kicks.  It was Feijao's crippling Muay Thai knees that turned the tide when he read King Mo carefully and deduced that the champ's punching flurries to the body left his chin wide open. 


The Black House talent defended well before planting an earth-shattering knee on Lawal's chin, and displayed excellent killer instincts by pressing after King Mo when he retreated to land a massive right hand that lead to the stoppage.  I was almost equally impressed with the humility of the new Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion's post-fight speech, in which he professed, "This is not about me," and went on to give all the credit to his team and trainers.  King Mo took the loss in stride and vowed to become a better fighter from it.  There's no question that we haven't seen the last of the electric King Mo, who we can't forget was only competing in his eighth professional fight against his second or third top-tier opponent.


It looked like Tim Kennedy was unsure how to engage BJJ phenom Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza in the middleweight championship that served as last night's co-main event.  Kennedy's specialty is usually a methodical but aggressive process of grounding his opponents and overwhelming them to a stoppage, so tangling with one of the planet's best submission grapplers on the ground or jousting with Jacare's quickly advancing boxing game were understandably less than appealing options.  In my opinion, his hesitancy cost him the fight.  He finally threw caution to the wind in the waning seconds of the fight when he latched on a strong body lock and nailed a powerful takedown that most of the crowd had been waiting five rounds to see.


With few circumstances of either fighter mounting any significant offense, Jacare's frenetically paced and aggressive striking probably tilted most of the rounds in his favor.  Jacare achieves a long awaited dream by adorning his waist with gold in the arena of full-contact fighting, and will be a force to be reckoned with for almost any 185-pounder in the game.


A couple of unique occurrences highlighted the opening two contests of the broadcast.  KJ Noons once again delivered a prime example of how effective "the sweet science" can be when applied effectively in MMA.  Jorge Gurgel, knowing he had his work cut out for him, threw everything he had at Noons on the feet.  Gurgel used excellent range and movement to keep Noons at bay, and mixed his strikes beautifully.  To compensate for Gurgel's high-output but only moderate power, Noons finally ducked in the pocket and covered up until he saw an opening to unleash a jaw-dropping combination that began before the bell, but completed just after it sounded.  I thought the late shot was clearly unintentional, but it begs the question on how that would be ruled should Gurgel have been unable to continue.


However, this is why I admire and appreciate Jorge Gurgel:  after getting blown off his feet with a left hook from hell, Jorge popped right back to his feet, walked to his corner, and high-fived Noons before opening up the second round with more fearless advancement.  He never complained once or even looked confused or concerned when he had a very legitimate reason to, while other fighters don't always take the same approach.  The second oddity came when the referee didn't commit to the stoppage after Noons rattled off a magnificent right-left hook combination that crumpled Gurgel, and Noons threw an illegal knee to the downed Gurgel while the ref fumbled and flailed around with his responsibility to fighter safety.  Though the illegal knee didn't connect, both the unintentional punch after the bell and the illegal blow after the stoppage could have been monumental controversies.


I can't understand the slightest shred of justification for the referee to stand the fighters when Chad Griggs was mounted by Bobby Lashley.  After the highly debated incident in the Duane "Bang" Ludwig vs. Genki Sudo fight in the UFC, the rule to restart the fighters in the same position after a cut check was instituted.  The reason?  So a fighter that had achieved a position of advantage would not be punished by losing it when fighter safety called for an examination of the injury.  I'm not 100% clear if the referee intervened to stand them up or to check Lashley's cut... but I don't really care.  Either was completely unacceptable to be restarted on the feet.  The result?  The fighter who had achieved a dominant position was punished by the referee for continuing the action on the feet. 


Griggs then sprawled a telegraphed Lashley single leg, and then had a hammerfist party on Lashley's head until the ref jumped in.  I've never even heard of any modern day MMA fight being restarted from mount; the closest example being Roy Nelson's infamous side-mount restart against Andrei Arlovksi, which also concluded poorly for the dominant ground fighter.  I can understand guard or even half-guard for a stand-up due to "inactivity", but this was absolutely ludicrous.  Lashley was fading quickly and wasn't wowing the crowd, but I prefer to see the fighters decide the fight--not the ref.

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