MMA Mailbag: Strikeforce Wrap Up
Added on Jun 22, 2011 by John Petit in
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The questions really piled up from the Overeem Vs Werdum card so I felt obligated to do a Mailbag for this card. We were left with a lot of questions after the final bell. As always, if you have any questions about MMA please send them to my twitter which is www.twitter.com/scream13 . I answer most of them on there, but the better ones make it to the write up. I always love hearing from fans so hit me up there.
Q: Strikeforce billed the heavyweight grand prix as the best heavyweights in the world, and the winner would be a clear number 1 overall. Do you think that statement is still true?
JMP: No, I do not. Joe Rogan tweeted after the main event that the main event winner was Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos, and I couldn’t agree more. We were sold on Overeem vs Werdum as being the best striker in the HWT division vs the best BJJ fighter in the division, and we saw nothing of the sort. Actually, I can’t think of anyway how this fight could have gone worse overall. The Strikeforce champion/ K1 elite level striker was out landed overall in the fight by a ground fighter who pulled guard every chance he got. The worse news, When Werdum managed to pull guard he didn’t even close his guard to keep the control of Overeem and he would just stand up.
Also, for the record I scored the fight a draw, and I really wish we saw a fourth sudden death round. Some people scored the fight for Werdum overall, but I had a draw in the first round and the second to Overeem with the third going to Werdum.
Q: Did Valentijn Overeem tap to the strikes, and why did it go down as a knock out?
JMP: Valentijn did in fact tap to the strikes, and that confused me as well. It also really looked the referee responded to the tap when Overeem tapped. That was when he stopped the fight. However, and this does little good, but the fight was turned into a technical knock out by the TDLR which is the Texas athletic commission. Overeem has done this before, and even though he has to live under his brothers shadow in the sport, I expected more from him. A fantastic showing Griggs, and he tooled Overeem for almost the whole 2 minutes the fight took place.
If someone didn’t see the tapout by Overeem I could understand the TKO ruling as he was just turtling up, but the video shows him submitting to strikes and thats how it should be listed.
Q: What happened to Connor Heun? Was he injured in the fight?
JMP: He sure is. The last I read was that he had a broken arm and a broken leg. Photographer Tracy Lee from Combat Lifestyles has a gruesome picture of his arm, and its obviously broke. When asked why he didn’t tap to the arm bar, or knee bar, he answered on twitter that he didn’t because he was smart. His injury to his arm looked severe to me, as in long term damage, and I sure hope he makes a full recovery. He showed a lot of heart, but not a lot of brains.
Q: Is Jorge Masividal going to fight Gilbert Melendez next for the belt? Do you think they will move Melendes to the UFC before then?
JMP: It was billed as a title eliminator, and I think Strikeforce will stick to that. I expect them to fight in about 4-5 months, but it is still very tentative. As far as bring Melendez over to the UFC, I am not sure they will be doing that anytime soon. I think Diaz is the exception to the rule on this one as Georges St. Pierre had cleaned out the division, and Nick Diaz cleaned out his division. Neither of them had anyone to fight, and when the fans started asking for it Dana White responded. Thats the one thing you have to give to Dana, when the fans respond like they did he always tries to make it happen. With the log jam of contenders and Edgar Maynard 3 happening it doesn’t make a lot of sense to bring Melendez over now. When Gilbert gets to the UFC, and its just a matter of time, I expect him to be just as competitive as he is in Strikeforce. I can see him beating a lot of UFC lightweights.
