« Shu Hirata makes the right call | Home | Quick thoughts on Showtime broadcast of Strikeforce 4/11 San Jose event »
Strikeforce 4/11 San Jose (HP Pavilion)
By Zach Arnold | April 11, 2009
Event results: Observer | USA Today | MMA Weekly | Sherdog | MMA Torch | MMA Junkie | Bloody Elbow | Fanhouse
At the San Jose Arena, 7 PM PST local start time
Dark matches
- Bantamweights (135 pounds): Shingo Kohara (debut) vs. Jeremy Tavares
- Welterweights (170 pounds): Zak Bucia vs. James Terry
- Middleweights (185 pounds): Raul Castillo vs. Brandon Michaels
- Middleweights (185 pounds): Waylon Kennell vs. Eric Lawson
- Middleweights (185 pounds): Buck Meredith vs. Luke Rockhold
Main card (Showtime)
- Women (145 pounds): Cristiane Cyborg vs. Hitomi Akano
- Heavyweights (up to 265 pounds): Brett Rogers vs. Ron Humphrey
- Middleweights (185 pounds): Scott Smith vs. Benji Radach
- Interim Lightweight title match (155 pounds): Rodrigo Damm vs. Gilbert Melendez
- Catch weight fight: Frank Shamrock vs. Nick Diaz
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
If I didn’t periodically come to this website, I’d have no idea this show was on tomorrow. There’s no buzz at all. Even the forums aren’t talking about this fight, which is rather surprising considering the personalities involved.
I honestly think Dana’s tirade killed this show. It’s more effective than counter-programming.
The only thing people are talking about with this card is Nick’s ability to cheat drug tests
My thoughts:
1. The Undercard is horrible. I have a feeling this is going to be the norm. They don’t have enough depth to have top to bottom good cards like Zuffa, or DREAM/Sengoku.
2. Smith vs. Radach should be entertaining and I assume the winner will be #10 in line for a title shot, since Strikeforce seems only to care about Cung Le vs. Frank Shamrock rematch. This despite the fact that Middleweight is their most stacked division. Such a shame that this division is on hold for a guy acting who’s biggest win is against Frank Shamrock. That’s unfair to guys like Santiago (who I assume is still there), Lawler, and the winner of Radach/Smith.
3. No way Melendez/Damm should be for the interim title. First, Damm took this fight on 2 weeks notice. To add an additional two rounds only favors Melendez. Secondly, Damm just lost his last fight. How does that earn him a title shot in the second most important company in America? As a fight itself, this is a decent last minute fight. However, I don’t like the way they are handling it.
I have little interest in the rest of the card. I don’t watch women fight. The Rogers fight isn’t interesting. And Shamrock/Diaz, I can’t stand either of them. I just hope one loses definitively.
I’m not ordering Showtime for this card. I’ll wait until Showtime and Strikeforce can put on a solid card before I order that channel. On a side note, without The L Word, Showtime is garbage. Even their original programming, which I admit has approved, still isn’t very good.
Are there any places I can go to watch Diaz and Shamrock cutting promos on each other for this fight? That’s always the best part of build-up to a fight like this so of course there’s no 30-minute special or anything when such a thing would be many, many buys.
The people who are saying that Shamrock will win because he’s just so much bigger than Diaz really need to check their facts. Shamrock’s walking-around weight is somewhere in the neighborhood of 190 pounds, and Diaz’ walking-around weight is somewhere in the neighborhood of 185 pounds.
“Trash talk”…
HORRIBLE reportage Zach, you’re not that desperate for content; plus, with these two bozo’s of personalities, it’s just entertainment.
However, I extremely enjoyed this video and really hope they bring that attitude in the cage, or at the very least, we’ll see an awesome technical fight!!!
LOL @ ordering every UFC card for $50 regardless of quality, but not getting Showtime for $10 (it was as low as $6 for me.)
Huh? The video was posted by Showtime. How or why would I have control over how they title footage?
LOL at you making assumptions about my Showtime bill.
Showtime is $20 a month to add on. And May has a useless ShoMMA card, so I would be paying $40 for this one card.
I know you will say I should get DirecTV, but this is the cheapest option for me. I price my cable, internet, and phone…. and combined, Comcast is the cheapest. Even with adding $20 for Showtime. Some of it has to do with the discounted bundle. Also, I am in the NY Yankees area, so to get the YES Network in HD, it increases my cable bill. All those factor’s mean I have Comcast instead. And $20 a month is nothing to sneeze at.
As for this card…. Looks like the female fight could get scrapped because Cyborg couldn’t make weight. I am probably already biased against these ladies. However, with both Cyborg and Carano missing weight, but huge amounts…. It makes these ladies seem like amateur hour.
On a side note, without The L Word, Showtime is garbage. Even their original programming, which I admit has approved, still isn’t very good.
You didn’t see Dexter?
Dexter stinks.
I’m going to get on my soap box for a minute here about the horribleness that is the MMA Media.
1. When the UFC puts on their events on in Europe, a lot of sites put the results in the headline of the article. Their stance is that it should be reported like a sport. This past week with Bellator….. MMAWeekly, 5oz, & MMAJunkie…. Forced fans to click on a link to see the results. The two have been treated very different.
How the horrible MMA media is linked to Strikeforce.
2. The last WEC featured 7 Top 10 fighters by Sherdog’s own rankings. The event didn’t get too much coverage, nor did it get the Beatdown After The Bell Treatment. Strikeforce has ZERO Top 10 guys. Heck, it only has 1 Top 20 fighter in my book on the card. And it’s getting tons of coverage. I’m not saying don’t cover the event, but there is absolutely no reason the media coverage should be so different for these two events. It seems like just because it is on Showtime, and just because it isn’t the UFC, it gets a huge push online from the online folks.
This card is a joke in many ways. The June 6th card is rumored to be very very good, so I’m not just hating on Strikeforce. But lets keep this stuff in perspective. All I hear is people say we should be following the fighters not he organizations. Well, more Top Tier fighters were competing at the last WEC, and that should not be overshadowed by these schmucks competing in the main event. One guy ducks anybody legit, and the other doesn’t know how to keep a blunt out of his han 10 minutes before a fight.
Off my soapbox.
I’m pretty sure that they didn’t do beatdown after WEC 40 because T.J. was covering this show in Chicago, so he couldn’t be in studio doing radio show with Breen.
Also, this show is historically significant because it’s another organization giving it a go on premium cable. WEC rules, but is on total cruise control.
WEC 40 isn’t the first WEC event to not be covered by Sherdog Radio. Many of them being much higher quality of cards then this upcoming Strikeforce card.
WFA was significant. Pride USA was significant. IFL on MyNetworkTV was significant. EliteXC on Showtime/CBS was significant. When will that finally wear off for people? This isn’t even the 1st company on Showtime.
IF the WEC was on a friday night or saturday night, I’m sure they would do an After The bell. If you do an radio show at 11:00 pm on an sunday night who’s gonna listen? And they already heve 4 hour of radio 14 hours later.
Pretty much everyone on the sherdog staff said that they tough that WEC was the best product right now.
On a whim, I called my cable company, and they dropped the price of the premium channels. So I ordered Showtime. Here are my thoughts so far:
1. Cage is an eye sore. Lights are way too bright. The white on the canvas almost hurts the eyes. The black middle part is shiney and distracting. Not very good.
2. Rogers/Humphrey – It’s one of those fights that despite a prospect winning, it probably hurt his career more then helped. I think it’s obvious that Rogers isn’t that great. His striking was average, and seems like a guy like Monson would take him down at will (not to mention most of the other decent grapplers in the division).
3. Woman Fight – Horrible. Horrible. Horrible. Huge size difference. Beyond that, the Japanese girl couldn’t even strike. There is one thing to make a showcase fight. It’s another thing to set up a massacre, which that was. Strikeforce should be ashamed. And the CSAC is even worse.
4. Radach/Smith – Very entertaining fight, which was to be expected. Both guys threw a lot. I think we all know that neither are top tier, nor will they ever be. Still fun to watch the fight for what it is.
5. The digital images of the bodies without skin was freaky and unnnecessary.
6. I thought the announcers have been horrible. They have made Rogan/Goldberg look unbiased by comparison. Mauro’s voice alone is bad enough. What comes out of his mouth is even worse. They need to get rid of him. Gus is okay, but it’s obvious he doesn’t know the sport enough.
7. Pat Miletich has been a pleasant surprise. I really like his announcing so far. He was brutally honest about Cyborg missing weight. I liked that.
8. Showing Gina Carano 10 times during the Cyborg fight was garbage. That’s overhyping a fight. And Carano has to learn to stop acting like a 8 year old the way she reacts with the camera.
On a side note…. Tito Ortiz is an attention wh#re. EliteXC, Affliction, and now Strikeforce. He just wants to get his face on camera. Pathetic. I wish that guy would go away until he actually fights again. Shame on their stupid promotions to put him in the spotlight more then your own fighters.
9. Melendez vs. Damm – Damm looked tired real quick. Melendez was using his head way too much. I put Melendez in the same grouping of guys like Tyson Griffin and Clay Guida. All are very talented, but lack something extra to beat the real tops of the division. They are all still really fun to watch.
10. During the fight announcements for Melendez, there was 6 guys in his corner. What is this, boxing? How many people need to be out there?
11. Movie Clip on Strikeforce. I guess us fans can’t get away from that crap. Keep movie clips and trailer at the movies, not on MMA cards.
12. Why show your champion (Cung Le) get beating up in a movie? That’s the absolutely worst way to hype up a fighter. He also hurts his selling power as soon as he opens his mouth. He has such a great look, but can’t cut a promo to save his life. Almost too nice for his own good.
13. Frank Shamrock talking might be WORSE then Cung Le. Those braces make him seem slightly retarded.
14. Shamrock/Diaz – Shamrock needs to retire. He looked horrible. Diaz against LIGHTWEIGHTS beat Gomi, lost to Sherk,Sanchez, & Noons. And yet he was trash talking Shamrock while he was beating him. I think that says everything about how bad Shamrock is.
Overall, I was happy to see the ending like this. Shamrock gets way too much hype for not even being a decent fighter. This also puts some perspective on Cung Le. Le had a back and forth fight with Shamrock. Le is going to lose his belt when he starts to fight the other Middleweights. They are bigger and more skilled then him.
One last comment… Gus keeps on calling Nick Diaz one of the best in the world.
I can’t think of one respectable ranking that would have him in the Top 20.
Why does this guy know so little sbout the sport?
Did Miletich did color commentary before? It really seem natural to him.
Did Nick Diaz just retire Franck Shamrock?
“people will think we’re mainstream if we have Gus in the booth”-Strikeforce
LOL Did anyone think for a minute that 45 wasn’t going to order Showtime so he could criticize the show?
45 is predictable as hell. You can imagine exactly what he’s going to write before/after every single event.
And unfortunately, many other people on this board are getting as disrespectful and nonsensical as he is.
It’s amazing how many ‘Ultimate Fighting’ fans are on this board, and there are so few fans of MMA (or even understand what MMA is).
Ultimo Santa,
Where do you disagree with me?
I wrote a lot of my comments during the event. A lot of my issues with the event were repeated by guys on Beatdown After The Bell. They made fun of the digital guys with no skin. They had issues with the announcers.
Two independent people making the same comments basically.
I’m a fan of the entire sport, have been around a long time. Just because I find issues with a product that isn’t the UFC, doesn’t make me an “Ultimate Fighting” fan. Speaking of cards I’ve been critical of…. One only needs to look towards next week… UFC 97…. Which I have very very low expectations for, and not exactly hyped for the event. You know, I can bash (and have) the UFC too….