Strikeforce: Barnett v Kharitonov Reflections

via www.mmapunch.com

In front of a crowd that was universally panned on Twitter, Strikeforce hosted the semifinal bouts of their wayward heavyweight Grand Prix and a title tilt between Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and Luke Rockhold.  In addition, Maximo Blanco battled Pat Healy and Feijao Calvancante introduced Yoel Romero to the hexagon.  Finally, I'm a little rusty at writing introductions to bullet-point blog posts.

• I recently purchased an HDTV, and being able to watch both the prelims and main card of a Strikeforce event in HD was a nice treat.  As much as I appreciate being able to see every UFC prelim on Facebook, I hope Zuffa is able to show more and more fights in HD as their avenues for distribution continue to increase and diversify.  As much as I dislike Kenny Rice, he and Bas Rutten were vastly preferable to...
• ...the worst announcing trio duo in the history of televised sports, as we were mercifully spared listening to Gus Johnson by an on-point-as-usual Pat Miletich.  Mauro Ranallo's pathetic attempts to banter with Josh Barnett notwithstanding, Frank Shamrock proved to be even more useless than previously thought.  He was unable to respond to direct, basic questions from Mauro (with Pat having to jump in and fill the knowledge-less void on at least one occasion) and betrayed an insanely basic lack of understanding of the Unified Rules when he asked whether knees to the body on the ground were legal.  This was immediately after expressing befuddlement at the previous round, when Maximo Blanco (not "Maximum Blanka" as Frank/ would have you believe) landed a series of clearly illegal kicks to a grounded Pat Healy.  A new low for Frank tonight, and that's saying something.
• As dumbfounded as I was by the 50-45 card announced in the immediate aftermath of tonight's middleweight title fight, Fight Metric's report on the action makes clear that the rounds Luke Rockhold lost were much, much closer than the rounds he won.  However, scoring the first round for Rockhold when Jacare was able to hit three take down attempts is a bridge too far.  In the coming weeks, I will be attempting to organize a sort of rapid-fire response to bad judge's scorecards, with concerted e-mail and Twitter campaigns directed at the athletic commissions that give judges the cards in the first place.  Be it remedial training, film dissection or dismissal, blatantly incorrect scorecards need to be punished as they happen in the court of public opinion.
• I do believe that King Mo answered Showtime's text poll in emphatic fashion.  The ability to dictate where the bout takes place - and for how long - is absolutely paramount.  I don't know what's next for Roger Gracie.
• I think I'm just about done doubting Daniel Cormier.  I wasn't impressed by his decision victory over Jeff Monson, but tonight was a major step up in competition for the Olympic wrestler, and boy did he impress.  He essentially landed the same bomb that Mo put on Gracie's chin about a half dozen times, while refusing to shoot his wad or play in Antonio Silva's guard.  Bigfoot has an amazing chin (both in volume and in ability to absorb punishment), and there's no shame in being KO'ed by the uppercut DC landed in close; however, it seems like he's getting hit by shots that he barely reacts to before they land.  Bigfoot/Kharitonov makes sense, mostly because...
• ...Sergei Kharitonov was unable to be my hero and derail Josh Barnett's cakewalk into the finals.  While the opposite side of the GP bracket featured Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum and Bigfoot, Barnett's road featured the slightly weaker, Excite Bike! style obstacles of Brett Rogers, Andrei Arlovski and Sergei.  First, let's see the post-fight drug test results, as no Barnett victory (or fight booking, really) can be celebrated until that's been established.  Then - as a fan base - let us collectively root for Daniel Cormier to win the Belt With the Laminated Names and give Zuffa a(nother) reason to waive goodbye to Barnett when Strikeforce is shuttered.
• Bellator needs to get on HD ASAP.  Seriously, this looks sweet.