UFC 115-- CRO COP VS BARRY and LIDDELL VS FRANKLIN
For those that missed it -it was a great night of fights! But although the card held many favorites including Chuck the "Ice Man" Liddell no fight stuck out more than Mirko Filopovic "Cro Cop" vs Pat Barry.
UFC 115 was held in the City of Vancouver, Canada on Saturday, June 12. I have to admit I was on the edge of my seat watching the
TWO amazing strikers going at it full force. Each round becoming more and more fiercesome. While these two fighters battled all the while you could see the respect for one another in each of their eyes. Before long Cro Cop did take the victory, but Pat Barry did not leave anything behind.
photo and excerpt courtesy of : Sherdog.com
“I never met Pat, but I definitely like the guy,” said Cro Cop. “Not because he said that I’m one of his favorite fighters; I like him because he’s very polite and I don’t like that tough attitude of fighting at the press conference. This is just a sport and I like people who act like sportsmen. Pat is definitely a sportsman, he’s a good fighter, a good striker, and that’s what I like. I prefer to stay in the standup position, Patrick will stay in the standup position, it will be a good standup war and I think the audience will be very satisfied with the fight. The second thing is that there will be many Croatian fans and flags, and what fighter could wish for more than that? A good opponent and an excellent audience, that’s all I can wish for.”
By Thomas Gerbasi
Read the entire story at: http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=82605
references: Sherdog.com
StrikeForce
Fedor "The Last Emporer" Emelianenko vs Fabricio Werdum
excerpt taken from: Bloody Elbow.com
by: Kid Nate
The biggest upset in MMA history happened tonight.Fabricio Werdum trapped Fedor Emelianenko in a triangle- arm bar and forced the tap in the first round.
The world's #1 heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko put his reputation, but no title belt, on the line against Brazilian jiu jitsu ace Fabricio Werdum at Strikeforce: Fedor vs Werdum.
Going into the bout, a great deal of controversy swirled about whether or not Fedor, riding a ten year undefeated streak, remains the undisputed beat heavyweight in the game with the UFC's Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin, Junior Dos Santos and Cain Velasquez rising fast.
Fedor appeared unphased by the controversy, displaying his usual preternatural calm in the cage. Big John McCarthy, another MMA legend in exile from the UFC, reffed the match.
Werdum landed first with a glancing leg kick but it wasn't long before Fedor dropped him with a hard series of punches. Fedor lept into Werdum's guard and quickly found himself trapped by the former jiu jitsu world champion. Werdum locked up a triangle and used it to get the arm bar.
Cyborg vs Finney
excerpt taken from:Fightline.com
http://www.fightline.com/fl/news/2010/0626/529543/strikeforce-fedor-vs-werdum/index.shtml by Tim Ngo
Finney lands a nice right and appears to have upset Cyborg. The champ has her clinched against the cage and lands some knees to the thigh.
Cybog lands some bombs in the center of the cage and connects with a sick Muay Thai knee to the grill that drops Finney.
Finney survives and fights on. Cyborg lands some more power shots against the cage and drops Finney again. Finney will not quit.
Cyborg putting on a striking exhibition as she drops Finney again. Cyborg lands some knees to the body and is destroying Finney.
Ref takes point away from Cyborg for hitting to the back of the head. She warned Cyborg multiple times before stopping the bout to deduct.
Cyborg picks up where she left off and lands countless shots to the grill. Finney will not quit despite the barrage.
Cyborg stands over her and is waiting for ref to stop it. Finney is hanging in on though. Fans start booing, perhaps want fight stopped.
To say it's one-sided would be an understatement. Ref needs to watch Finney carefully in the second round. 9-8 Cyborg due to point deduction.
Finney lands another nice right to start a round. Cyborg is pissed again and starts pounding away. Crowd is booing because Finney ...
drops to the ground to protect herself. Finney is game, but Cyborg is killing her with vicious power shots to the face.
Cyborg drops her with a knee and drops a few shots before the fight is stopped. Cyborg easily defends her crown.
Cung Le vs Scott Smith
Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos Defeated Jan Finney via KO at 2:56 in the second round (Cyborg retains Strikeforce Women's Middleweight Title)
********************
* Overall this was a good fight to watch-- I was disappointed that Finney didn't put up more of a fight, but who could blame her she was fighting CYBORG!This woman is unstoppable!?~Gwen
Cung Le vs Scott Smith -II
Another great fight of the night!
Cung Le triumphed over Scott with his Sanshou skills.
Excerpt taken from:MMA FIGHTING by: Ben Fowlkes and photo by Jeff Chui
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The is the Strikeforce live blog for Cung Le vs. Scott Smith, a middleweight bout on tonight's Strikeforce and M-1 Global event from the HP Pavillion.
Le will look to avenge a painful loss to Smith last December when they meet for this rematch. Le was dominating their first encounter until a third-round knockout dealt him his first career loss.
The live blog is below.
Round 1: Smith gets after Le right away, closing the distance and forcing him into the fence. It's a partisan crowd for Le here tonight, but Smith had to be expecting that. The Vietnamese flags are out in force. Le deftly avoids a lunging punch from Smith and then tags him with a right. He's moving away from Smith's power and looking to counter, but Smith, true to his claims, is going after him and looking for the knockout. Le knocks Smith back up against the fence and Smith shoots in for a single-leg, but he's not even close to finishing it. Le softens up his body with some short punches. Smith works his way up to his feet and then nails Le with a hard hook. Le comes back with a head kick that's mostly blocked, then a two-punch combo that wobbles Smith. Smith looking for the single-leg again in the final seconds, but more as a respite from the stand-up game than legitimate strategy. MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9 for Le.
Round 2: They're right back to banging on each other in the second round, and Le unleashes another head kick that's mostly blocked, but still seems unpleasant. A spinning back kick to the gut drops Smith. Le follows him to the mat and picks his spots to punch, but Smith holds on and gets back to his feet. Another back kick to the stomach from Le and Smith is down again, clearly in a lot of pain. Le moves in carefully and lands several damaging blows. No answer from Smith, and that'll be it.
Cung Le def. Scott Smith via TKO (strikes) at 1:46 of round 2
( *Remember Cung Le left the ring to focus on his move career for a short while- watch for him in the new movie Tekken and Pandorum!)
Did you know? Cung Le's martial art's method is Sanshou
Sanshou (Chinese: 散手; pinyin: sǎnshǒu; literally "free hand") or Sanda (Chinese: 散打; pinyin: sǎndǎ; literally "free fighting") or an "unsanctioned fight" is a Chinese hand-to-hand self-defense system and combat sport.
