Diaz, Cyborg, Walker Come Out on Top in Strikeforce Miami

Share on Facebook posted 01-31-10 by John George

Last night’s Strikeforce Miami mixed martial arts event was filled with notable facts: A veteran fighter won a title, A woman champion retained her belt, a 47-year-old former football star won his first fight and a retread from the pro wrestling ring continued his winning ways in world of real fighting. The event was broadcast from Sunrise, Fla., on Showtime.

Nick Diaz vs. Marius “The Whitemare” Zaromskis

Stockton pot smoker Nick Diaz (21-7-0) defeated Lithuanian fighter Marius “The Whitemare” Zaromskis (13-4-0) to earn the vacant Strikeforce welterweight title. The Whitemare (incidentally one of my favorite of all MMA nicknames) is the current champion in the Japanese DREAM fight promotion. He was hoping to hold championship belts in both the U.S. Strikeforce promotion and the Japanese organization, but it was not to be.

Diaz was initially supposed to fight for the Strikeforce title in October 2009 against Jay Hieron, but he failed to show up for a drug screening before the fight. In February 2007, Diaz’s victory over Takanori Gomi was nullified when his pre-fight drug-test results came back positive for marijuana.

Diaz was obviously not too stoned to fight last night, as he used his height and reach advantage to keep The Whitemare on the outside and beat him up until finally landing a right hook that forced the ref to stop the fight at 4:38 in the first round.

I think what most impressed me about Diaz’s performance was what he did at a point early in the round in which the fighters clinched, and Diaz spent the better part of a minute pinning The Withemare against the cage and landing knee after knee to his leg. Zaromskis is known for spectacular head-kick knockouts, and I bet dollars to doughnuts that Diaz’s smart move at that point in the fight did a lot to neutralize the Lithuanian’s kicks later in the round.

This was a good, decisive win for Diaz, who looked very good at this weight. Now, if he can only keep away from the bong for a while, he should be able to do well for himself as a Strikeforce welterweight.

Cyborg vs. Coenen

Christiane “Cyborg” Santos (9-1-0) successfully defended her Strikeforce lightweight championship title against skilled submission specialist Marloes “Rumina” Coenen (17-4-0). Cyborg, a Brazilian fighter who took the belt from popular beauty Gina Carano, was too big and too strong for Coenen, a Belgian fighter who was unable to make anything happen in her favor and spent most of the fight on her back getting pounded by Cyborg. The ref stopped it at 3:40 in the third round.

Cyborg is primarily a striker, and she displayed terrific takedown defense and defensive jiu jitsu skills to nullify Coenen’s submission attacks. Cyborg dominated throughout. She owned the clinch game, prevented Coenen from taking her down, and took Coenen down whenever she wanted. Once she got the Belgian to the ground, Cyborg effectively landed some big punches until the fight was finally stopped.

I outweigh Cyborg by a good 50 pounds or more, but I’m not sure I’d want to step into a cage with that woman. She’s pretty scary. I am looking forward to seeing her fight again, though. She’s a real champion and a lot of fun to watch.

Walker vs. Nagy

Coming into last night’s event, neither of the two championship bouts were hyped as much or caused as much buzz as former football great Herschel Walker’s entry into the world of MMA. Walker is a College Football Hall of Fame member and Heisman Trophy winner who had a distinguished NFL career as a running back. He even competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics as a member of the U.S. two-man bobsled team. Though Walker is new to MMA, he is a longtime Tae Kwon Do practitioner and holds a 6th degree black belt in that martial art.

Walker faced a relatively inexperienced fighter in Greg Nagy (1-2-0), who didn’t prove to be too much of an obstacle to the former footballer. Walker dominated throughout, getting the best of Nagy both in the stand-up battles and on the ground. Nagy spent the bulk of the fight on the ground with Walker on top of him punching him. The ref stopped the fight at 2:17 in the third round.

Nagy looked fairly flabby coming into the fight, and he clearly is neither very skilled nor very strong. He was an easy target put in front of Walker to help him dip his toe into the world of professional fighting.

Walker did look both very fit and very strong, but I think he needs a lot more training before he can face a real opponent. His standup looked very stiff. He had a strange, short stance, keeping his feet close together. He also looked stiff on the ground, and he missed many, many opportunities to finish the fight with chokes. Nagy left his neck out for the taking over and over again, and Walker seemed clueless about how to capitalize. There’s no reason why the fight should have lasted beyond the middle of the third round.

Walker’s clearly got potential. He also seems like a real role model — word is he’s donating his purse from the fight to charity — and he’d be a very good ambassador for the sport. I do want to see him in the cage again, but he needs to learn about submissions. Nothing fancy necessarily, but he at least needs to learn how to go for the neck and finish a fight. He should also improve his punching on the ground so that he can do be more effective with his strikes from the top position. He hit Nagy a lot, but didn’t do that much damage.

A good, strong experienced fighter would have put Walker in a world of hurt. Fortunately for Walker, Nagy was neither good nor experienced nor strong. He may want to devote himself to a whole lot of additional training before stepping back into a cage.

Lashley vs. Sims

I normally really hate the pro wrestlers who try to make their way into MMA for a payday. Generall, I think that once you’ve sold out to be part of that fake fighting circus, you’ve forfeited your right to call yourself a real fighter. That insufferable jackass, UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar is a prime example of the kind of pollution that can make its way into the cage from the fake fighting ring.

Bobby Lashley (5-0-0) is another man who was once a fake fighter and is now playing in the world of real fighting. Unlike Lesnar, however, Lashley seems to possess a genuine humility and less of the bullcrap braggadocio associated with the fake fighters. I just couldn’t get myself to muster the same kind of malevolence against him as I possess against Brock.

Lashley faced veteran fighter Wes Sims (23-13-1), who took the fight on one week’s notice. Sims seemed really out of shape, coming in pudgier than I’d ever seen him, with a dunlap hanging over the front of his shorts. By contrast, Lashley didn’t look like he had any body fat at all, and he was bursting with muscles everywhere.

At six feet, eight inches, Sims is one of the taller men fighting in MMA. He failed to make any use of his height advantage, however, as Lashley quickly took him to the ground with a single-leg takedown and pounded him out. Sims seemed helpless once they got to the ground. He rolled to his belly and basically gave up the fight. The ref righteously stopped it at 2:06 in the first round. Sims complained afterward, saying the stoppage was early and undeserved, but he was just being his usual blowhard self.

Lawler vs. Manhoef

The only other broadcast fight featured “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler (17-5-0) against “Marvelous” Melvin Manhoef (24-7-1). This was one of the most fun fights of the night, with the most unexpected ending.

Manhoef is a Muay Thai fighter from Holland, who came out and positively owned Lawler for most of the first round. He hit Lawler with bunches of big punches and some devastating leg kicks that sent Lawler’s right leg flying through the air like the tentacle of a crazed octopus. Lawler looked completely helpless and overmatched as he took a severe beating and offered absolutely nothing to counter Manhoef’s power or striking skills.

Then, out of nowhere, Lawler threw a big overhand right counter that connected with Manhoef’s head, and that’s all she wrote. Manhoef went down, and Lawler landed two more for good measure before the ref could leap in to stop the action. Manhoef was scary to look at as he lay on the ground. His eyes were open and vacant, and his toes were curled. He was out for a good, long while with his eyes open, and he looked sort of like a zombie. Luckily, he got up after a while and seemed to be okay. All I can say is: No one saw that coming. That’s exactly the kind of surprise ending that makes MMA so much fun. You never really know what’s going to happen until it happens.

What’d you think of Strikeforce: Miami? Crush it in the Comments Section.