I was sitting here, with not very much to do, channel surfing and I remembered that Strikeforce had some fights on. Now Strikeforce does put on some entertaining fights but their stable of fighters is not quite as good and deep as the UFC. On another occasion, we will have a discussion about fighters being locked into contracts with one promotion or another. I have always liked the boxing model where a badass can pit his or her badassitude against whoever else thinks they have the badassitude to compete, and they can choose to use a promoter, or not, or change a promoter. And the big names make obscene amounts of money in that model. But that is a subject for another day. (Those of you who have visited us here before are familiar with some of my musings on MMA v Boxing).

The first fight featured Bobby Lashley against one no account Simms whose single claim to fame was being a competitor  on UTF where he was for the most part nothing but a poor attempt at comic relief who otherwise got kicked in the ass. The fight did not last long. Simms did not touch Lashley with one (I mean not one – seriously) punch for the duration of the fight. There are those who might argue that the fight was stopped prematurely but if you do not even touch your opponent, and the guy is kicking your ass for the entire duration of the fight, there is no reason the ref should allow the fight to continue.  I still do not think that Bobby Lashley is yet a very good MMA fighter, but he is getting better and definitely does not suck.

The fight between Robbie Lawler and Melvin Manhoef was a fascinating one – and  a teaching moment for all young fighters. Manhoef showed some of the cleanest, most patient techniques and fighting style that I have seen in a while this side of Anderson Silva. In a fight he should have finished early with a knockout, he lost from a moment of carelessness and, to be fair, a lucky shot by Lawler. The lesson for all you boys and girls is this: DON’T EVER DROP YOUR HANDS, even when you think you are winning big. I am sure Lawler will not be looking for a rematch against Manhoef any time soon.

Herschel Walker was awefully impressive. The guys is 47 years old and he looked awefully good, very comfortable and had a rather easy night kicking Greg Nagy’s ass, a big strong kid more than 20 years his junior.  And he almost didn’t look like he broke a sweat or even needed to take a deep breath. I was happy for him and I hope he can quit and not try to hang around . The fight business is brutal and 47 is 47. On the badassitude scale for the night, Herschel Walker’s score was a definite outlier. In every way, he owned the super high quotient and deservedly so.

I continue to be impressed by Chris Cyborg. The girl can fight and she is laser focused. Over the years, I have found that girls who can fight and who are good at it really bring the house when they fight. I remember sparring with some girls who were ridiculously badass and relentless. They wanted to take your head off and worked every which way to do so. Cyborg has a lot of that – and badassitude aplenty. I am still curious how she would fare against Gina the 2nd time around. Of course Gina would have to prepare better, like a fighter and forget the celebrity shit that I think compromised her fighting. If she still wants to fight that is.

Nick Diaz started his fight against Marius Zaromskis like he wanted to finish it in 15 seconds, and he almost did. I like Diaz. He is one of the few MMA fighters with truly good boxing skills. He almost had his lights turned out by Zaromskis with a punch that caught him flash but it was a thing of beauty watching him come back with a whole bunch of badassitude to finish the fight. It was all hands boys and girls – this from a multi black belt in several martial arts. Very good shit!!

Much better fight night than I thought it would be. Sometimes you don’t need big names. You just need people who want to compete, and win.