Did anyone else catch it on Shotime last night? If you didn't here's the report from Sherdog. http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Kaufman-Wins-Strikeforce-Gold-at-Challengers-6-22909 I didn't watch the womens match, no interest for me. Luke Rochold looked really solid, definitely a nice prospect coming up from American Kickboxing Academy. Tarec Saffiedine is a prospect out of Team Quest. This guy looked really good. Very solid stand up and great takedown defense. He was fighting a wrestler named James Terry. Saffiedine was absoulutely teeing off on him with straight punching and nice kicks. He has a background in kickboxing and Judo. He had an awesome hip toss right to the mount in the final seconds of round 3. 30 more seconds and it would have been stopped. Yancy Medeiros showed to be an excellent prospect as well coming out of BJ Penn's Camp in Hawaii. You can definitely see Penn's influence. Not much in the way of BJJ, but more in his crisp standup, nice takedown defense, and excellent flexibility. This guy is undefeated and moving up nicely in Strikeforce. The co-main event was very lacking. Trevor Prangley/Karl Amoussou. Amoussou is a French fighter fighting out of Wanderlei Silva's camp. He has some nice skills, but even Strikeforce commentators made the comment he needs to be at 170. He just looks soft and somewhat weak fighting a very big guy in Trevor Prangley at 185. Prangley is a very good journeyman with a great resume. Amoussou showed his quickness early with good punching but it looked like Prangley was shooing away flies even when Amoussou hit him flush. When Prangley finally got a hold of him he manhandled him in the clinch and practically through him to the ground. Fairly quickly after, there was an inadverdent poke to Amoussou's eye. The doctor stopped the fight after Amoussou said he couldn't open his eye. This is just an MMA fan making an observation, but I am pretty sure Amoussou wanted nothing to do with Prangley after feeling his strength. He then tried to act like he didn't want the stoppage, but he knew what was going on the whole time. Funny thing is right after the fight was stopped, you see him opening his eye. Oh well, hopefully he drops to 170.
Thats a good fight for Rockhold and the fans. Smith is a great gatekeeper for Strikeforce. He is never in a dull fight, and if you can't beat him, you have no business in the title contention. Did you get a chance to see the fights Z?
I only saw the first couple, then I fell asleep! It didn't even air here until 11pm. I havn't even had a chance to see the Rockhold fight, which is the one I wanted to see most. I'm ging to youtube it right now.
Rockhold is improving for sure. His striking is definitely improved. Very nice counter right hands. Hope he keeps on improving, he's still young and got a ton of time. Any other fights I should watch from that card Jarhead?
Saffeidene vs Terry was a good one. Saffeidene shows really nice skills. It goes the distance but I think you will enjoy it. If you do, watch the last seconds for sure of round 3. The hip toss to the mount Saffeidene throws on Terry is just sick. A few more seconds and he would've had the stoppage.
