Gina gets blasted as Cyborg wins womens title

[Brian Shannon]

Strikeforce's main event along with 2 other fights tonight ended in the frist round. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos was too fast, too strong and just too much for Gina Carano to hand;e. She finished her off as the horn sounded with some nasty shots from the top. Cyborg had Gina in trouble real early when she caught her in a heel hook yet Gina was able to slip out. Gina try trading shot with Cyborg but was getting tagged pretty good. She had limited success with leg kicks followed by over hand punches but in the end Cyborg was able to do what she wanted. She becomes the first woman in MMA to hold a belt.

Strikeforce had some exciting fights but the thing that was killing me was the lag time. I mean they have 4 fights and the total time for all of them was 20:19, yet the show was nearly 2 hours long. They were killing us with Frank Shamrock giving us the stats when a fight was over in 1 minute. How many punches were landed? Who cares Frank he got knockout! What do the stats say Frank? Who cares he was caught in a guillotine choke in a minute and twenty-four seconds. Long delays and extremely long fighter intros almost killed a good show. Had it not been for the quick bouts it might have.

Why was it so bad? May have been when they moved the Herion vs Taylor fight off the main card they have to fill up nearly 50 minuets of the broadcast. In hind site they should have kept it. Jesse shocked me by going the distance. His fight was the 3rd in the last 5 weeks. PLUS he had to cut to 170 and he normally fights at 185. Tough to do all that and only have 5 days notce. How were the other fights you ask? Well.....

Fabricio Werdum vs. Mike Kyle opened up the show. It was clearly 2 contrasting styles where Fabricio dominated and quickly. Kyle fell victim to a guillotine choke in just over a minute and he was forced to tap shortly after. Kyle just didn't look comfortable on the ground and tried his best not to go there. Yet he left his neck out there and Fabricio snagged it. One good fighter and one not so good, at least on the ground.

Gilbert Melendez vs. Mistsuhiro Ishida was next and I really thought that Ishida would win this one. Yet he was overwhelmed most of the fight and the punishment he took in the 1st two rounds finally caught up to him and he got covered up on the ground and it was over. It was the longest fight of the night. It lasted til the 3:56 mark of the 3rd round.

Gegard Mousasi vs. Renato "Babalu" Sobral was not the fight to go and get a drink because it was over in just a minute flat. Mousasi was tough and I thought he would win but not as quick as he did. Babalu was pinned against the cage and was blasted with some really vicious ground and pound. Strikeforce had a ref cam going and the look in Renato's eyes was classic. LOVE to see him get blasted almost as much as I do Tito, almost I said.

That was it my friends. Some good action but really it was like decent fighters were thrown a bone and asked to perform. They all did in quick fashion...well all but Melendez and he still put on a good show. Overall I give it a -B.