Strikeforce review overeem v werdum

Chad Griggs looked solid again forcing v overeem to tap to strikes early on

Cormier looked very impressive in the stand up rekon he sud be at lh though

Noons got smashed boy can he take a beating masvidal looked very impressive, not sure he should get gill next though rekon they should give him Jim miller Ben Henderson winner

Did anyone except any different in the Barnett fight boys 2 men on the ground

Main event didn't live up to expectation, werdum clearly wanted the fight on the ground he even prayed at one point, nice stand up from werdum in the last round I'm sure there will be lots of split opinions on this fight, I thought 29 28 reem

Griggs official result was a TKO, ref said that he didn't see V.Overeem tapping, and he stopped it cause of the strikes.

I had that in prediction so I'm happy he missed it

Was disappointed with the main event, although it was fairly inevitable that Overoid wouldn't want to go into Werdum's guard, and Werdum would have wanted the fight there.

In the other QF, Barnett exposed Rogers for what he is, a substandard fighter that has a bit of a dig on him. Suppose it would be too much to ask for Silva/Overoid to be a complete tear-up, the winner of that fight HAS to be favourite for the tourny though?

REEM did what REEM had to do.

He is through to the semis and with Cains inactivity is the #1 Heavyweight in the world.

The one worrying thing is how gassed he was at the end. He could hardly talk during the post fight interview. Maybe it was all the slams he perfomed.

If Barnett gets himself in shape I would put him joint favourite with REEM and Bigfoot. TBH Every fighter left has around a 25% chance I would say. Great tournament so far and shaping up to get even greater.

Really dissapointed in Werdum on the feet he was more than competitive with Overeem he was tagging him enough although not much power sure Overeem was over powering him but It wasn't like he was getting outclassed.

Werdum insistence of trying to get the fight to the ground was annoying the fight reminded me the Nick Serra fight on one one the EliteXC cards a few years back.

Barnett did what was expected as did Griggs and Cormeir whose striking looked very good.

Knew Masvidal would dominate Noons I like Masvidal and think he could give Melendez fits with his style.

There is no way reem is no1 after that win 3 4 at best
He did gas didn't he

I agree all 4 fighters could win this no ?

Looking forward to both semis

Overeem looked awful, how did he end up getting outstrook by Werdum of all people?? Cain has such a big advantage over every other HW in the world because of his speed and cardio, i think he's far ahead over everyone else.


JDS needs to get more well rounded and work on his cardio if he wants to stand a chance. Overeem needs alot of work to catch him aswell.



This is just embarassing really, and show how rankings dont mean shit.

I don't think Cain is far ahead of Barnett. I don't even think he's ahead of him. For me, Barnett's the best HW in the world. The only reason Barnett is not ranked number 1 is lack of activity. I think Barnett is favourite to win this tournament. In fact, who-ever wins Barnett-Sergei is favourite IMO. Barnett is great on the ground but he's much stronger than Werdum and has the power to take Reem or Silva. He also hits harder.

I think the judges gave Reem credit for a bunch of knockdowns that were actually just Werdum trying to get the fight to the ground. Werdum outstruck him, outworked him and was trying to win the fight. I think Werdum should have got the decision. Reem was plodding and trying to land one shot. When he gassed and it went to the ground, he did nothing. Werdum had as many strikes off his back as Reem did from the top. He was also trying for submissions where as Reem was just trying to lay and pray.

I don't see how Werdum asking Overeem to the ground is embarrassing at all. He showed he was willing to stand with Overeem but obviously he wanted the fight on the ground. Don't see how Werdum invited Overeem to the ground is any worse than Reem's refusal to go to the ground.

redmeanie77 wrote:











Overeem looked awful, how did he end up getting outstrook by Werdum of all people?? Cain has such a big advantage over every other HW in the world because of his speed and cardio, i think he's far ahead over everyone else.


JDS needs to get more well rounded and work on his cardio if he wants to stand a chance. Overeem needs alot of work to catch him aswell.



This is just embarassing really, and show how rankings dont mean shit.

I am a huge fan of Cain's and had he been active, I would have given JDS some chance, but would have favoured Cain. A fully fit JDS with fights under his belt is going to cause a 'cage rusty' Cain lots of problems. I too was disappointed in Overoid (and the fight in general) but I hope for a complete tear-up between him and Big Foot. I just think that Overoid went into the fight, with the intentions to not lose, rather than win.
With regards to tournament winner, I still favour the winner of bigfoot/overoid.

red..

Overeem was worried about getting taken down so much that he kept his hands really low - allowing Werdum to crack him. Not that he was hurt at all mind.
He wouldnt have this problem against a striker like JDS, however Reem does employ the boxing guard in his K1 fights, that MAY be exploitable by a striker in MMA such as Dos Santos. But i think i still have to give the striking advantage to Overeem.

Cain is the only guy i would back against Overeem right now, just because he probably would be able to take him down, and as we saw...if he is so worried about the takedown he is easy to hit and Cain has pretty good hands.

I also give bigfoot a decent chance, but still think Reem would take advantage of his lack of speed, Youngereem used to show a weakness to GnP...so that should be Bigfoot's strategy.

I dont know what that GIF has to do with rankings, funny because the "rankings dont mean shit" line was often used to say how, despite his low ranking Overeem would beat any fighter.
...anyway it was a bad fight, neither man looked good, but it was just an unfortunate clash of styles.

I'm not reading too much into it - other than Overeem has solid submission defence.



I was curious to see how Barnett performed, having been a long time since he fought a good heavyweight.....but thankfully he looked awesome, especially his wrestling. In fairness Brett is one of the easier first round fights along with Arlovski....I actually feel sorry for Brett being manhandled like that.
I have Barnett a clear favourite over Sergei due to his wrestling and superlative grappling


Cormier looked good. Sort of like a black Cain but not as good
I still rate Monson.....Cormier is a nightmare style for him though.

Griggs is like the white Beltran.

Noons/Masvidal was a lot closer than they made out IMO. Noons was outboxing him, and on the front foot for most of the fight.
He was dropped and lost a round he was winning up until that point.
29-28 Masvidal was probably fair though.

I understand what you're saying about Barnett Chesty, but, you've got to look at his opponent. Rogers looked absolutely terrible, all he has, is a punchers chance. As I said, I would really like to see a good challenge for him.

Red I agree Cain is streets ahead for me proof will be in the pudding as they say
Anfield I agree Barnett poss fAvourite will be tough too beat
Chesty agree noons had good spells defo in the second good comeback and nice body shots, still think masvidal did enough too win he had a good all round game using takedowns too
Good call re cornier his kicks to the head were similar to Cain same coach teaching that technique at aka me thinks

I never used to like Barnett, but I think he has conducted himself very well this week during all his interviews, his open workout and had an impressive win, he's made be a believer and I want him to win the GP now.

I actually agree with Anfield, what did Overoid actually do? Werdum landed the better shots standing IMO and all Overoid ended up doing was either throw Werdum down or LnP. Werdum's tactics were quite annoying, I think after the first 4 or 5 takedowns failed, he should have just tried his luck standing. Disappointing fight but it's a style thing, both guys wanted no part of the others strength. These matches actually rarely end up being all that great. Overoid has his hands full with Bigfoot, I don't think he'll be able to manhandle him as easily as he manhandled Werdum.

Barnett looked very impressive against arguably the weakest fighter in the whole tourney. Koing Arvloski was just about the worse thing that could have happened to Rogers. He's been completely out of his depth against the Fedor, Overoid and now Barnett. Not to get carried away, but I think Barnett will win the whole thing. Sergei is going to be a tough test in the next match but I just think Barnett is the most complete fighter right now. I would love for Sergei to win tbh, but I think he's going to have a tough time against Barnett. As for Rogers, he needs a step down in competition. I actually think Griggs is a good opponent for him next.

Where did that performance come from Masdival? I was very impressed, never thought much of him but he looked excellent yesterday against a very good fighter. I blew a trump on Noons as well. I think what should happen is that Masdival should fight the Thompson-Blanco winner for a shot at Melendez, but chances are Masdival will get a shot straight away. Don't think he's ready for Melendez but it should be a good fight.

Croimer looked quite good I thought, he striking was quite impressive. He was standing with Monson though, so not much of a test on the feet. I'm suprised Monson didn't go for more takedowns after the 1st rounds, he only attempted about 2 takedowns. Croimer can get a better opponent now, maybe Griggs, Rogers or possibly even Arvloski. I hope Monson drops to 205 otherwise he'll probably face one of the three mention or V Overeem.

Griggs looked like an animal but Overeem was shocking. No will power whatsoever. That's three good showings and wins for Griggs now, I do think a fight with Rogers sounds good.

Overeem is the 1st fighter i have seen to win a round, just by stuffing takedowns. How did he win round 1?? I dont know. And he clearly lost round 3 aswell.

Infact Werdum landed more strikes and more power shots, and on the ground Reem laid on top and did nothing.


If it wasnt for Werdum's embarrasing takedowns and begging Overeem to come to the ground then the judges would have looked at it differently.



Barnett did good, but nothing that we already didnt know he could do. Rogers is really a substandard fighter. I fancy Barnett to get to the final but i think Bigfoot/Overeem will be to much for him.


I have got to hand it to Pete and Anfield they picked Cain a very long time ago to be the man at HW. And i think they nailed it perfectly. I can see him dominating for some time. Ofcourse JDS does have a chance, but i still fancy Cain.

I agree completely, stuffing take downs should not win you a round. I thought Werdum won the third round clearly as well, and the 2nd was quite close as well.

I still think Barnett will win the whole thing though and I'm expecting JDS to be the man to beat Velasquez. I predicted big things from JDS after the Werdum fight so if he won it would give a nice boost to my ego as well

I also think it's harsh to call Rogers substandard at this point as well. I always thought he was extremely overrated because of one big win and he has been out of his depth. I think to really judge him, you'd have to see how he does against fighters from 10th to 15th in the rankings. Someone more like Roy Nelson really.

overeem pretty much won via octagon control then.

besides overeem's strikes are much harder, and he totally winded him with a knee...not to mention swelling his face up and dropping him....well we will never know how many times, i could have dropped werdum if he wanted to be on his back that much

i dont think Werdum deserved the win...sure he opened up on overeem with striking, but whenever overeem threw a counter punch, werdum fell over.

I dont hold anything against werdum for his strategy, its a legit strategy to use, but you cant expect to win a decision that way.

A bit of feedback from Coker:

On Jorge Masvidal getting the shot: "We're not making an official announcement, but I think that's going to be a frontrunner."

On a rematch between Gisias Cavalcante and Justin Wilcox: "That's something we'll have to go back and examine. The timing is going to be an issue, and I don't know how long Wilcox will be out. So we'll see what happens. I went back into the dressing room and I looked at [Wilcox's] eye, and he had quite a bit of damage deep in part of the socket, and I think he was bleeding out of his eye socket at that point. I said, 'You better go to the doctor and take care of that,' so that's where he went.

Looks like it will be Masdival vs Melendez then, although I really do hope he fights Thompson (assuming he beats Blanco) first. It will give us two guaranteed great fights and gives Masdival more time to fully develop.

Overeem wrenched Werdum violently to the ground on several occasions. That could've swayed the judges. They could've viewed them as 'damaging slams'?

On the feet there was only ever one fighter that looked in danger and it wasn't Overeem. Werdum was landing but his shots were so weak they could hardly be categorised as punches.
Overeem landed a couple of knees to the body which caused Werdum visible distress, knocked him down with a knee(Werdum sort of pulled guard but he was going down anyway) and had Werdum semi rocked with a combo at some point I think in the second.

I've only seen the fight once, but I don't remember the REEM being in any sort of trouble at any point.

According to fightmetric every time I knock on someones' door I outstrike their house 3-0.

In a 5 round fight REEM is fucked, basically, if he can't finish inside three. Maybe should try 245ish instead.

Barnett looked a bit jiggly to me. He was breathing pretty heavy after not seeming exert a whole lot of energy after round 1.

Apart from that question mark, he is the best Heavyweight in the world right now.
I cannot see Cain beating Barnett being likely. There is not enough of a difference in the striking and Barnett is a cut above on the ground. The potential gas shortage is the main issue.

Overeem landed some pretty decent shots in round 1 and 2 and took Werdum down around 20 times ha ha that how he won he dominated Werdum in the first two rounds.

Barnett looked awesome, big, strong, and aggressive! I love overeem to bits but must admit abit worried for him now. Josh Barnett to beat Overeem in the final. Will be interesting to see if he can use his sprawl effectivly against Barnett.

Overeem didn't dominate at all! Werdum outstruck him and outworked him. He simply underestimated how much horse meat Reem would eat in the build up to the fight. The judges gave Reem credit for knockdowns that weren't actually knockdowns and he stole the fight. The scoring in MMA really needs to be addressed because it's pathetic. You can win fights by doing nothing.

Anfield makes a good point,
Werdum did let him self down to a certain degree with some of his tactics/antics can't blame him for wanting the fight to go where he is strongest I guess, rekon we were all hoping/expecting reem to come in and blow him away early