Last  night was a great night of MMA, and I was kind of upset that I couldn't watch both events the way I wanted to.  I watched WEC 45 on the big screen, and caught parts of the Strikeforce jawn when I could.  Also, thanks to all those that hung out with us in the open threads and welcome to those new members that joined last night.  Overall, I thought both shows delivered as you had good submissions and good knockouts along with just good displays of overall MMA.  The WEC show's pacing was slow to begin with but we did manage to see 6 fights I think it was and all of them were good fights.  The Strikeforce show(what I saw of it) seemed to have good pacing and the fights themselves were good according to most people's reactions in the open thread.  On to the fights:

SBN coverage of WEC 45: Cerrone vs. Ratcliff

SBN coverage of Strikeforce: Evolution

-Donald Cerrone is a good fighter, but he needs to start fighting to win instead of trying to please the crowds.  I wrote that he had an advantage in the fight if it went to the ground against Ed Ratcliff, but Cerrone wanted to stand and bang as usual.  Ratcliff was actually doing well until the multiple low blows began to take their toll on him.  Cerrone landed 3 low knees that seemed to zap the energy right out of Ratcliff.  Cerrone had points deducted and knew he need to stop Ratcliff to win, so he took Ratcliff down and submitted him via rear naked choke.  Why didn't you try that in the first two rounds?  Props to Ratcliff as he did really well in the fight, and showed heart in continuing after the repeated low blows. 

-Why did the WEC decide to match up Horodecki against Njokuani?  Njokuani had a massive reach advantage and it was clear from the onset that it was going to be a problem.  I think Horodecki should drop to 145, he appeared VERY small in there compared to Njokuani.  Also, why he would turn his back on a striker like Njokuani is the million dollar question.  That was eerily similar to Yves Edwards vs. Josh Thomson in the WEC.  I couldn't believe that Horodecki didn't go completely out from that.  In fact, he took quite a bit of punishment before the fight was stopped.  Njokuani is no joke.

-Scott Jorgensen absolutely man handled Takeya Mizugaki for the first two rounds in a great fight(I told yall it would be great).  Jorgensen hits HARD and dropped Mizugaki in the first round.  He also used his wrestling for some solid takedowns to keep Mizugaki off balance.  I really like Jorgensen, that kid comes to fight and it'll be interesting to see who they match him up against.

-Courtney Buck(the guy that might not have a job tomorrow) should at least be given one more fight in the WEC even though he lost to Brandon Visher.  Come on, it's Christmas!   He took the fight on short notice and seemed to gas which Visher took advantage of, but the kid brought it on the feet.  It's clear that he needs to work on his ground game, but he's dangerous on the feet.   

-Scott Smith is the KO comeback king.  Le was handling him on the feet for the first two rounds, but Le was visibly tired fighting a great deal of the fight with his mouth open.  Smith caught as we've become accustomed to now, and finished him off in exciting fashion.  Le should just go back to making movies.  He's old as hell, one dimensional, and just lost to someone that's not a contender.

-I didn't watch much of the Melendez/Thomson fight, but it seemed to be a good fight from what I read. 

-Jacare just had his way with Matt Lindland, and once the fight went to the ground it was a wrap.  Jacare didn't look too uncomfortable on the feet either, granted Lindland's standup isn't anything to be worried about.  Lindland is done.  He simply can't compete with the upper echelon of MMA middleweights anymore.  I'd be very interested in Jacare/Shields, but it appears that Hendo/Shields will take place first.

-King Mo takes another step up the mountain in beating Mike Whitehead.  Mo seemed comfortable on the feet, and seemed as if he wanted to test out his standup in this one.  The 1-2 he landed was pretty quick and he did what he was supposed to do and finish Whitehead off.  It'll be interesting to see who they match him up with next.  I honestly think he could beat Babalu right now.  That would be a good win for him at this stage in his career.

Give me your thoughts on the fights...in particular the Strikeforce event since a lot of yall watched that one.