Shields, Rogers impressive in victory at Strikeforce
by Matt Bishop on Jun 7, 2009 5:32 AM EDT
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ST. LOUIS – Jake Shields cemented his place as one of the top fighters in the world with a first round submission of Robbie Lawler on Saturday night at Strikeforce: Lawler vs. Shields in front of 8,867 fans at Scottrade Center.
In a meeting between former EliteXC champions, it was Shields who came out the aggressor, ultimately ending the fight with a tight guillotine choke from full guard. Lawler tried to stand up and slam his opponent but Shields held firm and Lawler quickly tapped once the fight went back to the ground.
“That guillotine was really tight,” Lawler said. “When I came back down to the mat, I thought maybe I could pull his elbow off my head, but he had it synched on tight. That’s his move and he wasn’t letting go.”
Shields (23-4-1), has now finished eight straight fights after picking up 10 of his first 15 wins by decision.
“Robbie’s a top-level fighter,” Shields said. “I saw an opportunity and I took it to end the fight. I wouldn’t be surprised if a year or two down the road me and Robbie meet again. He’s a phenomenal fighter. It just turned out to be my night.”
In the heavyweight attraction, Brett Rogers maintained his undefeated record with a stunning 22-second knockout of former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski.
Arlovski, a heavy favorite entering the night, came in with a leg kick and backed off, allowing Rogers to bulrush him against the cage. From there, a big flurry of punches turned Arlovski’s lights out for the second straight fight. In celebration, Rogers ran head-first into the fencing, a moment of pure joy.
“Hopefully (this win) bumps (my career) up to the next level,” Rogers said.
Next up for Rogers could be Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem on Aug. 15.
“I’m ready for whatever,” Rogers said. “I was planning on picking that up today but it got pushed back. Hopefully he’s keeping it good and clean for me. I’m coming for it.”
In the third featured bout, Nick Diaz ran through Scott Smith en route to a third round submission win in their 180-pound bout.
Diaz came out throw punches in bunches with many of them connecting while Smith seemed content to look for the home run. Smith seemed no worse for the wear, though, until a body shot sent him reeling against the cage midway through the second round.
From there, Diaz took over, landing at will and hurting Smith again to the body as the round came to a close. Smith took his time before finally getting up to his stool after the round.
Diaz controlled the action again in the third before hurting Smith with punches. They ended up on the ground where Diaz locked in a rear-naked choke for the victory at 1:41 of the round.
“I know I work a lot harder than him,” Diaz said.
According to CompuStrike, Diaz threw 397 punches in the 11:41 fight, landing 207, a 52 percent success rate.
“I don’t appreciate people I know signing to fight me,” Diaz said.
In a welterweight bout, Joe Riggs dominated Phil Baroni en route to straight 30-27 scores for a unanimous decision victory.
Riggs, who claimed to have broken both hands in the fight, took Baroni down several times to win the first two rounds. Even seemingly up two rounds heading into the third, Riggs turned up the heat on a tentative Baroni, landing knees and punches and hurting his opponent. Riggs also taunted Baroni at several points during the round, leaving his chin open. Baroni landed a few good shots, but it wasn’t enough.
“He was talking some (expletive) about my chin,” Baroni said. “I wanted to show him, ‘what are you talking about? I’ve never been knocked out.’ I can take a good shot, but I think I took a little too many. I didn’t fight back.
“I wasn’t able to pull the trigger. I don’t know what happened.”
In the opening bout of the main card, Mike Whitehead defeated Kevin Randleman by unanimous decision. Whitehead was able to take the former Ohio State wrestler down at will throughout the fight but never came close to finishing. Randleman got the restless crowd onto its feet in the third round, dropping Whitehead with a thunderous left hook, but Whitehead was able to survive and win the fight 29-28 on all three judges’ scorecards.
Rogers didn’t pull off the only big upset of the night, as Mike Kyle knocked out highly regarded prospect Rafael “Feijao” Calvancante at 2:05 of the second round.
Kyle held his own throughout the fight, landing the better shots of the two. He was able to drop Feijao and then follow up with several hard punches on the floor that put Calvancante out bad. After several tense moments, he was able to leave the cage until his own power.
MORE COVERAGE:
MMAForReal/Lights Out Radio press conference photo gallery
Lights Out Radio - Strikeforce Review w/ Jake Shields
MMAForReal.com Exclusive Interview - Brett Rogers
MMAForReal.com Exclusive Interview - Gilbert Melendez
MMAForReal.com - Strikeforce: Lawler vs. Shields play-by-play
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man i was there live and it was awesome. hard to believe that there was just a little under 9k people there, b/c every seat was full that i could see, but they did have it sectioned off quite a bit. 1rst live major mma show for me and 1 of my all time favorite fighterts in arlovski got whooped and i went 1-4 in my picks, but i loved every minute of it and left knowing i got my money’s worth. the dudes i were sitting next to were hardcore fans as well and were from k.c. i even got into a druken debate with 1 over gsp/bj and greasegate (at least he was drunk) lol. it was all in good fun. brett rogers came in and excuted the perfect gameplan, bumrush arlovski and not let him get into a rythym. arlovski is a rythym fighter and rogers hands were faster than i thought. the same guy i was debating with looke at me and said “arlovski just lost alot of money in boxing”. yep. he is/was schedueled to fight a boxing match on june 26th i believe, but i’’m pretty sure he will be suspended after the ko. now wether boxing follows mma’s suspensions is another story(i’m pretty sure they do) arlovski wont be boxing anytime soon and i can’t see any mma org paying him any decent money to fight for them. in just 1 night his career fell farther than sylvia’s. i think he has made a pretty good chunk of money over the last year(millions) and should take a year off and try and get his head together. arlovski would do well in k-1 and maybe boxing/ b/c he performs alot better in the ring than in those small cages that strikeforce and elite used. affliction has a huge ring and he did much better there.plus maybe the boxing gloves and ten count will help protect his paper chin, lol. people do forget that in boxing once a fighter gets knocked down, the fight gets stopped and he gets a 10 count or a standing 8. i was very impressed with rogers and he was humble in victory as usual, and he made a new fan out of me. also i have to give diaz his props. he fought and beat a very tough fighter in smith and his boxing was very good and did actually have decent power. i said after his weigh-in that he looked very good at 180 and was ripped. he should stay at mw in strike force b/c they dont have all the huge mw’s like the ufc does. i think he will take cung le out and win the mw title. shields will most likely fight riggs next, for the ww title i believe (i see him bolting for the ufc as soon as he gets out of his contract). it’s a shame that strikeforce’s 2 best fighters between 170 and 185 are training partners (shields and diaz). fedor was there as well! it was awesome to see him live and in person. barnett and mousasi were as well. 1 thing of note was that about half way through the bout tim sylvia showed up and the fans flocked to him like a rock star. the dudue sitting next to me pointed at him and said “dana white”. i thought he was talking drunk shit, but he told me “look theres the 2 best hw’s in the world sitting next to each other and nobody is asking to take pictures or get their autographs” and here was sylvia just a little ways down, the most hated man on the net, and he was treated like an mma god. what that dude was trying to say was that’s what the ufc means, stardom and that’s what affect dana has on the sport. even though sylvia does not fight for the ufc anymore, the casual fans don’t know that and those are the people who are buying most of the tickets and the ppvs. just a little something i thought i would share.
Tim Sylvia still fights in the UFC…classic stuff right there. sounds like you had a blast man.
thanks for the rundown.
a lot of favorite fighters were either fighting or in attendance there…very cool show to go to.
by The Real T-Bone on Jun 8, 2009 4:02 PM EDT up reply actions
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