Strikeforce: Diaz vs Noons 2 - Post Event Thoughts

Last night, Strikeforce put on yet another event that should be considered a moderate success. It was the usual Strikeforce affair; great fights to go along with absolutely dreadful production. The TV presentation with Showtime is hideous and hard to watch. Once you get past that though, some good fights took place. In we go.

• Listening to Pat Miletich on commentary instead of Gus Johnson was a real treat. Frank Shamrock is still as annoying as ever but this is the ideal team that Strikeforce should look at for all future events. Still not the biggest fan of listening to these guys, but it was definitely an improvement.
  
• Diaz vs Noons was a solid main event but you stilll get the feeling that if it was held under the UFC umbrella, it would have been a fight night or co-main event level fight. At least with the lack of promotion it felt that way. Compustrike showed that Noons outlanded Diaz but it did not look that way. Fight Metric then came out with their stats for the fight and they showed a clear victory for Diaz, which is exactly what the judges and fans saw as well. The fact that Noons fought nearly 5 whole rounds with a broken jaw is incredible and speaks to how tough he is. Even after he broke his hand, he was in the pocket and trading with Diaz. Tough kid but needs to expand his game if he wants to truly have success as a mixed martial artist.
• Josh Thomson should not have won that fight. The judging problem in MMA is just never going to go away. He even admitted in the post fight interview that there was no way he won the fight 30-27 the way one particular judge scored it. To me, there was no way he won the fight 29-28 either. Gesias Cavalcante stayed busy throughout the fight, he was always pushing forward and he owned the lone knockdown. It's really sad too, because JZ looked so good coming off the knee injury that had him sidelined. Thomson was said to have an ankle injury throughout camp but he never showed that in the fight. He survived a few submission attempts, to his credit, but he didn't do enough to win the fight. Strikeforce is happy though, that they can set up a third match with Gilbert Melendez. That's provided Melendez doesn't draw Shinya Aoki first.
  
• The Sarah Kaufman-Marloes Coenen fight was what it was. That's all I can say about it. I just don't want to see women fight. It can be entertaining, sure, but for the most part there are just too many mismatches and too many fights like we saw last night. Coenen was so much bigger than Kaufman that her only hope was to clinch up with her and work from there which makes for a horribly boring fight. By the time it went to the floor and Coenen started her submission clinic, the fans were already turned off and looking for something else. When you're just waiting for the next fight to come on as a fan that's just not acceptable.
  
• Tyron Woodley is a beast and he looked incredible. Wrestling is truly the most important martial art in the game today. Whether you use it offensively like Jon Fitch to smother your opponent or defensively, to keep the fight standing and win it there, it's clearly the biggest indicator of who has an advantage entering a fight. Back in the day, Brazilian jiu-jitsu was king but those days are long gone. Galvao may not ever be able to make a complete transition to MMA. Woodley is a guy to watch for in the coming years. This kid could be a beast.

Overall a good night but what it did more than anything was make me look forward to UFC 120 even more than I already was.