Strikeforce returns with its Challengers series for its 17th incarnation tonight live on Showtime, but its first since being relocated to its new home of The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The card is headlined by a welterweight trilogy fight between Roger Bowling and Bobby Voelker. The two fighters have split their first two meetings. Also on the card are the last two victims of Strikeforce Women's Lightweight Champion Marloes Coenen, as former champion Sarah Kaufman and Liz Carmouche square off. Stay tuned to MMATorch for full round-by-round coverage and analysis.
Show Open
They open with the usual "this is where the young stars of tomorrow get there start" video to open, but I can't help but feel its not particularly appropriate tonight. Roger Bowling and Ovince St. Pruex are still technically prospects I suppose, but OSP seems like he's past Challengers at this point and Bowling doesn't seem to have the ceiling to get too excited about watching him fight Bobby Voelker yet again. The only other fight of note on the card is Kaufmann vs. Carmouche, and considering they're both recent title challengers, they're definitely past the Challenger's series.
On the bright side, the announce team for tonight is Mauro Ranallo and Pat Miletich. Not saying they're two greats, but I prefer two man booths and this is the best combinaton Strikeforce has. So I got that goin for me. Which is nice.
FIGHT ONE: RON STALLINGS VS. ADLAN AMAGOV
Not particularly familiar with these guys. Stallings is a Lloyd Irvin protege, so presumably he'll have an advantage on the mat over the striker Amagov, but somethings tells me this fight is designed for Amagov to look good.
Round one: Mazagatti is the ref. Glove touch to start. Both guys throwing kicks of various styles in the opening minute. Amagov finally lands the first strike of note a minute and a half in with a stiff right. He lands a big left thirty seconds later and seems to be getting comfortable. Spinning back kick lands to the liver of Stallings. (author's note: apparently it is a three man booth. They tried to sneak Quadros past me, but I can hear him. Tricky Strikeforce) Amagov is throwing some nasty looking kicks, but nothing is really landing. Amagov gets atrip takedown with twenty seconds left and gets in some punches as the horn sounds.
Pelkey's scorecard: 10-9 Amagov. Not exactly a blistering round, but Amagov looks like he's just getting warmed up and Stallings had virtually no offense to speak of.
Round Two: Stallings lands a nice leg kick to open the action. Amagov throws a hook kick that misses, but man, if that had landed... The fighters clinch against the cage with Stallings in charge. They separate. They clinch against the cage again, but this time Agagov uses a wizzer to throw Stallings on his head. He follows him down and lands some punches before Stallings gets back to his feet. With twenty seconds left both fighters start flurrying wildly with Amagov ending up on his back after losing his balance throwing a punch. The horn sounds with Amagov looking suddenly gassed.
Pelkey's Scorecard: 10-9 Stallings. Not much to the round. Amagov threw his fancy punches and kicks, but few landed and he spent half the round pressed up against the cage eating knees and ended the round on his back (albeit by his own doing).
Round Three: Amagov opens the third swinging wildly and hitting nothing again. Stallings gets the plum and lands three or four nice knees before dropping down, scooping out Amagov's legs and getting the takedown. Stallings works for a straight armbar before moving to mount. Amagov escapes and they're back to their feet, clinched against the cage. After a stall, they're separated and they go back to brawling flurries. These guys are trying hard, but neither can land a good, hard shot. Amagov throws a spinning backfist. Stallings avoids the wizzer throw and both fighters swing with everything they have left in the last ten seconds.
Pelkey's Scorecard: 10-9 Stallings. The stand-up was relatively even, but Stallings won everything else. The announcers are convinced Amagov easily won the first two rounds. We'll see.
WINNER: Adlan Amagov by Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
STAR RATING: (**-) Both guys tried hard and the flurries were entertaining, but it got quite sloppy after the first round and there were several long periods of inactivity up against the fence.
The ladies are up next. (Is is some kind of passive sexism to call women's fighters "ladies"? Inquiring minds want to know)
FIGHT TWO: SARAH KAUFMAN V. LIZ CARMOUCHE
Round One: Kaufman immediately presses Carmouche up against the fence. A minute in and its still just a battle of positioning at this point. Two minutes in, same thing. A failed Carmouche takedown attempt ends with Kaufman taking her back. Carmouche fights back to her feet and presses Kaufman against the cage. Kaufman reverses and takes control again. Finally with a minute left the separate and reset. With ten seconds left both fighters finally open up and Kaufman lands a couple of punches.
Pelkey's Scorecard: 10-9 Kaufman. Four minutes of cage work, three seconds of action. Blech.
Round Two: Kaufman is much more aggressive here, landing punches and keeping the pressure on. Carmouche nearly gets a takedown after catching a kick, but ends up pressed up against the cage again for her troubles. They separate with a minute left. Kaufman stuffes another takedown attempt. The round ends with Carmouche on her back, Kaufman standing over her.
Pelkey's Scorecard: 10-9 Kaufman. Slightly bette than the first round, but Kaufman is totally Kauman'ing this fight up.
Round Three: And some more action against the cage. Kaufman utilizing some foot stomps. A failed takedown attempt by Carmouche finds Kaufman on top, but simply backs out to her feet to go back to the stand up. Kaufman has soundly won every striking exchange, but has yet to land a big punch. Carmouche's face is pretty bloodied up though. Carmouche is way behind yet fighting with no sense of urgency. Kaufman finally lands a few good punches as the round ends.
Pelkey's Scorecard: 10-9 Kaufman. She was just better everywhere, winning the striking and positional battles. And that's all there really was to this fight.
WINNER: Sarah Kaufman by unanimous decision (30-27 on all cards)
STAR RATING: (*) Tedious fight. I understand the point is to win, but certainly the female fighters have to know and understand they're judged on a different scale. Every Sarah Kaufman fight is the same, and every one is awful. If she plans on having a job when the UFC finally absorbs Strikeforce she's not going about it the right way.
FIGHT THREE: OVINCE ST. PREUX (OSP) VS. JOE CASON
Round One: Cason sneaks a straight right in early. Cason apparently trains with Duke Roufous, immediately making him one of Rich Hansen's honorary favorite fighters. OSP lands a kick/knee that wobbles Cason as he comes in. OSP pounces, overwhelms Cason with punches on the ground and that's it. Impressive and efficient finish by Saint Preux.
WINNER: Ovince Saint Preux by submission (strikes) at 1:12 of round 1
STAR RATING: (**+) There we go. Not much to the fight at a little over a minute, but both guys came out firing and it was a quick and decisive finish for OSP. It was also Cason's first loss.
Post fight, OSP says he's ready for bigger things and mentions Mousasi and Babalu. Mousasi should be higher on the ladder than Saint Preux, but Babalu would be totally appopriate. Its crazy to think a fighter could be 5-0 in Strikeforce, as Saint Preux is, and still be two fights away from a title fight. Kudos on the patience Strikeforce.
FIGHT FOUR: SHAWN JORDAN VS. DEVIN COLE
Round One: Both guys land solid right hands early. After some action against the cage, Jordan throws Cole to the mat and takes his back. Cole escapes and takes Jordan's back for a fleeting moment. Back to the feet and against the cage. Now Cole with a nice throw. Back to the feet with a minute left. Jordan lands a big uppercut that wobbles Cole. Both guys trade shots from close range. Just before the bell, Jordan catches a kick and lands a big punch that hurts Cole. Good round from the big boys.
Pelkey's Scorecard: 10-9 Jordan. Surprising first round from the late injury replacement. Both guys had takedowns and dominant positions but the two biggest punches belonged to Jordan.
Round Two: Much better start for Cole, landing some nice punches and knees in the first two minutse. Cole gets the takedown and moves to side control where he lands some nice knees to the body. Jordan gets back to his feet but is still being controlled. Jordan is keeping his hand on the mat to avoid getting kneed in the face, but he's eating a ton of knees to the thighs instead. Right before the horn Cole landed to hard punches to Jordan's face...between Jordan's legs. It was weird.
Pelkey's Scorecard: 10-9 Cole. Pretty clear cut round for the favorite.
Round Three: I'll say this for Jordan, while he seems to be fading as the third round gets underway, he's shown a pretty stout chin and has a better gas tank than most guys his size. Win or lose, nice showing for him. He loses position going for a guillotine and winds up on his back. With a minute and a half left, this might do it for Cole. He can ride this out on top doing damage. And that's just what he does.
WINNER: Devin Cole by unamimous decision
STAR RATING: (***-) Entertaining fight that predictably got slower and sloppier as it went on, but much better than you'd expect from two low-ish level heavyweights.
FIGHT FIVE: ROGER BOWLING VS. BOBBY VOELKER
Round One: Bowling comes out active throwing punches and kicks. Bowling is having his most success landing hard kicks to the body. Voelker is getting the occasional shot in, but Bowling is largely punishing him right now. Bowling gets a takedown, but Voelker gets right back up. Bowling lands another HARD body kick that hurts Voelker and then takes a finger to the eye. Shades of their first fight. Bowling staggers Voelker with a series of punches, but Voelker's chin is stout. The round ends after Bowling lands a knee.
Pelkey's Scorecard: 10-9 Bowling. I considered going 10-8, but that's probably a little aggressive even for me.
Round Two: Voelker comes out aggressive trying to keep Bowling from getting comfortable, but it doesn't last long. Bowling reasserts himself with a couple of takedowns. Voelker gets back to his feet and after spending some time pressed against the cage, Voelker staggers Bowling with a big knee! Bowling drops, eats a ton of uncontested punches, and its all over! Ok, that came out of nowhere. Not exactly Barry-Kongo, but a nice comeback nonetheless.
WINNER: Bobby Voelker at of round 2
STAR RATING: (***+) Good fight with a great comeback and finish. Bowling was dominating the action with crisp punches, kicks, knees, and wrestling and had Voelker hurt several times before the comeback.
Well that's another Strikeforce Challengers in the books. Thanks for following along with me. The first two fights were a steaming pile of poo, but the last three nearly washed the taste out of my mouth. Now its on to the main course next week: Fedor vs. Hendo.
Jai Bradney Ebenezer Fontes Braga Chris Brennan Marcelo Brito Rob Broughton
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