At the last Strikeforce show in November, Frank Shamrock interviewed Cung Le, who had just beaten Sammy Morgan in a one sided fight. Shamrock was laying the foundation for a possible match-up between he and Le, two of San Jose’s most popular fighters. At the time, I figured that Shamrock and Le each had at least one more fight before they’d get in the cage together. For one, Le hasn’t necessarily fought enough competition, in my opinion, to be ready for someone as savvy as Shamrock. And it seemed that Shamrock wanted a rematch with Renzo Gracie before he would go after Le. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. It looks like they want to build off the mini confrontation that they had in November. It’s the best drawing main event that Strikeforce could put together today, unless Ken Shamrock were agree to fight Frank.
It will also be the second joint card between Strikeforce and EXC. The first was the fantastic summer card in San Jose where Shamrock beat Phil Baroni, the winner of our first match of the year award. According to Dave Meltzer’s blog, the show will have at least two Strikeforce title fights and two EXC title fights, along with a fight in which one Strikeforce fighter will battle with an EXC fighter. It will also be broadcast live on Showtime.
Two big MMA names are on prime time network television, and there’s not much buzz about it. Tito Ortiz is one of the contestants on Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice and Gina Carano is a gladiator on American Gladiators. I missed the first episode of Celebrity Apprentice because of DVR difficulties, but I’ll be watching it from here on out. Based on previous episodes I’ve seen of the show, this is tailor made for Ortiz and he should do well. As for American Gladiators, based on the Sunday Night premiere (I haven’t watched Monday’s show yet), Carano isn’t really show cased and doesn’t stand out, but she is the prettiest of the female gladiators (though really, that’s not saying much). I’m interested to see how she does because by being natural looking, she’s not memorable right off the bat.
If you get the chance, make sure you check out the UFC 81 site that I linked above. There’s a trailer where they show Brock Lesnar with his WWE belt and in the hype video for Mir and Lesnar, they even talk about his pro wrestling background. I think it’s great that the WWE allowed the UFC to use the footage, and let’s face it, it probably helps WWE just as much as it does UFC to have WWE footage on UFC TV. I especially liked it when Lesnar called Mir, Frank Mur.
Rather than do the regular news updates, I’m going to give out some awards. This will encompass all of MMA, but really, my focus will be on the American companies since I didn’t see much of Pride or K-1 this year.
Fighter Of The Year
There are some great candidates for this one, including guys that will get overlooked like Urijah Faber. But I think the year belonged to three men. Randy Couture had the comeback that all comebacks will be measured by, but near the end of the year, he was done with the UFC and any proposed big year end match was out the door. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson had a banner year by beating Marvin Eastman, Chuck Liddell, and Dan Henderson. Anderson Silva held the middleweight title all year long, beating Travis Lutter, Nate Marquardt, and Rich Franklin for the second time. If you look at someone who dominated their division, the choice is Silva. But if you’re looking for who won the toughest and biggest fights, the answer is Jackson.
Winner: Rampage Jackson
Fight Of The Year
In the early summer, Frank Shamrock and Phil Baroni had a war that ended when Shamrock called his own shot. Early on, he mocked Baroni, by putting his hands together on his cheek, insinuating that he was going to put Baroni to sleep. And after two rounds of fighting that left both guys completely exhausted, Shamrock caught Baroni in a choke and rather than tapping out, he went to sleep, just like Shamrock predicted. Tyson Griffin seemed to be on fire all year long, having great matches in wins against Clay Guida and Thiago Tavares. But his best fight was one in which he lost, against Frankie Edgar at UFC 67. It was a wrestling war and ended with Griffin pulling on Edgar’s knee at the bell after putting him in a knee bar. Edgar would take the decision. Right before year’s end, Roger Huerta shook off two losing rounds against Clay Guida at the season finale to The Ultimate Fighter Season 6. He would go on to finish him in the third round in a very exciting comeback victory. While the two UFC fights were great, I have to go with the fight I saw in person.
Winner: Frank Shamrock vs. Phil Baroni at Strikeforce Judgment Day
Frank Shamrock Hype Interview
Fight Card Of The Year
Strikeforce Judgment Day was an exciting card with a fantastic main event. UFC 68 had the most emotional MMA match that I’ve ever seen. UFC 76 had five matches that went the distance and had two of the biggest upsets of the year. And I was never able to see a good copy of the Pride show in February. But if I had to choose the card of the year, I’d have to go with The Ultimate Fighter Season 6 Finale. It had two fight of the year candidates with an exciting finish to end the night when Huerta came back to stop Guida. The War Machine vs. J-Rock was a great brawl as well.
Winner: The Ultimate Fighter Season 6 Finale
Upset Of The Year
Oh, there were many. How about Randy Couture coming out of retirement to chop down Tim Sylvia? What about Forrest Griffin beating Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, who was in his first UFC fight, after coming over from Pride. Keith Jardine outpointing Chuck Liddell? Or what about both Gabriel Gonzaga and Cheick Kongo beating Mirko Cro Cop? Well, I guess that since he lost twice, maybe they weren’t such huge upsets. But the winner has to be Matt Serra beating Georges St. Pierre at UFC 69 in Houston. When that fight ended, my jaw hit the floor. St. Pierre came into the fight looking unstoppable and Serra took the fight right to him, knocking him out and shocking St. Pierre himself.
Winner: Matt Serra knocking out Georges St. Pierre at UFC 69.
Promotion Of The Year
When the UFC is the biggest game in town, how can they not be the best promotion? They are making money and drawing huge crowds and good PPV buyrates. Who are their competitors? Well, Zuffa, the same company that owns the UFC also owns the WEC, which put on some very fun and exciting cards, focusing on the smaller fighters. The San Jose based Strikeforce understands their fan base and sets up fights that the locals want to see. With local fighters like Cung Le and Frank Shamrock, they should have a pretty good 2008 as well.
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