Former Olympian Daniel Cormier Defeats John Devine at Strikeforce Challengers VII
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 27, 2010 2:16 AM EDT
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The biggest (figuratively and literally) fight on the undercard was a heavyweight bout between John Devine and two-time Olympic wrestler, Daniel Cormier. Obviously, Cormier was the favorite, but he brought a 1-0 record into what was only his second fight as a professional. You would have expected Cormier to want to take the fight straight down, but he seemed content to stand and strike, at least for a little bit. After a few nice combinations from Devine, Cormier landed a right that dropped Devine like a rock. Cormier followed with a few ground strikes before the referee stopped it and awarded him the TKO.
There is absolutely no excuse for Strikeforce/Showtime to film this fight and rather than use the THIRTY MINUTES left in the scheduled broadcast to showcase the fight of a former Olympic wrestler just end the show. This is just awful, awful time management and a pointless waste of Cormier. If he wasn't going to make the broadcast, even if time allowed, then why not save him for a different Challengers show?
The same kind of problems come up when they have fighters like Shamar Bailey, who fought on the most important Strikeforce card to date, have no video to showcase prior to their fight. Bailey fought and won on the first CBS event. But the promotion/network didn't film the undercard and as such there was no film to use during the pre-fight.
There are growing pains, and then there is common sense. Unfortunately a very solid Challengers show has the cloud of a wasted Olympian's effort hanging over it.
Update: I stand corrected. They did show Bailey's previous fight clips during his intro. So it was one of the few prelims they taped.
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Three things really cross this over into the realm of unnacceptable:
1) Cormier has huge potential to be a star at HW.
2) His opponent John Devine is a very good HW in his own right, especially as a challenge for a new fighter. This was not Bobby Lashley 2.0.
3) The fight lasted 1 minute and 9 seconds. You’re telling me there was no room to fit it in? Bullshit.
Last year I gave Strikeforce a lot of slack because they were a new promotion with immense growing pains. This year, while I’m not going to hold them up to UFC level of scrutiny, they have to start making good on their promise.
I really think its just Showtime production being so used to doing things the Boxing way. They need to learn from the UFC. Coker needs to be more vocal. Dangit, if he would only check his Twitter! Lol
Mike Goldberg: "You know Joe, When Matt and his brother Mark Hughes were growing up, they would pound each other behind the barn."
by xFenixKnightx on Mar 27, 2010 2:45 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
I'm almost certain...
he meant within his own organization, not the media.
How exactly is Strikeforce a new promotion?
Serious, this growing pains bullshit is exactly that, BULLSHIT.
SF has been putting on fights, in one form or another, for every bit as long as the UFC has.
You are correct
Because there is no difference between now and where they were between 2006-2008, when they held 16 total shows (less than they plan to hold for 2010 alone), 11 of which were were held in San Jose and one down the street in Fresno (instead of producing events in Miami, Nashville, St. Louis, and Los Angeles as they’re doing this year), and where only events in their first three years was broadcast live.
Yeah, they haven’t had to deal with any growth.
Perhaps they made the call to just chop it at 90 minutes? How are they going to fill 30 minutes of airtime with a fight that didn’t even go one round?
that's the smaller issue though
the bigger issue is that they are not even filming these fights. The best we can hope for is that some fan got video and is willing to post it on youtube.
Take a fighter like Britt or Cavalcante, depending on who wins that fight could honestly be the next challenge for the Mousasi/Mo winner (Yes Hendo probably gets first crack but that’s a different story) and you have no footage of them fighting(maybe Fiejao under the Elite XC banner?).
They do film some of the prelims, and I’m guessing they got Cormier’s for future use. The problem with the Challengers shows is that they are now using amateur fights to fill out the bottom of the prelim card. I wouldn’t want to show those either. Ideally they would film 2 pro prelim fights and insert them time permitting, but tonight I think they only had 1 short prelim and just decided to keep it to 90 minutes.
Here are a couple SF prelims that have made it online, in edited form:
Didnt know that
I thought they only time prelims were ever filmed is the “bonus fight” on CBS but I stand corrected.
You do bring up a good point about the amateur bouts too but I still just wish they would make time for a fight like this. Daniel Cromier is a great prospect for Strikeforce.
They seem to film about one prelim fight per show.
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by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 27, 2010 10:37 AM EDT up reply actions
I kept the station on showtime. They showed that poetry show when it was done, which ended a good 8 minutes before the next scheduled program. If you’re telling me they couldn’t fit a fight that went slightly over 1 minute in…I don’t know what to tell you.
Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
MMA Editor - SBNation.com
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 27, 2010 10:37 AM EDT up reply actions
Except that isn’t what I’m telling you. If you’re programming for a network that runs in half hour time blocks, what would you prefer, a program that is 90 minutes long or 100 minutes? If they showed Cormier’s fight, it would have needed an introduction/replays/official decision, stretching it out to about 5-10 more minutes of air time.
Here's an idea
Get your shit together an hour earlier and air the pre-lims live on FSN. It’ll be cheap as hell and you raise awareness of the fighters, the card, and the promotion. Im sure FSN would rather have live semi-big MMA than a 4th rerun of “Baseball’s Golden Age” (love that show though). What, is Showtime gonna disapprove? It raises the profile of their show. Unless its in a contract somewhere, do this.
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms, turning every good thing to rust.
by Anthony Pace on Mar 27, 2010 3:26 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
ShowTime has management that make money
they arent stupid. Stop whining
Again...
Shaddup.
Jack Bauer could get off the Lost island in 24 hours.
by timetosaygoodbye on Mar 27, 2010 3:32 AM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
That’s enough of you.
Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
MMA Editor - SBNation.com
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 27, 2010 10:39 AM EDT up reply actions
strikeforce makes me cringe
Pretty much everything outside of the ring makes me feel uncomfortable and ashamed. They fuck up a lot, weird commentary, weird dancers/girls sometimes(?), undercard broadcasts that never materialize…..uugghhh
Strikeforce does stupid shit like this.
by snakecharmer1340 on Mar 27, 2010 5:59 AM EDT reply actions
All the time?
I would agree. I don’t know why a good number of people think they are this godly run company.
by The Flying Gentleman on Mar 27, 2010 8:10 AM EDT up reply actions
I think people still cling to the notion of how Strikeforce USED to be run, which was very well. Then they got into bed with Showtime/CBS and M1, and it seems like they gave up too much of the decision making power in their own promotion.
by PM23 on Mar 27, 2010 11:00 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
i know its confusing, but please place all blame on SHOWTIME… they control the production
"I’m not going to stop yelling because that would mean, I lost the fight!"-Kenny Powers
shooter/cutter for AllElbows.com, mma enthusiast
And who gave them control?
by The Flying Gentleman on Mar 27, 2010 10:22 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
EXACTLY.
Coker sold the ship to get Fedor on board. It seems that SF will quickly become the next chapter in the cautionary tale of chasing Fedor.
Why wasn't this fight on the TV portion of the card anyways?
I'm like PacMan fightin you silly kids... throw ya Hatton the ring, and get knocked outlike Ricky did.
lol.
Strikeforce is the Andy Reid of MMA
by Plunkett on Mar 27, 2010 9:48 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
They look at a Denny's menu instead of a playbook?
twitter.com/thisredengine
by Matthew Roth on Mar 27, 2010 10:09 AM EDT up reply actions
Bad time management.
Coker has the Denny’s menu memorized.
by Plunkett on Mar 27, 2010 10:54 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
At this point so should Andy Reid
twitter.com/thisredengine
by Matthew Roth on Mar 28, 2010 2:42 PM EDT up reply actions
this is all showtimes call!!!
everyone bomb shosports twiiter page and yell at them… seriously.
"I’m not going to stop yelling because that would mean, I lost the fight!"-Kenny Powers
shooter/cutter for AllElbows.com, mma enthusiast
Hopefully they'll throw it up on a website or something.
Seriously though, a fighter who has actual credentials in Olympic wresting, actually comes out and TKO’s his opponent…and they DON’T show it? It’s like they don’t want to succeed.
by HappyLittleTreez on Mar 27, 2010 11:17 AM EDT reply actions
Uhhh
they did show footage from Bailey’s fight vs. John Kolosci on the CBS show during his intro.
by William Wilson on Mar 27, 2010 11:58 AM EDT reply actions
Just fired up the Tivo and yes, they did. How the fuck did I miss that? I remember being cageside and for almost the entire prelims the camera sat on the mat, filming nothing. When I asked a Strikeforce official why they weren’t filming they said that they didn’t film most prelims because “it was a waste.” They clearly did film that fight though. I’ll correct the article.
Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
MMA Editor - SBNation.com
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 27, 2010 12:13 PM EDT up reply actions
The reason for not showing Cormier's fight
They only recorded it with one camera, so they’ll at least have some footage to promote him with.
Still doesn’t explain why they didn’t show a highlight of his KO on the show.
by John Nash on Mar 27, 2010 12:41 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
No worries
as it does seem like dumb thing STRIKEFORCE would do.
Imagine if they taped the prelims and, oh I don’t know, had a weekly show on Showtime where they could highlight them. Or past fights from STRIKEFORCE’s previous events. sigh I’ll get on it when they give me the Showtime reigns.
by William Wilson on Mar 27, 2010 12:59 PM EDT up reply actions
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