‘Strikeforce Challengers 16’ event review

‘Strikeforce Challengers 16’ is in the bag as the San Jose-based promotion took its up and coming prospects on the road to Kent, Washington last night. The fans may have been left disappointed by a lack of finishes on the fight card as a whole but a couple of lacklustre matchups aside it was a solid evening of mixed martial arts. It’s time for a rundown of night’s action and a peek at what could lie ahead for the contenders involved.
Fodor breezes past Terry, ‘The Future’ looking bright for lightweight contender

Washington native and AMC Pankration lightweight Caros ‘The Future’ Fodor shone in the main event as he wowed his home fans with a masterful display in the main event, beating Cung Le student James Terry with surprising ease.
From the first bell to the last, Iraq war veteran Fodor took the fight to Terry and pushed the pace, leaving the decorated collegiate wrestler bloodied after the first round after out-striking Terry and battering him with knees in the clinch.
What was most surprising as the fight progressed was how easily Fodor was able to stuff the takedowns of the wrestler, not to mention the impressive striking display that left a talented and hard-hitting striker in Terry scratching his head. The Californian ended the fight strongly but all three judges swung in the favour of ‘The Future’.
The Forecast: Caros Fodor is becoming an interesting prospect at 155lbs and the Kirkland, Washington native is clearly ready for a bigger test as he looks to break into the upper tier of the Strikeforce lightweight division. Look for ‘The Future’ to headline another ‘Challengers’ fight card before the year is out, most likely against Lyle Beerbohm or Jorge Gurgel.


Ricehouse plays spoiler, hands Couture his first professional loss

A strange choice of co-main event saw inexperienced lightweights Ryan Couture and Matt Ricehouse put their undefeated records on the line and while all of the hype surrounded the son of UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture it was the underdog who triumphed in Washington.
The pro-Couture crowd was left disappointed as Ricehouse exposed glaring holes in the rookie’s striking defence and had little trouble dealing with the grappling of Couture either, in fact the fight was fought mainly standing. Missouri native Ricehouse added another win to his well-rounded resume after three rounds, taking a comprehensive unanimous decision.
The Forecast: It’s back to the drawing board for Ryan Couture but Matt Ricehouse moves to 5-0 with this win and the 24 year old BJJ practitioner is showing signs of rounding out the other aspects of his game. The young lightweight will undoubtedly be back on the Showtime card when Strikeforce next puts together a ‘Challengers’ event, most likely against a newcomer as the promotion looks to test his mettle.
‘The Monsoon’ whips up a storm, blows Villante away in Washington

Also on the main card, undefeated light-heavyweight prospect Lorenz ‘The Monsoon’ Larkin kept his impressive record intact as he out-pointed former NFL footballer Gian Villante to move to 11-0.
The exciting kung fu practitioner started slowly as Villante, who also wrestled to a good standard in his younger years, quickly took him down and kept him there for the bulk of round one. However, the former heavyweight couldn’t land much in the way of damage and the tide turned in rounds two and three.
Larkin, moving a lot more fluidly, began peppering Villante whose first cut to 205lbs was not a good one – the New Yorker was practically static in the next two rounds and it was clear his gas-tank was approaching empty. Larkin was unable to finish him but he did throw out some trademark crowd-pleasing kicks as the fight drew to a close, taking a clear-cut unanimous decision.
The Forecast: The commentary team made several remarks about Lorenz Larkin looking undersized for a light-heavyweight and they weren’t wrong – in fact, it seems amazing that both Larkin and Villante used to fight at 265lbs. A move to middleweight could benefit Larkin who will clearly struggle when facing a hulking wrestler, something that comes with the territory sooner or later when fighting at 205lbs. For now though, the Californian stand-up machine is an 11-0 prospect who is ready for a bigger test – a fight with newly signed Brazilian monster Marcos Rogerio de Lima could be just around the corner. Gian Villante is now 0-2 in Strikeforce and having shown very little last night the New Yorker might need to hit the little leagues to tune up his record.
‘The Kansas City Bandit’ robs Mulhern of the glory, High takes decision in Washington

Former King of the Cage welterweight champion Quinn Mulhern made his Strikeforce debut last night but the highly-touted prospect dropped to 15-2 having found Jason High too much to handle.
A BJJ wizard, the 6ft 3in Mulhern saw his A-game completely stifled as the much shorter High totally dominated the fight from start to finish. ‘The Kansas City Bandit’ took down the taller man repeatedly and with worrying ease – you could argue that Mulhern pulled guard several times but the fact remains, his takedown defence was terrible.
High couldn’t land much from top position and was apologetic in victory due to the lack of action but the former UFC and DREAM welterweight gets his Strikeforce career off to a fine start.
The Forecast: Now 14-3, Jason High is experienced enough to start hanging with the upper half of the Strikeforce welterweight division. The well-rounded High could find himself facing the winner of the upcoming rubber-match between Bobby Voelker and Roger Bowling whereas Mulhern needs to spend some heavy time in the gym sorting out his takedown defence.
The Best of the Rest….

The opening main card fight saw female contenders Julia Budd and Germaine de Randamie do little to warm up the Kent crowd as Budd brought a wrestle-heavy strategy to the cage and avenged a muay thai loss to de Randamie as she grinded her way to a unanimous decision. Budd now moves to 2-1.
Undefeated middleweight newcomers battled it out on the undercard as Derek Brunson moved to 7-0 as he handed a first professional loss to Jeremy Hamilton, now 8-1. Many will have had an eye on Brunson, a top collegiate wrestling champion who had shown good striking and BJJ in his earlier fights, but it wasn’t quite the performance Brunson would have hoped for. The wrestler dominated the fight but both men showed poor cardio as North Carolina’s Brunson limped over the finish line to take a comfortable decision. Brunson is clearly a work in progress, but he has the credentials and skill-set to go far – a duel with fellow unbeaten 185lb’er Yancy Medeiros could be in his immediate future.
In an absolutely unforgiveable piece of match-making, experienced welterweight Eduardo Pamplona was paired with 0-0 debutant Jerron Peoples and the Brazilian moved to 15-2 with ease. It was nothing short of an execution as Pamplona simply slammed Peoples down and punched his way to a stoppage at 2:40 of round one. A solid addition to the 170lb bracket, Pamplona will hopefully face a more prepared and suitable opponent when he returns to the Strikeforce cage.
The first undercard fight saw light-heavyweight newcomers do battle and Trevor Smith moved to 8-1 in impressive fashion as he took out knockout artist Keith Berry. Smith had to eat a few shots to get close to Berry but the Takwila, Washington native showed his wrestling and BJJ prowess as he sent Berry to sleep with a north-south choke in the second round, earning the technical submission win at 3:02 of the frame. Strikeforce is doing a fine job of adding 205lb prospects to its ranks and Smith is one of the more promising out there – keep an eye on this kid.
That’s a wrap for ‘Strikeforce Challengers 16’, be sure to stay tuned to MMABay in the days to come as a hectic weekend of mixed martial arts continues tonight with ‘Bellator 46’ and the opening round of the featherweight tournament.
By Steve Davies