It wasn’t exciting and never neared a finish, but favorite Sarah Kaufman easily earned a unanimous decision over an outmatched Takayo Hashi in the main event of Strikeforce Challengers 6 on Friday in San Jose, California to become the promotion’s first-ever women’s welterweight (135-pound) champion.
The night’s co-headliner between Trevor Prangley and Karl Amoussou showed promise, but ultimately disappointed after an accidental eye poke late in the opening round rendered Amoussou unable to continue and the fight was ruled a technical draw.
Luke Rockhold, Tarec Saffiedine, and Yancy Medeiros also earned victories on the Showtime-televised main card, while Wayne Phillips won the lone professional bout on the event’s preliminary card.
The official Strikeforce Challengers 6 results were:
MAIN CARD
- Sarah Kaufman def. Takayo Hashi via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45)
- Karl Amoussou vs. Trevor Prangley – technical draw (accidental eye poke) – Round 1, 4:14
- Luke Rockhold def. Paul Bradley via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 2:24
- Tarec Saffiedine def. James Terry via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Yancy Medeiros def. Raul Castillo via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Wayne Phillips def. Eric Lawson via submission (armbar) – Round 1, 4:27
- Samuel Bracamnonte def. Chris Stewart via TKO (strikes) – Round 3, 0:59*
- Tristan Arenal def. George Miller via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 0:30*
- Jesse Tobar def. Johnson Nguyen via submission (rear naked choke) – Round 2, 1:24*
- Renee Robinson def. Lilia Salas via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 1:06*
- Steve Dickey def. Alan Lummel via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 0:33*
- Ronald Carillo def. Anthony De Los Santos via submission (strikes) – Round 2, 1:20*
* Amateur fight
For the latest Strikeforce news and Strikeforce results stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
Pictured: Sarah Kaufman
Latest
The refs were terrible tonight, and the way that the CSAC handles eye-pokes is silly. I’ve long had my problems with the CSAC, and they didn’t look any better tonight.
Good job for Kaufman picking up the win, she was clearly the better striker, but it would have been nice to see her a little more aggressive.
I was bummed by the Prangley fight, and good on Rockhold for destrominating Bradley.
The first two fights were similar to the last one, two strikers that were better than their opponents, and were able to keep the fight standing.
I can’t give this thing a thumbs down, but the officiating makes it impossible to give it a thumbs up, so tonite the ‘Force will have to settle for a thumbs in the middle…
;)
Yeah, the refs were sloppy for sure. Even in the first fight (I think) the ref hurried up one of the guys after a low blow and didn’t give him the 5 minute option. Very sloppy. Sort of bad matchmaking too, but what can you do?
Yeah, I saw that. That was the same ref as in the main event. The bald fat guy that did the Prangley fight was also the ref for the second fight and was, to say the least, overzealous about telling the fighters to fight.
i agree with justin on the refs and the eye poke stoppage was crap. i would like to add that the stand up is to quick. if a guy gets taken down let him figure a way out without stalling for a stand up. if a guy is running away ( ala caleb starnes/nate quarry) you dont see the ref stop and put the runner on his back, so dont reward the downed guy for stalling.
I agree with everyone about the officials last night …. kinda weak .But Prangley showed that he’s no gatekeeper or stepping stone (didnt feel like losin ?) And Rockhold was impressive , maybe him and Prangley should have fought and left “one eye” to fight Bradley .
Again congrats to Sarah Kaufman … Im actually in Victoria BC right now visiting family so If I run into her I’ll give her props personally .Usually see her around downtown ….
The refs always manage to find a way to fail. There should be a universal mma judge set of guidelines to help prepare the refs better. Its one of the most important positions in MMA; he mediates the fights and is the only one that can say its over.
It would be nice to have a universal set of guidelines, but since MMA is regulated on a state by state basis, including some rules being different from state to state, that is difficult to do. An example of varying rules from state to state is the handling of eye pokes. In Nevada, the fighters are allowed five minutes to recover from an eye poke, but in California, they are not. In that particular fight, that was a failure of the rules, not the ref. The quick stand ups, and rushing a fighter back from the groin shot, is a failure by the refs, though.
The most glaring problem I see in 2010 with standing fighters up too quickly is the fact that MMA fighters can be roughly broken up into unequal thirds comprising strikers, wrestler/gNp’ers, and BJJ/submission fighters.
Both the gNp’ers and submission guys are busting their a$$ to get the fight to the mat so that they can do their thing and end the fight, so where is the logic in serving only a third [or less] of the athletes in the sport by hurrying the fight back to the vertical plane?
Now I’ll be the first to admit that the sport is not served by men “Antonio McKee’ing” their way thru fights, but this is MMA, and not K-1.
In the specific case of last night, if the ref in question is hurrying the fight past its natural flow and pace, whos interest exactly is he serving?
I don’t clearly recall any fighters obviously begging to be let up, but I may be wrong on that because I had guests and was making supper for part of the evening, as usual.
But what I did see just seemed to be sloppy officiating, which is sad when you consider that the CSAC appoints these guys, and many, many MMA fans consider California in general and San Jose in particular ground zero for MMA in this country.
Of course those fine folks would be mistaken, but thats another matter…
;)