Two new champions were crowned at Saturday’s “Strikeforce: Houston” event, as Rafael Feijao scored a third-round TKO of light heavyweight champ “King” Mo Lawal and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza topped Tim Kennedy to win the vacant middleweight title.
Feijao escaped Lawal’s early takedowns and the fighters spent much of the first two rounds on their feet, where they each had their moments, though neither dominated a pair of close rounds.
The third was a different story, however, as Feijao rocked Lawal with an early flurry then dropped the champ before finishing him off with elbows as he struggled to survive just over a minute into the round.
Despite being among the world’s best in jiu jitsu, “Jacare” edged Kennedy in a hard-fought standup battle that rarely hit the canvas to win the middleweight title vacated by Jake Shields, who recently left for the UFC.
Souza failed to convert on his limited takedown attempts, but bloodied Kennedy with more-effective punches throughout to earn a deserved unanimous decision win.
The Showtime-televised main card got off to a dismal start, as heavyweight Bobby Lashley was stopped by Chad Griggs at the end of the second after being stood up from mount, while KJ Noons stunned Jorge Gurgel after the first round bell before putting him away with a seemingly illegal knee early in the second.
The official “Strikeforce: Houston” results were:
MAIN CARD
- Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante def. champion “King” Mo Lawal via TKO (strikes) – Round 3, 1:14
Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Championship - Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza def. Tim Kennedy via unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47)
Strikeforce Middleweight Championship (vacant) - KJ Noons def. Jorge Gurgel via knockout (strikes) – Round 2, 0:19
- Chad Griggs def. Bobby Lashley via TKO (referee stoppage) – Round 2, 5:00
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Daniel Cormier def. Jason Riley via submission (strikes) – Round 1, 1:02
- Andre Galvao def. Jorge Patino via TKO (strikes) – Round 3, 2:45
Latest
cormier is a busy busy dude.
He sure is. I think he’ll take a bit of a break now and get a step up in his next fight.
what exactly is “shots to the back of the head” there was some VERY close calls in the lashley fight and mo la fight.
There’s no real consensus, but it’s mainly focused on the lower part of the head and upper neck.
I would say, “Where most of Griggs’ punches landed on Lashley.”
I know they clarified the rules a bit after complaints from fighters. The main area is where Kris said it is. They had to give a little more slack in that area.
However, in this fight, most of Griggs shots were illegal.
well in any case considering all the hype and the talk of him fighting fedor… and then losing to this joker… he should go get sick on himself
The rule says the area that is more than one fist from back of ear. Put your fist behind your ear, the area that is behind fist is illegal.
Strikeforce really screwed up with pushing Jake Shields away for Hendo and they are making it worse with their spin that Shields was “cut” and he turned down two fights with Jacare (un-ranked) to fight Lawler #4 MW and Hendo #2 MW.
You messed up, treated him bad and now he is in the UFC, get over it.
@petterson well since he was carted off to the hospital with severe dehydration after the fight I think he did get sick on himself
Wow! That kind of hurts the promotion when they get two of their stars get knocked off in one night.
I agree!
Or makes it more interesting to watch the next fights.
Does anyone know where can I find the UFC 118 wallpaper? The size I’m looking for is (1024×768), or somewhere around there.
look on google? i would guess
ufc message board moles!
???
since when does a fight get stood back up when somebody is in a mounted position? (except last night ;0p)
I also wondered first but I think Bobby had some cut issue………but that was weired!
That’s cool (what i was thinking) if it was to do with the cut issue but surely the fight should of restarted in the mounted position?
You only stop a fight for a cut if it’s affecting the fighters vision. The cut was below his eye and was in mount so that’s no excuse. The restart should have been on the ground. The fact that it wasn’t was ridiculous.
exactly my feeling, Chrisl
i didnt get to see the fight but it sounds like lashley got screwed a little bit
from the reading it sounded like he expended alot of energy if not all his energy trying to finish the fight and they stood him up and he was spent
tough break! :/
He ran out of gas Superman .
I saw the fight and he looked good for the first round but took a knee to the ribs and later a punch to the face that slowed him down . He started out strong in the second but just lost steam and that was it .
King Mo was exposed as basically a one dimensional fighter . He is willing to throw and stand but judging by the reaction of Rafael there wasnt much behind it . I still say he lost to Gegard although narrowly so Im not surprised that someone taking a more aggressive stance put him away .
Noons put on a good fight , and that brutal hook at the end of round 1 was awesome . I want to see the Diaz rematch now …….
Jacare …… well he was technically sound beating kennedy . He deserved that one last night .
Ok guys, Lashley was spent in the mount position. It doesnt matter what position you’re in, if your not making further progress or “working” then you are in danger of being stood up. Lashley was way too gassed to even throw a punch so Chad held him until the ref did his job.
If you watch the replay, you would see that most of Griggs punches were to the ear/side of the head, not the back. A few were misplaced but if noons doesnt get dq’ed for that illegal knee/late shot I’d say three our four misplaced punches deserves the warning he got.
AND lashley deserved to lose. He thought his wrestling would be greater than griggs and it was but when he was on the ground he didnt pressure griggs. He gave griggs way to much room to move his hands and feet and regain guard or hold lashleys arms down so he could punch him. Not a flawless fight from griggs but he won, bottom line. And being from Tucson Im happy to see him represent.
And also, i think noons should get nick diaz again. Anybody else agree?
I did not like the restart standing up either but IMO even if that fight goes to rd 3 we have the same result
Lashley was extremely one dimensional..I am real surprised that Lashley has not worked harder on cardio, striking and submissions..I don’t know how he expected to be any kind of real threat being that one dimensional
FYI
Rampage tweeted this:
Rampage4real @KingMO_GDP that’s what u get 4 talking sh*t,u nipple ring wearing b*tch,now keep my name out Yo mouth,before I crash u lil boy
LOL!
Yeah, because Rampage has been such a force recently…
Rampage is the new Ken Shamrock.
Ouch…
How can anyone say that Jacare was technically sound in beating Kennedy? Kennedy was more effective according to CompUBox. Also how many takedowns did Jacare get? Kennedy took the “Best grappler in the world ” down 2 times. Tim lost because he got cut and that’s BS! The judges and the refs sucked last night!
Jacare’s stand up was better..even though the stats do not reflect that..this is one of those cases where I actually give the judges credit for getting that decision correct..Jacare’s shots did more damage..he won that fight
It was a great night of fights but just a lot of shit went wrong…. the stand up, illegal knee(reallydidnt connect tho), illegal blows to the head, letting knoons get 3 ko’s in one night.
All that said it was a great night for the fighters tho.
WHo else thought that the KJ’s hook was off the hook at the end of round one at the bell ?
give me a hell ya !!!!!!!