Jacare Souza vs Tim Kennedy: A start of a new era, or an unworthy Title fight?
Posted on July 12, 2010, 10:05 AM by Daniel CassidyDespite the rumblings of a possible Strikeforce Middleweight tournament, company CEO Scott Coker recently announced they had instead decided to set up a fight for the Belt between Ronaldo 'Jacare' Souza and Tim Kennedy. Both fighters interestingly have a record of 12-2, but come from totally different backgrounds.
A black belt in both Jiu Jitsu and Judo, Jacare is also a mutli time finalist and winner of the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship. He is also a winner of the BJJ World Cup, and the CBJJ World Championships. Born in Brazil, Jacare (alligator in Portuguese) started training in both Judo and BJJ at the age of just 17. He obtained his black belt in BJJ aged just 24. Despite losing his MMA debut to Jorge Patino, Jacare went on to win his next 10 fights, before being stopped by an upkick from Gegard Mousasi. In all of his fights, his Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu backgrounds show through, with many fighters uneasy about going to ground with him, and has finished most of his fights by submission.
Tim Kennedy's background could not be more different from his upcoming opponent. Originally from San Luis, California. He attended Columbia College of Missouri earning a BA in Criminal Justice, and graduated in 2002. Once finishing college, Kennedy enrolled in the US Army. He joined Special Forces in 2004. During his time in the army, he entered many hand to hand combat tournaments, and became well known for his skills. On several occasions he was deployed to Iraq, and was awarded the Bronze Star medal, which was received for valor under fire. Currently he trains alongside Chuck Liddel and former Middleweight Champ Jake Shields at "The Pit" in San Luis. Kennedy is well known for his heavy hands, due to his boxing background. His only losses are to Scott Smith(due to a cut) and Jason Miller via unanimous decision.
Despite Cokers original intentions of a Middleweight bout, it seems these two could both easily have starred in the final. Both are exceptional fighters, from different backgrounds, who bring different things to the fight. Both also own great pro records, and are almost certainly head and shoulders above the like of Cung Le, Mayhem Miller(both fighters have a winner over him) and Robbie Lawler, almost deeming a tournament unnecessary.
Kennedy and Jacare also bring something different to the table compared to former Champ Jake Shields. While Shields was known for his wrestling skills, and being able to shut fighters down, Kennedy is more than capable of dealing with most fighters on their feet, While Jacare is one guy who's guard you don't want to find yourself in. When both fighters collide in August, where the fight takes place will determine the winner. Should Kennedy be able to keep it standing, Jacare will be in trouble dealing with the hands of the former soldier. Where as should Jacare be able to take the fight to the mat, it will be difficult to doubt the credentials of such a well accomplished grappler.
Strikeforce: Houston will take place August 21, 2010 at Toyota Center in Houston. Jacare vs Kennedy is expected to act as the Co-main event.
Comments
It is going to be a great match and nobody would be complaining if this was announce at the beggining the problem is that at least I got excited with the idea of a tournament so now I see this bad...
SF doesnt really have any other option, there fighter list is limited, this is prolly the best match up they could have made seeing that Shields left, Lawler just lost, Hendo just lost, Miller is suspended, Smith lost and Cung Le hasn't earned a shot yet, so I don't really blame SF for putting the title on the line between these two guys
this will be a great fight, both fighters in my opinion are worthy of the belt. Gotta go with Souza to win this one
Jacare will kill Anderson stand up or on the ground
if you mean Anderson Silva you must be joking
On the ground maybe, IF he can get it there. If you think Jacare's stand up is better that AS's you must be on crack.
look at melendez n aoki aoki couldnt get it to the ground n got fukd up. you gotta be good at everythin these days
strikeforce sucks in general who the **** cares lol
I like watching it for free, so I guess I care.
Why exactly did you click the thread, thats confusing.
Its going to be Jacare winning in a dominating fashion.
Don't be so sure. Kennedy is pretty underrated in my opinion. I think Jacare may have a slight edge but this should be a good fight.
The only way Jacare can lose in my opinion is if he gasses which is a possibility.
Strikeforce is just shooting themselves in the foot, i mean comon i understand they are a up and coming organization, but so is Bellator and i Bellator is great to watch and nobody complains about Bellator but for some reason SF is not, maybe because the only title that really means anything to me is the lightweight but thats just cause i like Melendez but idk SF just cant hang with Bellator and UFC they promise things then let everyone down or they just make the most retarded comments about upcoming fights or they make dumb fights (hint Rogers vs Overeem, Crocker wanting Fedor to fight Overeem)
Welcome to Jacaré era
SF is the biggest joke in MMA. this is a sport, with rankings and statistics and if you dont respect those statistics and rankings then your taking away the legitimacy of the sport. the biggest problem with MMA is its treated as a buissness with ratings and money overshadowing logic when making fights and strikeforce is 100 times worse then the UFC
When has the UFC given rankings any consideration? Anderson Silva (admittedly amazing) got a title shot after his first fight in the league. Belfort was offered a title shot immediately. Lesner had a UFC record of 1-1 and an overall record of 2-1 and got a title shot. None of these orgs pay any attention to rankings. SF is no worse than the UFC in that regard.
oh no my friend thats were your completely wrong. thats why i said strikeforce is worse then the UFC im aware that all promotions do it. but you have no argument considering that both of those fighters have become undisputed champions in there weight classes. and when they both came into the UFC i want you to name contenders that should have taken their spots. who should have challenged franklin at the time anderson did if he wasnt the # 1 contender, and the same goes for brock who was the #1 contender at the time he came in? nobody. both divisons were a joke at the time when those fighters came in and they both won titles. so i dont see your logic here my friend
wow so why did i say my friend twice? lmaooo
UFC should just buy all the name brand orgs... at least they know how to market their top fighters
Scott Coker is a fool. It seems that the majority of the fans want a grand prix to see who should ultimately be the next champion of the division. If that's the case, then it would seem to be an easy decision to have it. I'm not sure if Coker is trying to think outside the box or what because apparently, the only thing he's been doing with the box lately is shitting in it. His talks about Overeem fighting Fedor and then the winner fights Werdum is even more absurd than not having the tournament. Both Werdum and Fedor were told before their bout that the winner would face Overeem for the title. And now Coker wants to change that? Seriously Scott, if you keep changing your stories or serving up crawfish when you were advertising lobster tail, eventually people are gonna get sick of it and I'm pretty sure that you don't want to see the end result...
Sad but true.