Strikeforce Nashville Recap: Jake Shields proves his worth, King Mo defeats Mousasi
Posted on April 18, 2010, 12:20 AM by Anton GurevichStrikeforce promotion presented an extraordinary “Nashville” event with no less than three title fights. The event was held at the 20,000-capable Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
The opening bout of the night featured the top five Light Heavyweight in the World (and arguably the top 10 P4P fighter in the World) Gegard Mousasi and the loudmouth challenger Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal. Two months of neverending trash talk ended up in a surprisingly dominant performance by Lawal, who managed to prevent from Mousasi to execute his gameplan by constantly taking “The Dreamcatcher” to the ground. More than that, Lawal looked solid during his short stand up moments against Mousasi, throwing some heavy punches at the Dutch-Armenian. Lawal has cut Mousasi’s 15-fight winning streak, which included some of the best opponents you can find outside the UFC bubble.
Gegard Mousasi was way more effective damage-wise, but his inability to gain moment cost him the decision. A victory over Gegard Mousasi rises Mo’s record to 7-0, proving that the one of the most decorated wrestlers in the game has a very bright future ahead of him.
Later that night, Gilbert Melendez welcomed the legendary Japanese superstar Shinya Aoki to the United States, by dominating the “Baka Surviving” during five rounds of Strikeforce Lightweight Title action. Melendez showed a heart and pride of a true Champion by chasing Aoki around the cage and taking risks on the ground. Shinya Aoki did not have the answers for Melendez determination and impressive striking that forced him to pull guard in every attempt.
Gilbert Melendez has clearly solidified his place as the Top 5 Lightweight in the World, as many people suggest that in light of BJ Penn’s defeat at UFC 112, “El Nino” might be the best 155’er on the planet. Melendez will seek for a new challenges at the Strikeforce Lightweight division, as the fight against KJ Noons looks like the only option available at the moment.
In the main event attraction of the evening Jake Shields has surprisingly dominated the veteran Dan Henderson for the Strikeforce Middleweight title. Shields was rocked in the early seconds of the fight by Dan Henderson’s world-famous right hand, but managed to weather the storm and defeat the legend. Shields proved many people wrong when he took down the Olympic Wrestler at will, something that most of the UFC fighters failed to do over the past years.
The only thing to complain about was Shields’ inability to finish Dan Henderson, after being in full mount position for at least five times during the fight. Jake Shields’ Unanimous Decision victory over Dan Henderson improves his record to 25-4, to the pleasure of the UFC President Dana White.
White will do everything in his power to sign Jake Shields, but it is up to the Champion if he wants to test himself against Georges St. Pierre, Jon Fitch and Dan Hardy. Shields’ judgment may be blinded after the embarrassing incident with Mayhem Miller, as we will have to wait and see what the California-native has in mind.
Strikeforce’s next event “Heavy Artillery” will feature the heavy-hitting Alistair Overeem, who will defend his Heavyweight Title for the first time in three years against Brett “The Grim” Rogers. The event will air live on Showtime and take place on May 15, at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
Image: Sherdog.com
Comments
I think Dan just showed up for a paycheck. Had he lost the weight properly and trained harder, he would have run right through Jake.
i think Hendo is gettin to old for weight cuts, he should just stick to 205 and not bother with 185
I think the weight cut killed him. I was amazed at how bad he looked. Not to take anything away from Shields but Hendo just did not look right at all. He seemed lost and totally depended on landing the overhand right, and when he did he couldn't finish.
He didnt even use his wrestling , just aimed for the big right all night.
afer 25 fights he still has no takedown defense...and they want to say hes p4p top ten....suck a d1ck
idk wat happened to Hendo, hes a greco-roman wrestler, hes been wrestling his whole life, he relied to much on his ko power, should hve trained more ground
Shields is MW fighter wuy people talking about GSP and Hardy the guy just destroyed the legend Hendo
He never hurt Hendo, just ground out a decision is all.
Still he made him look bad. I think Shields lacks power...
shields is a natural welterweight!
he was the ELITEXC welterweight champ! his last fight at ww was vs current UFC fighter Paul Daley! at the last elitexc event after the kimbo/pretuzelli shit finish elite , then strikeforce adquire all elite fighters
and since nick diaz move down to ww shields move up , they are friends and training partners and since diaz is the welterweight champ now shields would never move down
but if he sigs with the UFC he will fight at his normal weight 170
he will really threat GSP belt!
i have to say today was a good day!
shields vs mayhem would be great
shields vs diaz even better!
but not so sure if better than
GSP vs shields
shields is a free agent with strikeforce obviously not wanting him to go after the riot with mayham and dana couldnt want to sign a fighter more than shields after beating hendo who was taken by strikeforce
revenge will be the word if shields signs with dana
i mean shields vs mayham would be great
but diaz vs mayham even better!
then shields vs gsp would had to be done!
Only if GSP goes MW though, but yea, I agree man
Shields just beat natural 205 legend
Dan looked awful in that fight. I don't know if Shields wrestling is just way better that it looks (which is pretty damn good) or if Hendo was injured or what but Dan did not look good.
That Mousasi V Mo fight was one of the worst I've seen. It was UGLY. King Mo should not have become champion for that performance. He dominated position and where the fight happened but he took 90% of the damage. He got beat the f\/(k up! YET, I couldn't really say Mousasi won either. He looked horrible on his feet; slow, now footwork. He just got taken down at will and then picked Mo apart from the bottom. I think that if you are going to call it anything other than a draw you have to give it to Mousasi though based on damage done and points racked up with strikes. Mousasi was ahead like 3 to one on strikes.
I can't believe what you are saying. King Mo dominated the fight and dictated the pace. Mousasi landed a lot of light blows to make Mo's task even more difficult, but he didn't hit that hard at all. Mousasi like you said looked terrible and you cannot give the win to him, that would be absolute crazyness. Mo clearly won that fight hands down and used his wrestling like we all knew, but maybe you wanted a quick knockout and that's why you didn't like the fight. I enjoyed it to the maxxxx !
As I said, I really couldn't justify giving EITHER fighter the win. Mo did dictate the pace but he didn't do any damage while Mousasi did do cumulative damage with his small shots. All I am saying is that points wise Mousasi won while in reality no one won.
Also, I was not wanting a quick KO LOL. There just really wasn't anything done in that fight. I usually defend wins based on dominant wrestling but in this case all Mo did was get the take down and then get beat up from the bottom. I agree with you though that it would be crazy to give Mousasi the win. It is just that it is somehow equally crazy to give Mo the win. It was an ugly, crap fight.
Mousasi gased bad ! i thought he was saving it for the later rounds but something happen. that was the slowest ive ever seen him. I was disappointed he needs to work on his cardio.
Yeah, something was definitely wrong. I would like to see a redo because as I posted above I personally can't see giving a W to either fighter. That was a horrible fight.
Jake Shields should learn to punch
No kidding. He had Hendo mounted for half of the second round and flailed away doing absolutely no damage at all.
King Mo won the belt by 5 rounds of tackling. I thought Mousasi could fight off his back...
That Melendez fight was pretty boring...zzz
Hendo showed his age. And like lots others have stated, he relied too much on his KO power. He caught Jake & i'm sure he thought that was it. Maybe him & Mousasi should meet next.