STRIKEFORCE CARD ENTERTAINING
SAN JOSE, Calif.– If Josh Thomson was going to predict a scenario in which he’d lose his Strikeforce lightweight championship, it probably would have gone pretty close to what happened Saturday night at the HP Pavilion. Thomson lost what is already being talked about as a match of the year candidate, losing to someone that he long considered a very good friend, Gilbert Melendez. Melendez (17-2), who became Strikeforce interim champion in April while Thomson was on the sidelines all year after breaking his ankle twice, in April and August, won the five-round fight via unanimous decision on scores of 49-47, 49-46 and 49-46. The win avenged Melendez’s five-round loss of the title to Thomson in the same arena last June.
AND THEN THERE WAS THE CUNG LE KO!
On most any other night, people would be talking almost exclusively about Scott Smith’s comeback performance in ending the unbeaten record of local favorite Cung Le in what was the show’s main event. Le (6-1) was the star the Strikeforce promotion, before MMA was legal in California and it was a kickboxing organization, was built around during the 1990s. An unbeaten San Shou fighter (a sport that combined kickboxing with takedowns, but no ground work), dominated the entire fight. He scored three knockdowns, and befuddled Smith with his usual array with side kicks and spinning kicks that are only supposed to work on the movie set, and not in MMA fights.
But it was evident even as he was dominating Smith that he was breathing heavily, particularly when he tried to slow the fight down in the second round, holding Smith against the cage in an attempt to regain his wind.
Le, now 37, hadn’t fought since March 29, 2008, and like so many fighters in the past who ventured into the movie world, came back and was missing the edge that he had when he was younger.
Like his classic fight in April with Benji Radach, Smith came back from almost certain defeat with a Hail Mary like finish, a hard left that suddenly put Le in trouble. After putting Le down a second time, after a few punches on the ground, referee John McCarthy stopped the fight. “He caught me with a punch,” said Le immediately after the fight. I did my best. I fought my heart out and he fought his heart out. He just caught me with a punch. You win some and you lose some.”
The key blow was a left hook that came out of nowhere.
“My left hook is really my best punch eve though people think it’s my right,” said Smith. “He was waiting for the right and I brought the left hook in and caught him.”
“I think maybe I need someone to beat the hell out of me before I go out there,” said Smith (17-6). “I almost always lose the first round.”
Smith, who has made a career of providing memorable knockouts, one in UFC against Pete Spratt that is considered one of the greatest finishes in the history of that organization, the Radach fight, and this, given how badly he was losing the fight and was nearly stopped, being another one.
After Le’s first knockdown, he pummeled Smith with hard punches on the ground as Smith just tried to cover up. He blocked some punches and others were getting through. Many, if not most referees would have stopped it, and McCarthy told Smith he’d better get out of trouble, and the urgency of the situation got him back to his feet.
In the television opener of the Showtime card, Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal (6-0), a natural middleweight fighting as a 218-pound heavyweight, finished veteran Mike Whitehead (24-7) after knocking him down and finishing him with punches on the ground in 3:08 of the first round. Mo, who came to the cage with a group of dancing girls, wearing a crown, and walking under an umbrella, was originally scheduled to face Whitehead at light heavyweight. However, Whitehead, who in the past has cut from as heavy as 275 pounds to 205, asked for the fight at heavyweight and came in at 261 pounds.
The U.S. debut of former Brazilian Jiu Jitsu world champion Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (11-2, 1 no contest) was also successful, stopping former top five middleweight Matt Lindland (21-7) with an arm triangle submission at 4:18 of the first round.
Dave Meltzer covers mixed martial arts for Yahoo! Sports and the WrestlingObserver.com newsletter as well.