The big fight between Josh Barnett and Brett Rogers in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament was the semi-main event from tonight’s card in Dallas. Despite playing second fiddle to the main event between Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum, this fight could very well put out the dark horse candidate to win the tournament.
The winner of this fight will face K-1 kickboxer and highly underrated heavyweight MMA fighter Sergei Kharitonov.
The fight began with Rogers and Barnett meeting in the center of the cage. Rogers, who normally appears very confident on his feet, seemed somewhat nervous with the also heavy-handed Barnett across from him.
After exchanging a few punches, Barnett pushed Rogers into the cage and went for the takedown. Rogers looked like he was going to defend the takedown, but Barnett flat out lifted him up and slammed the 260-pounder onto the mat, right into side control.
Rogers struggled mightily throughout the rest of the round to get off the ground but was unable to do it. Barnett, one of the top catch wrestlers in the heavyweight division, worked his ground game, landing some ground and pound and even going for some submissions.
Barnett achieved mount on two occasions during the round. Although he was unable to finish in the first round, he did completely dominate it.
Going into the second round, Rogers was clearly winded and looked a little shell-shocked. He came out and landed a few nice shots, but Barnett countered with a big hook that clipped him. Rogers immediately shot in and went for a takedown but was off balance from the punch, and Barnett countered it into a slam right into his third mount position of the fight.
From there, it was all over. A rocked Rogers was unable to prevent “The Babyfaced Assassin” from applying a side choke. Barnett did his best to escape but eventually tapped, giving Barnett a victory which looked relatively easy.
After the fight, Barnett looked like a pro wrestler as he took the microphone and cut a promo. “One by one,” he declared, “I’m going to pile the bodies up until I’m the last man standing.”
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