Heading into his fight against Sergei Kharitonov, Josh Barnett had two goals—don’t let Kharitonov tag him with any punches, and get the fight to the ground. While he didn’t fully manage to avoid all the strikes of his opponent, Kharitonov was unable to significantly hurt Barnett before the fight went to the ground.
Once Barnett took the Kharitonov to the ground it was clear that he had the upper hand. The Russian fighter failed to offer any significant defense, while Barnett landed punches from the full mount. Kharitonov briefly rolled out of from under Barnett, only to give up his back where the turtling fighter ate more punches from Barnett.
As the clock ticked down, Barnett flattened Kharitonov out and at the first opportunity he applied an arm triangle choke, Kharitonov wasted little time in tapping out at the 4:28 mark of Round 1. Just like that, the finalists for the Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix were set, Josh Barnett versus Daniel Cormier.
To get to the final match, Barnett ran over two strikers, Brett Rogers and Kharitonov. Barnett’s wrestling skills helped him in those two fights, but those skills will not offer him much hope when he faces Cormier, a former Olympic wrestler.
Cormier has looked progressively better in each of his nine professional fights. The undefeated American Kickboxing Academy fighter regularly trains with some of the best fighters in the world, including UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez. When they eventually face off, Barnett is not going to offer him anything he hasn’t seen before.
When the two Grand Prix finalists meet in early 2012, it will be interesting to see how the fight is contested. Do the two wrestlers avoid the ground and turn it into a stand up war, or do they fight to their strengths, finding out who is the better wrestler? Either way, Barnett versus Cormier should be a very good fight.
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