These guys know what I’m talking about.
With all of the MMA available this weekend, you had to expect to sit through at least a few decisions. Maybe even a few overreactions to a subpar performance. Last night, Strikeforce Challengers 16 delivered on your expectations. Fans at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington sat through six straight unanimous decisions, with every fight on the televised portion of the card ending this way. Yet despite the lack of stoppages, most of last night’s fights were still pretty entertaining.
Fodor vs. Terry was a very entertaining scrap, with both lightweights landing hard shots throughout the fight. However, whenever the fight went to the ground, Caros Fodor clearly controlled the action, earning him the decision. The AMC Pankration prospect improved to 11-3, with four consecutive victories under the Strikeforce banner. Excuse me for pointing out the extremely obvious, but Fodor really deserves a step up in competition.
If you’re looking to avoid overreactions to a performance that shouldn’t have surprised anyone, you may want to avoid any forum discussing Ryan Couture for the rest of the day. Ryan Couture lost for the first time as a professional last night to Matt Ricehouse, and looked pretty raw while doing so. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Ryan Couture looked like a guy with only two professional fights to his name getting his first real step up in competition. Matt Ricehouse improved to 5-0, but much like Ryan Couture, looked like a work in progress.
Naturally, the internet is handling a fighter with elite pedigree, but only two professional fights to his credit looking rough around the edges as rationally as possible. And by “as rationally as possible”, I mean they’re saying he’s a bust who will never amount to a decent fighter because he doesn’t look like Randy at this point in his career. Makes sense if you think about it. As our readers who follow the NFL can tell you, neither of Archie Manning’s sons amounted to anything after rough starts to their careers. Oh wait…never mind.
Also of note, Lorenz Larkin outpointed Gian Villante, Jason High out-everythinged Quinn Mulhern and Julia Budd outwrestled Germaine de Randamie on their ways to unanimous decision victories. By the way, Zuffa’s first ever women’s MMA fight had the fans booing pretty much the entire time. So if you didn’t get to watch Budd lay on Germaine de Randamie for three rounds, you more than likely missed the beginning of the end for women’s MMA in Zuffa. That’s the most unfortunate aspect of the less than exhilarating bout.
Full results, courtesy of MMAFighting.com:
Showtime Bouts
Caros Fodor def. James Terry via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Matt Ricehouse def. Ryan Couture via unanimous decision (29-28 3x)
Lorenz Larkin def. Gian Villante via unanimous decision (29-28 3x)
Jason High def. Quinn Mulhern via unanimous decision (30-27 3x)
Julia Budd def. Germaine de Randamie via unanimous decision (29-28 3x)
Preliminary Bouts
Derek Brunson def. Jeremy Hamilton via unanimous decision (30-27 3x)
Eduardo Pamplona def. Jerron Peoples via first-round TKO
Trevor Smith def. Keith Berry via second-round technical submission