Filed under: StrikeforceIn a shocking upset in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, Daniel Cormier absolutely dominated Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, battering Silva’s face with hard punches and eventually knocking him out.
In a shocking upset in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, Daniel Cormier absolutely dominated Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, battering Silva’s face with hard punches and eventually knocking him out.
Most people thought that for Cormier to have any chance, he’d need to use his Olympic-caliber wrestler skills to control Silva with takedowns. Instead, Cormier did it all with striking: Cormier dropped Silva with a big overhand right in the first minute of the first round, and after he did that he let Silva get back up, feeling more confident in his ability to beat Silva on his feet than on the ground.
Cormier continued to show off power punching throughout the round, and Silva had no answer. Eventually Cormier leveled Silva with another hard punch and then landed one more punch on the ground to knock Silva out. The whole fight lasted just 3 minutes, 56 seconds.
“It was great,” Cormier said afterward. “I fought one of the Top 5 heavyweights in the world and knocked him out. Give me some respect now.”
Everyone has to respect Cormier now: He’s 9-0 in his MMA career, and he’s now earned by far the biggest win of his life. Daniel Cormier isn’t just a wrestler. He’s a complete mixed martial artist.
CINCINNATI — This is the Strikeforce live blog for Antonio Silva vs. Daniel Cormier, a heavyweight bout on tonight’s Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov event at the U.S. Bank Arena.
The winner of this Heavyweight Grand Prix fight will meet the winner of Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov at a later date. Silva (16-2) is coming off the biggest win of his career, a stoppage over Fedor Emelianenko in February. Cormier (8-0), who replaces Alistair Overeem in the tourney, bested Jeff Monson in June.
Round 1: The size difference is very apparent when you see these two next to each other. Cormier looks like a child next to Silva. They touch gloves to start off and Silva goes on the attack first, charging straight in with a punch combo that Cormier avoids before tying up. Big right hand from Cormier slams home and drops Silva flat on his back. The crowd seems shocked as Cormier tries to follow up, but gets stymied by a recovered Silva. After a referee stand-up Cormier again finds opening on the feet, dotting Silva up with punches and prompting him to shoot a slow double-leg that has almost no chance of success against an Olympic wrestler like Cormier. Cormier slams Silva down but again can’t do much with the big man on his back. He lets him back up, and moments later drops Silva with a short right uppercut in close. Silva seems done, but Cormier lands one hammerfist and then another before the referee decides to step in. A dominant victory by Cormier, and he’s officially arrived in the big time.
Daniel Cormier def. Antonio Silva via KO (punch) at 3:56 of round one
CINCINNATI — This is the Strikeforce live blog for Antonio Silva vs. Daniel Cormier, a heavyweight bout on tonight’s Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov event at the U.S. Bank Arena.
The winner of this Heavyweight Grand Prix fight will meet the winner of Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov at a later date. Silva (16-2) is coming off the biggest win of his career, a stoppage over Fedor Emelianenko in February. Cormier (8-0), who replaces Alistair Overeem in the tourney, bested Jeff Monson in June.
Round 1: The size difference is very apparent when you see these two next to each other. Cormier looks like a child next to Silva. They touch gloves to start off and Silva goes on the attack first, charging straight in with a punch combo that Cormier avoids before tying up. Big right hand from Cormier slams home and drops Silva flat on his back. The crowd seems shocked as Cormier tries to follow up, but gets stymied by a recovered Silva. After a referee stand-up Cormier again finds opening on the feet, dotting Silva up with punches and prompting him to shoot a slow double-leg that has almost no chance of success against an Olympic wrestler like Cormier. Cormier slams Silva down but again can’t do much with the big man on his back. He lets him back up, and moments later drops Silva with a short right uppercut in close. Silva seems done, but Cormier lands one hammerfist and then another before the referee decides to step in. A dominant victory by Cormier, and he’s officially arrived in the big time.
Daniel Cormier def. Antonio Silva via KO (punch) at 3:56 of round one
UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez was interviewed recently by Full Contact Fighter and the UFC heavyweight champion dropped an interesting nugget about a hypothetical fighting situation that could happen one day.
Velasquez says that if push came to shove and he was matched up with his American Kickboxing Academy teammate Daniel Cormier in the future, he would fight him, but only if there were ranking or title implications on the line and that the sentiment is a mutual one he’s spoken about with the wrestling standout.
UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez was interviewed recently by Full Contact Fighter and the UFC heavyweight champion dropped an interesting nugget about a hypothetical fighting situation that could happen one day.
Velasquez says that if push came to shove and he was matched up with his American Kickboxing Academy teammate Daniel Cormier in the future, he would fight him, but only if there were ranking or title implications on the line and that the sentiment is a mutual one he’s spoken about with the wrestling standout.
Maybe Velasquez and Cormier should talk to Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck about how friends fighting friends — which happens a lot in the college and amateur wrestling circuits — isn’t a personal thing. It’s just business.
Filed under: StrikeforceCINCINNATI — When Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker first announced plans for a heavyweight Grand Prix, it seemed almost recklessly ambitious. Eight well known — and, in some cases, mercurial — heavyweights all vying against one an…
CINCINNATI — When Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker first announced plans for a heavyweight Grand Prix, it seemed almost recklessly ambitious. Eight well known — and, in some cases, mercurial — heavyweights all vying against one another in a single-elimination tournament to crown one king.
Only now the Strikeforce heavyweight champion has left the building. Alistair Overeem got dropped from the tournament and signed to the UFC, so the four fighters who are left behind have to figure out for themselves exactly what’s at stake when the Grand Prix lurches onward this Saturday night.
As Josh Barnett pointed out, the winner now gets “a nice, shiny belt,” so there’s that. But aside from the hardware, what else is at stake? The answer to that depends on who you ask.
For Antonio Silva, who was slated to get a crack at the Strikeforce heavyweight champ in the semifinal round before Overeem declared himself unfit for the September 10 date, the change of opponent was a letdown. Or at least, that’s how he felt until he considered it from Overeem’s perspective, he said.
“I was very sad and disappointed in the beginning, but today I think he did the right thing going to the UFC,” Silva said via a translator. Even without Overeem in the tournament, Silva said, winning out over a field that included fighters like Fedor Emelianenko and Sergei Kharitonov would be “a big accomplishment.”
But for others, like Barnett, the tournament title doesn’t add all that much to an already high-stakes pursuit.
“I don’t know about anyone else, but for me it’s the same thing that’s always at stake, and that’s my own personal pride,” Barnett said. “I’m not walking out there to get my [expletive] beat by anybody. The way I see it, it always comes down to, so you think you can kick my [expletive], huh? Then let’s go. I don’t think you can, but I want you to try. I want to crush everything about you. I want you to come in there so full of life and thinking about all these things that are going to happen for you, all these doors that are going to open and your life is going to get better, then I’m going to step on it, crush it, destroy it, and leave you in a smoldering heap with all your dreams dead.”
You know, he deadpanned, the kind of thing that “me and the Dalai Lama have talked about a lot.”
For Daniel Cormier, the Grand Prix alternate who took Overeem’s spot, simply being in the tournament is still something of a surprise.
“I didn’t think I’d have the chance to fight in the tournament,” Cormier said. “I looked it as such a big thing, a big event, that I would never have imagined anybody being out of the tournament. I thought they’d do anything in their power to stay in the tournament.”
Of course, for Cormier the tournament still offers plenty of upside. He’s the least experienced fighter in the field, and a win over any of the big names left in the bracket would instantly elevate his status.
For more seasoned competitors like Barnett and Kharitonov, there might be more to lose than gain. These are uncertain times for all Strikeforce fighters in general, and that’s no less true for the Grand Prix participants. Of the four men to lose in the quarterfinal round, only one — Fabricio Werdum — is still employed by the organization.
Just as no one knows what the winner of the tournament will have actually won (aside from that shiny belt), it’s similarly unclear what will become of those who fall short. That’s why the best approach might be the one Kharitonov is taking.
“I’m here to win,” he said through a translator. “That’s what matters the most.”
MMAFighting was on the scene yesterday for the “Barnett vs. Kharitonov” press conference, and released the above highlight video. Skip to the 1:33 mark to see Daniel Cormier give away his gameplan against Antonio Silva; lots of laughs there. Later, King Mo says what everybody’s thinking: “I was hoping more people [would be] out here, more media, and more questions, but really I guess y’all don’t care about us that much. I’m just keeping it real. Me and Roger [Gracie] gonna put on a good fight, it’s gonna be a good card. I think people are gonna miss out on it because everybody’s worried about other issues instead of the fights this weekend. I’m just being real.”
Also on the card, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza defends his middleweight belt against Luke Rockhold — who hasn’t competed since February 2010 due to injuries — and Maximo Blanco makes his promotional debut against Pat Healy. The complete lineup is after the jump.
MMAFighting was on the scene yesterday for the “Barnett vs. Kharitonov” press conference, and released the above highlight video. Skip to the 1:33 mark to see Daniel Cormier give away his gameplan against Antonio Silva; lots of laughs there. Later, King Mo says what everybody’s thinking: “I was hoping more people [would be] out here, more media, and more questions, but really I guess y’all don’t care about us that much. I’m just keeping it real. Me and Roger [Gracie] gonna put on a good fight, it’s gonna be a good card. I think people are gonna miss out on it because everybody’s worried about other issues instead of the fights this weekend. I’m just being real.”
Also on the card, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza defends his middleweight belt against Luke Rockhold — who hasn’t competed since February 2010 due to injuries — and Maximo Blanco makes his promotional debut against Pat Healy. The complete lineup is after the jump.
Main Card (Showtime, 10:30 p.m. ET/PT)
Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov
Antonio Silva vs. Daniel Cormier
Ronaldo Souza vs. Luke Rockhold
Muhammed Lawal vs. Roger Gracie
Pat Healy vs. Maximo Blanco
Preliminary Card (HDNet, 8 p.m. ET/PT)
Mike Kyle vs. Marcos Rogerio de Lima
Rafael Cavalcante vs. Yoel Romero Palacio
Evangelista Santos vs. Jordan Mein
Alexis Davis vs. Amanda Nunes
Dominique Steele vs. Chris Mierzwiak
Filed under: StrikeforceCINCINNATI — Like any good fighter beef, they can’t agree on how it all got started. If you ask Josh Barnett, he’ll say he was complimenting Antonio Silva’s performance against Fedor Emelianenko, then woke up the next morning t…
CINCINNATI — Like any good fighter beef, they can’t agree on how it all got started. If you ask Josh Barnett, he’ll say he was complimenting Antonio Silva‘s performance against Fedor Emelianenko, then woke up the next morning to read reports of Silva bashing him in the press. If you ask “Bigfoot” Silva, he’ll say he had only a mild dislike for Barnett until he crossed the line by commenting on Silva’s acromegaly.
“In the beginning I found him to be an anti-social guy,” Silva said through a translator. “I talk to everybody, shake everybody’s hand, and he wasn’t like that. After I commented on that, he moved into commenting on my condition, and that’s not something he should do.”
Barnett’s response?
“I didn’t know gigantism made you so sensitive.”
Of the four fighters left in the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix, Silva and Barnett are the only two who seem to have any personal animosity against one another. A little strange, considering they’re not even fighting each other. Not yet, anyway.
Barnett will take on Sergei Kharitonov in the semifinal round of the tournament on Saturday night, while Silva has a date with Alistair Overeem’s replacement, former U.S. Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier. So how did these two even end up in this minor feud, when they couldn’t possibly meet until the finals?
“What it came down to was, he didn’t know me enough to know whether I was friendly or unfriendly, and he just started going off,” Barnett said, tracing the beef’s genesis to a post-fight press conference after the opening round of the tournament in New Jersey.
“Ten minutes before he got to the podium I was talking about how much he’d improved as a fighter and how tough he was, so on and so forth,” Barnett said. “Then the next day I read the internet news and I’m going, what? He was saying I hate Brazilians, saying I’m a jerk, saying all sorts of stuff when he doesn’t know me. But hey, I’m one to mess with somebody, so I said, sorry I’m not trying to be your best friend.”
Barnett has predicted a win for Cormier on Saturday night, citing the smaller man’s wrestling skills as a difference-maker. Even Silva admits he had to change everything about his preparation when his opponent changed from Overeem, a bulky kickboxer, to Cormier, a smaller, more agile wrestler.
“Things changed completely. My plan [for Overeem] was to take him down and get on top of him. Now my game plan is to stay standing or impose my jiu-jitsu. It really changed things.”
On the other side of the bracket, Silva said Barnett is in for a tough night, though he gives him the slight edge over Kharitonov.
“They’re two great fighters and it’s going to be a great fight, but I’m rooting for [Barnett]. I want to fight him. I bet he’s not thinking like that. I bet he’s hoping that he doesn’t have to face me in the finals.”
In a way, Barnett admitted, he’s almost right.
“I could go on about this,” Barnett said. “I don’t care about fighting him or anybody. Already I’ve given him too much press.”
In a shocking upset in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, Daniel Cormier absolutely dominated Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, battering Silva’s face with hard punches and eventually knocking him out.
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CINCINNATI — Like any good fighter beef, they can’t agree on how it all got started. If you ask