Penick's Take
PENICK: Strikeforce needs to realize who they are and focus on that
Jun 7, 2009 - 4:13:40 PM PENICK: Strikeforce needs to realize who they are and focus on that

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Strikeforce put on another decent show last night. Without having true top fighters in their organization, outside of perhaps a handful of guys, they put together a night of entertaining fights. That said, there were a number of things with the broadcast itself, as well as with results of their fights, that present problems with what Strikeforce wants to throw out as an image, that they are a world class organization.

They are definitely the clear #2 organization in MMA, but they're attempting to pass themselves off as something more as they go along. Robbie Lawler and Jake Shields, while definitely good fighters, are not the world beaters they were hyped as coming into their fight last night. Shields was impressive in getting the guillotine hooked in quickly and finishing the fight, but Lawler left his neck wide open for the taking and it wouldn't have taken someone of Shields' jiu jitsu ability to finish that fight off. On that same note, Shields was clearly not comfortable standing with Lawler. He was throwing some good kicks but was getting backed down like everyone predicted he would.

It can't be denied that Shields is a good fighter, but no one he's faced has been a true top fighter. Would he stand a chance against the striking power of Thiago Alves or Jon Fitch, or the wrestling game of a Josh Koschek? How about the overall package that is Georges St. Pierre? It's a fight Shields claims he wants, and it would be one I'd really want to see, but in the striking game he'd be outclassed by all of them.

Lawler, on the other hand, is taken down more than a peg by that display. He's put on some entertaining fights and he's showed more power and before last night a smarter overall game since being out of the UFC, but last night showed he's probably been overrated in the middleweight division. There's lots of guys at 185 that can hang with him standing and work the takedown and submission game as well.

Then we get to Nick Diaz. He looked great against Scott Smith, but part of that was due to Smith's willingness to play punching bag to the 200+ shots Diaz threw his way. Diaz, like Lawler and Shields, is a good fighter, but would he really stand up against top ten fighters in whichever weight class he decided to fight in on a particular card? There's a reason these guys, minus Shields, haven't been in the UFC in some time.

Frank Shamrock talked throughout the broadcast about the catchweight fights being "great for the sport" and the fans because "Champions can fight each other." In reality, Strikeforce doesn't have enough so called "top fighters" in their own organization to develop their own Champions and so the only names they have need to be pitted against each other. It's why Diaz doesn't have a weight class and why Shields would rather jump up in weight than fight anyone at 170. It's not beneficial to them in the long run.

On that front, the Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion, Alistair Overeem, will finally defend his title in August after winning it in his first and only appearance for the organization in 2007. His likely opponent is Brett Rogers, who destroyed Andrei Arlovski in 22 seconds last night. Rogers deserves a lot more respect after that win than he's gotten, but it doesn't mean he's a top ten fighter. His power isn't rivaled by many in the heavyweight division, but Arlovski was also coming off a knockout loss and his chin was suspect to begin with. He's another fighter that has likely been overrated over the last year due to impressive performances against less than impressive competition, so at the same time it's hard to gauge just what happened with that Rogers fight last night. And while the win for Rogers helps develop a new star for the promotion, their big name fight would have been Overeem vs. Arlovski, and that's been squashed.

Another fight plan that's completely thrown out now is in the light heavyweight division, where Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante was upset by Mike Kyle on the undercard last night. He was supposed to face Renato "Babalu" Sobral for the Light Heavyweight Championship, but "Babalu" decided to take some time off to be with his newborn and will fight on the August Affliction show instead. Reports are that Feijao came in out of shape for the fight and the untouted Kyle took advantage, winning by way of tko.

So two of Strikeforce's title will be contested in August, while the Middleweight Title is held up by Cung Le's movie career and "Babalu" has no real deserving challengers and thus if fighting on Affliction's show. How are they going to pass off their catchweight strategy as "Champions willing to fight each other" if they don't have true Champions to begin with?

The main problem Strikeforce had last night was their pimping of the Affliction pay-per-view for August. I don't understand the logic behind promoting the Affliction show as pretty much more important and bigger than anything they're doing themselves. They undercut their own Heavyweight Champion by focusing completely on Fedor vs. Barnett. I understand a working relationship but on your own show you should be pushing your product as best as you can.

So while Strikeforce is giving us entertaining fights, and August 15th will be no different, how long will they be able to sustain that as they try to pass their guys off as deserving top fighters? They've got a few names that may be able to hang with the top fighters in the UFC, but that's it, and to continue to pass themselves off as anything more than what they are may end up backfiring when they run out of catchweight fights and don't have any true Champions because they haven't built up real challengers. They need to refocus on their brand of mixed martial arts and develop their weight classes in order to pass themselves off as a company worth watching. Matching up the only names they have intermittently will only get them so far, and you only need to look as far as Affliction to see that's the case.