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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Strikeforce crowned a new Middleweight Champion on Saturday night - after finding the time to throw the former Champ under the bus - as Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza defeated Tim Kennedy by unanimous decision at Strikeforce: Houston on Showtime.
Before the fight got underway, commentators Mauro Ranallo and Frank Shamrock threw out the line that Strikeforce tried to sell this week that the organization had offered Jake Shields a fight with "Jacare" twice, and on both occasions he turned it down.
Shields had been looking for a welterweight fight to close out his contract with the organization, but took a middleweight fight against Dan Henderson in April instead before leaving the organization and signing with the UFC.
But on to the fight. It was a close bout that saw the two grappling specialists remain standing for nearly the entire 25 minutes. Jacare used effective footwork and counter punching throughout the fight to land the harder and more damaging blows, while Kennedy hung right with him and accumulated more strikes overall.
Souza's punches busted Kennedy's face up with a nasty mouse under his left eye and a large cut to the inside of his left eyebrow, and the accumulation of damage and effectiveness of the strikes earned him the nod and the vacant Middleweight Championship.
Penick's Analysis: This was a fight where the numbers don't tell the story at all. Kennedy landed more blows overall, but Souza did more damage and his punches were all landing harder and more flush than Kennedy's. FightMetric's report actually had the fight a draw with the second round being a 10-10, and giving the fifth round ever so slightly to Kennedy, but even those numbers were deceiving. Kennedy didn't do enough to "win" the fight, while Souza absolutely appeared to have the edge throughout despite the terrible commentary on the fight. This is one of those you just need to watch for yourself to see how it went down. Souza won the fight.
RELATED STORY: STRIKEFORCE: HOUSTON RESULTS - Bobby Lashley loses to Chad Griggs; Strikeforce says bout with Dave Bautista "likely to happen": [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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