[Kevin Iole, Yahoo! sports]
There is little doubt what the future holds for the undefeated Rogers, who scored a spectacular first-round knockout of former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight king Andrei Arlovski Saturday on a Strikeforce card at the Scottrade Center.Like most recent Arlovski fights, he started out looking (and moving) well, UNTIL he had to move backwards to avoid a punch. Then he moved straight back with little head movement and got caught square on the chin. He was out on his feet, fell to the floor and referee "Big John" McCarthy jumped in and stopped the fight before Arlovski could take a further beating.
More serious questions surround the future of Arlovski, who has now been knocked out in each of his last two fights.
Arlovski, the former UFC heavyweight champion, is good enough to beat the majority of the world’s heavyweights. He doesn’t look like a guy, though, who is prepared to beat the elite men in the important bouts.
The rest of the Strikeforce card was entertaining, if a bit overwrought by the limited announcing skill of Frank Shamrock.
Strikeforce Results:
Kevin Whitehead Def. Kevin Randleman - Unanimous decision.
Joe Riggs Def. Phil Baroni - Unanimous decision.
These two fights were entertaining, if one sided. Whitehead was better than Randleman in every area. The sad thing is, most fight experts consider Randleman to be among the most talented MMA fighters in the game. If he could just sort out the mental aspect he'd be a top contender. Riggs destroyed Baroni, who's always been just not good enough to challenge the big names.
Nick Diaz Def. Steve Smith via Rear Naked Choke 1:41 of Round Three.
Diaz has all of the tools to be great, except that he's one of the main reason's casual observers consider MMA to be amateur-hour fighting done by thugs. You'll not find worse sportsmanship in the ring than Diaz exhibits. It was also tiring listening to Frank Shamrock tell us how 'great' of a boxer Diaz is. Uhhh....no.
Brett Rodgers def. Andrei Arlovski KO :22 sec round 1. (see above)
Main Event:
Jake Shields def. Robbie Lawler Guillotine choke 2:02 Round 1.
This was a great fight, won by a grappler who lured a puncher into an inescapeable choke before the latter knew what hit him. After the ref intervened, Lawler (visibly disgusted) reached his hand down and helped the victorious Shields off the mat in a show of sportsmanship. To contrast this, after Diaz won he used his feet to shove Smith away. The sport needs more competitors like Lawler and Shields and less like Diaz if it ever wants to be seen by the general public as more than a group of thugs beating each other up
Good card, good fights, evenly matched. That's not something that you see in MMA outside of the UFC. It's something the sport needs more of, and a general discouragement of poor sportsmanship and non-competitive, gimmick fights. Congrats to Strikeforce for putting on a good show.
