Dallas- When the main event does not deliver what the fans expected or even what the promotion expected, who is to blame? Last night’s Strikeforce main event featured Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum in an opening round Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament bout.
Strikeforce: Overeem vs Werdum aired live on Showtime and HDNet. The event took place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
The Dallas crowd was into the bout. Overeem was welcomed with a huge ovation. The fight had the crowd, it had the fighters, it had the spectacle, what it lacked was the action.
The end of the fight left the fans without the bout they wanted to see and admittedly, Alistair Overeem felt the same way. "I came to fight," Overeem said. "But you need two to tango, so I'm a little bit disappointed. I want to deliver entertaining fights, and tonight was as little bit less entertaining." Overeem claimed the bout with a 30-27 unanimous decision.
From the beginning of the fight it was clear that Overeem wanted a stand up battle and Werdum wanted a fight on the ground. The crowd was constantly booing at the strategy of Werdum and Overeem looked frustrated throughout the fight at Werdum’s constant attempts to pull guard.
From a promotion standpoint, Strikeforce or any promotion for that matter envisions a fight that leaves the fans on their feet. MMA is still entertainment first and sport second. When it stops becoming entertaining, fans will stop buying tickets. It is always said that styles make fights, but it is often forgotten that styles also kill fights.
This was the case last night. Werdum is one of the best on the ground. A brilliant jiu jitsu grappler that can put an opponent in danger at any time on the ground. Overeem is the exact opposite as far as preferred style goes. The K-1 champion is a powerful stand up fighter that wants a fight to stay standing.
There was no reason to believe going into the fight that it would not end up the way it did. Werdum’s strategy, though he stated otherwise before the fight, was to get the fight to the ground. It always was. Can you blame him for trying to work his strategy?
In the same vein, can you blame Overeem for not staying on the ground when the fight went there? Why would he change his strategy?
There is no doubt both guys want to put on entertaining fights, but they also want the winner’s share of the purse.
Where you find room to put any blame (if any) on Werdum is the third round. In the third round he had to know he was down on the cards. For him to think that the judges awarded him even one round would have been a mistake. Thus, knowing that, why would he not go for broke and try to stand with Overeem hoping catch him. Werdum did engage and even faked being hurt looking to draw Overeem in but was unsuccessful.
At the end of the day the fight was disappointing, but it did deliver a solid story. The story was that of a grappler trying to force the striker to grapple and the striker trying to force the grappler to strike. It was technical game of chess that ended almost in a stalemate.
You cannot blame anyone. You cannot blame the fighters for sticking with their planned strategies and you cannot blame the promotion for putting that fight together. It was fight that needed to happen. When those two opposite styles clash this is what happens. Ask Dana White about Anderson Silva versus Demian Maia and Thales Leites.
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