Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante (15-4-1) dropped a unanimous decision to Josh Thomson (18-3) in his Strikeforce debut on Oct. 9, but many, including Cavalcante, think he won the fight. Cavalcante told ProMMAnow.com that he would love to have a rematch and leave no doubts the second time around, and he’s already run the idea by Thomson and Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker.
The second and third rounds seemed pretty straightforward. Thomson controlled the action in round two while Cavalcante took charge in the final period — except in the eyes of one odd judge’s scorecard.
By JZ’s own admission, the first round made the difference. Thomson did manage to secure an arm triangle attempt at the end of the round, but Cavalcante dropped Thomson earlier in the period with a right hand and had a tight guillotine choke of his own.
“The doubt is the first round, but I won the first,” JZ said. “I controlled most of the round.”
As for Thomson’s choke attempt, Cavalcante added: “I was comfortable; like I said, it was last ten seconds of the round and he wasn’t squeezing that much … since it was the end of the round and there wasn’t much pressure, I didn’t work as hard to defend it.”
Cavalcante doesn’t want to waste any time getting redemption, either.
“Right away, if it’s possible,” JZ said when asked if he wanted to fight Thomson next. “I think that’s the fight the fans want to see.”
Cavalcante added, “After the fight everyone was really respectful of me, saying, ‘Man, you won the fight … it was a good fight… that’s what we fight for.”
At an Oct. 19 event in Hollywood to promote the release of EA MMA, Cavalcante talked about a rematch with both Thomson and Coker.
“Josh said, yeah, for sure, let’s do it again,” JZ said.
Coker still hasn’t made a decision yet and Showtime would have to approve the bout, but with Cavalcante’s unresolved issues with DREAM — who still haven’t paid him for his fight with Katsunori Kikuno last July — JZ believes his next fight will come under the Strikeforce banner, though he would’ve been interested in fighting at the end of the year in Japan “Dynamite!!” but for the pay problems.
“I’m going to talk with one of my managers from Japan,” JZ said. “Right now I don’t know because situation is not good.”
After battling a series of injuries, JZ felt 100 percent physically before both the Thomson and Kikuno bouts. But like any athlete with a long layoff, Cavalcante has needed time to feel mentally confident that his body will hold up.
“I still didn’t perform 100 percent,” Cavalcante said of his performance against Thomson. “Thinking about my knee … those are things I usually don’t do. In this fight sometimes I was thinking too much.
“My body is good,” he said. “After this fight, my mind is even better now. Three rounds against a tough guy, a good match; that’s why I want to keep busy.”
I think everyone wants to see this fight happen again. Both guys were great last time, but the judges weren’t so much. First I want to see Thomson get another shot at GM for the title, but eventually I want to see him rematch against JZ. Would be awesome.