Strikeforce: Marquardt vs. Saffiedine immediate post-fight thoughts

I haven’t done this in a while, but why not since it was the final Strikeforce show? It was a decent night of fights, but almost all of the fights were clearly one-sided mismatches.

However, we did have a fairly significant upset in the main event with Tarec Saffiedine defeating Nate Marquardt to become the final Strikeforce welterweight champion. Let’s take it fight by fight on the main card below:

–KJ Noons/Ryan Couture: I don’t throw this term around loosely, but Noons was robbed in that fight. He easily won that fight at the bare minimum two rounds to one. The stats provided by Showtime were all in his favor. All Couture did was come forward and block punches with his face all night. Pathetic on the judges part. I think Noons should be given the opportunity to fight in the UFC. I think Couture should have to go on a season of “The Ultimate Fighter” and prove his worth because he’s not UFC material at the moment.

–Ed Herman/Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza: Was it me or did it look like Herman showed up to get a pay check? He did take the fight on short notice and “Jacare” is one of the best middleweights in the world, but still, he didn’t look good AT ALL. I think “Jacare” can make some noise in the UFC middleweight division. He’s a huge middleweight and is elite on the ground with his jiu-jitsu, and his striking has improved drastically over the past couple of years.

–Josh Barnett/Nandor Guelmino: This was one of the many mismatches on the night. Guelmino looked like somebody had picked him out of the crowd to come in and fight Barnett. Barnett was asked if he was going to goto the UFC but was non-committal. He should go and add some quality depth to that division in my opinion.

–Daniel Cormier/Dion Staring: Another terrible mismatch, granted Staring did replace Cormier’s original opponent by taking the fight on short notice. He was difficult to put away but Cormier mauled him the entire fight. Cormier called out Frank Mir to fight in April at the UFC on FOX 7 event, and then said he was going to “kick Jon Jones’ a** in the fall”.

–Nate Marquardt/Tarec Saffiedine: I was curious to see how Marquardt would look in his second welterweight fight. He didn’t look good AT ALL. Saffiedine outclassed him the entire fight and hit him with some devastating leg kicks. In fact, I bet Marquardt will not be able to walk without some type of assistance for at least 3-5 days. He actually had blood leaking from the spot where Saffiedine kicked him repeatedly. I suppose that win earned Saffiedine a spot in the UFC and he would be a solid addition, but I doubt he’d get near title contention over there. UFC President Dana White said Marquardt would be coming over win or lose, but he might be take that statement back after that performance.

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