Strikeforce: Shields Retains Middleweight Championship; Brawl Steals Attention And Embarrasses Sport

I posted the following on Bloody Elbow:

Zach Krantz posted from cageside on Watch Kalib Run:

In the Strikeforce: Nashville main event Jake Shields upset Dan Henderson by unanimous decision.

In the first round Henderson was able to land a big right hand that stiffened Shields and appeared to knock him out. Henderson followed him to the ground and landed a lot of punches but Shields was able to survive until the round ended. It appeared clear from the first round that Shields would not be able to get the fight to the ground, nor would he be able to deal with the thunderous right hand of Dan Henderson.

Shinya Aoki managed to finish zero of his eighteen takedown attempts in his fight against Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez. In addition to not being effective at all in terms of takedowns, Aoki was ineffective on his feet and at the times where he did get the fight to the ground by pulling guard he was unable to ever present any real danger.

Melendez spent the fight establishing distance and landing plenty of punches while picking apart Aoki and bloodying his nose. All five rounds were basically carbon copies of each other as Aoki couldn’t get anything done while getting blasted by Melendez.

In the opening fight of the Strikeforce on CBS event “King Mo” Lawal managed to use his superior wrestling to control the majority of his bout with Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Gegard Mousasi. From the first round onward it was clear that Mousasi would not be able to stop the takedowns of Lawal and that would be the story of the fight for the full five rounds.

In the second round it was clear that Lawal was gassed but he managed to gut it out for the entirity of the fight, finding his way to continually avoid too much damage and getting takedown after takedown. A point was also taken from Mousasi in the fifth for an illegal upkick.

In the end the judges scored the fight 49-45 across the board all for the new champion, “King Mo” Lawal.

With the win Mo announces his arrival at the top end of the 205 pound division given that Gegard was ranked #6 in the world.

SB Nation will be here to bring live results for the main card bouts from the Strikeforce: Nashville event. The show will air live at 9:00pm EDT on CBS. The show is headlined by a triple header of title fights.

Strikeforce Lightweight Championship: