Strikeforce: Houston Results - Rafael ‘Feijao’ Cavalcante Upsets ‘King Mo’ Lawal

One of MMA’s shining prospects several years ago, set back by a single loss to Mike Kyle, Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante made good on his promise with a shocking TKO victory over the previously undefeated Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal.

In the first round Feijao used his striking to confuse Lawal and showed great takedown defense, avoiding most of the attempts of Mo while popping up quickly the times that he was put on the ground. In the second Mo made great adjustments and was using blistering punches to the body to slow down Feijao and get his game back on track. It was a very competitive and even fight heading into the third round.

In the middleweight title fight between “Jacare” Souza and Tim Kennedy it was more or less five straight rounds of the two men standing and trading punches.

Souza, a jiu jitsu legend, used much improved striking to continually land the harder shots and force Kennedy to not fight from a comfortable distance. Kennedy had his moments but for the most part it was consistent that Souza was winning the rounds. SB Nation scored the bout 49-46 for Feijao.

KJ Noons was able to keep his roll in MMA going with a dominant win over Jorge Gurgel. The two men met in the cage ready to exchange strikes and the much more technical Noons got the better of the first round by using a variety of strikes from leg kicks to body shots to jabs to powerful hooks.

The two were exchanging strikes as the first round ended and Noons landed a hard hook just after the bell. It wasn’t an illegal punch as it came “in the action” meaning it was during the exchange, not a malicious post-round punch. Gurgel was badly hurt by the punch though and in the second round he was quickly dropped again. Noons followed up with some punches and as the ref moved in to end the fight Noons landed an illegal knee. The knee came after the stoppage though so the TKO holds up.

Bobby Lashley came into the night as a heavy favorite and was looking to continue his MMA development against Chad Griggs. Early in the fight things looked good as Bobby was able to get takedowns at will in the first round and spent time in side control landing punches but he couldn’t finish. Griggs landed a well timed uppercut that cut Lashley badly next to his left eye. The first round ended with Lashley pouring blood but safely winning the round.

In the second Lashley got another takedown but looked to be getting tired. He spent more time in side control and eventually passed to mount but he was unable to do much with the position. The referee decided to stop the fight to allow the doctor to check the cut, which had begun bleeding badly again, and made the odd decision to not restart them in mount. It was the beginning of the end as Lashley shot in poorly and got hit several times by Griggs as the round ended including several shots that appeared to be illegal and to the back of the head. When the round ended Lashley did not get off the ground and chose not to continue.

SB Nation will be here to bring you live results for the main card bouts of Strikeforce: Houston. The event features the following main card:

Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal (c) vs. Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante - Strikeforce light heavyweight championship