Strikeforce Challengers In Kansas City
I was able to catch some of the Strikeforce Challengers show on Showtime last night. I have to admit that I was intrigued to see Kerry Vera and Kim Couture, more so to see how far Vera has come as I enjoyed her on the Oxygen show “Fight Girls”, which also starred Gina Carano. And I wanted to check out Tyron Woodley as well.
I’ve seen Kim fight live and she has a ton of heart, but isn’t ready for some of the better female fighters. But she sure as heck doesn’t shy away from contact. Vera is a kickboxer and is as quick as a hiccup. It didn’t bode well for Couture. Couture did something odd in her stand-up and I think it was so that she could throw her right hook. Her stance was right-handed and then right before she threw a punch, she’d chance her stance and throw a lunging right hook. I don’t think she landed with that once. But she did land a few hard jabs, only to receive a shot in return from the quicker Vera.
Vera was impressive in that she was in and out and she was landing with accuracy. Couture had much slower hands and as much as she tried to cut off the cage, Vera was just too quick. Vera got her up against the cage and just unloaded on her. Couture had a noticeable hematoma and was bleeding from what looked like her nose.
I don’t think we can tell if Vera is the real deal from this point because all we could figure out is that Couture is still not ready for the level they want her to fight at. But I’m looking forward to seeing Vera fight again. I hope they put her on some of the San Jose cards as I’d love to see her live.
Another person I’d love to see live is Tyron Woodley. The dude is an athlete. He has a wrestling background and looks like a boxer. He beat Rudy Bears who looked like he was comfortable on his feet. But then Woodley went to his wrestling and was lightning fast in taking Bears off his feet. He ended it with an arm triangle that he worked very patiently for about 20 seconds before getting out of Bears guard and finishing it.
All photos by Esther Lin/STRIKEFORCE.
