Roger sinks a classic rear-naked choke on Randleman. Photo: Esther Lin / Strikeforce
The evening of MMA in the USA was all about strikers Alistair Overeem, Ronaldo Jacaré, Roger Gracie, Rafael Feijão and co.
Strikers?
Not exactly, but the grappling wizards managed to punish their opponents standing as well, and to win at this May 15’s Strikeforce event dubbed “Heavy Artillery”.
And they lived up to the name, starting with the current heavyweight champion. Holland’s Alistair Overeem, a first-rate standup specialist and winner of the European ADCC trials, continued to show his well-rounded game, getting the takedown and ending the fight with strikes .
Overeem and Big John both look at the skull on Rogers' back and agree: end of fight. Photo: Esther Lin
Of the Jiu-Jitsu champions, only Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro wasn’t victorious, after dropping a split decision. Roger Gracie and Ronaldo Jacaré, former rivals in world champions and in the ADCC, shone together once again.
“My knee hurts. So yes, it landed on his face,” Rio de Janeiro native Roger Gracie told Loretta Hunt of Sherdog.com. Roger managed to drop Kevin Randleman with a powerful knee and went to work until the wrestler gave up his back, getting submitted with a rear-naked choke.
Now Jacaré managed to keep the pressure on the dangerous Joey Villasenor from top position the entire fight.
Jacare shows how far his standup game has come. Photo: Esther Lin / Strikeforce
Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery
St Louis, Missouri
May 15, 2010
Alistair Overeem defeated Brett Rogers via technical knockout at 3:40 min of R1
Antonio Silva defeated Andrei Arlovski via unanimous judges’ decision
Ronaldo “Jacaré” Souza defeated Joey Villasenor via unanimous decision
Roger Gracie submitted Kevin Randleman at 4:10 min of R2
Rafael “Feijão” Cavalcante knocked out Antwain
Preliminaries
Jesse Finney submitted Justin DeMoney via guillotine at 3:22 min of fighting
Lyle Beerbohm defeated Vitor Ribeiro via split decision
Darryl Cobb defeated Booker DeRousse via split decision
Mike Chandler submitted Sal Woods via rear-naked choke at 0.59 min of the fight
Fransisco “Kiko” France submitted Lee Brousseau via rear-naked choke at 1:27 min
Tom Aaron submitted Erik Steenberg via guillotine at 0.56 mins
Matt Ricehouse submitted Gregory Wilson via rear-naked choke 45 seconds into R3