Cormier, Barnett advance to tourney finals
Josh Barnett and Daniel Cormier made it look easy in winning their fights Saturday at U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati to advance to the finals of the Strikeforce World Grand Prix heavyweight tournament.
The ways they went about securing their victories was decidedly different.
The veteran Barnett, a catch wrestling expert, survived a couple of hard shots from Sergei Kharitonov in the opening seconds. He took Kharitonov down about a minute into the fight, landed in mount and pummeled Kharitonov before maneuvering into position for a side choke.
Kharitonov quickly tapped out at 4:28 of the first to give Barnett the victory and the shot in the finals against Cormier.
But Cormier, a two-time Olympic wrestler, used his striking to upset Antonio "Big Foot" Silva. Cormier landed a jab, left hook and right uppercut that put Silva down. After a couple of hammer fists from the top, the fight was over at 3:56 of the first.
"I think I'm going to take that Olympian, that's what I'm going to do," Barnett said in the cage after his victory. "I'll suplex him for five. I think Cormier is a great opponent. He's a guy who has competed at the highest level of athletics. I know I have to train real hard for him. Fighting him will be a lot to different from these last two guys [Kharitonov and Brett Rogers]. It's a very different style."
Cormier got into the tournament when Alistair Overeem injured his foot and couldn't compete. He was an underdog to Silva, who had reached the finals by defeating the legendary Fedor Emelianenko, but he was in complete control the entire night.
He decked Silva with a right hand early in the first, before finishing him with a blistering combination later. Silva did next to nothing in the fight and Cormier's only problem was from hurting his right hand after hitting Silva in the head so often.
"That was great: I fought one of the top five heavyweights in the world and knocked him out," Cormier said. "Give me some respect now."
Cormier sat cageside watching Barnett take apart Kharitonov. Kharitonov landed a few solid punches in the opening seconds and Barnett knew he had to get the fight to the ground, and fast. Kharitonov's only chance was to make it a standup battle and he got in some good shots early.
"I think he hit me and gave me a Cro-Magnon forehead by giving me a lump between both eyebrows," Barnett cracked.
Once Barnett got the takedown, Kharitonov had no answer. Barnett was in mount and Kharitonov made very few attempts to work free.
That, though, didn't surprise Cormier.
"Really, I did, honestly, [expect it to go as it did]," Cormier said. "Josh has good takedowns and a lot of these guys struggle with that. It's the most difficult skill to attain."
Luke Rockhold won the Strikeforce middleweight championship, using his takedown defense and some good striking to defeat Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza. Judges had it 50-45 and 48-47 twice in favor of Rockhold, who hadn't fought in 19 months. Yahoo! Sports had Rockhold, 48-47.
"I've never been out of the first round before," Rockhold said. "This guy just kept coming. I hit him some good shots, and he just kept coming. I hit him hard. He's got a better chin than I thought. We fight so hard at [the American Kickboxing Academy], it really helps get the butterflies out.
"His takedowns are explosive. I train with some of the best wrestlers in the world, so my takedown defense is awesome. I got rocked a couple times. I look forward to defending the belt."
