Jacre used some precise striking to set up a take down. they were reset on their feet after Herman was warned for up kicking a downed opponent. Once Jacre got him down again he quickly locked in a kimura and Herman taps out at 3:10 of round 1. Rolondo “Jacre” Souza  does his last alligator crawl across the cage for the Strikeforce fans in Oklahoma City.

Former Strikeforce and Dream light heavyweight champion “The Dreamcatcher” Gegard Mousasi took on the powerhouse Mike Kyle.

Just over a minute into the fight Mousasi gets the take down  and as Kyle allows Mousasi move into half guard so he can try to get up. Mousasi starts working the short elbows that splits the head of Kyle. Mousasi moves to the mount and postures up. Mousasi rains down punches and Kyle gives up his back and Mousasi locks in the rear naked choke to get the tap out at 4:09 of round number 1.

Nandor Guelmino stepped up to the challenge and took on long time heavyweight veteran and former UFC heavyweight champion Josh “The War Master” Barnett.

The sambo fighter Barnett gets the quick tie up and take down. Barnett tried for a leg lock and Guelmino uses the opportunity to get to his feet but can get no space before Barnett latches back on and drags him to the mat and ends up in the mount. Barnett locks in the arm triangle from the mount and Guelmino taps out 2:11  the first round. That moves Barnett’s record to 32-6 with 20 wins coming by way of submission. Barnett gives his classic pro-wrestling style interview after the fight and calls the other heavyweights cowards and tells them to run because he is going to take all their heads.

Dion “The Soldier” Staring, who is an Afghanistan war veteran, stepped up to the plate to face the two time Olympic wrestler, the Strikeforce Grand Prix Champion and undefeated Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier.

Cormier was making his return to Oklahoma were he was an Oklahoma State All-American wrestler. Staring has Alistar Overeem in his corner who Cormier replaced in the grand prix tournament. Cormier showed some thudding kicks early in the fight before Staring tried to tie him up. Cormier doesn’t mind and gets a huge throw and is now in side control. Cormier delivers some short elbows before Staring is able to get to his feet. Cormier lands a big right hand and left that has Staring hurt and Cormier takes the fight back to the ground. Cormier from side control works the short elbows again and knocks out the mouth piece of Staring got up long enough for McCarthy to pause the action and get the mouth piece back in. Cormier takes the fight back to the mat and delivers more big elbows and punches but Staring is able to survive the round.

Staring ties up Cormier in the second and Cormier puts him back on the mat. Cormier with more short elbows until Staring rolls over and Cormier has to switch to punches. McCarthy has seen enough after Cormeir spends the almost the next three minutes punching a turtled up Staring.  Cormier walks over after the fight and tells Staring he is “tough as shit.” Nice sentiment but when the highlight for your night is the fact that you were able to keep from getting knocked out it still isn’t a good day at the office.  Winner by TKO at 4:02 of round 2 Daniel Cormier.  On April 20th on FOX Daniel Cormier wants Frank Mir and than he is going to let Jon Jones defend is belt on the 27th of April then kick his ass in the fall to a loud eruption from the crowd.

In the main event former UFC title middleweight title challenger and Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nate “The Great” Marquardt was unable to successfully defend his belt in his first try against Team Quest fighter Tarec “Sponge” Saffiedine.

The first round was Marquardt walking him down and Saffiedine punishing the lead leg with kicks. Marquardt tried to rush in and ate a straight that dropped him. Marquardt tries for a take down Saffiedine defends but Marquardts head is clear now and he is back to pushing the action. Saffiedine side steps a punch and they are tied up on the fence. They trade knees and positions as they jockey for the take down.

The story of this fight was all about Saffiedine punishing the lead leg of Marquardt and defending take downs. Saffiedine showed some great take down defense that he has acquired under the tutelage of Dan Henderson at Team Quest. Saffiedine’s strikes were crisp tonight and a counter right straight had dropped Marquardt in the first round. It didn’t matter that Marquardt was the bigger stronger man becuase Saffiedine used his quickness and technical striking to take this fight. Saffiedine went over and over to the lead leg that looked punished at the end of the first round as the fight progressed Saffiedine pounded away on both sides of that leg over and over. By the close of round three Marquardt’s mouth was hanging open and his left thigh is showing the visible signs of broken blood vessels under the skin.

Round 4 and Marquardt takes a couple more kicks to that leg and it is buckling with eat shot. Pat Militech and Frank Shamrock are commenting on how bad that leg is. Marquardt tried to make a final push looking for the finish with the hay makers. Marquardt tried to tie up Saffiedine with the clinches and Saffiedine would drive his heel down into the mangled thigh of Marquardt. Marquardt also was busted open in the fourth round above the left eye but you can’t stop looking at that leg. The fifth round was nothing different Saffiedine punishing the leg and landing clean shots down the middle. Saffiedine got his own take down with a minute left and dropped big punches and elbows all the way till the final horn sounded. Tarec “The Sponge” Saffiedine received scores 48-47, 49-46, and  49-26 to go down in history as the final Strikeforce Welterweight Champion. Saffiedine started out on the Strikeforce Challengers series and worked his way up to get a championship shot and made the most of it.

Scott Coker the president and founder of Strikeforce started the promotion in 1985 as a kickboxing organization.  He admitted it being tough closing the doors but is proud of the all the fighters and what they have done. Coker also thanked Showtime for giving them the opportunity to bring their events to more people and will be indebted to them.

The first round was all Smith striking and avoiding getting taken down by Gracie. Once Gracie got the fight to the ground about two minutes into the second round it was the beginning of the end as Gracie who trains with the Blackhouse gym in Brazil masterfully moved from position to position till he had the mount. Gracie delivered one short elbow from the top that split open Smith’s head before he locked in the arm triangle and maneuvered to the side giving Smith no option but to tap or go to sleep. Smith taps at 3:16 of round two to end the first fight.

Was to be lightweight title challenger Pat “Bam Bam” Healy versus Gilbert Milendez tonight but the Strikeforce 155 champ had to pull out due to an injury. Healy ended up taking home the unanimous decision ( 29-28, 30-27×2) versus a very game short notice opponent in Kurt Holobaugh.

Holobaugh, a true 145er, stepped up in weight for this match. Holobaugh right out the gate showed he had nothing to lose and was looking to swing for the fences. The fight started off with the two men just trading big punches. Healy got the first take down 2 minutes into the fight and would spend most of the fight glued to Holobaugh never giving him any space. Holobaugh never gave up though; constantly threatening one submission after another and defending against a some deep spots Healy had him in. Overall good fight from the two Healy showed he is that grinder that was next up for a shot at the champ. Holobaugh with the loss moves to 9-1 now with 8 submission victories and should be a very fun fighter to watch in the featherweight division hopefully for the UFC.

Trevor Smith faced off against former training partner, two-time title challenger and US Green Beret Tim Kennedy in the next match.

Smith from the beginning wanted to put Kennedy on his back and worked hard at it going for ten take downs over the course of the fight. Kennedy did a good job at defending most of them either via sprawl, some nice one legged balancing or knees to the body and uppercuts to the head as he came in. On the occasions Kennedy did get taken down he was pounding away from the bottom and quickly working his way back to his feet. Beginning of the third round Smith was clearly gassed he tried to stand and trade with Kennedy for about the first minute of round three but then shot in for a single and left his neck out for Kennedy to latch on to. Kennedy pulled the left elbow up high and sank the choke in. Smith tapped to the guillotine at 1:36 of round number three.

In the final prelim match up the boxing veteran KJ Noons met up against the son of UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture, Ryan Couture.

The 5-1 Ryan Couture has grown into a well rounded fighter before our eyes under the Strikeforce banner over the last few years. While KJ Noons picked his shots carefully in round one Couture stayed busy mixing up his stances and punches. Couture worked the wide variety of kicks. Noons with nice counter straight and Couture mixes with a head kick but lands a heel kick immediately after to the chest that sends Noons against the fence Noons springs off the fence and lands a short left that drops Couture and he swarms forward to go for the kill as the horn sounds. In the second round they are warmed up and taking turns going for the kill Noons gets busted open with an accidental head butt then Noons gets dropped by a short left. Couture comes forward and gets rocked by a series of shots from Noons. Couture spends the next minute circling and covering up but never goes down. Couture clears the cobb webbs and is able to hurt Noons with a knee. What an insane round and trade of striking. The fans are on their feet going nuts for these two at the end of the second round. In the third round it was Couture pressing the action coming forward with the punches and kicks to send close fight great fight to the judges for a decision. Ryan Couture takes home the split decision 29-28, 27-30, 29-28.

On a side personal note thank you to, It Ain’t Chemo, a non-profit group that provides support and comfort items for those that are going through and have went through cancer treatment. Ryan Couture is one of their board members and active with the group that helped me to get courage to take control of my life back.

This will mark the final STRIKEFORCE event on SHOWTIME.

“Since 2009, SHOWTIME has been a great partner and we appreciate its support of STRIKEFORCE and our athletes,” Scott Coker, STRIKEFORCE CEO, said. “For our final event, we’ve loaded the card with some outstanding fights. This is going to be a memorable night for the sport of mixed martial arts.”

“We are proud of our association with Scott Coker and the entire STRIKEFORCE team,” said Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President and General Manager, SHOWTIME Sports. “From Gina Carano to Ronda Rousey, Fedor Emelianenko to Daniel Cormier, Nick Diaz to Gilbert Melendez, SHOWTIME Sports and STRIKEFORCE have built some of the biggest stars in the sport and have produced many of the most watched and most intriguing fights in the history of MMA.   We look forward to another night of competitive and explosive STRIKEFORCE fights on SHOWTIME on January 12 in OKC.”

In addition to the main and co-main events, STRIKEFORCE will also feature the following matchups that include several past champions and many of the sports top prospects:

·         Former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett meets Austrian powerhouse Nandor Guelmino
·         Former light heavyweight champ Gegard Mousasi takes on the heavy-handed Mike Kyle
·         Former middleweight champ “Jacare” Souza faces UFC star Ed Herman
·         Top lightweight contender Pat Healy will be in action against an opponent yet to be determined
·         Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Roger Gracie takes on talented striker Anthony Smith at middleweight
·         U.S. Army Ranger Tim Kennedy vs. Trevor Smith in a fight involving top middleweights
·         Elite kickboxer KJ Noons meets second-generation star Ryan Couture in a lightweight matchup
·         Cincinnati’s Jorge Gurgel is set to battle Brazilian prospect Adriano Martins at lightweight
·         At lightweight, winner of four straight Estevan Payan vs. Team Alpha Male’s Michael Bravo

STRIKEFORCE will air live on SHOWTIME at 10 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast), while preliminary fights will be shown live on SHOWTIME EXTREME at 8 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on West Coast). Additional fights scheduled for the event are expected to be released shortly.

Tickets for STRIKEFORCE are on sale now and are priced at $150, $100, $70 and $50. Tickets are available at the Chesapeake Energy Arena box office, all Ticketmaster locations, at Ticketmaster.com or 1-800-745-3000. Applicable service charges may apply.

For more information or the latest STRIKEFORCE news, visit www.strikeforce.com. All bouts live and subject to change.

TMZ in the same article is also saying that according to their source that the newly announced Strikeforce card on January 12th in Oklahoma City will be their last before they shut the doors for good.

Check back later for further news as it becomes available.