On September 10, 2011, Strikeforce Grand Prix in conjunction with Showtime hosted an exciting fight card. On the card was the middle weight title bout between Luke Rockhold, and Jacara Souza
Luke Rockhold is from San Jose, California, and trains with American Kickboxing Academy.
Jacara Souza is a five time world Jujitsu champion out of Brazil. He is also a teammate of UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
Round 1
Souza tags Rockhold early with a right cross. He pins Rockhold up against the cage. While pinning his opponent, Souza delivers several punishing punches. Rockhold looks timid, and is getting out-classed by the champion. Capitalizing off of the low hands of Rockhold, Souza lands timely combinations of clean punches. Rockhold fires back with some flashy kicks at the end of the round.
Round 2
This is the first time Luke Rockhold has ever fought in the second round. Both fighters start the round with a good stand up series of exchanges. Souza landed a stunning counter-punch to the head of the challenger. Throughout the round Rockhold is throwing better combinations, but Souza is causing more damage. The round comes to a conclusion with both men still standing.
Round 3
Rockhold pushes the pace early in the round. Both gladiators are exchanging kicks, but Souza takes a shot below the belt. He immediately complains to the referee, and then attends to his injury timeout. Once the action commences, Souza brings the fight to the ground. Rockhold escapes from the Jujitsu champion, so that he can bring the fight back the feet. Towards the end of the round, Rockhold gains substantial momentum as his kicks are looking sharp.
Round 4
The championship rounds start off with Rockhold showing off his superior boxing skills. The evidence of fatigue in both fighters is becoming obvious. Out of what seems like desperation, Souza pins Rockhold against the cage. A scramble between the competitors takes place, and the action is brought back to the center of the cage. A takedown is attempted by Souza, but his efforts are unsuccessful. Utilizing good takedown defense, Rockhold gets Souza pinned against the cage. The round comes to completion.
Round 5
The last and final round begins with more examples of good stand up from both fighters. Rockhold is now putting everything together and landing fantastic combinations. Souza senses a need to make something happen. He becomes successful with a good takedown. Rockhold is persistent, and brings the fight back to the stand up position. His hands are definitely looking much better than Souza’s, and this encourages him to become more flashy with his strikes. In the last ten seconds, both fighters are swinging for the fences.
The Judges score the Fight
50-45, 48-47, 48-47 and Winner by unanimous decision Luke Rockwell.
The Rest of the Card
Pat Healy defeats Maximo Blanco by submission in round two.
Mo Lawal defeats Roger Gracie by knockout in round one.
Daniel Cormier defeats Antonio Silva by knockout in round one.
Josh Barnett defeats Sergei Kharitonov by submission in round one.
Pat Healy sustained injuries to his face from a illegal kick. He continued, and won by showing his ability to fight through injury.
Preliminaries
The preliminary fights were aired on HDnet fights prior to Showtime airing the Main Card. There was an excellent stand up battle between Mike Kyle and Marcos Rogerio de Lima. Kyle was decided the victor by the judges.
Darrell Pacansky - A MBA student from Trident University, who currently works in Marketing for one of the largest Chiropractic offices in the state of ...
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