Strikeforce Challengers IV and How does it Stack up to Don King?

First, I thought the card had a bunch of really entertaining fights. Zoila Frausto and Elisha Helsper put on an exciting fight and both showed their toughness. Frausto took a unanimous decision.

Merritt Warren submitted Thomas Diagne. The fight went to the ground when Diagne slammed Warren, but Warren methodically worked from side control to half guard to full guard and then finished it by inverse heel hook. As a side note, both men seemed really well spoken before the fight and Warren showed a photo of his family. Having the fighters show something they value from their “other life” outside of the cage is kind of cheesy, but it also shows their human side and gives us a little context.

Luke Rockhold and Jesse Taylor put on a high-energy fight that ended when Rockhold secured a rear naked choke, his favorite finishing move.

Brandon Cash almost stopped Shane Del Rosario, but Rosario hung in and out of left field submitted Cash with an Omaplata. Craziness!

Jorge Gurgel stuck to his ways of being a ground wizard with pretty good striking who refuses to go to the mat. He slugged it out with Billy Evangelista and lost the decision.

Now for the rest of the title, how did this show stack up with Don King’s “Halloween Thrilla” show from the previous weekend? On that card we got to see some entertaining boxing matches as well. In the main event, Yohnny Perez took the IBF Bantamweight title from Joseph Agbeko in one of the most exciting boxing matches I’ve seen in a long time.

Aside from the fights, Mike Tyson was on hand and spent quite a bit of time behind the microphone. It was obvious he was enjoying his role and he did a pretty good job of it. I really enjoyed hearing his perspective.

But it isn’t all peaches and cream for King. In comparing his Showtime event to Strikeforce Challengers, which also aired on Showtime, his production falls well short.

Don King’s show meandered. Fights ended, people piled into the ring (Don King, Gary Shaw, and about 40 others had to get their air time), the winner was called, there were slow helicopter shots of the strip while the commentators worked to fill space, shots of the crowd for extended periods of time, again while the commentators worked to fill space. And then finally the next fighters would walk in without much warning.

Strikeforce’s show, on the other hand, was well-paced. Fights ended, winners were called, a brief advertisement for Dexter or whatever, and then we were being introduced to the next fighters. It was crisp and scheduled and in today’s time when our attention spans are short this is quite important.

Now I’m not pointing this out to bash boxing. I was a huge boxing fan and now I watch most of the bigger fights. I point it out because boxing pundits often say that they should take some of the things that the UFC (and other MMA promotions) is doing and incorporate them. Yet I don’t really see this happening.

I think the difference in production is hurting boxing. We’ve got a whole lot of choices when it comes to entertainment and even if the product is good as was the Halloween Thrilla card, we aren’t real fired up at sitting through long lulls of inaction.

Boxers, just like MMA fighters, deserve to have their skills showcased in the best possible manner. Many boxing promoters are doing them a disservice by not focusing on the production.

Strikeforce was more entertaining than Don King’s show not necessarily because the fights were more entertaining, both cards had great fights, but because it was packaged better. There is room for both boxing and MMA, they are two different animals. Al Bernstein worked Strikeforce and seemed to really enjoy it. Maybe he needs to talk to the boxing world about how to make the shows more entertaining.