Strikeforce's Josh "The Punk" Thomson Calls for Better MMA Judging while STRIKEFORCE World Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez stated "I'm Nervous" After Thomson vs Cavalcante

San Jose native Josh "The Punk" Thomson (now 18-3) called for better training for MMA judges after beating the world-ranked Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante of Brazil stating "there is no way" I scored 30-27 against Cavalcante. MMA Judge Susan Thompson scored the bout 30-27 in contrast to the other two MMA judges who scored more closely at 29-28.  Many MMA fans have demanded better training for MMA judges after certain decisions. 

Thomson trains at AKA, the same MMA Training Center that UFC Fighters Cain Velasquez and Josh Koscheck exert long hours training at in San Jose.

"JZ "Cavalcante took down Thomson in R1 at approx. 2:34 and put him in a guillotine. Thomson escaped by stacking "JZ" and countering with an arm triangle choke in the last 25 seconds of R1.

Thomson beat the world-ranked Cavalcante (now 15-4-1) of Brazil and from American Top Top, in a fight that set the next challenger for STRIKEFORCE World Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez. Thomson, who shut out Melendez across five rounds to capture the lightweight title in 2008, won after a hard-fought submission victory over Pat "Bam Bam'' Healy last June 26 at the HP Pavilion on SHOWTIME. Cavalcante, a former consensus top five-ranked lightweight and two-time K-1 Hero's lightweight Grand Prix champion, made his eagerly awaited STRIKEFORCE debut. World Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez who did an excellent job commentating on the fight stated "I'm Nervous" After Watching their Fight!

See statistics for this fight at http://blog.fightmetric.com/2010/10/thomson-vs-cavalcante-fightmetric.html#more

Tyron Woodley remained unbeaten with a first-round knockout after preventing Andre Galvao's takedown attempt in a featured fight of promising welterweights that opened the telecast.  Woodley is a wrestler from the University of Missouri with an impressive 8-0 record and striking ability.

Sarah Kaufman ( now 12-1), a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu at ZUMA and fighting out of Victoria, B.C., is a former ballet dancer.  Kaufman controlled the clinch with some nice strikes against Marloes Coenen but the ref had to break them apart several times after a lack of action.

New 135 lb Women's Champ Marloes Coenen apologized after beating Kaufman for keeping the triangle choke on so long after Kaufman clearly tapped, blaming the ref for not stopping the fight sooner.

 Kaufman experienced her first loss to Marloes Coenen and lost her 135 pound title. Coenen is from the Netherlands and part of Alistair Overeem's Team Golden Glory who had won her last eight fights by submission.  Kaufman lost by a triangle choke submission after escaping from a previous attempt and throwing hammer fist punches in a way very similar to the way to how Fedor lost to Werdum. Kaufman's last fight was a successful defense of her title with an explosive third-round body slam KO over Roxanne Modafferi last July 23. This slam was amazing and reminded us of Quinton "Rampage" Jackson's KO slam of Ricardo Arona at Pride FC. Kaufman, who had won nine of her fights by KO, lost her ground game against Coenen (now 18-4).  Coenen is a talented submission specialist who gave STRIKEFORCE middleweight champion Cris Cyborg perhaps her toughest fight to date.  Coenen stated after her win that she wants Meisha Tate to "bring it on" and that she is fighting in the Netherlands one week after this fight.  Coenen stated she is injury free after beating Kaufman.  It was reported that Coenen only made U.S. $3,000 for her win.

Nick Diaz won a memorable unanimous decision over KJ Noons in a grudge rematch to retain his STRIKEFORCE World Welterweight title Saturday at HP Pavilion in San Jose on SHOWTIME.  His boxing preparation and his 4 inch reach advantage clearly paid off.  Karl James Noons is recovering from a broken jaw.

Nick Diaz won with a unanimous decision (48-47, 49-47, & 49-46) over KJ Noons in a five round stiking battle.  Diaz landed 194 out of 443 strikes (44%).  In contrast to initial erroneous report (whichwas twice reality) that Noons landed 310/611 (51%) of his strikes.  See http://compustrike.com/ However, there were not many successful leg strikes with only 25 out of 45 leg strikes landed by Diaz and 14 out of 17 leg strikes landed by Noons.  See http://blog.fightmetric.com/2010/10/diaz-vs-noons-ii-fightmetric-report.html

We agreed with commentator and retired MMA fighter Pat Miletich who stated why doesn't Diaz use more knee strikes.  Diaz had some nice knee strikes but some not so great leg kicks. Noons had some effective kicks and knee strikes as well.  Noons stated after his loss "He beat me fair and square...congratulations Nick."