OK, maybe the main event was a bit anti-climactic. And maybe Babalu’s performance was a tad, shall we say, underwhelming.. And then there was the seemingly endless streak of injuries and the inevitable Nick Diaz-related snag that transformed this card into something entirely different from what it was originally billed as. In spite of these facts, Strikeforce: Carano vs Cyborg still managed to be a damn fine show.

I got to the arena about 45 minutes early just because it’s kind of awesome to sit in an empty arena and just look around at all the seats and know that in a few short hours the place is going to be packed. There was also something hilariously absurd about watching two middle aged stagehands posing as Gina and Cyborg for the pre show walkthru rehearsal. One of the guys went so far as to jab at the camera and mean mug the other guy during the pre fight instructions. It doesn’t get any better than that. Unfortunately as soon as that ended they played an absolutely putrid mashup of “Whoop, There It Is” and “Shook Me All Night Long” for about 30 minutes straight on a seemingly endless loop. That was not so good.

The first fight of the evening saw local boys Alex Trevino and Isaiah Hill square off. Though the fight only lasted one round it was pretty frenetic. Hill blasted Trevino with a leg kick early on that was freaking brutal. After trading positions on the ground Hill had Trevino mounted only to have him grab a leg and escape and end up in side control. Trevino got the win with a nice side choke at the 3:56 mark. Good showing by Trevino, who found himself in some tight spots and ended up working his way out of them. Trevino looks like he could be something a little way down the road.

The second fight featured Zac Bucia taking on James Terry. The first 30 seconds was a lot of feeling out before Bucia whiffed badly on a high kick and wound up eating a Terry jab. Terry then followed up with an absolutely SICKENING head kick that folded Bucia. Terry followed him to the ground and landed a couple more shots before Big John ended it at 1:23. That head kick was freaking brutal. Cro Cop-esque.

Fight number three was the polar opposite of the first two fights as Justin Wilcox faced off with David “Tarzan” Douglas. The first round started out good enough with the two men throwing some absolute bombs for the first 2 minutes. Then Wilcox got the fight to the ground and passed to mount at the halfway point of the round. And there he stayed for the rest of the round, landing nothing particularly strong, although he did somehow manage to give Douglas a wedgie, ripping his jock strap.

Round two was some vintage lay and pray, with Wilcox taking Douglas down easily and spending nearly the entire round mounting Douglas but not being able to finish. The place wasn’t even a third of the way full yet, and the people that were there were busy getting pictures and autographs from the fighters who were there in the crowd. That’s a good thing because this second round really blew.

Round three opened with a take down followed by boos from the crowd. Wilcox passes Douglas’s guard at will and ends up in (wait for it)… the mount position. Thankfully, Wilcox eventually locked in a loose looking rnc for the win with 1:44 to go in the third. Not the most exciting fight ever, but hey, that’s what prelims are for. Wilcox is an absolute beast when it comes to take downs and had no trouble passing guard. It was like watching a raw, unrefined Sean Sherk, and I mean that as a compliment. That’s the best part about these preliminary fights: You get to see guys who still on their way up the ladder. He’s certainly no n00b, but it’ll be interesting to see where he is a couple years from now.

The evening’s fourth match was a showdown between Mike Cook (best known as the guy who wore a wrestling mask to the ring in his fight against Bobby Lashley and then got his ass kicked) and Scott Lighty. Scott Lighty used Slayer’s “Reign in Blood” as his entrance music, thus making him my favorite fighter ever. From the word “fight” Lighty took it straight to Cook, landing whatever he wanted. He dropped Lighty with a huge right and probably could have ended the fight right there but Cook scrambled to his feet. Lighty followed up a solid right to the body with an equally effective kick to the ribs, bending Cook in half. Cook puts up the white flag and eats one more right the bean before Big John ends it at the 2:05 mark. Lighty can throw down.

(Note to self: go a lot harder during ne-waza. People are literally flocking to anyone with cauliflower ear. Being mistaken for someone famous would be pretty cool)

The final prelim of the night featured epic TUF flameout Jesse “JT Money” Taylor and former IFL welter weight champ Jay Hieron. This was not a fight either guy will want to rewatch anytime soon. It was basically three rounds of Taylor whiffing on take downs and Hieron doing just enough to keep the advantage without really doing any damage. As ineffective as Taylor was Hieron didn’t impress that much either. Hieron won a pretty dull unanimous decision and will most likely end up facing Nick Diaz for the interim welter weight belt down the road.. Jesse Taylor deserves credit for taking this fight on such short notice (5 days) and still going out there and giving it what he had despite running on fumes for the last two rounds. Hopefully Strikeforce will bring him back and give him another shot.

In the night’s first televised bout Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace Fabricio Werdum squared off with Mike Kyle. Werdum was making his Strikeforce debut after being unceremoniously shown the door by the UFC following a brutal KO loss to Junior Dos Santos in October of last year. If Werdum was trying to send a message with heis bout he did so loud and clear, escaping an early armbar attempt by Kyle to secure a guillotine choke and forcing the submission win in a mere 1:24 seconds. It looks like Werdum is back and ready to make a run in the Strikeforce heavyweight division.

Next up was the rematch of Gilbert Melendez and Mitsuhiro Ishida. Originally this was to be a unification bout between the interim light weight champ Melendez and reigning champ Josh Thomson. Thomson has been slowly healing from a broken ankle and had to drop out of the bout, leaving Melendez less than thrilled. Melendez took whatever anger he had out on Ishida, landing several good shots in the first round while also working his way out of danger at one point when Ishida managed to take his back. In round two Gilbert began finding his range and started landing some bombs and scored a huge takedown and controlled the round fairly comfortably. Ishida came out swinging in round three and kept moving forward despite Gilbert landing counter strikes cleanly. Eventually Gilbert managed to take Ishida’s back and after two failed rnc attempts he settled on punching Ishida repeatedly in the side of the head, resulting in a TKO stoppage. Another solid showing by Melendez who is no doubt itching for his rematch with Josh Thomson.

Light Heavyweight champ Renato “Babalu” Sobral in his first title defense against Dutch import Gegard Mousasi. This was Mousasi’s U.S. debut, and damn, did he ever make a first impression. One minute, one takedown and several bombs from Mousasi later we had new light heavyweight champ. This was my first time seeing Mousasi on something other than a choppy YouTube video and man, that dude is so fluid. So smooth. The fact that this guy is going to be having more matches here in the States pleases me. I have a feeling he’s going to clean out Strikeforce’s light heavyweight division in short order.

(At one point Jesse Taylor came out from the back and sat next to me and really seemed to be a pretty humble, laid back dude. He had no problems signing stuff for the fans and posing for pictures and was a lot of fun to talk about the fights with. He seems to have really turned over a new leaf and I wish him nothing but the best. A really nice guy.)

The much ballyhooed main event, billed as the biggest fight in ladies MMA history here in the U.S., FAR exceeded my wildest dreams. I will be upfront and say that I am not really a fan of the female fights. It’s not some misogynistic thing. It’s just that I had never really seen a good female fight. I can no longer say that anymore. This wasn’t Gina fighting some cans in EliteXC or Cyborg fighting a clearly over matched opponent. This was a fight between two relatively even matched opponents. This was going to be the fight that put female MMA on the map. All the hype, all the buzz, all the excitement. And after four minutes and fifty nine  seconds of pure action and violence, it was over. They came out and stood toe to toe and just THREW BOMBS. Cyborg had Gina rocked. Gina had Cyborg rocked. Cyborg nearly had a heel hook. Gina had Cyborg mounted and the crowd EXPLODED. It was surreal how hot the crowd was for this fight. Finally, after nearly submitting Gina with a keylock Cyborg began to rain down shots and with one second left in the round ref Josh Rosenthal called off the bout, making Cyborg the first ever Strikeforce womens 145lbs. champion. As deflated as the crowd was at the final result, there was no denying that they had just witnessed a short, brilliant war between two warriors who just happened to be women. Where the ladies division goes from here is anyone’s guess, but if only for a night, they were the talk of the sports world and should be proud of their performance.

I remain optimistic about Strikeforce’s future, despite the seemingly unending rash of injuries that has beset them. With Fedor in the fold, a long rumored CBS deal on the verge of hopefully taking flight and a sound business plan they are the undisputed #2 promotion in the world.