MMA Twitter fans are giving their reviews of Saturday night's Strikeforce fights on Showtime, and Gegard Mousasi is getting raves for his great fight -- but also questions about why he's not in the UFC. We also have comments about Cris Cyborg's destruction of Gina Carano, the quality of the Showtime broadcast and Randy Couture's role in the new EA Sports MMA video game.Your questions and comments, and my responses, in our MMA Twitter mailbag are below.
joeyazz: Mousasi should be in the UFC... Somebody lied to him.
Although there were rumors that Mousasi wanted to sign with the UFC and that his management steered him away from a UFC offer, Mousasi himself says he's perfectly content with what he's doing now: He's the Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, he's in the semifinals of the Dream Super Hulk Tournament, he's planning to fight on some M-1 cards, he's hoping to do some boxing and might do some kickboxing as well. Mousasi is a versatile athlete who wants to try all sorts of different things, and at age 24, he's got plenty of time. I do think we'll see him in the UFC eventually, and I think he could be a future UFC champion.
TomasMNally: MDS - why are so many picking Babalu over Mousasi? Mousasi is much bigger and has a better overall game.
You tweeted this before the fight, and you were certainly right. I thought Babalu's superior experience and his Brazilian jiu jitsu game would allow him to win the fight on the ground, but Mousasi is a much better fighter than Babalu. In fact, Mousasi is a much better fighter than any light heavyweight outside the UFC.
drsippi: I agree Carano was destroyed. She looked afraid from the beginning. Agree or disagree. I never saw her like that.
I don't know if Carano was afraid of Cyborg, but I do know Cyborg is a much better fighter than Carano. I think a rematch is likely down the road, but Carano will have to improve significantly before then if she's going to have much hope of winning.
robnashville: They have thre five-rounders to accommodate in a 2.5-hour window. Those fights will take up 40 minutes a piece, What would you do?
This came in response to my tweet criticizing Showtime and Strikeforce for taking the Jay Hieron-Jesse Taylor fight off the televised card at the last minute. I understand that there were scheduling concerns, but the bottom line is that a lot of fans turned on Showtime thinking they'd see Hieron-Taylor, and if Strikeforce couldn't fit five fights onto the TV card, it should have let the fans know that in advance. As it turned out, with three of the fights ending in the first round, fans only got about 21 minutes of MMA in the two and a half hours of TV time that Showtime set aside for the show. And when the live card ended early, Showtime gave us Penn & Teller instead of Hieron & Taylor. Weird.
I also got several responses to my tweet saying Strikeforce and Showtime should use actual fight footage -- rather than CGI images of fighters without any skin -- to demonstrate various MMA techniques:
Shaydieblue: I like the graphics. Not as boring. I appreciate the unique effort
DeathCometh: They may think that the CGI appeals more to the younger (gamers) audience.
mmahotstuff: It's a little gross (no skin)
WatchKalibRun: Deal with EA dude, ESPN does it to, its dumb.
And speaking of EA:
AlferdPacker: Re: Couture's recent moves-signing w/ EA Sports & an interview on SF. Any repercussions from Dana? No title shot now?
I'm sure UFC President Dana White isn't thrilled that Randy Couture -- one of the UFC's most popular fighters -- will appear in the EA Sports MMA video game, instead of in THQ's UFC Undisputed game. But Couture said he doesn't think there's a conflict, and I don't think that will affect his chances of getting another title shot. If Couture beats Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and White thinks a rematch between Couture and Brock Lesnar is the fight the fans want to see, then that's the fight he'll make.
Want to be part of our next MMA Twitter mailbag? Post a question or comment on Twitter.com, and be sure to start it with @MichaelDavSmith.
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