Strikeforce on NBC debut show re-cap

Strikeforce on NBC debut show

Start off with guys talking and highlight shown. Gilbert Melendez, Cung Le and Frank Shamrock are among those shown but are not identified by name.

Lon McEachern welcomes us to the show. Says they will kick off with Cung Le. They show Le talking and have his trainer talking about him.

Cung Le vs. Brian Warren- 6/9/06

Lon McEachern and Ken Shamrock are the announcers. Warren charges at Le but gets a swift kick for his troubles. This is Le’s second MMA fight. Le takes Warren down with a slam and now has side control and moves into half guard and then into full guard. Le stands up with him and slams him again. Le is trying to get some punches in but not much is happening on the ground and the ref stands them up. Le with a spinning heel kick and then a roundhouse kick and then a knee. Warren responds with a knee but doesn’t have much effect. Le with some punches. Le with a spinning heel kick. Warren trying to come back and misses a big swing. Le with some short elbows and they tie up. Looks like Le has a small cut on his face. Warren swinging trying to land a wild knockout blow. Le with some shots to the head and Warren is knocked loopy and Le wins with a combo of several punches. Good finishing power and Le looked impressive here as he wins by KO in his second fight.

Winner: Cung Le by KO R1 4:19

Tony Fryklund vs. Duane Ludwig- 12/8/06

Long feeling out process here as there is not much action so far. Fryklund tries to get a clinch but Ludwig gets a couple of knees in the process. They trade combos that miss for the most part but then Ludwig lands some more knees but Ludwig ends up down but Fryklund lets him get up. Pretty even fight so far. Ludwig with a good combo and now going to town with punches and kicks and knees. Ludwig dominating now with kicks and punches and Ludwig floors him with a sweep kick but Fryklund is quickly back to his feet. Ludwig continues to deliver punishment to Fryklund. Fryklund grabs him and finally takes him down but Ludwig shows good take down defense. They are now up against the cage with Fryklund in control but Ludwig pushes him off. Ludwig clearly won the first round as he is just the superior fighter in terms of striking. Fryklunk failed to take Ludwig down in the first round and is going to have to take the fight to the ground in order to win.

R2- Fryklund trying to jab to keep Ludwig at bay but Ludwig hits a good punch. Fryklund trying to be more pro-active in this round and trying to keep moving forward. Misses a Superman punch and is now going for a take down but he’s denied. Ludwig with a combo. Ludwig lands a good knee. Ludwig lands a great kick and is now going to town on Fryklund and jumps on top. Ludwig is landing blows on top. Several punches. They stand back up and Ludwig with a knee and then knocks him out with a punch and the ref calls for the bell.

Impressive showing for Ludwig as he dominated this fight and finished it in Round 2. Ludwig also showed impressive take down defense in the win.

Winner: Duane “Bang” Ludwig by TKO (knee) R2 3:37

They come back from commercial and show highlights of the fight and show the announcing of the winner in the ring.

That’s it for the debut show. Really good production values. I thought Shamrock was real good on Play-By-Play and McEachern wasn’t bad. They showed a good fight to highlight Cung Le as he won impressively and the Ludwig fight was good as well as both fights were mostly stand-up and had a lot of action. Good debut show and good use of 30 minutes. Definitely looking forward to seeing this show in the future.

Go to nbcsports.com (click on MMA) to view tonight’s show and go to strikeforceusa.net for info on Strikeforce and the fighters on tonight’s show.