Chalk up yet another win from Blackhouse, the undisputed most mysterious gym in all of mixed martial arts. Out of the thousands of articles that are on MiddleEasy.com, for nearly a year the most read one was the announcement that Jacare signed with Strikeforce. If articles were Summer Olympic sprint runners, that Jacare article would be like Usain Bolt. At the time, the second most read article was, Pat Barry talks about the day he cashed his $120,000 check, which wasn’t even in Jacare’s ballpark — and that one made the front page of Yahoo.com. It just goes to show you how popular a person that smacks his arms together like a crocodile can really be.
There are good opening rounds in MMA, and on the rare occasion, there are great opening rounds. The beginning of Robbie Lawler vs. Jacare Souza was undeniably a stellar opening round, and if I had some device that tabulated all the fights I’ve seen in the past few years, it just may be ranked in the top three. Of course, if I had such a device, I would charge all of you $20 to use it and I would proclaim the device to be named ‘The World’s Greatest Memory Modulator Analyzer of the World’. TWGMMAOTW for short.
In the beginning of the first round, both fighters were cautiously feeling out their opponent which warranted a wave of boos from the crowd inside the HP Pavilion. Eventually Jacare went for a high kick, missed, and the striking was finally underway. Being that Robbie Lawler can punch a hole inside of another hole inside of another dimension, Lawler eventually connected with Jacare’s skull and stunned him throughout the first. Jacare somewhat collapsed to the mat and Robbie Lawler fell directly into his guard while landing some strikes on the way down. Jacare regained his composure and the first round ended.
Second round began, Jacare realized that it’s probably not a good idea to stand with Robbie Lawler and pulled off a trip-takedown to get on top of Lawler. The rest of the second round consisted of Lawler trying to neutralize Jacare’s transitions and submissions. He eventually got back to his feet and the round ended. Third round began, Jacare used the same strategy as the second round, and within two minutes he submitted Robbie Lawler with a rear naked choke.
2011 is the year of the grappler, my friend.
