Superlist: Strikeforce - Four Men Enter, One Man Survives

1. Turd of the Night
Still working hard to create a world where hyped-up, cash-cow grudge matches are all it takes to be considered best in the world, Frank Shamrock chose to challenge Cung Le for his next fight. This, as opposed to the winner of the four man middleweight tournament, the purpose of which was to crown an unofficial number one contender for Shamrock. Characteristically, Cung Le enthusiastically accepted the fight, and verbally sidestepped Shamrock's best attempts at turning the announcement into a bitter showdown.
As classy and dynamic a fighter as he is, though, Cung Le took two and a half rounds to put away sacrificial lamb Sam Morgan, and showed pretty large gaps in his offensive arsenal. Meanwhile, Jorge Santiago (the tournament's eventual winner) dispatched both Sean Salmon and Trevor Prangley (the tournament's heavy favorite) with relative ease. It's obvious that Shamrock is trying to cash in as much as possible while at the same time ensuring that the latter days of his career are filled with wins. He seems to be picking his fights carefully, and chose to fight Cung Le now, before he develops any ground-and-pound skills or a submission game. Without a title shot, Santiago will have to be content that Shamrock chose to conveniently ignore the tournament winner in favor of an easier fight.

2. "Don't Fear Me, Fear the Consequences"
Poor Paul Buentello (or Buenatello, as his trainer calls him). He seemed unable to deal with upper-level competition in the UFC but, being pretty exciting and kind of a nice guy (with one of the best catch phrases in the sport) I had kind of hoped that he'd found his place in the sun fighting for Strikeforce. Then Alistair Overeem, appearing more or less like a living comic book character, had to knee the doughy Buentello's liver up his spine and, undoubtedly, into that fragile man's beating heart (full of hopes and dreams, as it was).

3. "Fatherless Bastard"
Sluggish as ever, the redundant wonder Bobby Southworth proved unable to deal with a level of opposition characterized by 1. not being undersized (see vs. Bill Mahood) and 2. having a pulse (see vs. Vernon White). I was surprised back when Strikeforce first announced Southworth as one of their contenders. Here's a fighter whose most memorable moment on television was an exhibition of weak character and fighting spirit as he was tearfully dragged back into the sauna; this from a guy who was, according to some in the TUF house, the favorite to win the competition, and the team's "leader."
Ridiculously, Southworth is still the Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion, as the fight was a non-title affair. Renato Sobral will have the honor of taking it from him sometime in 2008.