Funny reffing again mars a Strikeforce show as the Vieira vs Ford ends with Ford unconscious for what I would guess to be at least ten seconds, where I saw his leg go limp then a good while later, convulse. And what would’ve been the great welcome party for Rowdy Ronda Rousey was ruined by what, overreaction?  I don’t even know.  I don’t know what led Mazzagatti to end the fight without the armbar set.

Regardless, Rousey looked amazing in the moments we did see, not only that, she brought her own rowdy fans, vocal through the entire night.  When later fights snoozed, they demanded to see more Ronda.  Also, Nah-Shon Burrell looked great in his second Strikeforce fight.

And we in photo row had a fun night of random assaults as a camera stand fell over onto us during Vieira-Ford and we were finely sprayed with Derrick Mehmen’s blood in his fight against Gian Villante.

It wouldn’t be a Strikeforce show without the lights progressively dimming throughout the night as I began the night shooting at ISO 1600 at 800 2.8 and ended up bumping it to ISO 2000 and still having to raise exposure on every image by at least half a stop.  When I used to shoot over the cage, I would complain about the smoke along with the media photographers and now at the photo bench underneath, the smoke is ten times harder to shoot through.

I think I’m mostly whining because this young girl behind me on my plane to Milwaukee doesn’t understand that the tray table is connected to the seat in front of her–a seat that contains a person–in this case, me.  The young boys next to me also are being dicks with their tray table but they’re not my kids.

Otherwise, you know I love to shoot the fights, would go any time I can and Strikeforce will be my baby until it is completely dissolved and folded into Zuffa.  However, it’ll probably be my last Challengers since the next one conflicts with my trip to Denver for UFC 135.  I even ended the night with a lovely burger from Burger Bar, complete with sprouts and a whole wheat bun.  Damn, I love sprouts.  And coffee ice cream.  Shit yeah, it was a good night.

It’s been a blast getting to post to y’all here on All Elbows again, though I wish I could have had a few more epic images to share.  We’ll be getting back to original stuff once we’re home from Rio.

Here’s a gallery of Strikeforce Challengers 4: Gurgel vs Duarte.

YEAH!