Canada keeps producing young guns. Jordan Mein is the latest to come down the pike. The 21-year-old showed off some slick boxing to wear down and eventually finish veteran Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos at the 3:18 mark of the third round of the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix card in Cincinnati.
This was career win No. 23 for Mein, who's now won 10-of-11. Beating Santos is no easy task. The Brazilian has been in there recently with the likes of Nick Diaz, Marius Zaromskis, Joey Villasenor and Gegard Mousasi.
Even at a young age, Mein showed he's a savvy dude. Cyborg was crushing his legs in the first with nasty kicks. That's when Mein decided to switch from a conventional stance to southpaw. Cyborg had trouble the rest of the way defending himself against the straight left and left hook delivered by the 6-foot-1 Mein.
"He was kicking me hard in the first round there. We were each checking some kicks, so my foot is a little sore. It went well," said Mein, who left the cage with a noticeable limp.
Mein saw Cyborg slow a bit at the end of the second, so he slammed down on the gas pedal at the beginning of the final round. Mein's combinations were too much for Cyborg to contend with and a beautiful liver shot stopped the Brazilian in his tracks. Cyborg retreated to the cage and Mein unleashed a flurry of elbows. He threw four with the left arm and six more with the right. The referee stepped in to save the helpless Cyborg.
"I'm glad I finished the fight.� I put some big elbows on him and a nice body shot to freeze him up," said Mein.
This was actually Mein's U.S. debut. All 29 of his previous fights took place in Canada. His father, a local promoter in Canada, helped get Mein into to the ring/cage for the first time as a 14-year-old amateur. He went 6-1 on the amateur level before turning pro at 16. In 2006, he lost his debut to another diaper dandy Rory MacDonald. Since starting his career 3-4, Mein is 20-3.
Davis' clinch game does in Nunes
Amanda Nunes was thought to be a potential threat to Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos, but you have to be a complete fighter to reach that level. Nunes couldn't handle the clinch work and grappling of Alexis Davis. Davis' constant attack led to a late second round finish via punches at the 4:53 mark.
Nunes (6-2) exploded onto the Strikeforce scene back in January when she destroyed Muay Thai specialist Julia Budd in just 14 seconds.
Davis wisely chose to stay away from a stand up war. She moved forward and closed space throughout. Nunes finally cracked in the last two minutes of the second round.
"I knew Amanda was going to come out banging. I was just working on closing the distance since she has a longer reach than me - tried to stay in tight. She has awesome takedowns, but with my jiu jitsu I was able to capitalize.� I was really working on maintaining position and using my positioning to strike," said Davis (11-4).
Nunes used a beautiful whizzer to score a takedown of her own, but it was quickly reversed by Davis, who eventually got into a mount position. Nunes immediately gave up her back and Davis got the hooks in. As Nunes avoided the rear-naked choke, Davis fired away with small shots to her face and head. After 30-plus shots, referee Greg Franklin stepped in to stop the fight.
Davis is now 2-0 with Strikeforce. She beat MMA veteran Julie Kedzie on July 30 in Chicago.
Steele knocks off Mierzwiak
Wanting to get serious about his MMA career, Dom Steele took a nice step tonight against fellow Cincinnati fighter Chris Mierzwiak. Steele bullied his way to a unanimous decision win, 29-27, 29-28 and 29-27, in the televised opener on HDNet.
After a very tight opening round, Steele (4-1) took control of the fight. In the second round, the former high school wrestler got Mierzwiak down with 4:10 left. Mierzwiak scrambled throughout and tried to extricate himself, but had trouble getting back to his feet. After eating tons of punches on the ground, he got up with 2:10 left only to hit the deck again when he absorbed a big right. Steele really mauled Mierzwiak on the ground, eventually moving to a very dominant crucifix position. Steele couldn't finish, but Mierzwiak was shot for the final round.
"It went well. He's a good opponent. I tried to keep it action packed and tried to keep it non-stop. Control was working for me. My plan was to keep it on the feet, but when I saw him getting tired I took it to the ground," said Steele.
Both fighters were dead tired. Steele scored a pair of easy takedowns to lock up the final round and the fight.
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