On Saturday, the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Tournament finally came to an end after a long 15 months with the final and the main event at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. Josh Barnett took on Daniel Cormier in the final for the ultimate bragging rights.
Barnett had advanced to the final by defeating Brett Rogers and Sergei Kharitonov via submission. Cormier had made his way to the final by subbing in for Alistair Overeem and knocking out Antonio Silva in the semifinals.
The first round was all stand-up, with Cormier landing a surprising amount of solid shots to the head and body. At the end of the round, Barnett managed to land a huge knee to the face that visibly rocked Cormier and resulted in a big contusion under his left eye.
Cormier landed plenty more shots in the second round and scored a takedown on Barnett at the halfway point. Barnett tried for submissions from the bottom, but Cormier held him down and opened a big cut near Barnett's right eye with an elbow. Cormier had clearly won the first two rounds at this point.
More standup opened up the third round but Cormier scored an enormous single-leg bodyslam with three minutes left. Both men were up again seconds later. In the final two minutes, Cormier landed a huge head kick and a flurry of strikes that rocked Barnett and opened him up again, but was unable to put his opponent away.
The men traded again in the fourth round, with Cormier once again getting the better of the situation. Cormier took Barnett down in the last couple of minutes but Barnett nearly sank in a heel hook before Cormier was able to escape. By the end of the round, Barnett was again a bloody mess and had lost every round.
Barnett headed into the fifth and final round knowing he would need a submission or knockout in order to garner the victory. It would not be Barnett's night. The fifth round featured the least action in the fight, but Cormier still managed to land more blows and score one last takedown.
Cormier officially won by unanimous decision on scores of (49-46, 50-45, 50-45) to become the Strikeforce World Heavyweight Grand Prix Champion.
Please click here to find the rest of the main card results from the Showtime telecast. You can view the preliminary card results from Saturday's event by clicking here.
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