Strikeforce ‘Heavy Artillery’ Preview

Lyle Beerbohm vs. Vitor Ribeiro

The Breakdown: The pearl of the prelim slate pits longtime stalwart of the Japanese lightweight MMA scene Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro against the dazzling pantaloons of Lyle “Fancy Pants” Beerbohm. This fight has taken an unfortunate turn in recent days ever since Beerbohm went to the Internet in search of lawyers who could help extricate him from his Strikeforce contract. Considering Ribeiro has been under contract with Strikeforce since September and is just now making his promotional debut, I’m half expecting him to turn this into a class-action lawsuit.

As for the fight itself, Ribeiro is one of the best grapplers in the division and is nothing short of stultifying from top control. Making matters worse for Beerbohm is Ribeiro’s underrated wrestling skills, which make him one of the most dominating grapplers around. Beerbohm is still coming into his own as a fighter. While he has shown great grappling acumen for a relative neophyte, he doesn’t have the game to survive in Ribeiro’s world.

A striking match may be a different story, but Beerbohm doesn’t have the wrestling to keep this fight upright and Ribeiro isn’t about to repeat the disastrous striking strategy he used so feebly against Shinya Aoki.

The Bottom Line: It’s hard to imagine what must be going through Beerbohm’s head entering this fight. That is reason enough to pick against him, and Ribeiro’s obvious advantage on the mat only makes this an easier pick.