Pat “Bam Bam” Healy & Strikeforce Results
By Ben Bieker
Pat “Bam Bam” Healy (26-17-0) def. Lyle “Fancy Pants” Beerbohm (15-1-0) by unanimous decision
Pat Healy is hitting his stride in his career. After starting off his career at 13-12, he has now went 14-5 in his last 19 fights, which is a very respectable record. Two of those losses were to people at Welterweight and one of the others was to Josh Thompson. It seems like it was a smart move to pick up Pay Healy as he is hitting a resurgence in his career. Furthermore, if he does fight for the belt at least he gives a legitimate win over an experienced fighter to an up and comer, and that is if they can beat him.
In this fight he put a beating on Lyle. Given he did not control the whole fight, but he clearly one. When it was on the ground or feet he was dominating. Word is many people do not like Lyle as a person and that pat did them a favor by beating him up. I cannot confirm if that is true but it is the word.
Next for Pat Healy: A matchup with KJ Noons would be nice, as their styles matchup well. Also, it would be a good win on his way towards Gilbert Melendez.
Next for Lyle Beerbohm: A matchup with Justin Wilcox would be good. Beating Lyle would be a big win for Justin, but if Lyle is able to beat Justin it puts a lot of confidence back in his game as Justin is a tough opponent.
Carlo “Neo” Prater (26-10-1) def. Bryan Travers (14-3-0) by submission at 0:38 of round 1
Carlo did what I thought he would, but he just did it a lot early into the fight. For that finish to come in the first round that quick just shows how good of a fighter that Carlo once was, and still could be. This was a big opportunity for him in this fight considering he was coming off recent losses, but he did not let Strikeforce down by making the most of it. He still has a long way to work to be held in the regard he once was but this win helped propel him towards that direction.
Brad is not the best fighter in the world, but someone with a 14-2 record knows how to fight. He is obviously not ready for top competition yet having failed twice when in the ring with experienced fighters. A fight in a smaller organization or with a newcomer to Strikeforce would be a good choice for him as he needs to get a little more confidence back in him before he steps into the cage with someone the quality of Carlo again.
Next for Carlo Prater: If Jorge Gurgel gets past his next opponent that would be a good fight between two scrappy veterans.
Next for Brad Travers: Conor Huen would be a good fight for Brad because he fits the criteria I listed earlier. Plus, he has failed every time he was in the cage with a top opponent too.
Ryan Couture (2-0-0) def. Lee Higgins (2-1-0) by submission at 4:41 of round 3
Ryan is slowly building himself up as a fighter. He is proving to be competent and not here just on name value. The problem is that name value will start to cause problems for him down the line. People are going to start calling him out because to give Randy Couture’s son his first loss will be a big thing. He says he wants to progress slowly and not take to many big leaps forward but it will be hard. Eventually the promoters are going to want to promote him in a big fight as it will draw people to watch. Here’s hoping he gets the time to grow in his career because to rush him would be to ruin him.
Next for Ryan Couture: He could fight someone like Corey Hill who is not a great fighter, but he does have name value. He also won’t be that much more experienced than Ryan, with his ground game not being the greatest.
Next for Lee Higgins: Doubt we will hear his name in the Strikeforce cage again anytime soon.
Ryan Larson (6-2-0) def. Erik Apple (10-3-0) by submission at 3:14 of round 2
I was wrong about this fight, and that is all there is to it. Ryan proved me wrong and added another sad loss to Erik’s once promising career. Obviously he is still fresh in his career, and this being his first Strikeforce fight he will need to take it slow. But this is a big fight for his career since he had never fought someone the quality of Erik and succeeded like this. He will get much bigger fights in the near future, while the future of Erik’s career is unsure.
Next for Ryan Larson: Roger Bowling would be a good fight for him. Both are still young in their Strikeforce and professional MMA career.
Next For Erik Apple: If they keep him around he could fight Cory Devela, another fighter in desperate need of a win.
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