Strikeforce's 10 Most Brutal Finishers

For the longest time now, anyone who has not been rumored to transition from their own small-time promotions to the UFC have often gone to one or two places: Bellator Fighting Championships or Strikeforce.

They often sign with Strikeforce for a number of reasons, one being the exposure they get from fighting on Showtime, another being the fact that they're just looking to fight a few major names (i.e., some Daniel Cormiers, some Vitor Ribieros, and maybe a Tyron Woodley or an Antwain Britt here and there), and another being the fact that they have some of the best competition in the world.

Do they have all the best fighters in the world? Of course they don't, and neither does Bellator or the UFC, although the UFC has at least three of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world and Bellator just recently picked up the former Sengoku Featherweight king.

What Strikeforce may lack in the area of pound-for-pound greats or GOATs that aren't named Fedor Emelianenko, they make up for in having well over 10 fighters who like having the opportunity to kick ass, but love the opportunities they often take to finish off opponents.

In order from the "Gilbert Melendez division" known as Lightweight to the division of "The Reem" that we're calling the Heavyweight division. I now introduce to you just 10 of the most brutal finishers in Strikeforce.

Lyle Beerbohm

There might be a reason why Beerbohm got the worst end of that unanimous decision a few weeks ago against Pat Healy, but if you check out "Fancy Pants" in action at any time, you'll start to see how brutal this guy can be in the cage.

He'll knock guys out, finish them off on the ground...hell, he'll even McKenzitine someone in a fight (he's done it before).

The fact is, the only fight in Strikeforce that he hasn't finished in was the fight against Healy, and although Healy certainly proved to be a bit more of the aggressor at times during the fight, Beerbohm's only problem in that fight was the arguable fact that he had 15 minutes to take Healy out and ran out of time to do just that.

That's a conversation for another day, though.

The guy may have just lost his first pro fight, and he's got a long way to go before things return somewhat to how they were before Healy.

But one thing you can bank on is that come hell or high water, he's going to look for a finish, and he's not going to be fully satisfied until he gets the finish.

KJ Noons

He lost his last fight at Welterweight and made NIck Diaz dig in deep to pull out one of the closest unanimous-decision wins in MMA history, but we all know Noons only took the fight because there was a feeling of emptiness inside us all if the controversy behind the first fight stood without a resolution.

Besides, Noons naturally looks like a Lightweight and fights a little bit harder as a Lightweight.

How does he qualify as a brutal finisher?

His whole game actually qualifies him, as well as his record.

Take a look at it, note his only losses which are to Charles Bennett and Nick Diaz, and note that he has only three decision wins on his record.

Everything else is either a TKO or a KO, and he doesn't even have any finishes by submission on here.

Is he qualified yet? I should say so.

Paul Daley

Mind you, he's only blasted and destroyed Scott Smith in Strikeforce since his return to the Showtime-affiliated promotion, and he'll look to do the same to Nick Diaz come April 9.

But you don't have to know about his UFC wins over Dustin Hazelett or Martin Kampmann, or that still-difficult-to-forget left he rocked Josh Koscheck with after their 15-minute affair at UFC 113, in order to know that Paul Daley's whole career is his striking game, and his whole losing streak is due to him being placed against either solid wrestlers or solid Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu specialists.

All you need to do is check out highlights of Daley and his explosive time-bomb of a left hand to know how dangerous Paul is on the feet.

Even the two submission wins on his record came by either a strike or a series of strikes, so what does that tell you about the type of finisher Daley is?

Sounds like the type of dude I'd punk out of a fight with, with the way he wrecks guys.

Nick Diaz

What's a Strikeforce-based piece without a mention of one of the top 5 pound-for-pound best trash-talkers in the sport, a man who also happens to be the Strikeforce Welterweight Champion?

Seriously, for all the flak Nick Diaz gets, he puts together everything beautifully: from his Boxing to his BJJ, and what's brutal about Diaz's finishes is the fact that he pulls out TKO wins and submission wins in impressive fashion, even sometimes when he appears to be losing the fight.

It's brutal enough to have to feel the effects of one of Diaz's blows against your anatomical structure, but feeling the power behind one of his punches or feeling the painful excruciation in your body once he submits you is even more brutal when Diaz looks like he's one blow away from losing.

If you don't believe it, try him out one time.

I guarantee you're not going to like it.

Tim Kennedy

Only one man has ever come close to outworking Tim Kennedy in the cardio department, and that's Ronaldo Souza.

Jason Miller just outpointed him, but that's beside the point.

I look at the gas tank of Kennedy and I find it tough for anyone not to see how this guy winds up getting the finish every time.

Most guys aren't on his level in that department, and it sets themselves up for a fall, sometimes courtesy of a right hand and sometimes courtesy of a knee to the body that either sets up for some strikes or leads into a beautiful submission.

I swear, if Strikeforce ever did fight bonuses, Kennedy would be a top 10 guy in that area, especially with the submissions he's pulled out.

The guy knows how to make somebody call their momma, and he can damn sure do it merely by punching a hole in their face as well.

Robbie Lawler

You can't put the argument for Lawler's placement on this list into words.

The truth is that he's one of the few guys in the sport that does possess the one-punch knockout power that everyone mentions when hyping up fighters.

Few guys blend their Boxing game with their takedown ability quite like Ruthless Robbie, and it's made for a career that is a highlight reel in itself.

Dan Henderson

Once upon a time, there was a right hand belonging to Dan Henderson, and to cut this tale short, it claimed a few careers.

Really speaking, Hendo never had the best submission game, and being a wrestler, he's scored his heavy share of decisions, but when he wasn't out getting wins on the cards, he was finding ways of knocking guys out, like he almost KOed Jake Shields.

The way he handled Babalu this past December, we saw the most ruthless and on-point Hendo that we've seen since the famous UFC 100 fight with Bisping, though the killer instinct was one that I don't think we have seen since his PRIDE days.

If he can wreck Feijao with the right hand this Saturday, he deserves to be the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion.

Rafael Cavalcante

Plain and simple, this man is known for having some of the sickest Muay Thai of any Strikeforce Light Heavyweight right now.

He was the man that shut King Mo's Wrestling-based offense down and came right after him with strike after strike, knee after knee, until eventually King Mo was out.

Before Mo, Antwain Britt suffered an equally devastating fate, and the odds of Hendo suffering the same fate have as equally high of a probability as they do of Hendo coming out on top.

Shane Del Rosario

It says something about a fighter when they go through their career unbeaten, and with the distinction of not only finishing fights before the third round, but winning all but three fights due to TKOs, with the three wins coming by submission.

If you're Shane Del Rosario, or if you have finished fights the way he has, that says something about how much of a brutal finisher you must be, considering you never see the third round and you always shut down your opposition.

Some guys you just shouldn't try your luck with, and this young prospect just happens to be one of those guys.

Alistair Overeem

There's only two things that I'm going to say as it pertains to The Demolition Man, who is the current Strikeforce, K-1, and DREAM Heavyweight Champion:

1. The Reem has come a long way from what he was when he was getting devoured by guys like Shogun Rua and Rogerio Nogueira. The Uberknee (which I'll try to coin as "The Golden Glory Jawbreaker") was an effective move that Reem used at the time. But only after he moved up to Heavyweight, took out Paul Buentello, and made his mark in K-1 do I truly believe that the Muay Thai Knee of Overeem showcased itself at full strength.

2. The video should basically remind you of who Alistair is and why he's even on this list, so if you don't know The Reem by now, sit back and enjoy his trail of destruction.