Category — Strikeforce

I’ve advocated for Dan Henderson vs. Fedor Emelianenko from the moment Hendo beat Rafael Cavalcante for the Strikeforce light heavyweight strap in March, and now it seems like it’s going to happen. The fight is slated for July 30 in Chicago and could be (will likely be?) a 220-pound catchweight bout. That’s about 10-15 pounds heavier than Henderson is used to and about 10 pounds lighter than Fedor walks around at.

But why am I not excited about this? I’m going to blame the post-UFC 129 buzz-slash-hangover-slash-withdrawal I’m going through. That event was just so good – from the fights, to the atmosphere to the production values – that it’ll take a few days to recover.

Still, Fedor and Henderson, two former PRIDE champions with H-bombs for right fists, both legends who have fought some of the best in the business, two old lions near the end of their careers putting it all on the line. To think about it in those terms gives me a little rush to get me through this Wednesday morning.

Whether or not Nick Diaz retires from MMA or not, his decision to fight Fernando Vargas in a boxing match should ensure that somebody continues to put a microphone and camera in his face so he can say more crazy shit and make folks uncomfortable. His life’s “a living hell.” WTF?! He’s the Strikeforce welterweight champ and could live a pretty comfortable lifestyle if he’d tone down the passive-aggressive reefer-rage act a little bit so that more fans/sponsors and ultimately Dana White would come on board his crazy train. A little nuts is a marketable commodity, a lot nuts is alienating.

Perhaps you’d expect a few sparks to fly, a few choice words to be exchanged between Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz and Paul Daley, especially after their one-round war (and preceding trash talk) on Saturday. So this encounter in a restaurant is surprisingly civilized. Then again, it goes a long way toward showing that fights are settled in the cage, that it is a job, not personal. Well, mostly not personal.

I love how UFC boss Dana White takes the piss with Ariel Helwani by taking a page from Nick Diaz’s playbook (and from this wackjob interview, specifically) . Funny stuff.

Chemical imbalance. That’s the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Nick Diaz. The Strikeforce welterweight champ gave another questionable interview to Ariel Helwani following his beating of Paul Daley on Saturday. Seems Diaz is a bit paranoid. Or does he actually have reason to believe he’ll be suspended as a result of the fight? And if so, what for?

In a nutshell: Saturday’s Strikeforce was a far more exciting event than recent UFC cards have proven to be. Of course, with finishers like Gilbert Melendez, Paul Daley and Shinya Aoki on the roster, it’s a near-certainty that the judges will have little to do.

It took less than two minutes for grappling ace Aoki to toss Lyle Beerbhom to the ground and neck-crank him into submission. That gives Aoki his fourth straight win and puts him back on track for a rematch with lightweight champ Melendez (assuming Melendez doesn’t vacate the belt to pursue a UFC title).

While Aoki finished on the ground, Melendez defended his title with a blitzkrieg of strikes that left Tatsuya Kawajiri crumpled on the mat. The question now becomes whether Melendez stays with Strikeforce or is moved over to the UFC to test his mettle against the likes of Anthony Pettis, Jim Miller, Clay Guida and even Frankie Edgar or Gray Maynard. I don’t think Melendez should get an immediate title shot, but he should be next in line after Pettis.

It’ll be interesting to see whether UFC boss Dana White wants to make that shuffle so quickly after Zuffa purchased Strikeforce, or, as he claimed at the time of the deal, whether he will allow Strikeforce to continue “business as usual.” Melendez competing in the UFC might be what fans want, but I’m not sure it’s in the best interest of Strikeforce, assuming Zuffa foresees a future for the promotion.

A similar question arises with regard to Nick Diaz. The welterweight champ again found little use for his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt as he went toe-to-toe and blow-for-blow against the human haymaker, Paul Daley. The result was 4:57 of the most exciting MMA thus far this year, as each fighter found themselves rocked, until the crisper striking (and bruising body shots) of Diaz finally put Daley away at the end of the opening frame.

Only the return of Keith Jardine would find its way to the judges, as his bout with Gegard Mousasi was ruled a majority draw (Jardine took the first round 10-8 thanks to an illegal up-kick). Frankly, I don’t think Jardine could’ve expected better given he took the fight on nine days notice and was clearly out-classed by Mousasi, who picked him apart with punches but couldn’t put him away. Hardly a one-and-done situation, expect Jardine to shift into a gatekeeper role in Strikeforce’s light heavyweight division.

FW friend and occasional contributor Joel Gerson passed along this interview with Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz. “Uncomfortable,” is how Joel describes it and I’d also like to add “awkward” and “discommodious.” It’s also par for the course when it comes to Diaz, who defends his belt against Paul Daley on Saturday and generally comes across like a cocksucking extra from Deadwood.

I feel bad for Ariel Helwani, who’s a great interviewer stuck with a subject who’s a complete dick. You can see in Helwani’s eyes that he’s scrambling to keep the interview going, dealing with being accused of being a shit-disturber (which, if you’ve paid attention to Helwani’s laid back and always professional style, is completely ridiculous), with Diaz stating he’s being forced to do the interview, that he doesn’t get paid enough yet gets paid too much (whah?!) and on and on down the rabbit hole.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: professional fighters should behave like the professional athletes they claim they are, and that includes doing interviews. Perception is reality. If Diaz was in the NBA of NFL I’m pretty sure his team owner, the head of the league, his agents and his managers would be all over him for his complete lack of professionalism. But because this is MMA and personalities sell tickets – and I’m using the term “personalities” in the loosest sense in relation to Diaz, although it’s quite possible that there’s more than one voice screaming for attention inside his head – this behavior is excused.

I was only mildly interested in Saturday’s Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley card, and it had little to do with the main event (I’m not a fan of either Nick Diaz or Paul Daley and isn’t it strange that Daley, once banned from the UFC for sucker punching Josh Koscheck, is now back in the Zuffa fold).

It’s actually the lightweight title bout between Gilbert Melendez and Tetsuya Kawajiri and Shinya Aoki vs. Lyle Beerbohm that has me curious (along with a little bit of Gegard Mousasi vs. Keith Jardine).

And I really dig this Fight For Japan promo put together by DREAM to hype the Strikeforce event’s importance to the Japanese fighters on the card in the wake of the recent and ongoing devastation in that country. It’s a bit clumsy and tries a bit too hard to connect the natural disaster to the fighters (and this event specifically), but still. Granted, I know for a fact that I’d puke in my mouth if I saw a similarly patriotic video about American fighters, but fuck it, there’s something about this, the Japanese stoicism, the way their country has been ruined, it works for me. Maybe it’s just the song on the soundtrack.

What now? Seriously, what the fuck now?!  That’s the $64,000 question following the purchase of Strikeforce by UFC parent Zuffa, resulting in a seismic shift in the MMA landscape on the order of a magnitude 9.5 on the Richter scale.

It’s been over a week since the deal became official and plenty of folks have weighed in on both sides of the debate as to whether it’s a good thing or not. In the grand tradition of “nobody knows anything,” here’s my two cents.

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Fedor Emelianenko is actually considering dropping to 205 pounds to challenge newly crowned Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Dan Henderson. It’s a move I’ve hoped for – Fedor is the greatest heavyweight of all time but times have changed and opponents have only gotten bigger while he’s gotten older.The cut to 205 would be easy for the pudgy 230-pounder; he’d just need to stay away from the ice cream and vodka.

Henderson is up for the challenge and has even suggested he’d be willing to move up to heavyweight to make the bout happen. But that won’t be necessary if a report on Fighters Only that negotiations for the 205-pound superfight are underway is accurate.