This weekend former Strikeforce, and current DREAM, light heavyweight champ Gegard Mousasi (30-3-1) faces a late replacement in “The Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine at the Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley event on the Showtime broadcast. Jardine steps in for Mike Kyle who broke his hand last week and was forced to withdraw from the April 9 card in San Diego.
The bout with Kyle came with the pressure of fighting for a title shot against current champ Dan Henderson, but was put on the shelf due to Kyle’s injury. Now with a new opponent, Mousasi faces a whole new set of pressures that could cost him much more than a shot at the title.
Speaking to BleacherReport.com, Mousasi talked about just what is at stake in a fight against someone who is 2-5 in his last seven fights, that even with a victory over Jardine, a poor performance could still cost him dearly.
“He’s got nothing to lose and this is his way back to Zuffa or the UFC and he’s a dangerous opponent … He’s not someone to take lightly. He can be dangerous in his awkward standup. This kind of fight is where I have the most to lose because people expect me to win, especially since he’s taking the fight on such short notice. This is the type of fight that I can’t win a lot, because if I win they’ll say that, ‘well, you won over somebody that wasn’t prepared,’ and if I lose, it’s (to) somebody that got kicked out of the UFC … people would say ‘he’s (Mousasi) overrated.’ There’s more to lose, that’s what I mean. It’s not like I don’t have respect for Keith Jardine.”
Mousasi has won two straight since losing the Strikeforce title to Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal last August. He was a participant in the DREAM LHW Grand Prix four man tournament, beating Jake O’Brien at DREAM.15 and then Tatsuya Mizuno at DREAM.16 to capture that promotions 205 pound title. The loss to Lawal was the first defeat since August 2006, ending a fifteen fight win streak, which included winning the DREAM middleweight championship.