Man, it’s been a crazy week, huh? Between the UFC 137 lineup shuffle and the announcement of Alistair Overeem’s entry into the UFC, you may have forgotten that the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Semi-Finals are going down tomorrow night at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati. We’ll be liveblogging the action starting at 10:30 p.m. ET, so don’t be a stranger.
MMAFighting was on the scene yesterday for the “Barnett vs. Kharitonov” press conference, and released the above highlight video. Skip to the 1:33 mark to see Daniel Cormier give away his gameplan against Antonio Silva; lots of laughs there. Later, King Mo says what everybody’s thinking: “I was hoping more people [would be] out here, more media, and more questions, but really I guess y’all don’t care about us that much. I’m just keeping it real. Me and Roger [Gracie] gonna put on a good fight, it’s gonna be a good card. I think people are gonna miss out on it because everybody’s worried about other issues instead of the fights this weekend. I’m just being real.”
Also on the card, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza defends his middleweight belt against Luke Rockhold — who hasn’t competed since February 2010 due to injuries — and Maximo Blanco makes his promotional debut against Pat Healy. The complete lineup is after the jump.
Main Card (Showtime, 10:30 p.m. ET/PT)
Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov
Antonio Silva vs. Daniel Cormier
Ronaldo Souza vs. Luke Rockhold
Muhammed Lawal vs. Roger Gracie
Pat Healy vs. Maximo Blanco
Preliminary Card (HDNet, 8 p.m. ET/PT)
Mike Kyle vs. Marcos Rogerio de Lima
Rafael Cavalcante vs. Yoel Romero Palacio
Evangelista Santos vs. Jordan Mein
Alexis Davis vs. Amanda Nunes
Dominique Steele vs. Chris Mierzwiak