A welterweight bout appears to set for the upcoming Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson event between Scott ‘Hands of Steel’ Smith (17-8, 1NC) and Tarec ‘Sponge’ Saffiedine (10-3).
News of the matchup was confirmed late Monday night by MMAWeekly.com, who spoke to sources close to the fight.
Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson is expected to take place on July 30, 2011 at Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. With the addition of this bout, the main card looks almost set with four other matches announced for the event. Announced already is a heavyweight bout between Fedor Emelianenko vs. Dan Henderson, a Women’s 135 lb title match between Marloes Coenen vs. Miesha Tate, a light heavyweight tilt between Muhammaed Lawal vs. Roger Gracie, and a welterweight bout between Paul Daley vs. Evangelista Santos.
Smith has lost two straight, and is 1-3 in his last four bouts. Making his welterweight debut last December, Smith suffered a first round knock out at the hands of Daley. Previous to that match, he lost his back-to-back rematch with Cung Le by second round TKO last June. The win was over Le, another come from behind knockout win.
Saffiedine had been confirmed to face Santos last March at the Feijao vs. Henderson event, but the bout was later scrapped for unknown reasons. The ‘Sponge’ is 3-1 in his last four, dropping his last fight by unanimous decision to Tyron Woodley last January at a Challengers event. Previous to that loss Saffiedine earned wins over Brock Larson at the Shark Fights 13 show, a knockout victory over Nate Moore last May and a decision over James Terry last February, with both of those fights occurring on Challenger cards.