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Filed under: MMA Videos, Strikeforce, MMA Fighting Exclusive, Videos
MMA Fighting followed Strkeforce heavyweight GP semifinalist Daniel Cormier and middleweight title challenger Luke Rockhold days away from their
fights against Antonio Silva and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, respectively, on the Sept. 10 Strikeforce card in Cincinnati.
Watch the video below of a day in the life of Cormier and Rockhold, shot and edited by E. Casey Leydon.
Filed under: MMA Videos, Strikeforce, MMA Fighting Exclusive, Videos
MMA Fighting followed Strkeforce heavyweight GP semifinalist Daniel Cormier and middleweight title challenger Luke Rockhold days away from their
fights against Antonio Silva and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, respectively, on the Sept. 10 Strikeforce card in Cincinnati.
Watch the video below of a day in the life of Cormier and Rockhold, shot and edited by E. Casey Leydon.
Filed under: StrikeforceWho will advance to the finals of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix? Can Luke Rockhold shock everyone and take the middleweight belt from Jacare? Will King Mo Lawal come back after more than a year off and defeat Roger Grac…
Filed under: Strikeforce
Who will advance to the finals of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix? Can Luke Rockhold shock everyone and take the middleweight belt from Jacare? Will King Mo Lawal come back after more than a year off and defeat Roger Gracie? We’ll attempt to answer those questions as we predict the winners of Saturday’s fights.
What: Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Semifinals: Barnett vs. Kharitonov
Where: U.S. Bank Arena, Cincinnati
When: Saturday, the HDNet undercard begins at 8 p.m. ET and the Showtime main card begins at 10.
Predictions on the five Showtime fights below.
Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov
This is Barnett’s biggest fight since losing to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at Pride Shockwave 2006, and maybe his last chance to return to relevance and get back some of the respect in the MMA world that he lost when his positive drug test caused his fight with Fedor Emelianenko to be canceled two years ago. It’s huge for Barnett.
It’s a big fight for Kharitonov, too: Although he’s had a long and impressive fighting career, he’s an unknown outside hard-core MMA fans in the United States. And given that Kharitonov’s management in Golden Glory is butting heads with Strikeforce parent company Zuffa right now, Kharitonov needs to impress if he wants to stay in Zuffa going forward. Beating Barnett in the main event could set Kharitonov up for a lucrative fight in the Grand Prix finals, and potentially some very lucrative fights in the UFC after that.
Kharitonov is a better striker than Barnett, and Barnett has struggled at times with good strikers. But I don’t think Kharitonov has good enough defensive wrestling to stay off his back in this fight, and on the ground I see Barnett as having a significant advantage. I like Barnett to win this fight from the top.
Pick: Barnett
Antonio Silva vs. Daniel Cormier
Those Zuffa-Golden Glory problems cost us what should have been a great fight between Silva and Alistair Overeem. Instead we get Bigfoot against Cormier, who’s a world-class wrestler and undefeated fighter but hasn’t faced anything close to Top 10 competition until now.
So is Cormier ready for it? I don’t think so. Cormier is such a good wrestler that he has a chance of getting Silva down and getting on top of him, but I think it’s much more likely that the bigger, stronger Silva will batter Cormier with punches and end up finishing him with ground and pound.
Pick: Silva
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza vs. Luke Rockhold
As the Strikeforce middleweight champion, Jacare is in a tough position: He wants big fights that give him a chance to prove he’s among the best in the world, but Strikeforce really doesn’t have a middleweight division that can offer him that kind of competition. Rockhold is a 26-year-old who has shown some promise on his way to building up a 7-1 record, but he’s never fought anyone whose skill even approaches that of Jacare. It’ll be a big shock if Jacare doesn’t win this fight by submission.
Pick: Souza
Muhammed Lawal vs. Roger Gracie
This is a fascinating stylistic matchup because King Mo’s favorite tactic is to use his wrestling to take his opponents down and beat them from the top, while Gracie’s world-class Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills make him a threat to anyone off his back. King Mo has been out the last year with a knee injury he suffered when losing the Strikeforce light heavyweight title to Rafael Cavalcante, so we don’t know what kind of shape he’ll be in. But if Mo is healthy, I like him to show off good enough submission defense to handle Gracie on the ground and win by decision.
Pick: Lawal
Pat Healy vs. Maximo Blanco
Healy took this fight on short notice after Josh Thomson dropped out with an injury, and that should make things easier on Blanco, a Venezuelan who has had a lot of success fighting in Japan and is now making his U.S. debut. Blanco is a very good wrestler and devastating striker, and he should put Healy away quickly.
Pick: Blanco
Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, MMA Fighting Exclusive, NewsThe MMA Hour will air on Tuesday this week due to Labor Day. Don’t worry, though, we still have a great lineup of guests planned for our 98th show.
* Chael Sonnen will discuss Yushin Okami’s …
Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, MMA Fighting Exclusive, News
The MMA Hour will air on Tuesday this week due to Labor Day. Don’t worry, though, we still have a great lineup of guests planned for our 98th show.
* Chael Sonnen will discuss Yushin Okami‘s loss to Anderson Silva and his upcoming fight against Brian Stann at UFC 136.
* Daniel Cormier will talk about his Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix semi-final fight against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.
* Jake Ellenberger will talk about his UFC Fight Night 25 main event against Jake Shields.
* Referee “Big” John McCarthy will discuss his storied career and the release of his new book, “Let’s Get it On!”
* And Showtime broadcaster Mauro Ranallo will discuss Saturday night’s Strikeforce event in Cincinnati, as well as other MMA news making headlines.
Of course, we’ll be taking your calls. Give us a shout at: 212-254-0193, 212-254-0237 or 212-254-0714.
*** You can also stream the show live on your iPhone or iPad by clicking here.
Watch the show live below beginning at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT. Subscribe to The MMA Hour on iTunes: audio feed here; video feed here. Download previous episodes here. Listen to the show via Stitcher here.
(Editor’s Note: Today’s MMA Hour is now over, but the video should be up Wednesday or Thursday.)
Filed under: Strikeforce, News
You didn’t really think that “King” Mo Lawal — he of Team GDP, he of Team Thirsty — was going to return to action against Roger Gracie on Saturday’s Strikeforce card without some new nickname at his disposal, did you?
Oh, no. That wouldn’t be Lawal’s style. Not after being out of the cage for over a year. Not when he’s taking on a member of the famed Gracie family. As he told Ariel Helwani on Thursday’s edition of The MMA Hour, he’s come up with the perfect moniker to mark his return: Blackuraba.
As in, the black Sakuraba. “Hell yeah, ‘the Gracie Hunter,’ fool,” Lawal explained.
The former Strikeforce light heavyweight champ even has a new team to match his new nickname, but will it be enough to knock off the ring rust and get back in the win column?
The last time we saw Lawal in the cage was August of 2010, when he lost his 205-pound title to Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante via third-round TKO. Since then he’s had surgery, he’s done his rehab, and he’s relocated his training camp to the friendly confines of the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Calif., where longtime friend Daniel Cormier makes his home.
The move was “a breath of fresh air,” according to Lawal. What remains to be seen is whether it’s prepared him to deal with Gracie’s submission game, which has accounted for a slew of jiu-jitsu titles as well as all four of the Brazilian’s MMA victories.
“I’m not afraid to go to the ground with him,” Lawal said. “This ain’t Abu Dhabi. This ain’t [the Jiu-Jitsu World Championships]. This is MMA. Wherever the fight goes, I’m prepared to battle.”
And while Lawal, who came to MMA from wrestling, said he still thinks high-level grapplers hold major advantages over most opponents, he doesn’t seem terribly worried about Gracie’s ground skills, saying, “It’s going to be an interesting fight, but I think I’m going to smash him.”
The question Lawal and many other Strikeforce fighters are wondering is, what then?
The current Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, Dan Henderson, seems poised to make the leap to the UFC, which would leave yet another Strikeforce belt vacant.
“If I’m going to fight for the belt, I want to fight the champ, and that’s Dan,” said Lawal, who insisted he had no interest in owning a title that’s been vacated by the previous champ.
“The thing is, what’s the point? What’s the point of having the belt when it’s been vacated, and the person who vacated it is still fighting somewhere else within the same umbrella, but not the same organization?”
At least for the time being, it’s a conundrum that’s familiar to many fighters on the Strikeforce roster. The welterweight and heavyweight champs have already been removed from the picture by the Zuffa brass, and the same seems likely to happen in Lawal’s division, leaving him wondering what’s really at stake in these fights.
“It feels a little weird, because it’s not the same,” Lawal said. “It’s like a cancer patient, like a dying cancer patient. That’s how I feel like the organization is. We’re just waiting for it to die, to pass. As long as I can get my fights in and they’re still around, I want to get them in.”
After more than a year off, he’ll get his chance to get another one in this Saturday in Cincinnati. Considering the precarious position of the promotion he’s fighting for, he’d better make them count. Who knows how many more there will be under the Strikeforce banner, particularly for the losers.
Filed under: Strikeforce, News
You didn’t really think that “King” Mo Lawal — he of Team GDP, he of Team Thirsty — was going to return to action against Roger Gracie on Saturday’s Strikeforce card without some new nickname at his disposal, did you?
Oh, no. That wouldn’t be Lawal’s style. Not after being out of the cage for over a year. Not when he’s taking on a member of the famed Gracie family. As he told Ariel Helwani on Thursday’s edition of The MMA Hour, he’s come up with the perfect moniker to mark his return: Blackuraba.
As in, the black Sakuraba. “Hell yeah, ‘the Gracie Hunter,’ fool,” Lawal explained.
The former Strikeforce light heavyweight champ even has a new team to match his new nickname, but will it be enough to knock off the ring rust and get back in the win column?
The move was “a breath of fresh air,” according to Lawal. What remains to be seen is whether it’s prepared him to deal with Gracie’s submission game, which has accounted for a slew of jiu-jitsu titles as well as all four of the Brazilian’s MMA victories.
“I’m not afraid to go to the ground with him,” Lawal said. “This ain’t Abu Dhabi. This ain’t [the Jiu-Jitsu World Championships]. This is MMA. Wherever the fight goes, I’m prepared to battle.”
And while Lawal, who came to MMA from wrestling, said he still thinks high-level grapplers hold major advantages over most opponents, he doesn’t seem terribly worried about Gracie’s ground skills, saying, “It’s going to be an interesting fight, but I think I’m going to smash him.”
The question Lawal and many other Strikeforce fighters are wondering is, what then?
The current Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, Dan Henderson, seems poised to make the leap to the UFC, which would leave yet another Strikeforce belt vacant.
“If I’m going to fight for the belt, I want to fight the champ, and that’s Dan,” said Lawal, who insisted he had no interest in owning a title that’s been vacated by the previous champ.
“The thing is, what’s the point? What’s the point of having the belt when it’s been vacated, and the person who vacated it is still fighting somewhere else within the same umbrella, but not the same organization?”
At least for the time being, it’s a conundrum that’s familiar to many fighters on the Strikeforce roster. The welterweight and heavyweight champs have already been removed from the picture by the Zuffa brass, and the same seems likely to happen in Lawal’s division, leaving him wondering what’s really at stake in these fights.
“It feels a little weird, because it’s not the same,” Lawal said. “It’s like a cancer patient, like a dying cancer patient. That’s how I feel like the organization is. We’re just waiting for it to die, to pass. As long as I can get my fights in and they’re still around, I want to get them in.”
After more than a year off, he’ll get his chance to get another one in this Saturday in Cincinnati. Considering the precarious position of the promotion he’s fighting for, he’d better make them count. Who knows how many more there will be under the Strikeforce banner, particularly for the losers.
Filed under: Strikeforce
Fight fans weren’t the only ones sorry to see Alistair Overeem pulled from the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix in the midst of a contract dispute with Zuffa. Fellow tournament participant Josh Barnett said on this week’s edition of The MMA Hour that the Grand Prix had undoubtedly lost something in his eyes now that Overeem is gone from the field.
“I can’t speak for anybody else, but I know that I wanted to face him in the finals,” Barnett told Ariel Helwani on Thursday’s edition of the show.
According to Barnett, who is slated to take on Sergei Kharitonov in the Grand Prix semifinals on September 10, the fact that Overeem could be dropped from the tournament and released from his contract so suddenly got his attention for more than just competitive reasons.
“From a fighter perspective, it stinks,” he said. “You’d like to have the opportunity to fight the guy, plus he was the champ. Seeing the champion just get let go is kind of a jarring reminder, I guess, that you’re not really all that important.”
Barnett, who said that “nothing really surprises me” in MMA these days, had his own issues with the new Zuffa ownership when he requested permission to participate in a pro wrestling event in Japan, which his Strikeforce contract allows for, he said. Zuffa turned down the request, citing the proximity to the tournament semifinal match, which didn’t please his employers in Japan, Barnett said.
“They were upset. It was pretty much the biggest show of the year for them, and I was their main event.”
Still, Barnett has a full dance card back in the states, with the tournament nearing its conclusion and questions swirling about what Zuffa will decide to do with the winner. Barnett has to get by Kharitonov on Saturday, but he’ll also be keeping a close eye on the other semifinal match between alternate replacement Daniel Cormier and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.
Barnett said he was picking Cormier to win that fight despite Silva’s considerable size advantage.
“The thing about ‘Bigfoot,’ he’s a big guy and he’s agile for a big guy, but he’s not that agile and he’s not that athletic. In fact, being a big guy is probably his greatest asset.”
Silva suffers from acromegaly, which causes the enlargement of certain physical features, but which also might be his saving grace as a fighter, according to Barnett.
“You could almost say that I’m sure he’s had his issues growing up with a thing like gigantism, and all the difficulty that’s come from that. But gigantism is what actually allows him to be a decent fighter, because he doesn’t do anything particularly awesome, but he’s just massive,” said Barnett. “But all of his fights come down to him getting the takedown. Those are the ones he wins, and against Cormier I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Barnett added that, ideally, he’d like to face Cormier in the tournament finals, if only to find out whether he’s capable of taking down the former U.S. Olympic wrestling team captain.
As for whether he’ll once again put his pro wrestling expertise on display at the open workouts, Barnett wasn’t ruling anything out, saying, “Who knows? I hate to disappoint.”
And though he said he caught some heat from some fans for seizing the microphone from Gus Johnson after defeating Brett Rogers in the Grand Prix quarterfinals, don’t expect Barnett to play along with the typical post-fight Q&A anytime soon.
“The interview moments to me, they’re stupid,” he said. “They’re a waste of time. Just give the guy the mic, let him say what he’s got to say, get him out of there, and let’s move on. But let’s keep it fresh, keep it original, keep things going instead of [saying], ‘Talk us through the end of this fight.’ Nobody gives a s–t. If you want to see the end of the fight, go hit rewind on your DVR. There’s about 18,000 slo-mos after you’ve won, so why don’t we get something more personal, more individual about the guy.”
For now, Barnett just has to make sure he’s on the right side of those slow-motion replays. Against a slugger like Kharitonov, even an experienced fighter could very easily end up as a highlight-reel victim if he isn’t careful.
Filed under: Strikeforce
Fight fans weren’t the only ones sorry to see Alistair Overeem pulled from the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix in the midst of a contract dispute with Zuffa. Fellow tournament participant Josh Barnett said on this week’s edition of The MMA Hour that the Grand Prix had undoubtedly lost something in his eyes now that Overeem is gone from the field.
“I can’t speak for anybody else, but I know that I wanted to face him in the finals,” Barnett told Ariel Helwani on Thursday’s edition of the show.
According to Barnett, who is slated to take on Sergei Kharitonov in the Grand Prix semifinals on September 10, the fact that Overeem could be dropped from the tournament and released from his contract so suddenly got his attention for more than just competitive reasons.
Barnett, who said that “nothing really surprises me” in MMA these days, had his own issues with the new Zuffa ownership when he requested permission to participate in a pro wrestling event in Japan, which his Strikeforce contract allows for, he said. Zuffa turned down the request, citing the proximity to the tournament semifinal match, which didn’t please his employers in Japan, Barnett said.
“They were upset. It was pretty much the biggest show of the year for them, and I was their main event.”
Still, Barnett has a full dance card back in the states, with the tournament nearing its conclusion and questions swirling about what Zuffa will decide to do with the winner. Barnett has to get by Kharitonov on Saturday, but he’ll also be keeping a close eye on the other semifinal match between alternate replacement Daniel Cormier and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.
Barnett said he was picking Cormier to win that fight despite Silva’s considerable size advantage.
“The thing about ‘Bigfoot,’ he’s a big guy and he’s agile for a big guy, but he’s not that agile and he’s not that athletic. In fact, being a big guy is probably his greatest asset.”
Silva suffers from acromegaly, which causes the enlargement of certain physical features, but which also might be his saving grace as a fighter, according to Barnett.
“You could almost say that I’m sure he’s had his issues growing up with a thing like gigantism, and all the difficulty that’s come from that. But gigantism is what actually allows him to be a decent fighter, because he doesn’t do anything particularly awesome, but he’s just massive,” said Barnett. “But all of his fights come down to him getting the takedown. Those are the ones he wins, and against Cormier I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Barnett added that, ideally, he’d like to face Cormier in the tournament finals, if only to find out whether he’s capable of taking down the former U.S. Olympic wrestling team captain.
As for whether he’ll once again put his pro wrestling expertise on display at the open workouts, Barnett wasn’t ruling anything out, saying, “Who knows? I hate to disappoint.”
And though he said he caught some heat from some fans for seizing the microphone from Gus Johnson after defeating Brett Rogers in the Grand Prix quarterfinals, don’t expect Barnett to play along with the typical post-fight Q&A anytime soon.
“The interview moments to me, they’re stupid,” he said. “They’re a waste of time. Just give the guy the mic, let him say what he’s got to say, get him out of there, and let’s move on. But let’s keep it fresh, keep it original, keep things going instead of [saying], ‘Talk us through the end of this fight.’ Nobody gives a s–t. If you want to see the end of the fight, go hit rewind on your DVR. There’s about 18,000 slo-mos after you’ve won, so why don’t we get something more personal, more individual about the guy.”
For now, Barnett just has to make sure he’s on the right side of those slow-motion replays. Against a slugger like Kharitonov, even an experienced fighter could very easily end up as a highlight-reel victim if he isn’t careful.
Filed under: Strikeforce, NewsAs if Scott Coker didn’t have enough championship belts already in flux, Dan Henderson’s last win on his Strikeforce deal just added to Coker’s list.
Henderson beat Fedor Emelianenko last month to finish off his Strikefo…
Filed under: Strikeforce, News
As if Scott Coker didn’t have enough championship belts already in flux, Dan Henderson‘s last win on his Strikeforce deal just added to Coker’s list.
Henderson beat Fedor Emelianenko last month to finish off his Strikeforce contract, making him a free agent. The UFC has expressed interest in bringing Henderson back into the mix, and Henderson has expressed interest in returning to the promotion.
But Coker said Tuesday nothing has been figured out yet, and that if Henderson did return to the UFC, vacating his light heavyweight title, he was not yet sure how that belt would be filled – but that the winner of a fight between Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal and Roger Gracie, on Sept. 10, could position himself to be in the picture.
“There are ongoing discussions with Hendo, and it hasn’t been determined yet,” Coker said during a Strikeforce media call.
“I like to watch the fight and stir the pot after,” Coker said. “Let’s see who wins and how they win. We also have some other fights coming up in the 205 weight class – Mike Kyle will be fighting again shortly, and Gegard Mousasi will be probably be fighting before the end of the year. When the time is right, we’ll let everybody know.”
Lawal has not fought since he lost the light heavyweight title to Rafael Cavalcante a year ago, his first career defeat. Gracie is 4-0 with four submission victories, but has fought just twice the last three years.
No decisions yet on vacant heavyweight title
When heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem was given the boot from Strikeforce earlier this summer, many assumed the easiest solution to fill the suddenly vacant belt would be to hand it over to the winner of the ongoing heavyweight tournament.
But that won’t be the case, Coker said. The CEO said there are no plans for the tournament winner to automatically assume the role of Strikeforce heavyweight champion, and that the promotion was “in discussions” to figure out what will happen.
Coker reiterated that he expects the finals of the heavyweight tournament to take place sometime in the first quarter of 2012.
In other news from Coker on Tuesday’s call:
Cormier always in the heavyweight tournament mix
Daniel Cormier was inserted quickly into the heavyweight tournament when Alistair Overeem was cut from the promotion, and Coker said that was no coincidence.
“He was always considered the top alternate,” Coker said. “Cormier was the first person under consideration. He had a great performance against a seasoned veteran like (Jeff) Monson. That fight, he looked like a kickboxer. He showed he had the ability to take it to the next level. We just felt he was the right guy. Anyone who has Olympic-level wrestling is going to give people in this tournament a tough time.”
Cormier stepped in for Overeem and will face Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in one semifinal bout. The winner of that fight will face the Josh Barnett–Sergei Kharitonov winner.
“Cyborg” Santos should fight again by year’s end
Coker said Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos has officially re-signed with the promotion. Santos reportedly signed a new deal with Strikeforce last week after more than a year on the sidelines.
Santos (10-1, 4-0 Strikeforce) has not competed since a June 2010 knockout win over Jan Finney to retain her Strikeforce 145-pound title. Coker said no opponent has been set for Santos’ return, but he expects she will fight before the end of 2011.