Muhammed Lawal looks to be focusing on a permanent move to the UFC in the future. Following his knockout victory over Roger Gracie this past weekend, Lawal said he hopes to test his skills against the UFC’s top competitors in the near future. The …
Muhammed Lawal looks to be focusing on a permanent move to the UFC in the future.
Following his knockout victory over Roger Gracie this past weekend, Lawal said he hopes to test his skills against the UFC’s top competitors in the near future. The UFC has recently acquired some of Strikeforce’s prominent stars, including Alistair Overeem, Nick Diaz and, most recently, Cung Le.
“I want to go where everybody’s going to and it seems everybody is going to the UFC,” Lawal told reporters following the Strikeforce event.
The former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion improved his record to 8-1 following his win over Gracie. This was Lawal’s first bout since last August after he suffered a knee injury which forced him to miss the remainder of 2010.
The win over Gracie would put Lawal in a good position to reclaim the light heavyweight title, but he would rather turn his attention to the UFC, where he is open to the idea of a UFC vs. Strikeforce event before an eventual merger.
“Maybe, hopefully, they’d have a UFC vs.Strikeforce event,” he said, “…and then make it all just be UFC, how about that?”
The idea of seeing Strikeforce’s top competitors face UFC’s top competitors would be an interesting event, to say the least. Should the idea ever come to fruition, a light heavyweight bout between Lawal and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson would certainly sell. Both fighters are known to have a history with each other and Lawal has requested a bout with Jackson on a few occasions in the past.
Whether a future matchup would materialize between the two rivals remains to be seen.
Strikeforce hosted the semifinal round of the heavyweight grand prix in Cincinnati on Saturday night and fight fans were treated with an exciting night of action.The event was headlined by Josh Barnett (31-5) and Sergei Kharitonov (18-5) to determine w…
Strikeforce hosted the semifinal round of the heavyweight grand prix in Cincinnati on Saturday night and fight fans were treated with an exciting night of action.
The event was headlined by Josh Barnett (31-5) and Sergei Kharitonov (18-5) to determine who would advance to the finals.
Kharitonov was no match for the far superior Barnett and with the victory, Barnett advances to the final round of the tournament and extends his win streak to nine that dates back to 2008.
Former Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier (9-0) stepped in on short notice against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva (16-3).
A huge four-punch combination by Cormier dropped Silva, and two devastating hammer fists later, the AKA-trained heavyweight finished the fight.
Barnett and Cormier were both impressive in claiming first-round victories and now face each other in the finals later this winter.
With that being said, we take a look at the fighters who don’t have their next fight set and determine the matchups that should be booked next.
So, if you’d like to hear why Strikeforce should be folded and merged to the UFC, read E. Spencer Kyte’s column on Heavy.com.
Filed under: Strikeforce, NewsThe Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov fighter salaries are out and Josh Barnett received the biggest payday with $150,000 for his win over Sergei Kharitonov, $100,000, Saturday at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati.
The Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov fighter salaries are out and Josh Barnett received the biggest payday with $150,000 for his win over Sergei Kharitonov, $100,000, Saturday at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati.
All four of the Heavyweight Grand Prix semifinalists on the card earned at least six figures. On the other side of the bracket, Daniel Cormier was paid $50,000 to show and another $50,000 to win for a total of $100,000. Antonio Silva, who suffered a first-round TKO loss to Cormier, made $100,000.
Check out below the rest of the fighter purses, courtesy of the Ohio athletic commission.
Please note: The numbers below are the salaries Strikeforce reported to the commission and may not accurately reflect a fighter’s final earnings. Fighters earn additionally through sponsorships and possibly, other bonuses handed out by the promotion.
Showtime Bouts
Josh Barnett ($150,000) def. Sergei Kharitonov ($100,000)
Daniel Cormier ($50,000 + $50,000 win bonus = $100,000) def. Antonio Silva ($100,000) Luke Rockhold ($25,000 + $25,000 win bonus = $50,000) def. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza ($70,000)
Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal ($85,000) def. Roger Gracie ($80,000) Pat Healy ($12,500 + $5,000 = $17,500) def. Maximo Blanco ($13,000)
Preliminary Bouts on HDNet Mike Kyle ($22,000 + $22,000 win bonus = $44,000) def. Marcos Rogerio de Lima ($5,000)
Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante ($30,000 + $30,000 win bonus = $60,000) def. Yoel Romero ($10,000)
Jordan Mein ($8,000 + $8,000 win bonus = $16,000) def. Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos ($20,000)
Alexis Davis ($3,000 + $3,000 win bonus = $6,000) def. Amanda Nunes ($7,500)
Dominique Steele ($3,000 + $2,000 win bonus = $5,000) def. Chris Mierzwiak ($3,000)
Filed under: StrikeforceDepending on who you talk to, Strikeforce is either dying a slow death or in need of a life-saving procedure. Either way, things don’t look great for the promotion that just a few months ago, seemed poised to steal some of the U…
Depending on who you talk to, Strikeforce is either dying a slow death or in need of a life-saving procedure. Either way, things don’t look great for the promotion that just a few months ago, seemed poised to steal some of the UFC‘s spotlight.
After being purchased by the UFC’s parent company, the company has seen some of its best parts cherry-picked away for the bigger brand. Its heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem is gone. Its welterweight champion Nick Diaz is gone. Its light-heavyweight champion Dan Henderson is likely to be gone soon enough.
This is good and bad of course. Those transactions are likely to lead to superfights in the UFC, but they are just as likely to damage Strikeforce or put it out of business altogether. Most of this is simple business. Zuffa now has UFC under a brighter spotlight, and so it makes sense to have all its resources available to its bigger promotion. And when it comes to Strikeforce, Zuffa wants shows to turn a profit, and that’s no simple task when events include highly paid fighters. Because of those reasons, it seems logical to move its biggest names to UFC if possible. But what about those who remain?
Saturday night’s World Grand Prix semifinals showed that Strikeforce’s remaining athletes have plenty of fight in them yet, with a series of bouts that delivered. It’s a shame that more people didn’t see them. According to reports from the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, the event was sparsely populated, though at least those who attended made their share of noise.
My colleague Ariel Helwani reported on fight night that there may have been 1,500 people in the stands. Contrast that to the opening night of the Grand Prix back in February, when the excitement surrounding the tournament drew 11,287 fans to the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and you can clearly see the dropoff has been fast and precipitous.
Though that is the case, we can’t really blame the fighters. There have been plenty of memorable moments in recent months, from Paul Daley and Nick Diaz producing possibly MMA’s round of the year, to Dan Henderson knocking out Fedor Emelianenko to Miesha Tate upsetting Marloes Coenen.
It was more of the same on Saturday, which boasted an overall event that — fight-for-fight — could rival the excitement level of nearly any card all year.
Just in the main card, there was Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal knocking out Roger Gracie, Luke Rockhold shocking Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, submissions by Pat Healy and Josh Barnett, and Daniel Cormier blasting his way through Antonio Silva.
While in recent Strikeforce events, there still seemed to be a bit of uncertainty about the future, now the promotion’s athletes seem to be a little more sure that they see the end coming. A week prior to the event, Lawal infamously compared the organization to a “dying cancer patient,” saying, “We’re just waiting for it to die, to pass.”
But, he added, “As long as I can get my fights in and they’re still around, I want to get them in.”
That seems to be the prevailing thought of every fighter competing under the banner. Barnett and Cormier lobbied for Strikeforce to name the Grand Prix winner as the heavyweight champion. After all, Overeem essentially vacated the belt when he was moved over to the UFC. The pair never got an answer to their request, but the winner might as well be the de facto champion, and both performed well enough to make you wonder how they would have done against Overeem had he stuck around.
Whether they do or don’t, it’s obvious that the fighters will continue to do what they do. As anyone who has worked at a company in trouble probably knows, it’s not always easy to concentrate on your job when the future is in doubt. At this time next year, anything is possible. Maybe Lorenzo Fertitta finds a way to make the math work and Strikeforce is still running, or maybe Showtime doesn’t want to give up on mixed martial arts and extends its option. Or maybe neither of those things happens, and Strikeforce is just a memory, with its talent absorbed into the exploding UFC.
Either way, the fighters continue to leave us with good memories. It shouldn’t be possible to take away so much talent and not hurt the product, but as Cormier, Rockhold and the rest showed on Saturday night, you can take away the fans and the spotlight, but you can’t take away their pride.
A crazy week of mixed martial arts news outside the cage was capped off by an awesome event inside the cage tonight as the Strikeforce Grand Prix tournament continued from the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, OH. Tournament combatants Josh Barnett and S…
A crazy week of mixed martial arts news outside the cage was capped off by an awesome event inside the cage tonight as the Strikeforce Grand Prix tournament continued from the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, OH.
Tournament combatants Josh Barnett and Sergei Kharitonov battled in the main event after a night of great fights that also included the other semi-final bout between Antonio “Big Foot” Silva and Daniel Cormier.
As we can do with any MMA event, looking back on the record books will give us somewhat of an overview of what happened during tonight’s fight card, but it’s tough because there are often things that happen inside the cage that change who the true “winners” and “losers” of the night really were. Sometimes those affected aren’t even in attendance, let alone fighting.
With that being said, let’s take a closer look at tonight’s real winners and losers.
CINCINNATI — MMA Fighting spoke to “King” Muhammed Lawal following his knockout of Roger Gracie Saturday night about his first win in 17 months, the knockout, his beard, his new entrance and whether he wants to go straight to the UFC.
CINCINNATI — MMA Fighting spoke to “King” Muhammed Lawal following his knockout of Roger Gracie Saturday night about his first win in 17 months, the knockout, his beard, his new entrance and whether he wants to go straight to the UFC.
The 
Depending on who you talk to,