Filed under: StrikeforceAfter seven months off, Dan Henderson is finally stepping back into the cage on Saturday night, hoping to earn his first victory in Strikeforce and first anywhere since knocking out Michael Bisping at UFC 100. Henderson will hav…
After seven months off, Dan Henderson is finally stepping back into the cage on Saturday night, hoping to earn his first victory in Strikeforce and first anywhere since knocking out Michael Bisping at UFC 100. Henderson will have a tough test against Renato “Babalu” Sobral in what should be an entertaining main event in Strikeforce’s final card of 2010.
What: Strikeforce: Henderson vs. Babalu 2
Where: Scottrade Center, St. Louis
When: Saturday, the Showtime broadcast begins at 10 PM ET.
(Belts? We don’t need no stinking belts.)
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker mentioned in an interview this week that the winner of the December 4 light heavyweight bout between Dan Henderson and Renato Sobral will likely be next in line for a shot at the pr…
(Belts? We don’t need no stinking belts.)
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker mentioned in an interview this week that the winner of the December 4 light heavyweight bout between Dan Henderson and Renato Sobral will likely be next in line for a shot at the promotion’s 205-pound titleholder, Rafael Cavalcante.
Coker’s revelation seems a bit questionable considering Sobral, who defeated Robbie Lawler at a 195-pound catchweight in his last bout hasn’t fought at 205 for the promotion since losing his title to Gegard Mousasi in 2009 and Henderson, who lost to Jake Shields in a title bout in his Strikeforce debut hasn’t fought under the SF banner at that weight at all.
Regardless of whether or not he beats Henderson or earns a shot at his old belt, Babalu says he may not stick around at light heavyweight for long, revealing that he wants to go wherever there are challenging fights.
"I’m looking for challenges now. Belts don’t mean as much to me any more. I want good match-ups. That’s what keeps me motivated to fight. I’d like to fight maybe at heavyweight. It depends. It all depends on the opponents. If you give me good match-ups, I’ll fight at any weight," Babalu tells CagePotato.com. "I can go up and I can go down. If it’s a good bout for me and I say I want to fight that guy, I’ll move to the weight they’re at. I don’t have any preference. It’s not about weight classes; it’s about fighters."
It wasn’t long ago that things were in play to have Dan Henderson become the new Strikeforce Middleweight Champion; with Jake Shields ready to test free agent waters, what better way to find a new waist for the belt then to have him fight the former Pride champ? (At 183 and 205lbs lets not forget- […]
It wasn’t long ago that things were in play to have Dan Henderson become the new Strikeforce Middleweight Champion; with Jake Shields ready to test free agent waters, what better way to find a new waist for the belt then to have him fight the former Pride champ? (At 183 and 205lbs lets not forget- guess that was kind of a big deal…) Of course, other than flooring Shields in the first round Hendo didn’t make out so well, and spent most of the next 20 minutes scrambling from his back.
Well, with Shields now officially exited from the promotion (and likely walking towards the monolithic UFC door), Strikeforce boss man Scott Coker has announced that they will put together a middleweight tourney to crown a new champ at 185. Naturally, one would think Henderson is a lock for the competition, but in a recent interview on MMA Weekly Radio, Coker stated this:
“Dan I believe when I talked to him over the weekend, I talked to Jordan, his manager, and they said they probably want to fight at 205 instead of 185,” said Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker when appearing on MMAWeekly.com Radio. “(They) felt that the weight cut was too much, and Dan would welcome to fight Babalu again, Gegard Mousasi, for a 205-pound contender’s bout.”
Huh. Of course, as Coker mentioned, there a few interesting options for Hendo at 205 and since “Babalu” Sobral recently called for a rematch with the accomplished wrestler, why not? (Hendo beat Sobral by Majority Decision in 2000, back when the acronym ‘MMA’ meant nothing to 90% of the population). Maybe Henderson vs. “King Mo” Lawal down the road? Former teammates? We’d be watching.
Filed under: StrikeforceI’ve never been to an MMA event quite like Wednesday night’s Strikeforce: Live show in Los Angeles. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, I’m not sure, but at least it’s something different.
I’ve never been to an MMA event quite like Wednesday night’s Strikeforce: Live show in Los Angeles. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, I’m not sure, but at least it’s something different.
For one, there was the venue. The Nokia Theatre seems more suited to an intimate Bright Eyes concert than an MMA fight. It’s the kind of place where you feel almost obliged to pronounce the word ‘theatre’ with a bad British accent – not the kind of place where you go to see guys kick each other in the head.
For instance, according to the Nokia Theatre website, Justin Bieber is playing there in about a month. Unlike Strikeforce, which packed in 5,259 fans last night (according to Scott Coker) Bieber’s show is already sold out.
If you didn’t have a chance to catch last night’s Strikeforce card in L.A., well, your life will continue, naturally, but it’s just a tad incomplete. Okay, maybe not as incomplete if you were to miss Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin, but still, you should do some rectifying pronto…The card had some damn entertaining fights […]
If you didn’t have a chance to catch last night’s Strikeforce card in L.A., well, your life will continue, naturally, but it’s just a tad incomplete. Okay, maybe not as incomplete if you were to miss Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin, but still, you should do some rectifying pronto…The card had some damn entertaining fights and the main event tilt between Robbie Lawler and Renato “Babalu” Sobral certainly didn’t disappoint.
Now anyone that has followed the career of Lawler, knows that he’s pretty skilled at crumpling dudes into unconscious piles of humanity with just one punch. Lawler was getting brutalized by Melvin Manhoef in his last fight, until, well, see above. In his bout with Sobral last night, Lawler never managed to land one of his trademark punches, and afterwards, the HIT Squad fighter conceded that perhaps he was looking for the home run shot too much (thanks to Sherdog for the quote).
“I thought I was going to knock him out — plain and simple,” said Lawler. “It was inevitable that (I was going to) put my hands on him and knock out him out and it just never happened… When you can knock people out, sometimes you rely on that a little too much, I think.”
Although Sobral’s face looked like it had been caught under a rugby scrum, the UFC vet landed plenty of kicks and punches to the body of Lawler and probably had the edge in cage control. In other words, if Lawler had scored more often, things would have been different. To read more of Lawler’s thoughts on the fight head here.
("You think you scare me, Whitemare? I bang Cris Cyborg. Voluntarily." Photo courtesy of the Strikeforce LA Live Weigh In Pics gallery on CombatLifestyle.com)
Q: Why are we watching a Strikeforce event on Showtime, in the middle of the damn…
Q: Why are we watching a Strikeforce event on Showtime, in the middle of the damn week, ten days before a bigger Strikeforce event on Showtime?
A: Why the hell not?
The stakes are relatively low, but the matchups are promising. In the main event, Renato Sobral and Robbie Lawler slug it out in a moneyweight battle for a potential title shot down the road. Welterweights Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos and Marius "The Whitemare" Zaromskis meet in a guaranteed basher. Plus, Army Staff Sergeant Tim Kennedy defends his country’s honor against South African veteran Trevor Prangley, and KJ Noons returns to the cage against Conor Heun. Round-by-round results await you after the jump. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and let’s hope these fights end early so I can go to bed.
After seven months off, Dan Henderson is finally stepping back into the cage on Saturday night, hoping to earn his first victory in Strikeforce and first anywhere since knocking out Michael Bisping at UFC 100. Henderson will have a tough test against Renato “Babalu” Sobral in what should be an entertaining main event in Strikeforce’s final card of 2010.
I’ve never been to an MMA event quite like Wednesday night’s Strikeforce: Live show in Los Angeles. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, I’m not sure, but at least it’s something different.
