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CINCINNATI — Josh Barnett, Sergei Kharitonov, King Mo Lawal, Roger Gracie, Antonio Silva, Daniel Cormier, Luke Rockford and Ronaldo Jacare Souza gathered in front of the media Thursday to discuss their fights on Saturday’s Strikeforce event at the U.S. Bank Arena.
For highlights of what each of the fighters had to say, check out the video below.
Filed under: MMA Videos, Strikeforce, MMA Fighting Exclusive, News, Videos
CINCINNATI — Josh Barnett, Sergei Kharitonov, King Mo Lawal, Roger Gracie, Antonio Silva, Daniel Cormier, Luke Rockford and Ronaldo Jacare Souza gathered in front of the media Thursday to discuss their fights on Saturday’s Strikeforce event at the U.S. Bank Arena.
For highlights of what each of the fighters had to say, check out the video below.
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: 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, MMA Fighting Exclusive, NewsWhile still considered one of the top jiu-jitsu practitioners in the world — a reputation proven by his numerous competition wins and accolades — Roger Gracie has transitioned slowly into mixed ma…
Filed under: Strikeforce, MMA Fighting Exclusive, News
While still considered one of the top jiu-jitsu practitioners in the world — a reputation proven by his numerous competition wins and accolades — Roger Gracie has transitioned slowly into mixed martial arts. Now fast approaching his most important bout, the Strikeforce light-heavyweight knows that his professional fighting career is about to hit overdrive.
As a result, Gracie said that he is now fully committed to MMA going forward.
The 4-0 Gracie, who will face Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal on September 10’s Strikeforce event, said fighting was his destiny from the time he was a jiu-jitsu blue belt many years ago. He believes he followed a natural progression, dedicated himself to the family art and advancing to high-level black belt status before moving on to fight MMA.
“I always knew,” he said. “It was just a matter of time, of when I’m ready, I’ll fight MMA. I never had any doubts of, Will I do that? That never crossed my mind. It was a natural way for things to happen.”
But Gracie’s progression has been slower than some might have liked. He made his debut back in December 2006, defeating Ron Waterman via arm bar, then didn’t fight again until May 2008. After that, he took another two years away from the cage before signing with Strikeforce and debuting in the promotion.
Gracie attributes those layoffs to various reasons including injuries and failed negotiations, adding that “everything happens in the right time.”
“Now I feel that I can dedicate 100 percent to MMA,” he said. “Before, I wanted to do MMA but I still wanted to dedicate time to jiu-jitsu. To do both very well is hard, because one gets in the way of the other. Now, in this day, I’m very happy to compete once a year in the world championships, which I like to do every year. But the rest of the year is dedicated just to MMA.
“This sport is so big now, so evolved that if you don’t really take it serious, you don’t go anywhere,” he continued. “There are so many good fighters out there. It’s not a joke. If I take it lightly, I won’t go anywhere. For me to be able to succeed, to become a good fighter, I have to do it full-time. Now at this stage of my life, I’m ready for that, and I can leave everything else aside. I’m dedicated to MMA.”
The fight against Lawal will undoubtedly cast him against his most prime opponent. Lawal (7-1) is a former Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion who will be competing for the first time since losing his belt and then undergoing knee surgery.
While all four of Gracie’s wins have come by way of submission, the Lawal bout offers no guarantees of a ground advantage, mostly because Gracie is not guaranteed to get the fight there. Lawal is a highly decorated amateur wrestler who is likely to keep the fight where he wants it. And that means the two could spend the majority of the duration in the middle of the cage trading strikes.
Gracie says that possibility is one for which he’s well prepared. Though he primarily trains at his home base in London, he also occasionally works with UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre, and recently spent time sharpening his Muay Thai with GSP’s coach Firas Zahabi. Because of that, Gracie has no qualms about trading with Lawal.
“To be honest, I’m pretty comfortable with my striking,” he said. “Because of my height (he’s 6-foot-4), I have the reach advantage against most of guys I will face. So that gives me some advantage. Even though Mo’s standup is good, it’s not great. He’s very explosive and very strong. That makes him very dangerous. But he’s not the kind of guy that if I’m on my feet, I’m just going to get lit up. I’ve been training a lot. I’m sure I can survive and take my time. All I need is one opportunity to put him on his back. Him on top is too dangerous, because he’s strong and things get slippery. But I’m sure once he’s on his back, these things fall out the window.”
A win would allow Gracie to surge up the list of contenders and put him in position to angle himself for a title shot. That would make him a very busy fighter, and despite his two bustling academies, that would be just fine with him.
“If I have to spend the whole year dedicated just to fighting, I will do that,” he said. “I’m not going to jeopardize fighting. I’m going to be 30 this month. I have what, maybe another 10 years? After that, I can dedicate as much time as I want to my school, business or anything else. But the next 10 years is my fighting career. That’s my priority.”
Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, MMA Fighting Exclusive, Videos
The MMA Hour returns on Thursday for a special live episode, and we’re bringing out the big guns for this one. The show will air at its usual 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT time slot right here on MMAFighting.com.
* UFC light heavyweight contender Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will stop by to discuss his UFC 135 title fight against Jon Jones.
* Strikeforce light heavyweight Roger Gracie will be in studio to talk about his Sept. 10 fight against “King” Muhammed Lawal.
* “King” Mo will also be on the show to talk about the fight and his year-long absence from the sport.
* And heavyweight Josh Barnett will stop by to discuss his heavyweight grand prix fight against Sergei Kharitonov.
Plus, we’ll discuss my time in Brazil and other MMA news making headlines.
And 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.
Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, MMA Fighting Exclusive, Videos
The MMA Hour returns on Thursday for a special live episode, and we’re bringing out the big guns for this one. The show will air at its usual 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT time slot right here on MMAFighting.com.
* UFC light heavyweight contender Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will stop by to discuss his UFC 135 title fight against Jon Jones.
* Strikeforce light heavyweight Roger Gracie will be in studio to talk about his Sept. 10 fight against “King” Muhammed Lawal.
* “King” Mo will also be on the show to talk about the fight and his year-long absence from the sport.
* And heavyweight Josh Barnett will stop by to discuss his heavyweight grand prix fight against Sergei Kharitonov.
Plus, we’ll discuss my time in Brazil and other MMA news making headlines.
And 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.
(Tyron Woodley vs. Andre Galvao, 10/9/10)
In the wake of Evangelista Santos’s recent injury withdrawal, undefeated welterweight contender Tyron Woodley will step up to replace him against Paul Daley at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson, July 30th in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Despite our impassioned pleas to give Woodley a shot at the gold, the fight will reportedly be a non-title affair.
That shouldn’t come as a big surprise, considering Zuffa’s hatred of Paul Daley; the company likely wants to avoid any situation in which they might have to refer to him as a “champion.” So maybe Woodley will get a shot at Strikeforce’s now-vacant welterweight title if he wins this fight. And at that point, Strikeforce’s 170-pound division will be so thin and cleaned out that their welterweight belt will have about as much prestige as a goddamned Burger King crown.
(Tyron Woodley vs. Andre Galvao, 10/9/10)
In the wake of Evangelista Santos’s recent injury withdrawal, undefeated welterweight contender Tyron Woodley will step up to replace him against Paul Daley at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson, July 30th in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Despite our impassioned pleas to give Woodley a shot at the gold, the fight will reportedly be a non-title affair.
That shouldn’t come as a big surprise, considering Zuffa’s hatred of Paul Daley; the company likely wants to avoid any situation in which they might have to refer to him as a “champion.” So maybe Woodley will get a shot at Strikeforce’s now-vacant welterweight title if he wins this fight. And at that point, Strikeforce’s 170-pound division will be so thin and cleaned out that their welterweight belt will have about as much prestige as a goddamned Burger King crown.
Woodley has won six fights under the Strikeforce banner, most recently a decision over Tarec Saffiedine in January. Meanwhile, Daley will be looking to dust himself off after getting TKO’d by Nick Diaz in April.
One fight that won’t be on the 7/30 card is the scheduled light-heavyweight battle between BJJ scion Roger Gracie, and former Strikeforce champ Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal. Gracie has withdrawn due to a foot injury, and both fighters have agreed to meet at the September 10th event instead.