MMAFighting was on the scene yesterday for the “Barnett vs. Kharitonov” press conference, and released the above highlight video. Skip to the 1:33 mark to see Daniel Cormier give away his gameplan against Antonio Silva; lots of laughs there. Later, King Mo says what everybody’s thinking: “I was hoping more people [would be] out here, more media, and more questions, but really I guess y’all don’t care about us that much. I’m just keeping it real. Me and Roger [Gracie] gonna put on a good fight, it’s gonna be a good card. I think people are gonna miss out on it because everybody’s worried about other issues instead of the fights this weekend. I’m just being real.”
Also on the card, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza defends his middleweight belt against Luke Rockhold — who hasn’t competed since February 2010 due to injuries — and Maximo Blanco makes his promotional debut against Pat Healy. The complete lineup is after the jump.
MMAFighting was on the scene yesterday for the “Barnett vs. Kharitonov” press conference, and released the above highlight video. Skip to the 1:33 mark to see Daniel Cormier give away his gameplan against Antonio Silva; lots of laughs there. Later, King Mo says what everybody’s thinking: “I was hoping more people [would be] out here, more media, and more questions, but really I guess y’all don’t care about us that much. I’m just keeping it real. Me and Roger [Gracie] gonna put on a good fight, it’s gonna be a good card. I think people are gonna miss out on it because everybody’s worried about other issues instead of the fights this weekend. I’m just being real.”
Also on the card, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza defends his middleweight belt against Luke Rockhold — who hasn’t competed since February 2010 due to injuries — and Maximo Blanco makes his promotional debut against Pat Healy. The complete lineup is after the jump.
Main Card (Showtime, 10:30 p.m. ET/PT)
Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov
Antonio Silva vs. Daniel Cormier
Ronaldo Souza vs. Luke Rockhold
Muhammed Lawal vs. Roger Gracie
Pat Healy vs. Maximo Blanco
Preliminary Card (HDNet, 8 p.m. ET/PT)
Mike Kyle vs. Marcos Rogerio de Lima
Rafael Cavalcante vs. Yoel Romero Palacio
Evangelista Santos vs. Jordan Mein
Alexis Davis vs. Amanda Nunes
Dominique Steele vs. Chris Mierzwiak
It’s been a while since Josh Barnett has walked around a champion. And no doubt, he’d like to get back there again.
But the one-time UFC heavyweight champ (though brief after testing positive for banned substances) and one-time Pride Openweight Grand Prix finalist may have to wait a while. Even if he wins the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament he’s in the semifinals of, and even though the promotion’s heavyweight champ was cut last month, Barnett isn’t guaranteed a shot at the belt if he wins the tourney.
No matter, he said. Some gold would be nice, but he’ll still be going after Sergei Kharitonov with the same plan to finish him regardless of what might be on the line, now or later.
“Titles are spoils of war,” Barnett said Tuesday during a media call for the semifinals of the tournament, which takes place Sept. 10. “You have to go out there and win battles before you can raid the dead of all their belongings.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean Barnett would turn down a shot to be fighting for the new Strikeforce heavyweight title if CEO Scott Coker says later that’s the new plan. (Though Coker said Tuesday the tournament winner won’t be the new champion, and a plan for that belt is still under consideration.)
“Honestly, I would love it if the finals of this tournament were for the heavyweight title – I would love that,” Barnett said. “I would think that’s great. That would add a nice punctuation mark on the end of it. But that doesn’t change my attitude toward getting the job done. You have to beat your opponent, otherwise you get to walk home with a black eye and wounded pride.”
Barnett (30-5, 1-0 Strikeforce) won his debut with the promotion with a second-round submission over Brett Rogers in the tournament quarterfinals in June. That was his first fight in nearly a year.
But since his last loss, to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in Pride nearly five years ago, Barnett has won seven straight – and just one by decision.
It’s that finishing ability that Barnett is known for – a whopping 83 percent of his victories, 25 of 30, have come by stoppage. And Barnett said it’s his job to continue that against Kharitonov to reach the tournament finals.
And though he didn’t call anyone out by name, Barnett said any fighter, regardless of style background, who fights to win on points isn’t exactly tops on his list.
“A lot of people take shortcuts in terms of using athleticism and defensive tactics to try and have the right game plan to go out there and win in the mixed martial arts 10-point must system,” Barnett said. “The finishing ability is put aside a little bit. But to learn to really finish takes more skill. It comes down to finishing. I go out and finish people.”
Kharitonov (18-4, 1-0 Strikeforce) has won five of his last six and will be fighting for the third time in less than a year – something he hasn’t done since 2005. Of his four losses, three have been stoppages.
Barnett, who knew of Kharitonov during their Pride days, though they never fought, said his opponent looked good his last fight, a win over former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski, but was quick to point out that might not mean much against him.
“He was always a perennial contender and in the upper echelon of the heavyweights,” Barnett said. “He looked in the best shape he’s ever been and looked pretty dominant against Arlovski – but then again, I’m not Arlovski.”
Barnett and Kharitonov headline Strikeforce’s Sept. 10 show in Cincinnati, which will air live on Showtime. The second semifinal features Daniel Cormier, who entered as an alternate for Overeem, against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.
Daniel Cormier has a message for critics of wrestlers, and it doesn’t sound like he’s going to budge on it anytime soon.
Cormier, one of the most decorated college and amateur wrestlers ever to break into mixed martial arts, has found himself smack-dab in the middle of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix against Antonio Silva in the semifinals. And while he believes the fight is his most important test to date, he isn’t going to apologize for being a wrestler.
Simply put, the unbeaten heavyweight believes if his opponent can’t stop his takedowns, well … too bad.
“It’s not my job, it’s not Jon Fitch‘s job, it’s not Josh Barnett‘s job to actually teach someone takedown defense,” Cormier said Tuesday during a media call. “It’s their job to learn takedown defense. If they can’t defend the takedown, then they deserve to lay on their back for 15 minutes.”
While other fighters accused by fans and other fighters of being “lay and pray” practitioners have often tiptoed around the accusations, Cormier is more to the point.
Cormier (8-0, 5-0 Strikeforce) was inserted into the heavyweight tournament as an alternate after Zuffa suddenly cut Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem earlier this summer. After six straight stoppage wins to start his pro career, including five in the first round, Cormier has won back-to-back decisions, both scorecard sweeps.
Against Devin Cole in January, Cormier landed three takedowns. But against Jeff Monson in June, he attempted just two and instead dominated the fight in the standup game. According to FightMetric, Cormier out-struck Monson 110-19 in the fight. So as his overall MMA game progresses, Cormier knows he’ll have to fall back on other skill sets besides his world-class wrestling.
“I think it’s always good to put on exciting fights,” Cormier said. “I like to fight. This is my job. If that means I have to stand with him and fight, then I have to fight. What if I can’t take him down? But at the end of the day, it’s about winning.”
Which might just be Cormier’s way of saying that standing and banging may look fun from outside the cage, but he may think twice about being on the receiving end of “Bigfoot” Silva’s paws – especially since Silva is coming off a devastating TKO stoppage of Fedor Emelianenko in February.
“Why should I or anyone else that knows how to wrestle give up their biggest advantage?,” Cormier said. “If a jiu-jitsu guy can get you down, he’s going to use his jiu-jitsu. If a striker can keep you standing, he’s going to use his standup ability. It’s your job, which MMA is, which fighting is, to learn all areas of the game.”
Silva (16-2, 3-1 Strikeforce) has won three straight and nine of his last 10, including a TKO win over one of Cormier’s American Kickboxing Academy heavyweight teammates, Mike Kyle. And though he is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, he’s only submitted two fighters in his 16 wins. It’s his heavy hands that seem to be feared the most.
Cormier, though, said that while getting hit in the face was foreign to him from his wrestling background when he started MMA, training at AKA – especially with UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasequez – has gotten him used to it.
“Nobody likes to get hit,” Cormier said. “Wrestlers, kickboxers – nobody likes to get hit. But it doesn’t affect me. I train with the No. 1 heavyweight in the world on a daily basis, so I actually get hit a lot. And not only from Cain, but from King Mo (Lawal) and Mike Kyle and all the guys I train with. I’ve adjusted to it because they beat me up so much.”
Cormier and Silva fight Sept. 10 in one half of the semifinal bracket of Strikeforce’s continuation of the heavyweight tournament in Cincinnati. The other side of the bracket features Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov. The winners are expected to meet sometime in early 2012 for the tournament title.
But while that sort of thing wouldn’t have batted an eye under Scott Coker’s droopy watch, Zuffa runs a much tighter ship, and won’t run the risk of Barnett suffering an injury in a worked puroresu match two weeks before he has to show up for a legit cage-fight. As Fighters Only reports:
But while that sort of thing wouldn’t have batted an eye under Scott Coker’s droopy watch, Zuffa runs a much tighter ship, and won’t run the risk of Barnett suffering an injury in a worked puroresu match two weeks before he has to show up for a legit cage-fight. As Fighters Only reports:
…Barnett has been prevailed upon not to take the gig which, despite being a pre-determined pro-wrestling match rather than a proper fight, could still potentially have resulted in him picking up an injury…With Alistair Overeem having already been removed from the semi-finals thanks to an injury/contract dispute, it would have been disastrous had Barnett been forced out as well.
The August 27th IGF card is still going ahead in Japan. Aside from LeBanner it also features Peter Aerts and Ray Sefo. Why anybody would want to see real fighters having pretend fights is beyond us, but pro-wrestling gigs pay well in Japan and with K-1 on hiatus, these kind of gigs are a good earner for name fighters.
So in a strange turn of fate, Josh Barnett has become the biggest star remaining in Strikeforce’s heavyweight tournament — the other semi-finalists are Kharitonov, Antonio Silva, and Daniel Cormier, for God’s sake — and Zuffa actually needs him. Funny how things work out.
The September 10th Strikeforce show will also feature Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza’s latest middleweight title defense against Luke Rockhold, Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal’s return against Roger Gracie, and a lightweight feature between Josh Thomson and former Sengoku stunner Maximo Blanco.
It’s been a while since 
