‘Strikeforce: Houston’ Weigh-in Results

("Actually, Bobby is the one who’s adopted. Long story." Photo courtesy of allelbows.)
Clear your schedules, Potato Nation. CagePotato.com will be liveblogging tomorrow night’s Showtime broadcast of Strikeforce: Houston starting at 10 p.m. …

Bobby Lashley King Mo Tim Kennedy Strikeforce
("Actually, Bobby is the one who’s adopted. Long story." Photo courtesy of allelbows.)

Clear your schedules, Potato Nation. CagePotato.com will be liveblogging tomorrow night’s Showtime broadcast of Strikeforce: Houston starting at 10 p.m. ET, so be sure to stop by. The fighters just stepped on the scales at the Toyota Center, and 86% of them were able to successfully hit their marks. Pretty impressive, guys! The numbers are below:

Main Card
Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal (203.75) vs. Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante (203.5)
Tim Kennedy (185) vs. Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza (184.75)
K.J. Noons (156.25)* vs. Jorge Gurgel (154.75)
Bobby Lashley (246.5) vs. Chad Griggs (228.5)

Preliminary Card
Daniel Cormier (249) vs. Jason Riley (256.5)
Andre Galvao (170.75) vs. Jorge Patino ()**
Vinicius "Draculino" Magalhães (144.5) vs. Rocky Long (146.25)
Kier Gooch (155.5) vs. Adam Schindler (155.5)
Jose Santibanez (154.25) vs. Reynaldo Trujillo (155.25)
Humberto DeLeon (127.25) vs. Chad Robichaux (131)***
Chad Cook (205.25) vs. Arteneus Young (204)

* Gurgel allowed Noons the extra quarter-pound; Noons will not have to shed the additional weight.
** Wasn’t present at the weigh-ins; will weigh-in later this evening.
*** Was given an extra hour to lose one pound for the 130-pound catchweight bout.

Unrelated: You have the rest of the weekend to get in your final submissions for our ongoing desktop wallpaper contest with Throwdown. The entries have been awesome so far — but we want MORE! So get hustlin’ for your chance to win that $250 gear package.

Titles on the Line, But No Hard Feelings at Strikeforce: Houston Press Conference

Filed under: StrikeforceHOUSTON – If today’s Strikeforce: Houston pre-fight press conference had a theme, that theme was ‘respect.’ It made for a calm, congenial, and somewhat boring atmosphere, but perhaps that’s just what happens when all eight fight…

Filed under:

HOUSTON – If today’s Strikeforce: Houston pre-fight press conference had a theme, that theme was ‘respect.’ It made for a calm, congenial, and somewhat boring atmosphere, but perhaps that’s just what happens when all eight fighters on the televised portion of the card like one another too much.

Even defending Strikeforce light heavyweight champion “King” Mo Lawal, who usually likes some trash talk to go along with his pre-fight press obligations, explained that he just couldn’t work up the same animosity toward new challenger Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante that he had for Gegard Mousasi in his last fight.

“I respect Feijao,” said Lawal. “We’ve trained with some of the same people. He’s never questioned my character like Mousasi did. Mousasi was quick to go on record saying that I’m full of myself and I’m this and I’m that. Me and Feijao, we don’t need to do that. We’ll do that Saturday. We’ll fight Saturday and have fun.”

Tim Kennedy Continues to Prove He is Awesome/Terrifying

("The first time I got shot at in a war … I knew I was in the right place," PicProps: CanvasChronicle)
There are both positives and negatives about this weekend’s Strikeforce middleweight title fight. On one hand, it obviously sucks t…


("The first time I got shot at in a war … I knew I was in the right place," PicProps: CanvasChronicle)

There are both positives and negatives about this weekend’s Strikeforce middleweight title fight. On one hand, it obviously sucks that Saturday night’s scrap between BJJ whiz ‘Jacare’ Souza and all-around Awesome Dude Tim Kennedy essentially represents another epic fail by Strikeforce when it bungled plans for its totally-rad-sounding 185-pound title tournament. On the other hand, that this fight gives two seemingly very likable athletes their first chance at a major championship, well, it’s hard to hate on that.

Especially in the case of Kennedy, whose status as what the UFC might call “an elite war fighter” should be well-known to you. The active duty Green Beret not only appeared as the special guest on this week’s Bum Rush podcast (which makes him a prince among men, in our opinions) but he also cut a half-fascinating, half-bone-chilling new interview with Old Dad where he shed some more light on how his experiences “Over There” helped prepare him for a career inside the cage. Essentially, it was kind of like using a cannon ball to train for throwing the shot put.

read more

Where Is MMA’s Next Great Middleweight?

Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, BellatorFor all his pre-fight bluster, Chael Sonnen walked into the octagon as a major underdog against UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, with most expecting him to emerge chastened and quieted, however briefly. Y…

Filed under: , ,

Anderson Silva kicks Chael Sonnen in the main event of UFC 117.For all his pre-fight bluster, Chael Sonnen walked into the octagon as a major underdog against UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, with most expecting him to emerge chastened and quieted, however briefly. Yet for about 23 minutes, Sonnen did just what he said he would, dominating Silva as he seemingly coasted towards his moment of glory. It was not to be. In a comeback that will live on in MMA lore for years to come, Silva found a way to steal a win from Sonnen’s back pocket, trapping him with a fight-ending triangle/armbar submission.

Even in losing, though, Sonnen did something of immeasurable value to the UFC: he stayed a viable contender. Beyond the UFC’s long-reigning champion, a look at the 185-pound class worldwide shows a wide-open field. More specifically, most of the world’s top 10 middleweights are over 30 years old. While opportunities abound, though, few young 185-pound prospects have distinguished themselves.

Most weight classes have their exciting, young prodigies. Featherweight has Jose Aldo, welterweight has John Hathaway, and light-heavyweight has Jon Jones, among others. So where, we must ask, is the next great, young middleweight?

Gambling Addiction Enabler: Strikeforce Houston Edition

("Listen, Jacare, those hotel carpets are usually covered in…you know what, forget it.")
Strikeforce Houston is set to blast off this Saturday and your old pal Gambling Addiction Enabler has just one question: Could you loan us a few buck…

Ronaldo Jacare Souza Strikeforce
("Listen, Jacare, those hotel carpets are usually covered in…you know what, forget it.")

Strikeforce Houston is set to blast off this Saturday and your old pal Gambling Addiction Enabler has just one question: Could you loan us a few bucks until payday? Seriously, man, we’ve got some can’t-miss fight picks cookin’, and we swear it won’t be like last time. Thanks, bro. For real, you won’t regret this. Would it be cool if we used your shower?

The available betting lines, courtesy of bestfightodds.com:

Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal (-376) vs. Rafael Cavalcante (+375)
Ronaldo Souza (-255) vs. Tim Kennedy (+215)
KJ Noons (-205) vs. Jorge Gurgel (+205)
Bobby Lashley (-500) vs. Chad Griggs (+370)
Daniel Cormier (-1350) vs. Jason Riley (+700)*
Andre Galvao (-280) vs. Jorge Patino (+240)**

* The Cormier/Riley and Galvao/Patino prelim fights will both be streamed live on Sherdog before the Showtime broadcast.

** Jorge Patino is a late replacement for Nate Moore, who has dropped out of the event due to injury. Please make your Fightpicker changes as necessary.

Anyway…

read more

FightPicker Update: Lay Some Chips Down for Strikeforce Houston

(You’re really going to pick against a guy who can play Für Elise with handguns? Props: YouTube.com/RangerUpVideo)
Following WEC 50: Cruz vs. Benavidez on Wednesday and Bellator 25 on Thursday, this wild and wooly week of MMA concludes Saturd…

(You’re really going to pick against a guy who can play Für Elise with handguns? Props: YouTube.com/RangerUpVideo)

Following WEC 50: Cruz vs. Benavidez on Wednesday and Bellator 25 on Thursday, this wild and wooly week of MMA concludes Saturday with Strikeforce Houston, which features King Mo vs. Rafael Cavalcante, Tim Kennedy vs. Ronaldo Souza, KJ Noons vs. Jorge Gurgel, Bobby Lashley vs. Chad Griggs, and a champion of two different promotions on the preliminary card. For some reason, betting sites are only offering action on Lawal (-381) vs. Cavalcate (+375), so you’ll have to make things interesting by wagering some FightPicker PotatoChips — which you can accumulate just by signing into the game every day. Swing by fightpicker.cagepotato.com (or the Facebook equivalent) to make your predictions on the four marquee fights, as well as three prelim scraps that will probably never see the light of day. The question list is after the jump. Pick wisely.

Strikeforce Houston poster King Mo

read more