First off, like that friend you had in college that was your buddy until he got amped out on coke and amphetamines then crashed and burned and now is a husk of his former self.....Strikeforce is dead.
Watching it limp along with half meaningful fights and half mismatches
Saffiedine leg kicked his way to a WW belt that stopped existing as soon as the card ended, but upset Marquardt who had looked dynamic and solid whilst dropping down to welterweight to beat Woodley and stopping him decisively while showing improved takedown defense.
Cormier and Barnett did what you do to overmatched guys no one's ever heard of and got some hype and highlight real stoppages to boost their credit when they get exported/imported/whatever over to the UFC (though Barnett's 3 hot piss tests, having the ignominious title of the first UFC Xship belt forfeited due to a piss test, and the fact that he sunk affliction....and his willigness to talk tough about Dana means that I'd say it's 50/50 he gets brought over. Dana has decided to make money and use while also eventually burying you with tough match-ups then rob you with your last fight's decision - see Tito Ortiz - so there's always the chance Barnett does get brought over b/c the heavyweight division is always a fight or two away or a retirement away from growing stagnant especially b/c they'll need some time to rebuild Dos Santos for another title run).
At any rate, the card was entertaining regardless and we have finally begun to strip down Strikefarce for its spare parts which will make for some different match-ups in some of the already stagnant UFC divisions.
Beyond that on Thursday Bellator comes to SpikeTV with its tournament format, exciting fights and solid match-ups. I'm very very very very much excited about this.
Here's the card via MMAJunkie.com:
- I'm interested to see how Chandler's stand-up has improved as has Hawn's who's finally gotten some time off after his tournament run. I see Hawn as having the more varied stand-up which he establishes with his jab and in the clinch I'm interested to see if any of his foot sweeps catch Chandler's wrestling base off guard.
Babalu will have another chance to show he's still the top of the heap when it comes to not A level competition and Pat Curran and Freire will throw down in what I'm sure will be a very entertaining scrap.
The undercard is a who's who of guys that washed out of other organizations at one time or another and are now still plugging away on undercards.
"
MAIN (Spike TV, 10 p.m. ET)
- Michael Chandler vs. Rick Hawn - for lightweight title
- Renato Sobral vs. Mikhail Zayats - light heavyweight tournament opening round
- Pat Curran vs. Patricio Freire - for featherweight title
PRELIMINARY (Spike.com, 7 p.m. ET)
- Cleber Luciano vs. Mario Navarro
- Jacob Noe vs. Seth Petruzelli - light-heavyweight tournament opening round
- Jason Lambert vs. Hector Ramirez
- J.J. Ambrose vs. Brian Warren
- Atanas Djambazov vs. Emanuel Newton - light-heavyweight tournament opening round
- Mike Guymon vs. Savant Young
- Joe Williams vs. Jamie Yager
- Joe Camacho vs. Aaron Miller "
Also via MMAJunkie.com:
Belfort will try to Dan Henderson Michael Bisping, Dolloway will try to right hand/wrestlef*&k Sarafian. Gonzaga will probably flake as he always does after he wins a few and gets our hopes up. And Khabib will likely blast out Tavares who was once hyped as the next big thing.
I've been betting for awhile a bunch of these sambo/mma/combat/whatever Russian guys were going to start showing up on our shores and making serious waves. It has begun.
On the undercard I'll be rooting for Miltinho Vieira to win b/c I've been following his career for a long time now.
"
MAIN (FX, 9 p.m. ET)
- Vitor Belfort vs. Michael Bisping
- C.B. Dollaway vs. Daniel Sarafian
- Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Ben Rothwell
- Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Thiago Tavares
PRELIMINARY (FUEL TV, 6 p.m. ET)
- Godofredo Castro vs. Milton Vieira
- Andrew Craig vs. Ronny Markes
- Nik Lentz vs. Diego Nunes
- Edson Barboza vs. Lucas Martins
- Yuri Alcantara vs. Pedro Nobre
- Ildemar Alcantara vs. Wagner Prado
PRELIMINARY (Facebook, 5:35 p.m. ET)
- C.J. Keith vs. Francisco Trinaldo "
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