Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg

Strikeforce's next big card before highly-anticipated heavyweight tournament is the Diaz vs. Cyborg event.
Really?

Diaz vs. Cyborg?

So instead of fighting someone who will undoubtedly bring a very good fight and not to mention higher ratings and a bigger audience turnout in Mayhem Miller, or even a big challenge and exciting venue in the cocky Paul Daley, Nick Diaz is fighting Cyborg Santos?!?

And this is not CRISTIANE "Cyborg" Santos, the dominant reigning champion female fighter at women's 145 middleweight, mind you (although that would ARGUABLY be a better fight where betting odds could even favor the scary-ass, manly-looking lady...). THIS is her HUSBAND, Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos, whos record is 18-13 for crying out loud.  Okay first off, why does this guy share the same mma nickname as his wife? That's not cool man! Second, why is she buffer than him? He must seriously be into dudes:

ANYWAY, back to the fight.

Diaz should not be given Cyborg, he should have
been given top competition in Mayhem Miller or Paul Semtex Daley.  But since he was given Cyborg, let's look at the few the potential pros:


1. Cyborg fights are pretty exciting.  Win or lose, knock out or be knocked out, he comes very aggressively and ferociously.  He has a pretty beastly look on his face all the time, and you know he doesn't give a shit about anything but fighting and tearing his way through his opposition.

2. Cyborg has knocked out opponents before as the underdog.  He has knockout power and vicious striking, although it isn't as polished or crisp as Nick Diaz' peppering jabs and boxing prowess.

3. Nick Diaz can turn this into a stand up war, but
most likely he will mix it up with takedowns and submissions to defeat Cyborg and this might be a very nice fight with a very nice finish from either end.

4. Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza is defending his middleweight title against contender Robbie "Ruthless" Lawler.  Jacare is a very solid fighter with highly-touted BJJ skills (easily reflect in his grappling credentials and 10 submission wins) and Lawler has got 17 knockouts out of 20 wins.  17 KNOCKOUTS!!! That's an 85% knockout rate!! You've got yourself a 77% submission rate champion defending his belt against an 85% knockout rate challenger....this fight has got to end very nicely for mma fans.

And finally....

5. Herschel Walker fights again.  Nuff said!

Rashad Evans' secret to beating Shogun: Shake Weights

Yep, you know what I'm talking about.

By now, I'm sure you all know what shake weights are, but if you lame enough not to , I'll give you a  run down:

These are phallic-looking, modified dumbbells that work out your arms by vibrating techonology.  You hold them still in a very sexually suggestive manner, and they work you out as if you jerk your humongous penis off with both hands and a tight grip. BAM, biceps, triceps, and shoulders!

And yes, they are now Rashad Evans' secret weapon against the light heavyweight champ:

Good luck Rashad! I hope you get your teeth knocked out for this!

UFC 128: Shogun vs Evans pre-fight interview

Man, I CANNOT wait for this fight to happen.  Haven't seen a vintage 100% Shogun in ages...let's hope for another brutal knockout from Shogun, and another vicious beating on Rashad's face.

Brock Lesnar and JDS announced as coaches for TUF season 13!!

Wow, JDS vs Brock....is this not an awesome match??? This was announced after:
- Cain starts surgery and is out of action
- Strikeforce announces their heavyweight Grand Prix
- Brock rumored to be quitting
- JDS publicizes frustration over title shot delay and asks for a interim match up


JDS is willing to risk his contendership to fight one more time while Cain heals up, and now he is granted Brock Lesnar for that match!

Not only that, but there will be a whole season of TUF to hype it up!

Apparently, they are coaching welterweights.  Kinda weird, but let's see.

Smart move by the UFC to answer back to Strikeforce's huge grand prix news, however this can go bad and Brock Lesnar loses fast and gets dominated again.  Hopefully his persona on TUF is badass or villainous enough so that ticket sales go through the roof for the fight, which is rumored to be UFC 131.  Ratings for this season should be at an all-time high since Brock is one of the most successful draws in MMA and hardcore fans will get to see two heavyweight top 5 fighters duke it out!

Brock Lesnar vs. Junior dos Santos.....

Yep, no lies! Stay tuned....

dos Santos ready to fight again for interim; Carwin returns to action soon

Our UFC no.1 heavyweight contender has recently stated that he would like to fight for the interim belt while Cain is out of action for 6-8 months. 

To me this makes sense given that JDS does not want to be inactive when the biggest fight of his life is his next one, he wont be getting paid without fighting for 6-8 months, and the man must be going CRAZY when he was told that Cain was injured, especially after seeing Cain dismantle Brock fast and unscathed and being told he was next in line and probably thinking to himself that he could more than handle Cain.  If I were JDS, the best striker in the heavyweight division, and I were told that I was to fight Cain in the next few UFC events and then suddenly told "NOPE, sorry, Cain's actually not fine.  He's hurt.  He needs surgery.  And he'll be out for a looong time.  Sorry," I'd be pretty pissed too.

But herein lies the problem: It's great for fans to see him maul another heavyweight fighter on the UFC's roster and all, but I don't see anyone standing a chance with JDS, other than the heavyweight champion himself of course.  So as a warm-up to his eventful fight with Cain (which might even take place in Brazil for the UFC's first return to the country), maybe JDS can take on Shane Carwin, the winner of CroCop/Schaub or the winner of Big Country/Frank Mir.  This can be problematic though, seeing as how Shane Carwin is coming off an epic loss to Brock Lesnar, and if either CroCop or Big Country win their fights, they both would be coming in with already with a loss ironically from JDS.

Who else could JDS fight that he hasn't already destroyed? What should the UFC do with JDS' interim proposal?

UFC 128: Shogun vs. Evans official fight poster!

There it is, ladies and gentlement! The official poster of UFC 128.

Finally, we have some closure on when the UFC lightheavyweight title would be fought for again!

After Rashad's public display of frustration of waiting for Shogun's surgery and rehab and fans questioning when Shogun would return after his knockout of Lyoto Machida, we finally have confirmation in the form of an official fight poster!

Also on this card is:

Cro Cop vs Schaub

Sexyama vs Marquardt

Jim Miller vs Kamal Shalorus

Werdum vs Overeem for the Semi-final advance, plus the Strikeforce Heavyweight Title

Now this has got be some weird, complex stuff.
Not only is Strikeforce having a Grand Prix Heavyweight Tournament, but the champion Alistair Overeem is in the quarter-final and his Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship Belt is also on the line.

So...assuming Overeem advances to the finals, his heavyweight title will have been defended twice already? He risks losing his belt 3 times during this tournament? That's some crazy shit, but I must say, I am very excited anyway!

So one of the four quarter-final matches will showcase a rematch between Overeem and Werdum of their first fight in Pride FC back in 2006, which ended with Werdum submitting Overeem via kimura.

Werdum has recently stated via twitter that he "is not happy with the rematch" because he would rather rematch Fedor Emelianenko, whom he decisively beat last year via triangle submission. He goes on to say that he will definitely beat Overeem again so that the Fedor rematch can happen:

"I’ll catch him again, you can bet on it. I’ll beat him with my game plan and smartness. I wouldn’t like to give Overeem this rematch, I’m just fighting because the event matched this fight. To Fedor I’ll give this rematch happily, because I like him and he deserves this rematch. But first I have to think about how I’ll beat Overeem so that rematch can happen."

Werdum seems to really believe that Strikeforce has set this match up for PPV revenue, so that ultimately you will see him face Fedor and that Overeem is just an easy beat to warm up to the Fedor match.  Does anyone else besides me think that Werdum is way over his head here? Why does he think Overeem will be a piece of cake?

Maybe because he's beaten Overeem before, but cmon, that was in 2006 before Overeem was even a real heavyweight and way before he has become the monster that he is today.  Both men have made huge accomplishments and have evolved as fighters since 2006, but let's have a look and compare the two:

Werdum since 2006 has lost to Minotauro Nogueira, lost to Arlovski, finished Gonzaga and Vera via TKO, was knocked out via uppercut by JDS, gone on to submit Mike Kyle and beat Bigfoot Silva, and then did the seemingly impossible by submitting Fedor Emelianenko, giving the Russian his first true loss of entire career.  Pretty impressive right?

Now on to Overeem.  The man was stopped 3 times in a row by Lil Nog, Ricardo Arona, Shogun, goes on to lose one more time to Kharitonov by KO (who is also in the quarterfinals against Arlovski).  This looks pretty bad doesn't it? WRONG! Alistair moves on to dominate Paul Buentello and becomes the Strikeforce Heavyweight champ, knocks out Lee Tae-Hyun in Dream 4, submits Mark Hunt in Dream 5, dominates Cro Cop before a no-contest was issued due to a groin shot, kimuras Gary Goodridge, goes to K-1 to knock out Badr Hari and defeats Peter Aerts (two of the most dominant forces in K-1), knocks out Fujita, TKO's Brett Rogers (also in the quarterfinals) to defend his Strikeforce belt, wins the 2010 K-1 Grand Prix tournament, and then knocks out Todd Duffee to win the Dream heavyweight Interim belt.

Overeem has a belt in Strikeforce, K-1, and now Dream. I don't think Werdum will get the submission this time.  In fact, I think Werdum may just get KTFO and sleep on the mat as far as the ground game goes in this match-up!

Anderson Silva can be beaten (but that probably won't happen...)

Anderson Silva, one of the most gifted and badassed fighters to have ever lived is just a wrecking machine who gracefuly glides around the ring, and after he is finished dancing, his opponents are left battered on the floor covered in their own blood.  You're talking about one of the pound-for-pound greatest, if not THE greatest here who has been undefeated since his arrival in UFC, who just got beat up for 4.5 rounds by a guy who took steroids and STILL WON.

 

Does Anderson Silva even bleed? Please read that question over again and take a minute to think about it...Have you ever, EVER seen him bleed? Don't even try and photoshop some blood into his pictures, your computer will explode. Anderson Silva does not bleed.

In any fight, Anderson Silva is always the favorite pick when it comes to betting odds, and for good reason too. However, in his next upcoming fight, I have a feeling Anderson Silva can be beaten, however unlikely it will be.

1. Anderson Silva has lost BEFORE. 2 times, it was a clear defeat by submissions, 1 other time by DQ, and 1 by decision. I know these defeats came ages ago and Anderson Silva has become even more talented since then, but a loss is still a loss and in MMA, anything can happen on any given night, no matter how talented you are. (but this probably wont happen...since Anderson has great jiu-jitsu and nasty elbows from the bottom. He hasn't been submitted or even gotten close to being submitted in over 8 years. vitor Belfort himself has a black-belt in BJJ, but seeing him submit someone is just as rare as seeing the champ getting submitted.)

 2. Silva was dominated in his last fight. Aside from the facts that Chael was caught with much higher levels of testosterone in his system and that Anderson himself had a rib injury prior to the fight, UFC 117 showed us that the middleweight champ can still be hurt. And if Vitor lands one of his punches where Chael did, Anderson will be much more hurt than he's ever been. (but most likely not...Anderson Silva has never been finished through strikes with his fast head movement and lightning fast counter punching. Vitor's aggression can very well strip him of his own consciousness if he eats one of Anderson's pinpoint counter punches.)

 3. Vitor has shown us how strong he is and has gone on an absolute massacre in his last 5 fights, including a first round knockout of Matt Lindland where the poor guy was left on the floor convulsing and a first round knockout of Rich Franklin, where the former UFC middleweight champ was just outstruck and left smashed. Vitor handled Rich even faster than Anderson did, with less effort too. Anderson may just be facing someone who punches just as hard and just as fast as he does, if not harder and faster. (unlikely though...Anderson will be much more cautious after his beating from Chael Sonnen, and I am very sure he will be just as elusive as he has always been to pull the counters to put Vitor to sleep).

 4. Vitor has actually trained with Anderson! People are forgetting that Vitor was training with Black House back in 2006 with guys like Nogueira, Machida, and Silva himself.  Vitor may just have a bit more insight into Anderson Silva's game than most of Silva's opponent in the past.  It may have been 2006, but that's still better than not knowing anything other than youtube clips of Silva's dominance.





Now I know everyone believes Silva will win, and I am not saying he won't, because he probably will.  What I am saying is that Vitor stands much more of a chance than the other opponents did, and if he catches Silva he just might be the next champion. Vitor knocks guys out and has almost a 70% knockout rate. Anderson cannot play the cocky bastard he always does if he wants to win because Vitor is not someone you can just fool around with during a 5-round war.

Thiago Silva vs Rampage Jackson for UFC 130

There you have it ladies and gents: Thiago Silva vs Quinton "Rampage" Jackson has been announced for UFC 130.

Thiago Silva, coming in with a 15-2 record after dominating Brandon Vera faces Rampage Jackson who boasts a record of 31-8 after his controversial decision over Lyoto Machida.  Both men strike very well and have made great comebacks after being away from the octagon for so long (Silva with his back injuries and Jackson with his filming).

Expect a very exciting fight as both men love to trade punches, have knockout power, and together have a combined number of 25 career TKO/KO's.