(‘Let’s talk about boys!’)

With Strikeforce’s big Gina Carano vs. "Cyborg" Santos main event on Showtime just a day away, we go head-to-head to determine just how unmissable this card is after all the injuries, whether Nick Diaz has hurt our feelings for good, and more in this edition of Ben vs. Ben.

After all the injuries and changes to the line-up, where does this Strikeforce card rank on your must-see MMA spectrum?

BF: If we’re looking at a 10-point scale, with 10 being UFC 100 and 1 being YAMMA Pit Fighting, I give the current iteration of this Strikeforce card a 6.5.  Originally it was probably at least an eight, maybe even a nine.  Then it lost Overeem, Thomson, and Riggs.  Then it actually got a little better when Jay Hieron stepped in.  Then Nick Diaz declined to even submit to a piss test and, well, this is where we find ourselves now.  

(Whoa, whoa, Cyborg. Didn’t Strikeforce ask you very nicely to refrain from messing up Gina’s face if possible? The girl’s got to make a living after this.)

Where do this weekend’s Strikeforce participants stand after their crushing defeats and triumphant victories?  Let’s consult the Potato Index’s arbitrary numerical rankings system to see whose stock fell and whose is on the rise.

“Cyborg” Santos +236
She absolutely overwhelmed Carano with her power and aggression.  A little sloppiness and a couple of failed takedown attempts show she still has room for improvement, but she came up big in the most important fight in the history of women’s MMA.  Let’s see how many people tune in to see her next fight before we decide what kind of future there is for female main events.

Gina Carano -131
The face of women’s MMA took a beating on Saturday night, but what does it mean for her celebrity and the popularity of the women’s division?  That’s still unclear, but at least we found out what happens when Carano has to face a real striker.  Maybe fewer photo shoots and more time in the gym would have helped?

("Hey, I’m Gina!" 
"I am the one known as ‘Cyborg’."
"Look, whatever happens tonight, I just want you to know that I have tons of respect for you, and I feel honored to be fighting you."
"I want to kill you so bad, my dick’s hard."
Photo courtesy of this set on CombatLifestyle.)

So who wants to witness some history in the making? Tonight, the curse is lifted, and the most significant women’s MMA fight of all time will take place. (Before that, there will be some men’s MMA matches of varying importance.) Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg results await you after the jump. Refresh the page every few minutes for round-by-round updates and occasional digressions. Warning: The Showtime broadcast is delayed on the west coast, so check your local listings, and if you’re not getting it live, maybe stay away from the comments section for a while, lest you be spoiled.

("Side effects may include headache, dry mouth, constipation, and Huttism.")

Strikeforce’s monumental "Carano vs. Cyborg" card may have lost another title fight. Earlier this week, the scheduled heavyweight championship bout between Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum went up in smoke due to Overeem’s infected hand. Now, it appears that the rematch between Nick Diaz and Joe Riggs — which would have decided Strikeforce’s first welterweight champion — could be off as well. According to GracieFighter (via FiveOuncesofPain):

(Props: MMA-Core)

If you’re one of the people taking issue with referee Josh Rosenthal’s stoppage of the Gina Carano vs. Cris "Cyborg" Santos main event at Strikeforce, last night, you might ought to pause and look at this.  Here’s what it looked like from where Rosenthal was standing.  What he sees is a downed Carano who is not making any attempt to intelligently defend herself from a torrent of right hands.  He seems willing to let her try to ride out the end of the round, but when Cyborg slips a right around her defenses and Carano appears to spasm with shock after the punch, that’s when Rosenthal has to stop it. 

If you still need convincing, look at Gina’s reaction after the stoppage.  She’s saying something there, but I don’t think it’s, ‘You idiot, I was just about to launch my counter-attack!’ 

Gina “Conviction” Carano — a.k.a. the “Beautiful Disaster,” a.k.a. the face of women’s MMA — increased her record to 5-0 in her last fight at EliteXC: Uprising (9/15/07), where she reversed Tonya Evinger’s ground control and scored a submission victory by rear naked choke in the first round. Watch her work…

By the way — the “25 centimeter pole” remark? Brilliant, sir. You’re a credit to your gender. Would have loved to hear the punchline to that Lindsay Lohan bit at the end…

(So, who wants to be the first one to tell her the name “The Honky Tonk Man” is already taken? Pic: ESPN)

Our amigos at Tatame dropped an under-the-radar, single paragraph report on us yesterday afternoon alleging that current Strikeforce women’s middleweight champion Cris “Cyborg” Santos is currently in talks with – oh, God, no — World Wrestling Entertainment. The website cites the ever-present “sources close to the fighter” saying that Santos is negotiating with the professional wrestling company and indicated that she’s joined a seemingly growing chorus of fighters disgruntled that the Strikeforce isn’t giving them enough fights.

“Without fighting since June of 2010, Cyborg is getting tired of the lack of fights in the MMA organization,” the website writes. “This proposal would change her future in fighting – and get bigger paychecks.”

Tatame reports that both Mr. and Mrs. Cyborg attended a WWE event in California two weeks ago and the rasslin’ company offered her a contract on the spot. If true, this news means the world of pro wrestling is essentially planning to acquire one of MMA’s top up and coming stars, while trading us one of it’s biggest malcontents, since MMA Weekly reports Dave Bautista could debut for BAMMA in England in May. Yeah, just another enormous dude, another conspicuously overseas MMA appearance. Anyway, we digress, more on the Cyborg situation after the jump.

(Cris Cyborg [right] with former victim Shayna Baszler. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

From a new press release sent out by Strikeforce:

(Please Cyborg don’t hurt ‘em.)

Chute Boxe coach Rafael Cordeiro has confirmed to Tatame that Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos will compete next at EliteXC’s third CBS card (October 4th; Fort Lauderdale, FL) against “Yoki Takarashi.” Bloody Elbow is re-translating that as Yoko Takahashi, a 13-9-1 vet of Smackgirl, DEEP, and Fatal Femmes Fighting. She most recently fought Mika Hayashi to a draw at last Saturday’s DEEP Megaton GP Finals.

Though she said she didn’t know who her next opponent would be during a recent interview with Sherdog, Santos provided some insight on EliteXC’s plans for her:

“[I]f Carano and I win, people will be expecting our fight and we will have to face each other. The event should start marketing for it and we should be facing each other on the pay-per-view by the end of the year. [ed. note: Most reports say that EliteXC's first PPV show will actually take place in early '09.]

…

I think everybody wants to watch this fight. I’ll keep on training, I’ll win my fights and I’ll be very well prepared, just waiting for the right time to come. It will be inevitable. She will have to face me sooner or later. I’m waiting for her.”

Fortunately, Carano has a “let’s do this” attitude in regards to Cyborg. And if EliteXC manages to generate a few more matchups with a similar amount of heat behind them, their first pay-per-view card could help turn their financial fortunes around. Nick Diaz vs. KJ Noons? Robbie Lawler vs. Frank Shamrock? Kimbo Slice vs. Bo Cantrell II?

Our earlier mentions of Chute Boxe and rope-a-dope reminded us of this light heavyweight match from Cage Rage 15 (2/4/06), which could easily earn a place in our greatest fights of all-time list. The first round features as much slugging as you’d expect from these two, but it’s the second round that makes the fight legendary. Cyborg and Melvin become so exhausted from whaling on each other that at one point they can do little more than stand with their hands down and suck air. Luckily, Manhoef has a little extra in the tank. Watch Cyborg baby-punch Melvin’s lifeless body at the end — totally adorable. (Fight starts at the 2:26 mark.)

(Because of its needlessly tall dimensions — you’ll see — we’ve placed the video after the jump.)

Because it has been over three years since Gina Carano has fought, we don’t hear from the former “Face of Women’s MMA” as often as we’d like to, but the fighter-turned-actress was in New Orleans for the Super Bowl over the weekend, and filmed a rare interview with SB Nation in which she tried to clear up whether or not she is actually retired from MMA and what she thinks about the elusive Ronda Rousey vs. “Cyborg” Santos mega-bout.

On being called a current fighter, Carano drew an important distinction. “I haven’t fought in three years and right now I’m focusing on films…that’s what my focus is,” she explained. “I think that if your focus is fighting, then you’re a fighter and that’s not my focus right now.”

“Conviction” wouldn’t close the door on her ever fighting again, however. “You can’t say that.”

“I wake up every morning and I surprise myself. I wake up to a new me. I still train.”

She last sparred about two weeks ago, in fact, and “felt really good.”

Carano went on to say that Rousey deserves the hype and attention, and also called shenanigans on Santos claim that she’d be facing certain death if she were to cut down to 135 pounds — the prerequisite for her fighting Rousey, according to UFC President Dana White. Carano doesn’t believe that Uncle Dana is being unfair to “Cyborg” by making the former 145 pound champ drop down to 135 in order to fight in the UFC and, potentially, against Rousey.

“I don’t think so…she made it down there a lot easier than I made it down there. That’s for Cyborg to figure out,” Gina said.

(Surprised they didn’t call this one “Beauty and the Beast.”)

On this day in MMA history two years ago Strikeforce held it’s first event headlined by a women’s championship fight. Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg, which featured a bout between Gina Carano and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos for the inaugural Strikeforce Women’s middleweight (145 pound) championship, took place on Saturday, August 15, 2009 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.

(Gina Carano was young and full of hope once.)

- Gina Carano: 143 lbs., "Cyborg" Santos: 144.5 lbs.  (MMA Fanhouse)

- McCrory and Leites got cut after all. (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Danillo Villefort says he still has a job. (Fighters Only)

– Emerging storylines for Strikeforce’s big weekend. (Bleacher Report)

– Gina Carano’s "American Gladiators" buddy is betting $500 on her. (Cage Writer)

– If this picture doesn’t weird you out, you’re already pretty weird. (Fightlinker)

– Pat Miletich says his beef with Dana is now squashed. (MMA Madness)

– Sly Stallone talks with Big Nog on "Expendables" set. (MMA Mania)

– Gilbert Melendez’s revenge tour. (Fight Magazine)

- So how’s the new Madden game, anyway? (AskMen)

- Penthouse forum scenario leads to death for drug case witness. (Asylum)

- 25 hot guitar babes. (Holy Taco)

- Best alien-on-human kills in movie history. (Screen Junkies)

- Sports Illustrated swimsuit twitpics. (Made Man)

- Wreck of the Week: that kid will eat anything. (All Left Turns)

- Female water polo player sucker punches opposing player. (Nothing Toxic)

(In the edited-for cable version, Lesnar says "I’m gonna drink a [Bud] Light because Bud Light [is the best], and I might even [do something special for] my wife tonight.")

The first stage in Dana White’s plan to destroy Strikeforce and piss on their ashes comes this Saturday at 10 p.m. ET/PT, as Spike will air highlights from UFC 100. The replay card will look like this:

Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir
Dan Henderson vs. Michael Bisping
Alan Belcher vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama
Stephan Bonnar vs. Mark Coleman
Shannon Gugerty vs. Matt Grice
Jon Jones vs. Jake O’Brien

If any of you Potato Heads live in New York and are either unemployed or have a job that allows you to skip out for a couple hours in the afternoon, keep next Tuesday free. Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg will be appearing at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden to promote their cute little Strikeforce title fight on August 15th, and will be participating in a public workout outside the theatre directly following (weather permitting), with an actual cage set up on the corner of 33rd and 8th. Fans will be able to take photos and get body parts signed. I’ll be lurking around trying to get some time with the headliners, so holler at me via Twitter or email if you’ll be there.

(Strikeforce’s coveted "Hater of the Year" title will also be up for grabs. Image courtesy of CageToday.)

Talk about making up for lost time. After a 12-month drought that gave us only one light-heavyweight championship match and an interim lightweight title scrap, Strikeforce has decided to just say "fuck it" and call every bout on their next card a title fight.

It has been confirmed that the upcoming grudge match between Nick Diaz and Joe Riggs — originally slated for the undercard of the "Carano vs. Cyborg" show on August 15th — will now decide Strikeforce’s vacant welterweight title. The bout will join the lightweight title rematch between Josh Thomson and Gilbert Melendez, the heavyweight championship battle between Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum, and the main event, in which Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg will go five rounds for Strikeforce’s first-ever 145-pound women’s title. So yes, three of these four title fights will be rematches. Deal with it.

(Something tells me Cyborg is going to be played up as the villain in this one.)

After months of angling and negotiating, the highly anticipated bout between Gina Carano and Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos has been set for the main event of Strikeforce’s August 15th event in San Jose, as was announced during the broadcast of "Lawler vs. Shields." Now, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker has confirmed that the match will crown an official female champion for the organization:

(This Cyborg, not this one. Photo courtesy of CageToday.com.)

Maybe Strikeforce‘s roster isn’t so thin after all. According to a new press release sent out by the fight league, Strikeforce will hold its second "Challengers" event at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington on Friday, June 19th — just two weeks after "Lawler vs. Shields" goes down in St. Louis — and a host of prominent names are already booked.

(Antonio “Bigwallet” Silva does work. Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

The California State Athletic Commission has released salary figures for EliteXC’s “Unfinished Business” event on July 26th. The numbers are below, and don’t include undisclosed bonuses, sponsorship payments, or deductions for insurance and taxes.

Antonio Silva: $200,000 ($100,000 to show, $100,000 to win)
Robbie Lawler: $90,000 ($45,000 to show, $45,000 to win)
Nick Diaz: $60,000
Jake Shields: $45,000 ($35,000 to show, $10,000 to win)
Nick Thompson: $25,000
Justin Eilers: $20,000
Rafael Feijao: $20,000 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 to win)
Scott Smith: $14,000
Thomas Denny: $8,500
Shayna Baszler: $8,000
Cristiane “Cris Cyborg” Santos: $6,000 ($3,000 to show, $3,000 to win)
Anthony Ruiz: $5,001 ($2,001 to show, $3,000 to win)
Wilson Reis: $5,000 ($2,500 to show, $2,500 to win)
Travis Galbraith: $5,000
David Douglas: $4,000 ($3,500 to show, $1,500 to win)
Carl Seumantafa: $4,000 ($2,000 to show, $2,000 to win)
Drew Montgomery: $3,000 ($1,500 to show, $1,500 to win)
Marlon Mathias: $2,500
Jeremy Freitag: $2,500
Brian Caraway: $2,000
Brandon Tarn: $2,000
Mike Cook: $2,000
Total: $533,501

Underpaid: Theoretically, it’s nice that Jake Shields gets the majority of his salary guaranteed, but since he never loses he’s basically being screwed out of twenty grand every time he fights. Hopefully Scott Smith is getting a locker-room bump for starring in two title fights on CBS within seven weeks, and hopefully Cris Cyborg — who’s now the most buzzed-about female fighter in MMA — can renegotiate her contract to something respectable after her demolition of Shayna Baszler.

Overpaid: Antonio Silva is certainly worthy of a large payday, but it’s strange that he took in so much more than everyone else, considering he’s still not a popular draw and was stuck on a barely-watched Showtime undercard. Props to his manager, I guess.

(There’s really no reason for us to post this picture except that holy shit is Cris Cyborg terrifying.)

From an amusing new press release just sent out by Spike TV:

SPIKE TV’S RE-BROADCAST OF UFC 84 DRAWS MORE YOUNG MEN THAN A LIVE PRO ELITEXC CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT ON CBS

Need proof the UFC is the preeminent mixed martial arts brand in the world? On Saturday, July 26, more men 18-34 watched a repeat…a repeat…of a UFC event on Spike TV than a LIVE telecast of a Pro EliteXC championship card on CBS. Despite being available in over 17 million more homes [ed. note: I think they mean over 17 million less homes?], Spike TV drew 27% more Men 18-34 for a re-broadcast of “UFC 84: Penn vs. Sherk” from (9:00-12:00am ET/PT) than CBS’s live show (9:00-11:00pm). Spike TV’s telecast tallied 433,000 Men 18-34 to CBS’s 341,000.

Overall, “UFC 84: Penn vs. Sherk” drew higher ratings than Pro EliteXC in Men 18-49 (1.5 to 1.3) and Men 18-34 (1.5 and 1.0).

Reminiscent of the XFL’s rating collapse years ago, the CBS telecast was 69% lower in Men 18-34 and 57% lower with Men 18-49 than its initial broadcast on CBS in May featuring the “He Hate Me” of MMA, Kimbo Slice.

Garbling the competition’s name as “Pro EliteXC” is an awesomely passive aggressive touch, as is comparing EliteXC to the ill-fated XFL. We’re not sure what’s up with referring to Kimbo as “He Hate Me,” though it sounds vaguely racist, and Spike Lee is probably preparing an infringement lawsuit as we speak.

Anyway, sending out a press release on your competition’s weak ratings is a barrel of laughs, but maybe the joke’s on Spike.

(Shayna Baszler: ready for battle.)

EliteXC sent out a press release yesterday announcing the full televised card for their second “Saturday Night Fights” event, which will be held in Stockton, CA, on July 26th. The most notable addition is a 140-pound bout between Shayna Baszler and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, which will open the CBS broadcast. Baszler (9-4, all wins by submission) last fought at a ShoXC event in April, where she finished Keiko “Tama Chan” Tamai via first-round neck crank; she also holds notable wins over Julie Kedzie, Roxanne Modafferi, and Jennifer Tate. Santos, the wife of Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos, is 4-0, though her last three wins came against opponents with pro records of 0-0.

The other notable bit of information in the press release is that the match between Antonio “Big Foot” Silva and Justin Eilers will indeed be for EliteXC’s heavyweight title, and it will headline the live three-fight Showtime broadcast that will immediately precede the CBS card. The Showtime card will also feature a featherweight bout between Brian Caraway — who defeated Alvin Cacdac just 12 days ago at Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson — against up-and-coming submission specialist Wilson Reis. The full televised lineup is below:

Saturday Night Fights on CBS, 9-11 p.m. ET/PT
Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith (for EliteXC middleweight title)
Jake Shields vs. Nick Thompson (for EliteXC welterweight title)
Nick Diaz vs. Thomas Denny (lightweights)
Shayna Baszler vs. Cristiane Santos (140 lbs.)

Showtime undercard broadcast, 8-9 p.m. ET/PT
Antonio Silva vs. Justin Eilers (for EliteXC heavyweight title)
Wilson Reis vs. Brian Caraway (140 lbs.)
Rafael Feijao vs. TBD (light-heavyweights)

(Sak: Felled by a weeping sore.)

Helloooooooo! Anybody still alive out there? It seems like the entire MMA world has clocked out early to get a jump on their Good Friday parties. Here’s the news we were too disinterested to mention up until now, when we really have no choice:

— Due to visa problems in Brasil, Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos has been forced to pull out of his match against Joey Villasenor at next Saturday’s Strikeforce/EliteXC event. Said Strikeforce veep Mike Afromowitz, “The delay in his arrival would jeopardize him getting licensed in time for the fight..we’re still looking to finalize a replacement.”

— Unrelated to the Santos drop-out, a match between welterweights Tiki Ghosn (9-7) and Luke Stewart (5-0) has been added to the undercard of the Strikeforce/EliteXC show. Ghosn has lost his last four matches; though he’s done well in smaller promotions, he went 0-4 in the UFC and 1-3 in WEC fights.

— Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza has been added to DREAM’s middleweight tournament — which will kick off April 29th in Japan — and has been working out at Xtreme Couture with Wanderlei Silva and Robert Drysdale. Souza has been undefeated since losing his professional debut at Jungle Fight 1 in 2003, and has never been out of the first round.

— And why isn’t Kazushi Sakuraba participating in the DREAM middleweight tournament? “I got a small scab on my leg which was [s]till bleeding.” Aw come on man, you gotta fight through that!

— The new EliteXC/CBS TV spots, starring Kimbo Slice, can be seen here.

The Sengoku submission party…

Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Peter Graham — Their pre-fight-beef gets squashed quickly in the ring as Fujita takes Graham down and chokes him out in 83 seconds.

Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos vs. Makoto Takimoto — ‘Borg comes out swinging in his usual style, but is even more dominant on the ground and gets the better of Takimoto in a heel-hook war.

Kazuo Misaki vs. Siyar Bahadurzada — Bahadurzada dishonors his Shooto belt by succumbing to a guillotine choke in the second round.

Earlier: Highlights from Gomi/Ludwig and Barnett/Yoshida.

("I thought you said you were Mr. Cyborg?") 

Here we are with Strikeforce’s first major event of the 2011, or as we like to call it, their first shot at fucking up the good things they did last year.

Although rumor has it Gus Johnson won’t be in the broadcast booth tonight, he promises that he’ll bring his MMA-retarded rhetoric back in time for the first round of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix in February, despite the fact that HDNet has announced Michael Shiavello and Bas Rutten will be added to the announce team — at least for the prelims.

With no GuJo to screw up the broadcast and no feuds brewing between the Diaz’s and opponents they’ll likely never face, there’s a pretty good chance that this event could go off with out a hitch. The only thing that could knock this ship off course would be for Cyborg to upset Diaz and for Lawler to knock out Jacare.

And for the record, we WANT Strikeforce to succeed more than we want to see Justin Bieber fall down a flight of stairs, it’s just that they haven’t exactly given us a lot of indicators that they’re ready to go head-to-head with Zuffa’s Evil Empire (Just kidding, Dana. Ben doesn’t want to get fucked again.)

Let’s get this thing going. Spoilers after the jump. Refresh often.

That sound you heard during the final few seconds of the first round in Strikeforce’s first female main event fight was Gina Carano’s skull changing shape under the pressure of repeated blows from Brazilian powerhouse Cris “Cyborg” Santos.  She overwhelmed Carano with her strength from the opening moments on the bout and, despite two completely failed takedown attempts that succeeded only in pulling Carano on top of her, she managed to keep things mostly on the feet where she had a clear advantage. 

After hurting Carano several times with some big bombs, she really poured it on in the last ten seconds of the first round after passing Carano’s half-guard.  As Gina lay curled up in tight little ball against the fence waiting for it to be over, Santos unleashed a vicious flurry of unanswered right hands.  Stopping the fight at that point was clearly the right decision, as Carano was far from being able to ask referee Josh Rosenthal what the fuck his problem was.

Afterwards Scott Coker did his best to pretend that he was just fine with Cyborg winning, suggesting there were plenty of promotional opportunities for her, such as telling women’s magazines about her workout plan.  Because doesn’t every woman want to look like Cyborg Santos?

Meanwhile, the other women in the hunt are calling ‘next’ on both Santos and Carano, with Golden Glory fighter Marloes Coenen saying she’ll get the first shot at the new champ, maybe by the end of the year.

In other action on the night…
 

After weeks of build-up to her fight with “the face of women’s MMA,” Cris “Cyborg” Santos has had enough of the “Beauty and the Beast” comparisons.  Talking with her via her interpreter this week, her frustration with the popular media storyline for the Strikeforce main event bout against Gina Carano was palpable, as was her lingering resentment towards Josh Barnett for the remarks he made about her inability to make weight in her last outing.  This time, she assures us, will be different.   

Check out what she had to say about the importance of this fight for women’s MMA, what she thinks of Carano’s popularity and her own relative obscurity, plus more in this interview.

Thanks for talking with me, Cris.  You got a lot of criticism for coming in over weight in your last fight.  How has the weight cut gone this time, and what are you weighing as of today?  [note: this interview took place on Monday, 8/10]

I’m 155 right now.  I’m on a very strict diet and I have very capable people around me making sure I’m doing the weight cut right.  It will be hard to cut the weight, as usual, but I will get it done.

You also took some criticism for the explanation that you gave as to why you missed weight last time.  How did you feel about that?

(The temptation to suggest a tickle fight for the belt must have been damn near overwhelming for Scott Coker.)

As Strikeforce bravely soldiers on toward what was supposed to be an epic event on Showtime before being brought back down to earth via a gypsy curse, it’s time we take a look at the fights oddsmakers are still offering betting lines on.  With Jesse Taylor in as a replacement for Nick Diaz against Jay Hieron, most online bookmakers are staying away from it at the moment.  Either they feel poet laureate “JT Money” is too much of an unknown quantity as a last-minute replacement, or they just assume that Nick Diaz will show up on fight night, stoned out of his mind, and refuse to allow this fight to go on without him.  We’re hoping for the latter.

The most favorable lines on the internet come to us courtesy of BestFightOdds.com:

Gina Carano (+161) vs. Cris “Cyborg” Santos (-170)
Renato “Babalu” Sobral (+200) vs. Gegard Mousasi (-205)
Mitsuhiro Ishida (+200) vs. Gilbert Melendez (-215)
Mike Kyle (+435) vs. Fabricio Werdum (-515)

The breakdown…

Gina Carano vs. Cris Cyborg Press Conference – Watch more Funny Videos

As promised, here are some of the memorable moments from yesterday’s "Carano vs. Cyborg" press conference in New York. To summarize:

0:00-1:34: Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg are introduced and brought on stage. Cris gives Gina the cold shoulder when she tries to make eye contact.

1:35-3:09: Gina makes some opening remarks and talks about having Randy Couture as a mentor.

3:10-5:13: Cyborg makes some opening remarks, thanks her husband Evangelista for helping her train, and talks about what she expects in the fight.

5:14-5:51: Responding to a question about how the fight is being marketed with Gina’s beauty, Cyborg acknowledges that MMA writers have been referring to this fight as "Beauty and the Beast," but that doesn’t bother her because it won’t matter during the fight. Ouch. Sorry, Cris.

(Click all images for larger versions.)

The WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden hosted a press conference this afternoon to promote Strikeforce’s upcoming "Carano vs. Cyborg" mega-card in San Jose on August 15th. I was there pretending to be a journalist and snapping pics with my trusty PowerShot. Video highlights will come later, but first I’d like to share some photos of the two headliners, the bright ‘n’ shiny belt they’ll be fighting for, and the half-cage that Strikeforce set up outside the building for a public open workout. All I’ll say for now is that Gina had better come prepared, because Cristiane Santos is looking yoked.

(Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos tosses around her 200-pound husband during a Showtime photoshoot. Click all images for larger versions. Photos courtesy of sports.sho.com via Fightlinker.)

MMA Junkie passes along some details on the August 15th Strikeforce title fight between Gina Carano (7-0) and Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos (7-1), informing us that the match is scheduled for five three-minute rounds, and will be contested at a weight of 145 pounds. So in other words, women can fight for 15 minutes just like the boys, as long as it’s in the context of a blockbuster title fight. (Yay, equality!)

Of course, that "145" is the more troubling number when it comes to these two. Cyborg famously came in seven pounds over the 145-pound limit for her last fight against Hitomi Akano, while Carano’s long history of scale fails include weighing in at 144.5 for a 140-pound fight against Kaitlin Young, and the infamous naked-behind-a-towel situation prior to her scrap with Kelly Kobold in October. While Cyborg blamed "woman problems" for missing weight, Carano probably should have been competing at 145 all along — though after a 10-month layoff, missing weight again is always a possibility. Good luck to both of these dangerous, water-retaining warriors.

"Carano vs. Cyborg" will be held at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California; tickets go on sale this Monday.