(These two guys could be brothers. Brothers with very different attitudes toward tanning.)

What do you do if you’re Strikeforce and you’ve just signed one of the most terrifyingly aggressive strikers of the modern era?  If you’re smart, you toss him against another heavy-hitter right off the bat and see whose head is still on their shoulders afterwards.  That seems to be the plan with new Strikeforce signee Melvin Manhoef, who will reportedly be taking on Robbie Lawler at Strikeforce’s Miami event on January 30.  There’s no official confirmation from Strikeforce on this just yet, but we know that they do owe Lawler a fight after he got shafted out of his chance to beat up Trevor Prangley in December, and Manhoef barely had a chance to break a sweat when he popped Kazuo Misaki at Dynamite!! on New Year’s Eve.

In fact, Manhoef was asked about the possibility of facing Lawler at his post-fight press conference in Tokyo, and he seemed game even if he didn’t appear to know too much about Lawler.  Said the Dutch striker:

"I don’t know if Robbie’s a…I heard he’s a banger, and not a grappler.  So, you know, maybe I don’t have to go on the ground.  We can do what we do the best.  I hope so."

Melvin, something tells us you’re about to get your wish.  While Lawler is known as a KO artist, he probably possesses the grappling skills to submit the notoriously submittable Manhoef should he choose to do so.  But if there’s one thing we know about Robbie it’s that he’s not one to shy away from a brawl, even when it might be the prudent decision.

Odds are, these two are going to play "Rock ‘em, Sock ‘em Robots" in the middle of the cage, and eventually somebody is going to fall down.  Our only question to you is, who will that somebody be?