("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.

("Diaz vs. Miller? I’d love to, but I think I’m busy that weekend." PicProps: MMA Convert)

Even after last week’s revelation that it would take “a couple fucking million dollars” to get Nick Diaz to meet Jason “Mayhem” Miller at a catchweight, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker says he’s still interested in making that fight … just not so interested that he’d actually take an active role in trying to book it. According to a story out on MMA Weekly this weekend, Coker says he didn’t even call Diaz manager Cesar Gracie during the recent period of negotiation when the fight almost happened, then didn’t.

“Sometimes I’ll call Cesar, but on that occasion I didn’t call Cesar and I let my guys handle it, and it was really close,” Coker said. “I thought it was going to happen, but at the last minute it fell apart. I know weight was definitely one of the issues. The weight they say, ‘Oh it’s only two pounds, three pounds,’ but you know what? When you’re two or three percent body fat, five percent body fat, there’s just not a lot to lose and we just couldn’t bridge the gap. In the future, I’d still like to put that fight together because I think they have some unfinished business with that match-up.”

By Cage Potato contributor S.C. Michaelson

(Hmm..Guess they ran out of space for Cyborg and Gracie on the poster.)

Saturday’s Strikeforce event is the promotion’s first non-Challengers event of 2011. Unfortunately, it’s been toiling in the shadows of the much-anticipated Heavyweight Grand Prix and hasn’t received much in the way of coverage. There are quite a few reasons to tune in this weekend.

Here are five big ones.

Herschel Walker, Genetic Freak
Though only a novice in the game of mixed martial arts, Hershel Walker is no stranger to high levels of competition. His athletic accolades read like a novel. College football Heisman trophy winner, All-Pro NFL running back, track and field star, black belt in Tae Kwon Do, Olympic bobsledder. Yes, Olympic bobsledder. And after all of this, Walker decides to throw his hat into the cage and try MMA. Did I mention he’s 48? Now, in MMA that may not seem special as we have our own version of a 48-year old wonder in Randy Couture, but Couture looks every year of 48. Walker, on the other hand, could pass for a man in his early 30s and has the physique that men in their athletic primes dream to attain. Herschel Walker, at 48, might be the greatest physical specimen to step foot in an MMA ring or cage…ever.

("I trust this dude so much, I’d let him be my chauffeur if he needed a job. We could make it into a reality show and call it ‘Driving Mr. Dana.’")

Dana White helmed a Q&A session at Fort Hood last week ahead of the Fight for the Troops II show Saturday night and the UFC president dropped a handful of interesting tidbits during the hour-long forum.

Perhaps most noteworthy was White’s proclamation that former UFC light heavyweight kingpin Quinton "Rampage" Jackson will likely get the next crack at the winner of the UFC 128 championship bout between current champ Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Rashad Evans. White pointed to Jackson’s win over Lyoto Machida at UFC 123 — a fight many thought should have gone to "The Dragon" — as being the main factor in his title consideration. He also hinted that the winner of next month’s UFC 127 tilt between Ryan Bader and Jon Jones will likely get dibs on the winner of Jackson versus Evans or Rua.

"There are so many guys at 205. Rampage is probably next in line. Rampage is still in the mix. We’ve got Jon Jones and Ryan Bader fighting on the fifth [of February], which is going to be a great fight and catapults one of those guys to the top five.There’s so many great guys in the 205-pound division," White said. "The big problem has been ‘Shogun’s’ injury has been clogging up the division. Now he’s healthy and going to fight, and we’ll get everything rolling. [Shogun's] recovered now and back in training."

Surprisingly, White said that Machida, who just as easily could be sitting in Rampage’s place in line had the judges given him the split decision nod over Jackson, needs to win his upcoming UFC 129 bout in Toronto with Randy Couture, stopping short of saying that he could be on the chopping block if he loses.

"I didn’t think [Lyoto] was ever going to lose," White admitted. "Shogun beat him, and then he just lost to Rampage, too," he explained. "Now he’s fighting Randy Couture. It’s a must-win for him."

White also touched on several other topics, rumors and bout signings. Check the most pertinent ones out after the jump.

(A milion bucks would buy a wicked PC, a shit ton of weed and a pretty wicked bulletin board.)

Strikeforce held a conference call today ahead of its January 29 Diaz vs. Cyborg event in San Jose, and as expected Diaz proved to be the main of interest.

Overshadowing his upcoming fight with Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos were Nick Diaz’s incendiary replies to the media’s questions about him turning down a fight with longtime nemesis Jason "Mayhem" Miller and his thoughts on the UFC’s welterweight class.

According to the Strikeforce welterweight champ, he feels that for the fight with Miller to happen, he would have to be offered at least seven figures and that highly-touted UFC fighters like Georges St-Pierre (who he thinks will be destroyed by his training partner Jake Shields at UFC 129) and Josh Koscheck are over-hyped and protected by the promotion.

Surprisingly, not one reporter thought to ask Diaz if he was high during the call.

Check out some of the highlights of Diaz’s diatribes after the jump.

("Say, ‘DANA!’")

Strikeforce announced today that welterweight champion and Gracie jiu-jitsu black belt Nick Diaz (23-7, 1 NC) has signed a new multi-year, multi-fight deal with the San Jose, California-based promotion.

Details of deal, including the duration and whether or not the contract is non-exclusive were not released, but with the signing Diaz put to bed rumors that he was angling for a return to the UFC to compete alongside his Team Cesar Gracie teammate Jake Shields when his Strikeforce contract ran out.

“I’m looking forward to continuing my career with Strikeforce,” said the 27-year-old Stockton native. “When I first got here, there weren’t a lot of great 170-pound fighters for me to fight, but that’s definitely changed. There’s a lot of really good fighters in the division now and I’m ready to fight anyone who thinks they can beat me.”

8-0 in his past eight fights, Diaz has only lost one fight in the past two years, which was a result of a stoppage due to a cut he sustained in his first bout with KJ Noons at Elite XC: Renegade in 2007. He was released by the UFC following back-to-back wins over Josh Neer and Gleison Tibau in his last two Octagon appearances.

(You don’t want any part of this, Nick. No part whatsoever. / Photo courtesy of ESPN.)

It’s official: Nick Diaz vs. Jason Miller ain’t happening, at least not in the near future. With both sides failing to come to an agreement on weight class, Strikeforce has decided to move on with their welterweight champion, reportedly booking Diaz to defend his belt against Chute Boxe veteran Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos. The fight is expected to take place on the January 29th San Jose card that will also feature the middleweight title fight between Ronaldo "Grappler" Souza vs. Robbie "Striker" Lawler.

(VidProps: YouTube/DSSFight)

Gotta admit, this Jason “Mayhem” Miller is one crafty guy. Practically as soon as we hit “save” on our rant about how we’re sick and tired of all this Miller-vs.-Diaz nonsense, the guy releases the above video brilliance and – boom – we’re suckered right back in again. The Scrap Pack thought they were being clever with their little internet statement that made it look like it was Miller that wouldn’t fight Nick Diaz? Mayhem laughs in the face of your flawed rhetorical strategy, Cesar Gracie.

Count on the "Bully Beatdown" host to take tihings to the next level. Dude goes all political-smear campaign on us here and the results are pretty effective. Dig the subtle inclusion of Jared Shaw at the 19-second mark, among the montage of “wannabe gangsters.” That’s attention to detail, people. As for the footage of Diaz’s admission that he “can make 185” and wants “someone to offer me a fight” at the 23 second mark? Well, that’s just good shit. Your move, 209.

(Seriously, Nick, nobody wants to see this happen.)

After conceding earlier this week that a much anticipated bout between his protegee, Nick Diaz and the Stockton fighter’s nemesis, Jason "Mayhem" Miller will likely not happen, Cesar Gracie has turned his sights on another opponent for his charge to fight next.

In an interview he did this week, Gracie revealed that he is making a case for a Diaz-Paul Daley match-up and that they could be ready in a month if Strikeforce will put the fight together.

"I would take that fight right now for January," Gracie said.

As far as the fight with Miller not going down, Gracie, who points out that moving up to middleweight to fight a fighter who isn’t ranked in the top ten by any outlets would be a lose-lose situation for Diaz, says that the blame should rest squarely on the shoulders of Mayhem.

(If this fence wasn’t here, Nick Diaz would be in *trouble.* Pic Props: ProMMANow)

It started out funny, quickly got silly and the latest news out of the Jason “Mayhem” Miller vs. Nick Diaz tiff just makes us feel tired and sad and a little bit annoyed. The weirdly unclickable GracieFighter.com – which according to its own time sigs has been updating its news section about once a month since Jake Shields beat Martin Kampmann back in October – posted an update on Sunday so spinny that it reads like an out-of-work Republican political strategist wrote it after a couple cocktails. Essentially the website is taking it upon itself to call off any potential fight between Diaz and Miller, which – as far we knew – wasn’t happening anyway. It’s probably best if we just let you read it in its entirety but don’t worry, the Gracie camp wrote it, so it’s pretty short.

(Diaz insists all negotiations be handled through the proper channels. PicProps: CombatLifestyle.)

Don’t fret homies, Nick Diaz is totally down to fight Jason “Mayhem” Miller in the Strikeforce cage just as soon as that organization actually gets around to offering him the fight. So said Diaz mentor and trainer-to-the-stars (seriously, any stars) Cesar Gracie during an appearance on MMA Junkie Radio this week. One problem: Gracie said Mayhem can’t make welterweight and Diaz damn sure isn’t going all the way up to 185-pounds to fight him, so CEO Scott Coker (or maybe somebody who really wears the pants in Strikeforce) is going to have to figure out a catchweight. Any implication to the contrary is just Miller running his mouth, Gracie said.

"If that fight was offered, yeah, we’d probably take that fight," Gracie said. "We’d just have to look at what weight class it’s going to be in and apparently, Mayhem can’t make 170. We’re not going to accommodate going to 185 … That fight just hasn’t been offered to us in an official manner yet. I know Mayhem goes on his websites and (says) Nick is ducking him and everything.  It’s kind of hard to duck someone when you haven’t even been offered the fight. It’s just Mayhem talking about that. Until it’s been offered, you can’t say yes or no."

(Props: NickDiaz209)

Back in July 2002, when Nick Diaz was an 18-year-old rookie with a pro record of 1-0, and Chris Lytle was a 9-6-5 journeyman Pancrase vet trying to hit his stride, the two welterweights met at an IFC Warriors Challenge event in Porterville, California. It was a gritty scrap, with the momentum going back and forth, Nick’s forehead getting slashed open, and one of the bikini-clad ring girls freaking out about a heel-hook attempt at the 13:46 mark. (That’s our kind of chick.) Diaz wound up taking a narrow split decision. Both fighters would make their UFC debuts the following year, but never crossed paths in the cage again.

(Video courtesy YouTube/Fight!Magazine)

If you haven’t seen it yet, take a few minutes to watch the short feature Fight! Magazine did on Nick Diaz. You wouldn’t know that Nick had issues with doing interviews or media by watching the smiling and laughing Stockton, California native talk about his life and early days of training.

Some interesting things he had to say that may surprise some is that he doesn’t overly like fighting, doesn’t care about his Strikeforce title and that if the pay was better he would forgo fighting to focus on being a triathlete.

"Do I love fighting? No, I don’t love fighting it’s a living hell. My first thought when I step in the cage is, ‘In about 20 minutes I’m going to be in a shower rinsing all the blood off of me; hopefully it’s the other guys and not mine,’" Diaz explains. "If they paid me to race triathlons as much as they do to fight, I probably wouldn’t fight any more."

Ruben Vera catches up with Jason Mayhem Miller – Watch more Funny Videos

CagePotato’s West Coast Correspondent Ruben Vera recently got some time with Strikeforce/DREAM star Jason Miller, and if there’s one thing you should take away from this interview, it’s that BULLY BEATDOWN RETURNS NOVEMBER 4TH!!! Okay, now that the shameless plug is out of the way, we can get down to business. Mayhem is rather upset that Nick Diaz has the gall to talk shit and throw water bottles at him backstage after Strikeforce events, but won’t step up to fight him in front of a paying audience. He also runs down his DREAM.16 fight against Kazushi Sakuraba, his recent trip to Brazil, bringing MMA to a new audience with Bully Beatdown, and UFC 121‘s marquee matchups. Some highlights…

On Nick Diaz: "Man, this guy’s a paper champion, get out of here with this. What the hell? So he beat up a 155-pound KJ Noons, and ‘ohhh, you gotta come down to 170, bro.’ Get out of here! Like, okay, what exactly does that mean? The only fight anyone wants to see is me and Nick Diaz. Outside of the UFC, that’s the only fight that people are talking about, here in America. I’m sorry, that’s how it is. You broke it off, you jumped me. You did it, you asked for it, you talked about, for years, guys with painted hair who bark at themselves. Who are you talking about? You didn’t call out names. I’m calling out names! Nick Diaz is a bitch…he wants it, but he doesn’t. ‘Oh, come to my gym and fight me.’ Come to your gym and fight you? Really? That’s what you’re saying now? Get out of here, man. Step in the cage and fight me, you know? It’s ridiculous."

(Where’s a loaded musket when you need one? Props: Fighters Only)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

– Josh Koscheck, Georges St-Pierre Get UFC 124 Hype Officially Underway at Press Conference in Montreal (MMA Fighting)

– Diaz, Thomson Top 211K Fighter Payroll For Diaz vs. Noons II (Heavy.com/MMA)

– SB Nation Exclusive: UFC 120′s Mike Pyle Reflects on His Career in MMA (Watch Kalib Run)

– Why Dan Hardy vs Carlos Condit Should Be the Headline Fight at UFC 120 (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Joseph Benavidez vs. Wagnney Fabiano Booked for WEC 52 (Versus MMA Beat)

- Nick Diaz: How Do These Guys Expect to Beat Me? [VIDEO](FightMagazine)

– Comeback "Gracie Style": Exclusive interview with Daniel Gracie (LowKick)

– Antonio Silva vs. Valentijn Overeem Official For Strikeforce ‘Henderson vs. Babalu’ (MMA Convert)

– Classic Fight: Royler Gracie vs. Genki Sudo @ K-1 MMA Romanex 2004 (MMA Scraps)

– Marloes Coenen Gets a Hero’s Welcome in Amsterdam (MiddleEasy)

(Props: CompuStrike via BloodyElbow. Click for larger version.)

Just because there were no major screw-ups during Saturday’s Strikeforce show, doesn’t mean they didn’t get a couple of minor details wrong. Case in point: the CompuStrike numbers that came back after the Diaz vs. Noons main event. Was anybody else shocked to learn that KJ Noons actually outstruck Nick Diaz 310-194, and landed a full 51% of his strikes? It seemed to us that Diaz was controlling the standup exchanges pretty clearly. As it turns out, CompuStrike incorrectly reported the strike totals from the fight, due to a "glitch" in their system; the real totals are above. There, now you can rest easily knowing that the decision was fair and your eyes did not deceive you.

Now, moving onto judging errors…

(Anybody can do a punchface. That’s kid stuff. PicProps: Strikeforce)

That’s about as good as Strikeforce can do it, right there. America’s bridesmaid MMA promotion – typically cited for ineptness more than greatness – put on its best show in some time on Saturday night in San Jose. Nick Diaz and KJ Noons slogged through an exciting, if a bit repetitive, five-round main event that left Noons with a broken jaw and hand and Diaz bloodied, but still clinging to his welterweight title. The homies even looked like true homies after the final horn, hugging it out at the center of the cage. Meanwhile, Marloes Coenen appeared tall and capable in taking the women’s 135-pound belt off Sarah Kaufman, while Josh Thomson slipped by JZ Cavalcante, but once again proved that his main, main thing is making declarative statements and calling fools out.

Did the quality of the broadcast still leave a lot to be desired? Sure, Jim Ross, it always does. But at this point we’re focusing on the positives. Like the bitch mom from “American Beauty” we feel like grabbing Strikeforce by its rosy cheeks this morning and announcing: “You didn’t even screw up once!” Now on to the particulars.

(Ah, memories. PicProps: MMA Weekly)

The Diaz and Noons clans renew their Hatfield vs. McCoy-style family feud tonight in the Strikeforce cage. We all know what happened last time. A lot has changed in the three years since doctors stepped in to award Karl James Jr. a first-round victory over Nickolas Robert in EliteXC. In the wake of that fight, one guy opted to let surgeons fix his face. The other guy got called “luckier than a dog with two peckers.” The weirdo 160-pound strap they fought over in EliteXC doesn’t even exist anymore. Perhaps most importantly, homies everywhere have been reminded not to be scared. Kind of makes you shudder to think what might happen in the rematch, huh?

The live blog begins at 10 p.m. EST. Be sure to hit refresh early and often to stay abreast of the latest updates.

(VidProps: YouTube/Heyman Hustle)

Even though it probably committed its welterweight champion to the wrong grudge match, Strikeforce has managed to cobble together a decent little card for its Showtime broadcast tonight. Nick Diaz’s main event bout with KJ Noons could be the kind of brawlalicous slugfest that MMA fans always say we don’t see enough. Couple that with Sarah Kaufman finally getting the chance to fight on a “major” show and Josh Thomson battling Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante for the respect he believes they so richly deserve, and it should be a pretty good time. So why do I feel so concerned? Maybe because there are a few storylines running just below the surface that we as MMA fans should find a bit disquieting. Here’s a look at them … 
 

The icy glares of Nick Diaz and KJ Noons that have been haunting the top of our homepage all day should serve as a firm reminder — Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Noons II goes down tomorrow night on Showtime, starting at 10 p.m. Be sure to come back tomorrow for round-by-round results in our liveblog. In the meantime, check out the final thoughts from a few of the main card players in these clips from strikeforcefilms.

Above: Marloes Coenen and Sarah Kaufman discuss their 135-pound title scrap. 135 is an unfamiliar weight class for Coenen, but she’s had no problem with the cut, and as you can see during the face-off at the end, she’ll be carrying a serious height advantage.

After the jump: KJ Noons talks about his own trip to a new weight class, and his appreciation of Diaz’s style. Nick Diaz gives him props for taking the rematch, and suggests that he might not have been motivated in their first fight, due to Noons’s lack of name-value. ("I’d rather fight Fedor, y’know?") Then, some genius reporter asks Nick if he’s going to jump ship to the UFC, with Scott Coker sitting right next to him. Ouch. Also, Tyron Woodley breaks down his matchup with Andre Galvao and talks about his development in the sport.

(Diaz pops Marcus Davis in the jaw at UFC 118; meanwhile, Yves Lavigne notices the rancid smell coming from his armpits. / Props: CageWriter.com)

As first broken by Korean news site mfight.co.kr, Nate Diaz (13-5) will reportedly make his Octagon return against Dong Hyun "Stun Gun" Kim (13-0-1, 1 no contest), at UFC 125: Edgar vs. Maynard on New Year’s Day. Diaz most recently picked up his second victory at welterweight, beating the piss out of Marcus Davis at UFC 118 before choking him to sleep in the third round.

Kim’s last cage-appearance was a unanimous decision win over Amir Sadollah at UFC 114, in a performance that was marked by Kim’s superior wrestling and positional control. No, it wasn’t the most exciting fight, but it got the job done and preserved DHK’s unblemished record. Kim was scheduled to return against John Hathaway at UFC 120, but was forced to drop out of the fight due to injury. (Injury withdrawals are kind of a bad habit for Kim, who also missed scheduled UFC meetings with Dan Hardy and Chris Lytle.)

Diaz is on his way to becoming a real contender in the welterweight division — but as we saw in his lightweight losses to Gray Maynard, Joe Stevenson, and Clay Guida, he’s vulnerable against strong wrestlers. If Kim can blanket him like he did to Sadollah, it could be a sad night in Stockton.

(Now that’s gangster. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com) 

Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Noons II goes down Saturday night (Showtime, 10 p.m. ET/PT), and it’s not too late to put some cash on the fights. If you’ve already blown your kids’ college fund — hey, it happens — please swing by MMA Fightpicker and made your picks there. Otherwise, check out the Internet’s most favorable betting odds (below, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com) and let’s get to work…

MAIN CARD
Nick Diaz (-199) vs. KJ Noons (+200)
Sarah Kaufman (-290) vs. Marloes Coenen (+273)
Josh Thomson (-160) vs. Gesias "J.Z." Cavalcante (+159)
Tyron Woodley (-240) vs. Andre Galvao (+220)

PRELIMINARY CARD
Bret Bergmark (-124) vs. James Terry (+120)
Eric Lawson (-110) vs. Ron Keslar (EV)

(Video courtesy YouTube/TheShoot)

When Nate Diaz said in an interview last week that sponsors help put clothing on fighters’ backs and food on their tables, he apparently wasn’t referring to his brother, Nick, who says he’s broke and that he doesn’t make enough money to buy anything but food.

"People need to understand that I don’t make a lot of money. For real. I spent all my money on food. I don’t have any money; I spent it all on food. I didn’t buy anything," he explained. "I worry about taxes and I watch my bank account just, *whoosh* get sucked away. So I’m like, man, I just want to fight and get paid, you know?"

By "food," I wonder if he’s referring to weed since that would explain how all of his money went up in smoke.

Nick made $100,000 for his Strikeforce win over Mariusz Zaromskis in February alone, not including sponsorship money. Maybe he and Nate need to hire an accountant like Chuck Liddell look over their books.

(Props: graciefighterz)

This Saturday in San Jose, Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz will defend his belt against KJ Noons, the last fighter to defeat him. Diaz vs. Noons 1 took place at EliteXC: Renegade in November 2007; the fight was stopped due to cuts after the first round. Since their first meeting, Diaz has gone 7-0 (all wins by stoppage), with notable victories over Frank Shamrock, Scott Smith, Marius Zaromskis, and Hayato Sakurai. Noons has gone 4-0 since his win over Diaz, scoring knockouts against Yves Edwards and Jorge Gurgel.

It’s a rematch that needed to happen eventually, and most oddsmakers currently have Diaz at more than a 2-1 favorite, apparently based on Nick’s reputation and the fact that Noons is fighting in an unfamiliar weight class. The question is, will it look anything like their first meeting? In case you haven’t lately, check out the above video of their first fight. Let’s try to break it down…

(The Strikeforce Police will be a fixture at every event Nick Diaz is at)

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker says that if a brawl erupts during the weigh-ins or main event bout of this Saturday’s event, the promotion will shoulder the blame this time around for not having the proper preventative measures in place.

Coker appeared yesterday on MMAFighting’s The MMA Hour and told host, Ariel Helwani that there will be plenty of precautions to ensure Nick Diaz and KJ Noons’ camps don’t throw down before or after their scheduled fight this weekend.

"I’ll tell you what – if we leave those two guys in a room alone, I think you know what’s going to happen," Coker said. "So it’s up to us – we’re going to have a wall of security there. We’ve brought extra police to handle the weigh-ins, the press conference and pretty much a wall of people will be there for the night of the fight. We have to take precautionary measures because these guys have this big feud – and it’s not just them, it’s their camps. We’re going to make sure that we host it properly, and part of that is adding extra security and police officers, and it’ll be fine."

(“What the fuck did you just say?” PicProps: Showtime)

Looks like the intrepid journalists at Strikeforce Films had to go to the gym and pull a shirtless Nick Diaz out of a training session in order to actually get him on the record about his upcoming rematch with KJ Noons. This after Diaz no-showed the company’s media conference call on Tuesday, leaving Noons to answer everybody’s questions all by his lonesome. Maybe that was for the best actually, since the last time Strikeforce tried to put Diaz onto a conference call he was so “sleepy” he didn’t really know what was going on. Or Maybe the Diaz Bros are finally starting to realize that talking to the media shouldn’t be their main thing, given how much stupid shit they constantly say whenever they get the chance. No wait, sorry, they’re still totally into doing that.

Anyway, the result of SF Films’ effort is after the jump, and it’s pretty much what you would expect: Diaz continues act like he thinks of himself as a normal, happy-go-lucky guy who just can’t believe that all these assholes keep fucking with him.

(Surefire prediction: Nobody is getting submitted in this one.)

According to several reports that we have since been able to substantiate with sources close to the bout, Scott Smith will likely make good on his proclamation that he is dropping down a weight class when he takes on newly-acquired welterweight Paul Daley in a December Strikeforce bout. The fight, which is sure to be a slugfest is said to have been verbally agreed to by both fighters.

Daley (25-9-2) has never been knocked out, but Smith (17-7 1NC), who is known for his somewhat reckless, go-for-broke style of fighting will be looking to change that statistic when the pair meet at the end of 2010. 7-3 in his last 10 outings, Daley’s last loss was the decision to Josh Koscheck that saw him tossed from the UFC for attacking the reviled American Kickboxing Academy fighter after the final bell. Since being released by the organization, he has gone 2-0 against Chute Boxe’s Daniel Acacio (21-10) at Impact FC 2: The Uprising in July and American Top Team’s Jorge Masvidal (20-6) at Shark Fights 13: Jardine vs. Prangley in September.

5-4 (1 NC) in his past 10 fights, Smith announced after his most recent loss to former Strikeforce middleweight champion Cung Le in June that he would likely be cutting to 170 pounds to compete as a welterweight, despite having beaten Le handily in his previous outing.

("I got your conference call for you right here, Coker.")

Apparently Nick Diaz doesn’t like conference calls.

If Strikeforce would have read his "Things I don’t like," rider he sent along to them with his signed contract, they would have realized that "conference calls" were on the list before "Mayhem Miller" and after "children" and they wouldn’t have scheduled him for a media call that he had no intention of participating in. 

So instead of pulling the plug on today’s call completely when they realized Nick wasn’t interested in talking to reporters about his October 9 title defense against KJ Noons, they got the next best guest they could get on short notice for the call: Cesar Gracie. No, seriously, that’s the best they could do.

According to Diaz’s outspoken coach, it "isn’t in Nick’s psyche" to do conference calls with his upcoming opponents, but he didn’t have a problem pretending to know what Nick would say in response to reporters’ questions.

Here’s the transcript of the call, which seemed suspiciously more like a scripted infomercial than a conference call at times. I’m not surprised Nick took one look at his lines and said, "Fuck that; I’m out."

(The moral of the story? When Gina Carano does it, it’s awesome. When Paulo Filho does it, it’s terrible. / Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com)

Anybody can be forgiven for missing weight by a half-pound — as long as it doesn’t become a habit. But when an MMA fighter comes in a full four pounds heavy, as Efrain Escudero did this week for his doomed UFC Fight Night 22 bout against Charles Oliveira, it tends to raise some eyebrows. As we’ve done previously with steroid busts, we decided to catalog the worst scale-fails in MMA history, arranged by number of pounds over the limit. When the information was available, we also listed the punishments the fighters were given, along with their excuses for missing weight, which range from injuries to salt water to the dreaded “menstrual period.” This is by no means a definitive list — but we’d like it be, eventually. So if you know of any other occasions where fighters missed weight by four pounds or more, or missed weight for multiple fights, please let us know in the comments section.

* Note: We’ve eliminated the “Repeat Offenders” section. In the instances where fighters has notably missed weight on more than one occasion (see: A. Johnson, P. Daley, T. Alves), we’ve ranked them in the leaderboard by their greatest weigh-in failure.

Karl Knothe @ Shark Fights 17
Weigh-in date: 7/14/11
Weight: 253.75 pounds, 23.75 over the 230-pound catchweight limit
How is that even possible? Due to some miscommunication between Knothe and his management, Knothe was never informed that his scheduled bout against Ricco Rodriguez was supposed to be at a catchweight, instead of at heavyweight.
Result: The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation disallowed Knothe from competing due to the large weight-gap and concerns over excessive weight-cutting. Knothe was paid a portion of his salary anyway, while Ricco Rodriguez instead faced 5-12 replacement Doug Williams. Rodriguez won via rear-naked choke in the first round.

Ricardo Mayorga @ Omega MMA: Battle of the Americas
Weigh-in date: 5/2/13
Weight: 175.9 pounds, 20.9 pounds over the limit for his contracted lightweight match against Wesley Tiffer, who came in at 153. Needlessly to say, shoving ensued.
How was this fight even allowed to happen?: The match took place in Managua, Nicaragua — which is Mayorga’s hometown, by the way — and the Nicaraguan combat sports commission that was overseeing the event didn’t seem to have a problem with the ludicrous weight discrepancy. (I hear they’re much more stringent when it comes to cock-fighting.)
Result: Mayorga by TKO after two rounds, aided by a fairly illegal knee to the spine. Stay classy, Ricardo.

(Hipster, please. PicProps: GBRing)

Nick Diaz, it seems, is the new Tapout. Perhaps taking his cue from Jason “Mayhem” Miller’s iron-on awesomeness, Shinya Aoki showed up for a Dream.16 prefight press conference in Tokyo over the weekend sporting his own Diaz T-shirt. Where Miller’s shirt was straightforward and to-the-point, Aoki’s – which is manufactured by the TwoThree clothing company – was a bit more verbose. Seriously, this has to be considered the most unlikely MMA fashion trend since Jesus Didn’t Tap and a muddled attempt to figure out what it all means is after the jump.