(Props: AXS TV Fights)

We knew that Strikeforce’s November 3rd event in Oklahoma City was in trouble after losing its main event and co-main event due to injuries. (By the way, top female prospect Sara McMann just dropped out of her main card fight against Liz Carmouche due to an undisclosed injury. Unbelievable.) But Strikeforce’s recent string of awful luck might actually turn out to be the death-knell for the promotion. Here’s what Kenny Rice had to say on yesterday’s episode of Inside MMA:

‘Inside MMA’ has heard from multiple sources that the relationship between Strikeforce and Showtime may be coming to an end. We are being told that the November 3rd event is in serious jeopardy, and there is a strong possibility that Showtime will no longer broadcast Strikeforce events. This could very possibly signify the end of the Strikeforce brand. Strikeforce was purchased by Zuffa, the UFC parent company, in March of 2011. We have yet to receive any word from either Showtime or Strikeforce as this development continues.

(Welcome, gentlemen. We’ve been waiting for you.)

For the second consecutive month, Zuffa has canceled an event on very short notice due to one of the headliners pulling out with an injury. As confirmed in a press release on UFC.com, Gilbert Melendez suffered an injury in training, and was forced to withdraw from his lightweight title fight against Pat Healy at this Saturday’s Strikeforce show in Sacramento. As a result, the 9/29 card has been scratched altogether.

As with UFC 151, the relative weakness of the “Melendez vs. Healy” supporting card was surely a factor in the event’s cancelation. But what makes this situation unique is that Showtime essentially made the decision, not Strikeforce. From the press release:

Without the Melendez-Healy title bout, SHOWTIME®, which determines which fights are televised on the premium network, decided that it would not air Saturday’s scheduled event.

“When SHOWTIME informed us that it would not be airing the event, we made the difficult decision to cancel Saturday’s card in Sacramento,” STRIKEFORCE CEO Scott Coker said. “Without a television partner, we simply could not move forward with this event. We wish Gilbert a speedy recovery and will work diligently and quickly to reschedule the fighters affected by this news on upcoming cards.”

We’re not sure, but we think that the gal in the above video calling herself Sarah Kaufman‘s “number one fan,” is actually Strikeforce champion Ronda Rousey. Kaufman challenges Rousey for her 135lb women’s title belt on August 18th in San Diego and we think the champ might be having a lil fun with this video.

Rousey Kaufman’s super fan goes on for nearly four minutes talking about what a bad, entitled attitude the Strikeforce champ and Judo Olympic medalist has, as demonstrated by her career ambition. There’s also a weird dude taping and joining in on the fun in the video, and then Rousey Judo flips and “arm bars” a vacuum cleaner. Like most things Rousey does, it is impressive, scary and hot.

Really, we have no idea what she’s doing in the video but we still watched it and so should you. After the jump, video of Rousey Judo-flipping and arm barring Bas Rutten. Just because.

(No, this is not the ‘All Access’ video, but rather a behind-the-scenes video of her ESPN ‘The Body’ shoot. Go ahead and complain. I DARE YOU.)

“Everything you need in a fighter, she has, yet she’s a woman and she’s beautiful. The Ronda Rousey package is different than any other package we’ve ever seen.”

So says UFC President Dana White as he leads us into Showtime’s “All Access” look at the Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion, Olympic Judo bronze medalist, and occasional TMZ host Ronda Rousey, who in just over two years has managed to almost effortlessly ascend to the sport’s highest level. And it’s hard to deny that “Rowdy” is an athlete unlike many, if not all of her counterparts — a hot female Jon Jones if you will — whose “kill or be killed” outlook on life (and aforementioned looks) has led her to achieve massive success in easily the most overlooked facet of MMA. We’re talking of course, about the ladies.

Detailing everything from Rousey’s heated title-earning feud with Meisha Tate (Spoiler: It ended like all of Rousey’s fights do) to her (gulp) nude shoot for ESPN’s The Body issue to her preparation for her upcoming title defense against Sarah Kaufman, “All Access” truly lives up to it’s name. Showtime takes us inside the champion’s house, which looks like an average episode of Hoarders, and snags interviews with everyone from Gina Carano, who Ronda admits convinced her to drop trau for ESPN in the first place (as if we needed to thank Gina for anything else) to former HooknShoot Grand Prix winner Julie Kedzie.

So check out the full video after the jump, and let us know what you think.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/ShoSports)

It looks like Showtime and Zuffa are going all-in with Strikeforce’s final push at staying alive.

The latest promo for the March 3 Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey event is fantastic. It might even be better than the “Sympathy for the Devil” UFC on Fox promo.

(You know what? I still think Chad Griggs could have whipped all your asses.)

Strikeforce put out a press release today announcing their contract renewal with premium cable channel Showtime, which officially begins with the Rockhold vs. Jardine event on January 7th. Under the terms of the new agreement, Showtime will produce and televise up to eight live events, and will also begin broadcasting undercard fights on Showtime Extreme.

Said Dana White: “We’re excited about this renewal with Showtime and I expect to put on some big Strikeforce events next year. I never thought I would say this, but I am very much looking forward to building Strikeforce and working very closely with Showtime.”

According to the press release, the winner of the World Grand Prix Heavyweight Tournament (either Josh Barnett or Daniel Cormier) will compete again on Showtime under the Strikeforce banner in the months to follow. But after that, the reign of big men in Strikeforce will be history.

(Well, at least *some* of the inevitable changes will be good.)

When it was announced today that media giant Viacom had purchased Bellator Fighting Championships, most of us probably overlooked the bigger picture of what the deal means to the landscape of MMA. At a glance, better financial backing and being on a more popular channel like Spike means better fights and bigger paychecks for fighters, but behind the scenes the scope of the deal is likely much bigger than we know and the aftershocks will be felt for some time.

Check out four of the biggest likelihoods that will come out of the purchase after the jump.

(Vadim’s revenge on Dana: Selling bootleg UFC shirts.)

Fedor Emelianenko’s manager Vadim Finkelchtein did an interview recently with Championat.com about the fighting future of his fighter whose career has hit a roadblock following his third straight loss two weeks ago to Dan Henderson. During the Q&A the Dana White’s favorite crazy Russian revealed that “The Last Emperor” will fight in the fall in Russia on the next M-1 Global show, possibly against fellow slumping former PRIDE standout Kevin Randleman, and that the event will likely be shown on Showtime.

Check out the full translation of what Vadim had to say after the jump.

(It will be interesting to see how Viacom’s vested interest in the company will translate into its promotion of ProElite)

By Mike Russell

It looks like the proclamation UFC president Dana White made a few months ago that CBS will likely go head-to-head with his promotion again in the near future was right on the money.

Sources close to the promotion that was recently brought back from the verge of death by Stratus Media Group, who acquired a 95 percent ownership stake of the company in June, have informed CagePotato.com that ProElite is in the final stages of negotiations for a multi-year television deal with Viacom that will see its events broadcast on both Showtime and CBS starting in the first quarter of 2012.

(How many muppets must die for Jason Miller to dress in the manner to which he’s become accustomed? Pic: ESPN)

Truly spoken like a dude who’s used to being asked to leave. Some pretty classic quotes out on Tuesday from fighter, television host and all-purpose awesome dude Jason “Mayhem” Miller re: recent reports that Strikeforce literally couldn’t find him a fight during the last year of his contract because he’d become persona non grata at both Showtime and parent network CBS. Turns out, though he knew he was in hot water after his participation in the April, 2010 Nashville brawl, nobody at any of the above corporate entities bothered to inform Mayhem that he was no longer welcome on the two television stations and – therefore – damaged goods for Strikeforce. Instead, they just put him on the shelf to rot.

“I asked, and guess what? Nobody would tell me,” Miller told MMA Fighting. “This is a political environment. Nobody’s going to tell you. They’re just going to be cowards about it. That’s the way of the world. Nobody’s going to tell the crazy ultimate fighter guy to his face, ‘Hey, screw you.’ They’re not going to do that.”

There may be photos from the fights out there, but who cares?

Last night, Norfolk, VA played home to M-1 Global’s first solo endeavor on Showtime. Many fans look upon M-1 as nothing more than a small stain on the MMA landscape, like that thing on Gorbachev’s head. But there’s no need to rehash any of M-1’s previous dealings and maneuvers, as we now have an actual body of work to dissect and discuss. This event marked their first notable attempt to make a splash in North American MMA alone. No Fedor, no Strikeforce, no co-promotion. No one to blame for their shortcomings and no one to steal credit for their success.

With Zuffa’s purchase of Strikeforce, there’s a surplus of promotions striving to claim the #2 spot in the MMA food chain. So was this M-1’s Sputnik moment, or more of a Chernobyl style disaster? Am I done with these terrible Russian analogies? Keep reading to find out.

“Konichiwa, bitches!”

There are a lot of things we’ve come to know about Dana White over the years. He loves his Pink Berry. He relieves stress by pulling mediocre pranks on his subordinates. He’s an astute, cut throat businessman. And he holds a grudge like a mother fucker. It’s these last two traits that we’ll be examining at this time. With the UFC’s latest acquisition, Dana is in the position of working directly with many of the folks he’s either banned from the UFC or burned bridges with when attempts to work with them didn’t pan out. Aside from the recent legal quandary surrounding Roy Nelson’s employment, Zuffa has proven through aggressive litigation and hard ball negotiation that they know their way around a contract. This makes it very likely that Dana will do just as he says in honoring all current Strikeforce related contracts.

But virtually all contracts come to an end at some point, and when Strikeforce’s agreements reach their expiration date it’s a whole new ballgame. Some Strikeforce staples, such as open, non-exclusive contracts and event co-promotion are sure to disappear. The same is certain for many of the organization’s familiar faces, both in front of the camera and in the cage. Despite Dana’s vindictive nature, he didn’t get where he is today by letting hard feelings get in the way of good business. Let’s take a closer look at who’s on the chopping block when the legal obligations dissolve and Dana is wielding the axe.

(Both Coker and White received news of the ratings at exactly the same time)

According to a report by MMAJunkie.com Saturday night’s Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery event, that featured a main event title fight between champion Alistair Overeem and contender Brett Rogers broadcast on Showtime drew 40.43 percent fewer viewers than the Strikeforce: Miami show that was presented by the network in January. 

To put into perspective how bad the ratings for the show are, last weekend’s broadcast netted 308,000 Showtime subscribers, while the UFC’s Spike TV broadcasted counter-programming initiative, UFC’s Ultimate Fights, was seen by 894,000 viewers.

No matter how you slice it, things aren’t looking good for Strikeforce, especially if they eventually do reach out to CBS to plead their case to have another show broadcast on the cable network.

("Nice flower-tattoo, cupcake. I just got a tattoo of the Virgin Mary being ripped apart by pitbulls, directly on my asshole." / Photo courtesy of Strikeforce. More pics are below, including one of an alarmingly fat Wes Sims.)

Tonight’s Strikeforce event at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida (aka "Miami") has such a fantastic mix of high-level MMA and can’t-look-away freak shows. On the top of the card you’ve got Nick Diaz battling for Strikeforce’s vacant welterweight title against head-kickin’ rising star Marius Zaromskis, while 145-pound lady-champ Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos makes her first belt defense against Dutch submission artist Marloes Coenen. On the other end of the card, 47-year-old former football star Herschel Walker will kick off his cage-fighting career against Greg Nagy, while Wes Sims — who owns the physique of a 47-year-old — will do his best to avoid getting squashed by pro-wrestler Bobby Lashley. And somewhere in-between, Robbie "Brawler" Lawler and Melvin "Man-Hoof" Manhoef will launch leather at each other until one of them can no longer intelligently defend himself. If you’re not excited for this card, then you probably don’t use words like "excited" in general. Live results from the Showtime broadcast will be piling up after the jump, starting at 10 p.m. ET. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest.

Update: Dubus22 wins the t-shirt! Please send your name, address, and size to feedback@cagepotato.com.

(Props: sports.sho.com)

With Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers just five days away, Showtime is spreading the word with an episode of their new half-hour hype-series, Fight Camp 360; the Fedor/Rogers installment debuts tonight at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT, so set your DVRs now. As you can see from the preview clip above, Emelianenko is being presented as a living embodiment of "fear of the unknown" — an immortal of MMA with no apparent weaknesses — while Brett Rogers is the man of little fear and great faith, who can create his own legend with a win on Saturday.

Fight Camp 360 will take viewers inside the training camps of both fighters, from Fedor’s remote compound in Stary Oskol, to Rogers’s home base in Minnesota. For a better idea of what you’ll be seeing tonight, check out MMA Fanhouse’s detailed recap of the show, and MMA Junkie’s exclusive photo set from Emelianenko’s camp (warning: shirtless Jerry Millen). Replay times are after the jump…

(The latest Fedor/Rogers video promo, courtesy of YouTube.com/CBS. Props to MMA Fanhouse for the tip.)

Just as HBO uses the 24/7 series to plug notable boxing matches, Showtime has launched its own behind-the-scenes hype series with Fight Camp 360, which debuted October 10th with a profile on the Super Six World Boxing Classic. But 360 won’t be limited to just boxing. According to Brett Rogers, Showtime is preparing an episode of the show to promote Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers, slated to air about a week before their November 7th fight.

Of course, that event will air on CBS, not Showtime. But Showtime is owned by CBS Corporation, and it’s the network outlet for most of Strikeforce’s events, so it’s in their best interest to pitch in with the promotional effort, which has taken a while to warm up. But hey, better late than never — and it’s great to see MMA fighters start to get the "all-access" treatment before big fights. Though if you’re one of the Showtime video producers who has to fly to Stary Oskol and freeze your ass off while shooting some B-roll of a new swingset being installed at Fedor’s training facility, our condolences…

(The hazy glow in this picture can only mean one thing: we’ve stumbled into one of Nick Diaz’s dream sequences again.)

Strikeforce’s June 6 show is already shaping up to be as good or better than their debut on Showtime earlier this month.  In addition to the Jake Shields vs. Robbie Lawler main event, they’ve gotten verbal agreements from Nick Diaz and Scott Smith to face each other in a 180-pound bout.  Apparently the extra weight felt good on Diaz as he smashed Frank Shamrock’s face all to hell, which is a good thing since he’ll be taking on a guy in Smith who can definitely take a shot.  

(Cheer up buddy, that’s like one viewer for every dollar you made! Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

According to new viewership figures dug up by FightTicker, Showtime’s broadcast of "Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz" pulled in 364,000 average viewers on Saturday night, for an average rating of 0.64. While that may sound piss-poor, considering the UFC drew 1.9 million viewers (and an avg. rating of 1.4) for their replay of UFC 94 on Spike TV the same night, there is a silver lining.

First off, that 364,000 figure makes "Shamrock vs. Diaz" the third most-watched MMA event in Showtime history, putting it just behind Strikeforce’s "Shamrock vs. Baroni" event in June 2007 (which hangs on to its #2 spot with 365,000 viewers) and the Kimbo Slice-headlined "EliteXC: Street Certified" in February 2008 (which scored 511,000 viewers). Plus, you have to take into consideration the fact that Spike TV is available in six times as many homes as Showtime. And still, Strikeforce’s 1.53 rating among men aged 18-34 actually beat UFC 94′s rating in that category (1.3).

I’m not an expert in this stuff, but that seems like a decent starting point for Strikeforce 2.0. No, they’re not ready to throw together pay-per-view events, but they managed to make a good showing with a card headlined by a non-title fight involving one guy who was coming off a loss. The event itself was entertaining enough to hook most viewers into coming back for the next installment. Can June’s "Lawler vs. Shields" show keep the momentum rolling — or will it be a ratings disappointment without a big name like "Shamrock" to draw casual viewers?

(Alas, Shamrock’s pleas for Diaz to "mellow out" were all in vain.  Photo courtesy of SI.com)

Strikeforce’s first offering on Showtime yielded some pleasant surprises and some totally unpleasant non-surprises.  We turn now to the arbitrary numerical ranking system of the Potato Index to tell us who’s up and who’s down after this weekend.  Giddyup.

Nick Diaz +123
His biggest win in years proves that Diaz is a true main event fighter who deserves to be taken seriously.  He beat a slower, but still capable Shamrock in every aspect of the game, and even helped him up afterwards.  Now we await the results of his drug test.  Please Nick, tell us you didn’t screw that part up.

Frank Shamrock -68
“The Legend” showed a lot of heart, but not a whole lot of skill or endurance.  Maybe those surgeries and his advancing years are taking more of a toll than he let on, or maybe Diaz really is that good of a boxer.  Either way, if Shamrock can’t do better in the rematch with Cung Le he should seriously consider calling it a career.

(Photo courtesy of Esther Lin at AllElbows.com. You might also want to check out "Cyborg" Santos’s reaction to missing weight. Does that seem like a woman who is even a little bit sorry?)

The talking is done, the agreed upon weights have been ignored, and the Stockton Heybuddy’s have been thrown out.  That means there’s nothing left to do now but fight.  All you lovers of crazy antics needn’t worry though, because if there’s one thing that’s almost guaranteed in a bout between Frank Shamrock and Nick Diaz it’s poor sportsmanship.  

We’ll be liveblogging all the action tonight, so grab a cold one, make sure your CAPS LOCK key is disengaged (you know who are you are) and let’s all jump right in and have ourselves a time.  Remember to hit refresh often.  We’ll get started any minute now.

Josh Barnett Interview – Watch more Funny Videos

After all the drama at yesterday’s weigh-in and the madness that followed Hitomi Akano’s threat to pull out of the bout with Christianne "Cyborg" Santos due to the tremendous difference in weight, the bout is now apparently back on after Scott Coker smoothed everything over in late night/early morning negotiation sessions.  No one is saying exactly what sweetened the deal enough for Akano to jump back in, but we’re guessing it was lots of money and a giant teddy bear.

In the above video, Akano’s trainer, Josh Barnett, talks with Ariel Helwani about his Girlfight Monstrosity of a student, and about his own future.  On Aleks Emelianenko, Barnett again confirms that due to blood test-related issues, that fight could never happen…in a ring.

(Someone should tell Nick that in some cultures they consider that an insult.)

As Strikeforce’s Showtime debut closes in on us and we prepare to get our liveblog on (that’s right, so remember to stop on by tomorrow night) it’s time to debate the hell out of the merits of this fight card, its resemblance to a Zombie EliteXC here on Zombie Jesus weekend, and more.  Here it is, your Ben vs. Ben…

Is Diaz/Shamrock a completely meaningless, just-for-the-hell-of-it bout?  If so, does it matter, or do you need something more to get excited about it?  Who wins this, anyway?

BF: Of course it’s a meaningless fight.  I mean, it’s being contested at 179 pounds.  That’s not even a round number, let alone a weight class.  It’s not as if this is a fight to settle some longstanding grudge (unless you count the grudge Frank Shamrock has against anyone unwilling to admit that he’s the greatest fighter ever, or the grudge Nick Diaz has against the world).  It’s certainly not a fight to sort out the contenders from the pretenders in the 179-pound division.  Naw son, this is just for kicks.

Does it matter to me?  Not in this case.  It may be fighting for the sake of fighting, but it’s such a weirdly compelling match-up that I don’t care.  Diaz and Shamrock are always fun to watch, and they’re both absolutely insane in very different ways.  So why not make them fight each other?  It’s not as if either one of them is climbing to the top of any division at this point.

As for who’s going to win, the fact that I have to think about it a little only makes me more interested in seeing it.  Five years ago this is Shamrock’s fight all the way, but the ravages of age, as they say.  I’ll still take Shamrock via decision, based mostly on superior size and strength, but also based on his notorious in-fight antics, which will bait Diaz into fighting a stupid fight.  Not that that’s especially hard.

BG: I’m thinking the fight will end in a draw after Shamrock and Diaz spend fifteen minutes with their arms in the air, each trying to lure the other one into hitting them in the face. On the real though, yeah, probably Shamrock by decision, or a late TKO stoppage that Diaz will immediately complain about. It’ll be a much less nuanced fight than it could be. Both of these guys prefer to stand and bang, so that’s what’s going to happen. The deciding factor will be power, which Shamrock has and Diaz lacks.

(‘Can’t let a day go by without me being fly, fresh to death.’)

If there’s one thing Frank Shamrock isn’t suffering from, it’s a lack of confidence.  He’s long been one of the sport’s most outspoken competitors, which usually makes him a pleasure to talk to, even if you never know exactly how seriously he expects you to take some of the things he says.  With his Strikeforce bout against Nick Diaz just a day away, Shamrock talked with me about his legacy, his plan for the fight, what he thinks about Diaz’s extracurricular habits, and more.  Let’s just say I was never bored during this conversation.

Thanks for talking with me Frank.  I have to say, this bout seems like kind of an odd choice for you right now.  Tell me, what’s really at stake in this fight?

I don’t know (laughs).  Honestly, I don’t know.  It’s just another fight to me.  I think there are some questions about my age and my body. I don’t think I have any problems with my body, but everybody else seems to think so.  Other than that, it’s another physical challenge for me.  I don’t think I have a lot to gain from it really, but it’s another fight.

(‘Look what I found in the dumpster behind Jake Shields’ apartment!  Honestly, the things some people throw away.’)

The Gambling Addiction Enabler isn’t going to jerk your chain here, after last week’s dismal performance he considered giving it up.  He went to a couple meetings, listened to those quitters down at Gambler’s Anonymous whining about the houses and cars and marriages they’d lost because of their compulsive betting.  He even thought about taking up a less destructive hobby, like tennis or pornography. 

Then he thought about you, the members of the Potato Nation who depend on him for his reckless and often unsound gambling advice, and who live vicariously through his wins and his losses.  Dear readers, he decided he simply couldn’t let you down.  That’s how much he cares about you/is willing to use you as a justification.  And besides, if his wife really loved him she wouldn’t ask him to change, right?

Odds for the main card of this weekend’s Strikeforce event come courtesy of BestFightOdds.com:

Frank Shamrock (-165) vs. Nick Diaz (+145)
Benji Radach (-165) vs. Scott Smith (+145)
Gilbert Melendez (-315) vs. Rodrigo Damm (+275)
“Cyborg” Santos (-455) vs. Hitomi Akano (+375)
Brett Rogers (-440) vs. Abongo Humphrey (+360)

Thoughts…

(Props: MMA Mania)

Skip to the 0:56 mark for this personal statement:

“There’s certain things I can’t do, I’m not going to do.  If someone tells me to do it I’m not going to do it.  I’m going to do what I want to do and that’s why I fight.  I want to do what I want to do.  I want to fight.  That’s what I want to do.  They’d say, ‘Hey, why didn’t you do your work, Nick?’ in class or school or whatever.  ‘Why don’t you do your homework?’  And I’m like, I don’t wanna.  I couldn’t figure out why, I just can tell you right now I don’t wanna.  I’m not going to.  And then when I found out what I wanted to do was I wanted to train jiu-jitsu.  That’s what I want to do.  I wanted to tap people out and train jiu-jitsu.  ‘What do you want to do?’  I want to fight.  That’s what I want to do so that’s what I’m going to do.”

A rare moment of lucidity from Nick Diaz in this old Showtime promo for one of his ShoXC fights gives us the clearest insight yet into his motivations.  I feel like I went to school with a few Nick Diaz’s.  Only instead of becoming famous pro fighters they ended up working at Chili’s, and not the good Chili’s by the movie theater where the girls from the community college all worked.  I’m talking about the bad Chili’s by the freeway where the used car salesmen drank on their lunch breaks.  Not pretty.  If only they’d done their homework.

After the jump, a little something to prepare you for the enthusiasm-over-substance approach of announcer Gus Johnson, who’ll be on the mic for Showtime on Saturday.

(Excellent use of the ‘Rogers, you a hater!’ sample here.)

After sitting out for nearly a year following the collapse of Pro Elite and the ensuing sticky contract situation, Brett “The Grimm” Rogers finally gets back into action this weekend as he takes on Ron “Abongo” Humphrey in Strikeforce.  Despite his undefeated record, Rogers may be best known for his feud with EliteXC poster boy Kimbo Slice (see also: this awesome video).  In this exclusive interview, Rogers talks about that bad blood, his frustration with Elite XC, and his plans for taking over the Strikeforce heavyweight class.

Your last fight was in May of 2008, and since then you’ve been waiting around for another fight, first with EliteXC, and now with Strikeforce.  Are you concerned that all the time off, all the contract stress, may have made you rusty or affected your timing?

I’m more eager than anything.  I’ve had a lot of time to think about things, and now I’m just ready to go.  It’s time for me to go out there and show off, once again.  I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who bumped into contract conflicts over it.  But everything’s squared away now.  I’m just trying to focus on what I have to do this weekend and go out and get a win.

With the Nick Diaz/Frank Shamrock Strikeforce bout just a few days away, now seems like as good a time as any to look back on some of the notable moments from the career of each man and then speculate irresponsibly as to who will take this one.  Above, you see Nick Diaz’s crowning achievement – his victory over Takanori Gomi.  What a shame that those facists at the athletic commission insisted on drug testing him afterwards and then changing the result to a no contest because of a little shitload of weed in his system.

Nonetheless, we know what happened.  Diaz proved two important things in this fight: 1) he can take a beating, and 2) he’s always a threat to submit you, especially in transition and off his back.  However, in this fight we also see the patented Diaz striking style.  His hands out in front, his head a stationary target, coming forward and wearing you down with accumulation of strikes more than with power.

Now let’s take a look at something recent from Shamrock’s portfolio.

(‘Let’s see how you like going up against a greased up Canadian and Lyoto Machida, you f*ckers.  I promise you it isn’t as much fun as it sounds.’)

Though he’s been uncharacteristically complimentary of Scott Coker’s Strikeforce operation, even after their move into the big time with the purchase of select Pro Elite assets, that doesn’t mean Dana White is content to let them operate free from any UFC interference.  When Strikeforce makes its Showtime debut with Diaz-Shamrock on April 11, the UFC will pull one of its favorite counter-programming tactics, running a popular recent pay-per-event for free on Spike TV the same night.

Strikeforce will go up against UFC 94, as Dana White and Co. attempt to draw fans away from the competing organization with the main event that made “Vaseline” a popular keyword term for MMA websites everywhere.  If anybody’s up for that challenge, it’s probably Frank Shamrock and Nick Diaz, who will say enough crazy things in the run-up to the bout to make you forget all about crazy things of the past.

(More headkicking in store for Shamrock in ’09?)

Ever since Strikeforce purchased “select assets” from Pro Elite we’ve been wondering a) which select assets, and b) what the hell does he plan to do with them?  In an interview with USA Today, Coker inched closer to answering those questions, saying he’s spoken with 10 Pro Elite fighters and only one of them has tried to renegotiate his deal (we assume this was Kimbo Slice insisting he take a pay cut and be place on the untelevised undercard).  

Coker also said he “would like to invite K.J. Noons to fight [Strikeforce lightweight champ]" Josh Thomson, and added that he’s in talks with Noons’ agent, Mark Dion, to make that happen. 

You’ll recall that Noons essentially turned his back on EliteXC when they tried to make him fight Nick Diaz on CBS and Noons was unhappy with the payscale and with rematching Diaz in general, who was slated to make more than him despite losing the first meeting due to a cut stoppage.  Thomson is a quality, name opponent, and if Noons decides he doesn’t want to fight him either, we in the MMA world would probably do well to forget about “King” Karl altogether and let him box his little heart out.

As for other fights on Coker’s mind right now…

(Image courtesy of InsanityWeTrust.net)

Josh Gross at SI reports that Showtime Sports will be responsible for producing and distributing Affliction’s “Day of Reckoning” pay-per-view card on January 24th; an official announcement will come Monday. Showtime Sports produced all the ShoXC and EliteXC broadcasts on the premium cable channel, as well as the EliteXC events on CBS and the Strikeforce/EliteXC co-promoted “Shamrock vs. Baroni” pay-per-view in June 2007. So, expect a step up in quality from the bad lighting, bizarre camera angles, and poor pacing that plagued Affliction’s “Banned” show in July.

“Day of Reckoning” is still headlined by Fedor Emelianenko defending his WAMMA heavyweight championship belt against Andrei Arlovski. Gross also confirmed the addition of three other bouts: First, Matt Lindland and Renato “Babalu” Sobral will meet in a middleweight match on the main card; both fighters won decisions at “Banned,” with Lindland getting the better of Fabio Nascimento and Sobral edging out Mike Whitehead. [Ed. note: FiveOunces is reporting that the match will be contested at light-heavyweight.]