(Werdum exposing the man behind the curtain)

If you think it was the adrenaline or the endorphins talking when Fabricio Werdum announced during his post fight interview Saturday night that he wanted an immediate rematch with Fedor Emelianenko, think again.

Werdum actually made the claim a couple weeks ago and has since reiterated his desire to fight "The Last Emperor" again — this time on Emelianenko’s home turf — instead of facing Strikeforce heavyweight kingpin Alistair Overeem.

"I don’t want to give a step backwards and fight against Overeem. I want to fight against Fedor from 6 to 8 months from now in Russia, Rocky Balboa style… I believe that the crowd will be with him, but people will respect me and I’ll bring my guys," he told TATAME’s Guillherme Cruz. "I’m sure that the Brazilians can make much more noise than a million of Russians.”

(…. ….*crickets* …. …. PhotoProps: Strikeforce)

In the days and weeks following Fedor Emelianenko’s stunning loss to Fabricio Werdum inside the Strikeforce cage on Saturday night, some jerk with a website or internet radio show will probably try to tell you that he saw this coming. When that happens it will be important for you to remember that, aside from a very, very select group of individuals, those people are goddamned liars.

In retrospect – and retrospect always feels cheap – maybe it’s not shocking that Emelianenko lost a fight down the stretch of his storied MMA career. Regardless of the nonsensical stuff Frank Shamrock told us at the top of last night’s broadcast about Fedor’s “impenetrable shield of invincibility,” Emelianenko himself has taken pains to remind us again and again that he is, in fact, just a man; a man who puts his traditional Russian garments on one leg at a time like everybody else.

 But to lose this fight? Admit it, you didn’t see that coming.

(Just another day at the office for Jan Finney. The terrifying, potentially life-threatening office. PicProps: Strikeforce)

When staring down the barrel of your own imminent demise, there are a couple of different ways you can play it. You can dig your heels in and fight every step of the way as the guards physically drag you out of your cell and down the hall to the execution chamber, or you can handle things a little more like Gary Gilmore: Grinning into the scowling faces of the poor bastards on the firing squad and shouting, “Let’s do it!”

Jan Finney, to her credit, seems to be opting for the latter approach.

Finney doesn’t appear the least bit bothered by the fact she’s jumping up in weight to take on the most dominant female fighter on the planet, that the oddsmakers see her as a near-historic underdog or that Strikeforce says she’ll likely be fired if she doesn’t have a “good showing” against Cris “Cyborg” Santos tonight. In fact, Finney – whose nickname, by comparison, is “Cuddles” – thinks it’s hilarious.

(VidProps: ShoSports/YouTube)
 
The above video gives you a look at the final product of that promo shoot we showed you a couple days back and the results seem, well, just as generic as we feared. As it turns out, the road to the probable destruction of Jan Finney and Fabricio Werdum will be paved in fireballs and misting sleet and Fedor Emelianenko will try to get as much mileage as possible out of that pair of nondescript black athletic shorts. Meanwhile the bass baritone voice of former Crash Test Dummies lead singer and current Strikeforce play-by-play man Gus Johnson – the voice certain CP editors hear in their dreams before they wake up screaming “My name’s Al Harris and I get buckets!” – will prattle on about legends and destiny and history or some such similar bullshit.

It appears that Strikeforce is going the extra mile to make Finney look both attractive and credible, though at least one of those concepts seems like a major stretch. Likewise, the only people giving Werdum much of a shot are Fedor himself, Renato “Babalu” Sobral and one of my co-workers at The Rumble. An extremely scientific internet poll of fans conducted by The Junkie shows just 13 percent of y’all think the 6-foot-4 jiu jitsu ace can pull the upset. Frankly, I’d hate to see the numbers on Finney.

After the jump,  some final thoughts from Fedor about why fighting him seems to be career suicide for his opponents and a few snapshots of the official weigh-in featuring the ubiquitous Rockstar Girls, just to get your Saturday started right …

(Video courtesy YouTube/TheShoot)

The majority of MMA fans and media feel that Fabricio Werdum will likely lose his fight against Fedor Emelianenko on Saturday night. Apparently nobody gave Werdum the memo.

"I know it’s going to be hard but I know that I can [beat Fedor]," he explains.

Although he is confident about his chances this weekend, Werdum has no illusions of grandeur.

"If I beat Fedor on that night,  I’m better than him that night. I don’t consider myself better than anybody else," he says. "I just know that I have a place on the top. I think to beat Fedor is like having 10 belts in the house."

(Jason "Mayhem" Miller, shown here with two of the countless enemies he’s made over the years.)

Losing your middleweight champ to the UFC after his contract runs out? Disaster. But Strikeforce plans to turn their lemons into lemonade with an upcoming eight-man tournament that will crown a new champion in their deepest division. Here’s what King Coker had to say about the MWGP he’ll put together if Jake Shields splits the scene:

A two-event tournament means that the semi-finals and finals could potentially be held on the same night, Japan-style. And looking at that lineup, we see a lot of potential for sick matchups and serious grudge-settling. Think about it…

(Video courtesy YouTube/Strikeforce)

Strikeforce released this pretty generic Q&A video interview with Fedor Emelianenko  ahead of his bout with Fabricio Werdum this weekend. Although it sounds like it’s being conducted by Napoleon Dynamite, the interview actually featured some solid answers from "The Last Emperor".

For those of you too lazy to press play, here’s what Fedor had to say:

On whether or not  he is a fan of the sport:
"I really like MMA as a sport itself and I like to be in this sport and I like to develop myself, but I don’t like to watch fights."

On how his ground game matches up with Fabricio Werdum’s:
"I cannot say anything right now; we’ll see that during the fight."

On where Werdum’s jiu-jitsu stacks up against other fighters he’s faced:
"Speaking about his ground technique, I think his technique is approximately the same as Nogueira at the time [when I faced him] and Babalu [when I fought him]."

(Video courtesy TMZ)

According to former WWE heavyweight champion, Dave Batista, he has signed a contract with Strikeforce and his opponent and the date of his debut should be announced shortly.

In the above interview with TMZ, the retired pro wrestler answered the interviewer’s query of "So are you going on to the UFC or what? What’s going on with that?" with a word, "Strikeforce." When questioned further about who he will face in his debut for the promotion, the 41-year-old replied,"You’ll see. I know, but I’m not telling you."

(Fedor doesn’t ask for relentless positivity, he demands it.)

After showing up fashionably late for yesterday’s Strikeforce media conference call with upcoming foe Fabricio Werdum, Fedor Emelianenko did his usual song and dance about respect for his opponent, trust in God and love of country. You may have read about all of that in the recap provided through the Friday link dump. But aside from expounding on his own core beliefs, the world’s consensus No. 1-ranked heavyweight also slipped in a dig at the competition during an exchange not featured in the Dump’s version of events.   

According to a report from MMAFighting.com’s Mike Chiappetta, Fedor commented that he doesn’t totally approve of how our friends in Las Vegas are running their organization:

"I’m not a UFC fan," Fedor said through an interpreter.

(Video courtesy YouTube/MMAFighting)

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker did a Q&A with reporters following last night’s Strikeforce: Los Angeles event and touched on a variety of subjects including Herschel Walker, Nick Diaz, Renato Sobral and Jake Shields’ future in the promotion and the fact that Strikeforce has zero interest in signing Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson.

Surprisingly, Coker is still pushing for the Sobral-Lawal fight, despite both fighters repeated assertions that they won’t fight each other. 

Personally, I think Babalu should stay at middleweight and enter in the proposed 185-pound tournament Coker said the promotion will be putting on in two to three months.

(Video courtesy YouTube/ddevilMMA)

Thursdays are like the red-headed stepchild of the work week.

Mondays are a write-off. Everyone says they hate them, yet most of us can’t wait to get to work on Monday to tell everyone what we did or to talk about the fights that happened on the weekend. I guess you can say they’re like Josh Koscheck.

Tuesdays are kind of like Matt Wiman. We can take them or leave them, they put in decent performances, but nobody really looks forward to them.

Wednesday is "Hump Day" — you know, middle of the road not quite Monday, not quite Saturday, but a hell of a lot of fun — kind of like Joe Stevenson.

Fridays are gimmes. Who ever really works hard on "the third day of the weekend"? They’re like Fedor. You know they’re going to be full of win, but you don’t ever really think about it because nothing ever changes.

But what does Thursday have going for it?  Not much.

So in honor of the Jason Thacker of the work week, here is something to help you make it through to Fedor-day.

More vids after the jump.

(Fedor, didn’t I lay out the black tie for you?)

Ray Hui from MMAFighting spoke with M-1 Global director of operations, Evgeni Kogan and asked him why the heavily anticipated Fedor Emelianenko-Alistair Overeem Strikeforce bout has yet to materialize.

According to Kogan, contrary to popular belief, his company has very little to do with picking opponents for their client and he says that they would take a fight with Overeem if it were offered to them.

"The matchmaking for this is more coming out of Strikeforce than from our side. We are open to fighting basically whoever is put in front of us," Kogan explained. "There has never been a point where [a fight with Overeemt] was offered and turned down. M-1 management is not ducking Overeem, and once again, if that fight is presented to us, then that’s what that fight will be."

(Maybe now I can get some RE$PECT!)

I just got back from the MMA Expo in Toronto and will have a bunch of interesting video, audio and text versions of interviews I did with Forrest Griffin, Karo Parisyan, King Mo’, Bibiano Fernandes, Firas Zahabi, Shonie Carter, Ryan Ford and Dan Miller up on the site this week.

Unfortunately, I was unable to land one with Jake Shields, as, immediately following his teaching session at the Paradise Warrior Retreat, he was whisked away in a car to catch a plane to Vancouver to attend tonight’s UFC show.

I had a small window of time for a brief exchange as he walked to the parking lot, so I handed him the Photoshop I did of him outside the pawn shop after selling the Strikeforce belt and questioned why it was so important that he be at the show tonight. I asked him if we can expect an announcement at the show that he was Octagon-bound, to which he replied, "Not yet," but what else could he say if an announcement is forthcoming?

I’d say there’s a pretty good chance we’ll hear something tonight.

*FYI, he had already seen the picture as a someone had sent him a copy.

"Yeah, I’ve seen that one. It’s funny, but it isn’t real," he said. "Somebody Photoshopped it."

(Let me get this straight…Catchweight bouts have title implications, now?)

Strikeforce held a media conference call today ahead of its mid-week June 16 show next Wednesday. On the call were Renato "Babalu" Sobral, his manager, Richard Welner, his opponent on the card, Robbie Lawler and Strikeforce president, Scott Coker. 

("Yeah…long white hair. Like Saruman. That’s what I’mma do." / Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

According to a recent report on MMAFighting.com, Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal has been offered a slot on a yet-unannounced Strikeforce card in Houston on August 21st. Though he was born in Tennessee, went to college in Oklahoma, and does most of his training in California, Lawal considers himself a Texan by heart. No opponents for Mo have been rumored at this point, and few legitimate challengers to his belt spring to mind; Scott Coker may even want 205-pound standout Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante to defeat Mike Kyle in a rematch before giving him a title shot. We’ll update you when we know more.

In the meantime, Lawal is keeping busy by helping James Toney prepare for his UFC debut. Seriously:

(Beating Fedor…uninterested in Ubereem…UFC co-promotion? Do his pupils look dialated?)

Heading into his potentially career defining June 26 battle with Fedor Emelianenko, Fabrício Werdum spoke with TATAME’s Eduardo Ferreira about his chances in the fight and his future in the sport beyond.

Werdum says that he thinks he has pinpointed some of Emelianenko’s weaknesses and plans to exploit them.

(“Hey sweetheart, you ever seen the missing frames from the Zapruder film? Would you like to?”)

If MMA folks sometimes seem a little suspicious that The Man is out to get them it’s because there was a time in the sport’s short history when The Man really was out to get them, and not just in the Rampage-Jackson-on-the-55-Freeway kind of way. A number of factors, including efforts by finagling lawmakers to kill MMA in the late ’90s and the glut of misinformation about the sport that still percolates in many mainstream media reports, have created a bit of a bunker mentality among its hardcore supporters.

At this point, when events fall apart, judges issue hinky decisions or another fledgling organization goes under, some of us are all too quick to assume that it’s the work of sinister forces beyond our control. Whether true or not, MMA’s past is rife with rumors of secret plots, backroom deals and widespread collusion.

In light of that, here are CagePotato.com’s Top 10 MMA Conspiracy Theories. Many of them you’ve probably heard before, but perhaps a few will be new to you. Some are ludicrous, while others probably contain a kernel of truth. At least a few are enough to make a man question everything he thought he knew about life and the universe around him.

The truth is out there, motherfuckers.

(Props: MMA Fighting.)

It’s been nine months since Renato “Babalu” Sobral lost the Strikeforce light heavyweight title via short-and-sweet first round TKO to Gegard Mousasi last August. If you think that sounds like a lot of time to sit at home ruminating on the defeat, you’re right. Babalu is understandably pumped at the opportunity to step in for training partner Jason “Mayhem” Miller against Robbie Lawler next month and expresses some frustration to Ariel Helwani in the above video that it’s taken so long to get back in the cage.

Also interesting to note, Babalu seems to direct his annoyance at Showtime, not Strikeforce itself, so that should further stoke debate about who’s really wearing the pants in the fight company’s relationship with the premium cable channel. An excerpt from the interview after the jump.

("Limited government, fiscal responsibility and a literal definition of the Constitution. I don’t know what’s so hard for you to understand about this, Kevin.")

While the Strikeforce broadcast team was busy reminding us how “old school” Kevin Casey’s one-dimensional, jiu-jitsu-only approach was on Friday night, they forgot to mention that Matt Lindland wasn’t exactly born yesterday, either. If Casey fought like it was 1993, as Mauro Ranallo suggested at one point, then Lindland fought like it was 1996 and the results were very much the same as if the main event of “Strikeforce: Challengers” had actually happened 15-years ago.

And somewhere, Michael Schiavello wept …

(Don’t worry, Scott. Jake has it on 21-day buy-back)

According to Josh Gross’ latest column for SportsIllustrated.com, Strikeforce 185-pound champ Jake Shields’ manager and father, Jack Shields says that the promotion has yet to bother to contact them to attempt to negotiate a new contract.

"The time is ticking. We’d like to move forward as soon as possible,"the elder Shields told Gross on Monday. "I’d like to be negotiating right now."

Strikeforce reps blamed their busy event schedule for the delay, but a source told Gross that they have actually considered releasing Shields before an exclusive negotiating period expires in three weeks. Even after that period ends, the promotion still has the right to match any offer made by any other promotion, but the fact that they are pretending Shields doesn’t exist and discussing life after he leaves the organization essentially all but says they are conceding he will not be back.

(I wonder if Fancy Pants went by the same handle in prison.)

Just a heads up that Strikeforce will be streaming the hotly contested bout between undefeated Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm and Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro from last weekend’s Heavy Artillery event today at 6pm ET/3pm PST.

If you haven’t heard, the fight was a back-and-forth barnburner that many in attendance feel Shaolin won, yet Beerbohm pulled out the decision.

Watch it here today and decide for yourself.

(Props: MMA Fighting)

Alistair Overeem successfully avoided the perils of getting too high over his dominant beatdown of Brett Rogers at Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery on Saturday night, as the heavyweight champion compared the thrill of victory to … coming in third in the 2005 Pride Grand Prix? Yeah, when asked by seemingly omnipresent reporter Ariel Helwani (video above) at the post-fight media conference if he considered the defeat of Rogers among the best moments of his career, Overeem responded by rattling off pretty much his whole resume of combat sport accomplishments.

"I would say I’ve had several really high points," Overeem said. "This definitely is one of them. I defeated the K-1 champion Badr (Hari), that was a really nice accomplishment. Once I beat (Sergei) Kharitonov, he was the second (ranked fighter) of Pride back in early 2006, that was a really good accomplishment. I became third of the Pride Grand Prix, that was a very good accomplishment. In 2007, I also became the Strikeforce champion, that was a good accomplishment."

As if Brett Rogers didn’t have enough depressing shit to deal with today, now he has to face the reality that beating him feels similar to tying with Wanderlei Silva as second runners-up in a tournament held five years ago. With no time for losers however, the MMA media is rapidly moving on to speculating about a future matchup between Overeem and Fedor Emelianenko. Overeem said he thinks it will happen, if those meddling gangsters in M-1 Global don’t sabotage the negotiations.

("I know people been saying Alistair looks like a completely different fighter these days, but damn …")

Though it sounds like a crazy dream, it’s very close to becoming reality: Alistair Overeem, here in America, poised to actually defend the Strikeforce heavyweight title he won more than two years ago. Would it be wrong to admit – given the company’s recent track record – that leading up to this show we halfway expected Overeem to pop positive for PEDs, get pulled from tonight’s main event and send Strikeforce skidding into an Affliction-style tailspin of death and despair? Luckily, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. Thanks, Missouri Office of Athletics.

Instead, the bell may have unexpectedly tolled for another fledgling MMA promotion today. With that little debacle now in the books, we shift our focus to St. Louis, where "Heavy Artillery" kicks off at 7 p.m. PST. We’ll be live shortly thereafter. Remember to hit refresh early and often to keep the page current.

(Negotiations seemed to be going fine, until Lashley abruptly announced he wasn’t ready to face the champ.)

… and it’s Ron Sparks. The two undefeated heavyweight prospects have verbally agreed to fight on the undercard of Strikeforce’s planned June 16 show, which will feature Robbie Lawler vs. Babalu Sobral as its main event.

Given that Sparks is 5-0 in MMA, isn’t a totally unskilled freak show, a fat light heavyweight or formerly homeless, it looks like a small step in the right direction for Lashley. However, considering that Sparks is basically a kickboxer (albeit a giant one at 6-5, 285) and hasn’t fought anybody of note in his MMA career, the cynics among us will argue that he’s another opponent tailor-made for defeat at the hands of the two-time NAIA national wrestling champion and former Olympic hopeful. From what we already know about him, that probably suits Bobby Lashley just fine.

(Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery preview courtesy YouTube/The Fight Network; Randy’s goatee-chinstrap combo courtesy douchebags worldwide)

- Ken Shamrock vs. Rizzo NOT Mark Coleman on July 17 Impact Fighting Card in Australia (MMAFighting)

- Rampage calls fight with Shogun a "very interesting" prospect (FightersOnly)

- Obama an MMA fan? President chats about UFC 113 with martial arts instructor while visiting NY (BuffaloNews)

- Cyborg to defend her Strikeforce title June 26 on Fedor vs. Werdum card (MMAJunkie)

- Four fighters including Jacare miss weight for Saturday’s Strikeforce event (Sherdog)

- Mayorga says if Thomas beats him at next weekend’s Shine Fights event, he will retire from MMA (YouTube/FightHub)

- Goulet and Hague both dropped by UFC following UFC 113 losses (TopMMANews)

- Joey Karate breaks down UFC 113 (YouTube/10thPlanet)

- Dan Quinn’s Twitter page (Twitter)

- Overeem shatters sledgehammer while filming Strikeforce promo (CageWriter)

- Werdum offers Rogers advice to beat Overeem (GracieMag)

- Teacher "UFCs" a student (EbaumsWorld)

- 10 Hottest British Babes (MadeMen)

- Investors looking to make Rambo V sans Stallone (ScreenJunkies)

- The 9 Sexiest Secretaries (Chickipedia)

-  Monica Keena photos (HolyTaco)

- Victory Lane Girls (AllLeftTurns)

- Jedi A-holes (Ebaumsworld)

(Praying works better if you bow your head and close your eyes, Scott)

According to Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker, his promotion has not been in touch with broadcast partner CBS since the post-fight brawl that occurred at the tail end of the Strikeforce: Nashville event April 17.

Now, I’m no business expert, but I have some management and PR experience and one thing I’m pretty sure that is a paramount component to every successful business relationship is open two-way communication. If it were me, I would have been on the phone with CBS that Monday to set up a debriefing to discuss the incident, what went wrong and how we should move forward. 
Instead, it seems that Strikeforce is taking the don’t ask don’t tell, head in the sand technique, which likely won’t end well as time passes and CBS starts to wonder what the hell is going on.

(Coker couldn’t take "The Heat")

According to MMAJunkie, Strikeforce has decided to pass on acquiring exiled UFC welterweight Karo Parisyan’s services. 

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker took the high road in explaining the two sides’ inability to come to terms on a deal.

"We had a cup of coffee," Coker said. "It didn’t work out. "He’s a great kid. We wish him luck."

The impetus behind Coker’s decision was likely a combination of Karo’s unreliability due to his alleged prescription drug addiction and anxiety disorder as well as his more than $40,000 per fight asking price.

He could always fight for the Disgraced Former UFC Fighter Impact Fighting Championships.

*UPDATE*
Someone from Impact Fighting Championships must be a CP reader. MMAJunkie is reporting that Parisyan has signed with IFC and will face Luis Dutra Jr. at the promotion’s July 10 show in Brisbane, Australia.

(Video courtesy YouTube/TheReem.com)

The clip above is from Alistair Overeem’s forthcoming documentary. The film itself looks decent and seems like it’s going to be interesting. I’m just hoping that Ubereem hasn’t decided to drop his "Demolition Man" monicker in favor of the lesser-used, ambiguously gay nickname, "The Reem."

He should ask UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar about the importance of choosing nicknames wisely. Only recently have fans and pundits forgotten that he actually began his MMA career fighting under the nickname "The Big Pink Pounder."

(Fear is not in Fedor’s programming)

The most interesting story that came out of the Strikeforce conference call today was Alistair Overeem’s  proclamation that Fedor Emelianenko is scared to fight him. 

"I’ve been challenging Fedor for some time now. His management has declined to fight me on numerous occasions," Overeem told reporters on the call. "If you have two parties and one of them is willing to fight and the other isn’t than what are you going to do?" 

(Werdum taking advantage of his only opportunity to try on Fedor’s belt.)

Today Strikeforce put to rest the rampant rumors that Fedor Emelianenko would be signing with the UFC with the announcement that "The Last Emperor" will face two-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Fabricio "Vai Cavalo" Werdum in a headlining bout on the promotion’s Saturday, June 26 card.

The event, which will be co-promoted by M-1 Global will be featured on SHOWTIME. Strikeforce was hoping to have CBS showcase the bout, but the organization’s president Scott Coker mentioned last week that have not met with the network to discuss their plans moving forward since the post-fight brawl that took place during their last broadcast event last month.