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.

If you haven’t already, you best hurry up and get your picks in for our No Fear/Strikeforce pick ‘em contest.  Though we are both sadly ineligible to win the No Fear prize pack, we still like to throw our own picks in just to give you chumps a chance to beat the Bens (as if).

Remember to come on back after the event is over and tally your own score in the forums (one point for every correct category, but only if you get the winner right).  If you wait for us to do it you will be waiting a looooong time.  We’ll verify the winners and let you all know who they are so you can begin griping about it.

Our picks are below.  Read ‘em and weep.

(Will fight for munchies.)

Eager to get a sane perspective on Nick Diaz’s unapologetic love of weed, MDS over at MMA Fanhouse took the issue up with Cesar Gracie, Nick’s longtime coach and mentor.  Gracie did not disappoint, laying out Diaz’s case in a way we can all understand.

1. It’s technically legal for Nick since he has a prescription for it thanks to his ADD/California’s lax medicinal marijuana laws
2. He still plans to test clean, so screw it anyway
3. It’s probably not something athletes should be doing, but Diaz has great cardio and does freaking triathlons, so it can’t be that bad
4. Michael Phelps does it, and how many gold medals have you won?

If that summary of points isn’t enough for you, leave it to the Brazilian to give your American ass a lesson about personal liberty:

(Frank Shamrock and Mauro Ranallo trade places. Ranallo is chubby. Frank has braces. Hilarity *almost* ensues.)

— After jiu-jitsu badass Andre Galvao (3-0) finishes his current run in DREAM’s welterweight GP, he’ll be heading over to Strikeforce to shake shit up in their 170-pound division. The seven-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion is currently training at the new Black House facility in Los Angeles, and will be working out with Anderson Silva, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza for his next DREAM tournament bout on July 20th. Jake Shields, you’ve been put on notice.

— In an effort to make tomorrow night’s lightweight scrap between Gilbert Melendez and Rodrigo Damm a little more interesting, the winner will be named Strikeforce’s interim world lightweight champion. (Are you psyched yet?) The interim champ will face the actual lightweight champion, Josh Thomson, as soon as the Punk’s leg is healed.

— Kim "Sugar Free" Couture will compete next on the main card of Strikeforce’s first "Challenger Series" event, which will take place May 15th in Fresno, California, and will be broadcast on Showtime. Couture will take on the very-tough Miesha Tate (5-1) in the up-and-comers event, which will be headlined by a fight between undefeated lightweight Billy Evangelista and BJ Penn student Mike Aina.

— We’ll leave you with this quote from Frank Shamrock’s Yardbarker blog: "its time to get serious. i am taking off to the hotel and getting ready to cut some weight. i was 185.2 when i got up so its nothing of a cut. looking forwrd to that BARBQ after. nick is gonna die. i love this sport."

(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.

(You can thank The Garv for this absolutely necessary photoshop.)

Thanks to reader Kadumel for pointing us to this article in the L.A. Times, in which Nick Diaz reaches new levels of stupidity by telling a reporter exactly how he will beat the California State Athletic Commission’s drug screening process when he fights Frank Shamrock this weekend:

"I’m happy to get loaded, hear some good music . . . I remain consistent. And I have an easy way to deal with [the drug tests].  I can pass a drug test in eight days with herbal cleansers. I drink 10 pounds of water and sweat out 10 pounds of water every day. I’ll be fine."

Goddammit, Nick.  You are fighting in the main event of a card on Showtime.  You are not applying for a job at Hot Topic.  You’re relying on herbal cleansers to keep you from getting fined, suspended, and possibly having the result of your bout changed to a no contest…again!?  Have you learned nothing?

(‘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.

In honor of this weekend’s Strikeforce event we bring you possibly the hottest girl ever to carry a numbered sign for the San Jose, California-based organization, Maysa Quy.  You might remember her from Fight! Magazine’s Hottest Ring Girl of 2008 contest, which is where the above picture comes from.  According to this interview she loves Janet Jackson and thinks "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" is the greatest movie of all time.  According to her MySpace page her current mood is "delerious."  So there you go. 

Whether Maysa made the jump to the big time along with Strikeforce, or whether they’ll try for some new blood on Showtime, we have no idea.  But we think it might be wise of them to retain her services.

So No Fear has this new promotion called Earn Some Cred, where the grand prize is a trip to an MMA event. You crack open specially marked cans of No Fear Energy Drink, find the code under the tab, enter that code at earnsomecred.com, and earn points toward No Fear gear — or if you’re lucky, win tickets to the big show.

But why go through all the trouble? We’re going to hook you up with some NF swag right here, right now. That is, if you can predict the results of the "Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz" main card better than anyone else reading this. To refresh your memory, here’s what we’ll be looking at on Saturday night:

Frank Shamrock vs. Nick Diaz (179-pound catch weight)
Gilbert Melendez vs. Rodrigo Damm (lightweights)
Scott "Hands of Steel" Smith vs. Benji "Razor" Radach (middleweights)
Cris “Cyborg” Santos vs. Hitomi "Girlfight Monster" Akano (140 pounds)
Brett "The Grim" Rogers vs. Ron "Abongo" Humphrey (heavyweights)

And here’s what you need to do…

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.

vs.

(Better get the next ice-pack ready. Photo courtesy of Yardbarker.)

Alright, let’s get to it…

— After an injury forced Josh Thomson to drop out of his Strikeforce rematch with Gilbert Melendez, a replacement has reportedly been found, according to The Fight Network. Taking on Melendez at Saturday’s "Shamrock vs. Diaz" event will be Rodrigo Damm, an 8-2 veteran of Bodog Fight and Sengoku. Damm hasn’t competed since last August, when he was choked out by Eiji Mitsuoka at Sengoku Fourth Battle.

— Winless since his WEC debut against Cub Swanson in December 2007, Jens Pulver will be given another chance to score a victory at WEC 41 (June 7th, Sacramento). Lil’ Evil will be facing 20-year-old up-and-comer Josh "The Fluke" Grispi (12-1), who has gone 2-0 in the WEC with first-round stoppages over Mark Hominick and Micah Miller. WEC 41 will be headlined by the rematch between Urijah Faber and Mike Brown.

— TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah has an opponent for his much-delayed return at UFC 101 (August 8th, Philadelphia). MMA Weekly confirms that Sadollah’s welterweight debut will come against Johny Hendricks, a 5-0 transfer from the WEC’s defunct 170-pound division who won a unanimous decision over Alex Serdyukov at WEC 39 last month. Also on the card will be another welterweight bout between Tamdan McCrory (who’s coming off a submission victory over Ryan Madigan at UFC 96 in March) and John Howard (who most recently won a Fight of the Night bonus for his split-decision victory over Chris Wilson at UFC 94 in January). UFC 101 will be headlined by the lightweight title scrap between BJ Penn and Kenny Florian.

Nick Diaz participated in yesterday’s Strikeforce conference call and thank God someone was savvy enough to ask him a question about weed and then get out of the way and let him go.  There’s nothing quite like a good, completely insane Nick Diaz rant to really make you stop and realize that absolutely everybody, everywhere is on drugs, or else they’re an alcoholic.  I didn’t even think about it until Nick said it.

Here are some other nuggets of wisdom to come out of Diaz’s mouth in this one answer to one question about how smoking weed is different than taking pain pills:

– The blood flow stimulated by coughing when you smoke weed might be the healthiest thing you do all day…if you are fat or have cancer.
– He’s not a fucking doctor or scientist.
– He has a lot of friends who do a lot of drugs.
– If you smoke cigarettes, Nick hopes you die of cancer.  He really does.

("Josh, bro, you ever look at your hands? I mean really *look* at them? It’s like, why do we have five fingers anyway? Who decided that? It would be cool if I had six, but I’d probably be able to get by with just four. Or like, why is there a thumb on only *one* side of your hand. I feel like I’d be able to get more done with two thumbs on each hand. Do you ever watch ‘Fringe’? Great fuckin’ show." Photo courtesy of MixedMartialArts.com.)

With less than two weeks to go before Strikeforce returns to action on Showtime, the second-biggest fight on the "Shamrock vs. Diaz" card (April 11th, San Jose) has been scratched from the lineup. Strikeforce announced last night that lightweight champion Josh Thomson broke his left leg above the ankle while sparring with Billy Evangelista yesterday, and will not be having his rematch with Gilbert Melendez next Saturday. Said Thomson:

Strikeforce is searching for a late replacement for Melendez so that the former champ can still compete on the card. Tough break (literally) for Thomson, but on the bright side, we didn’t want to see him fight Melendez again anyway. Their first meeting last June saw Thomson  dominate Melendez with his striking for all 25 minutes of the match; El Nino was never really in the game. And Melendez hasn’t fought anybody since then, so it’s not like he’s legitimately earned another crack at the champ. We’ll keep you posted on the random-ass opponent they scare up for him. The full lineup for "Shamrock vs. Diaz" can be seen here.

In other news…

(Riggs shows off his green "Diesel" tattoo, otherwise known as the call for eco-friendly transportation solutions that was a little ahead of its time.)

When Strikeforce decided to call off a bout between Jake Shields and Joe Riggs in favor of matching Shields up with Robbie Lawler, we were pretty pleased with the change.  Joe Riggs is not.  Not only does he seem to feel that he’s missing out on an opportunity to “expose” Shields and get himself back in the top ten, he tells Ariel Helwani at Versus.com that he’s also being straight-up dissed by Shields, and he is maaaaad.  As in, like, Dana White when you ask him about Affliction mad.  Check it:

“(Expletive) Jake Shields’ (expletive) (expletive),” Riggs said. “I have done enough in this sport to be (expletive) treated with a certain amount of respect, and to talk about me like I am a (expletive) Pat Smith or Tank Abbott…For one, I am like six years younger than that punk (expletive) (expletive). So, (expletive) him. People forget that I am (expletive) 25 [Ed. note: Really?  Just 25?  He’s right, I totally did forget that.  Is he sure he's not at least 32?]. (Expletive) that guy. I would really, really fight Jake Shields for free just to shut his mouth up.”

Tito Ortiz was in Vicksburg, Mississippi talking with 8CountNews.com in this video interview, and it sounds like he’s changed his mind about fighting for Affliction, which is probably a good idea, considering their future plans.  Now Ortiz says he’s “going to pass” on an Affliction contract in the hopes that he can sign with Strikeforce to fight on CBS or Showtime, assuming they’re amenable to his famously ridiculous contract demands.

Honestly, is anyone out there really dying to see Ortiz back in action?  He has some name value and can still hype a fight with the best of them, but to hear him talk sometimes you’d think the whole MMA world was eagerly awaiting his return, as if he’s still a top-ten fighter and not someone who just got bounced out of the UFC.  Though to hear him talk you’d also think he did a good job commentating at the last Affliction show, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.  

After the jump, a little taste of what you can expect from the coaches in the next “Ultimate Fighter” season.  

A little over a year ago an improbable but potentially beautiful rivalry was born when Brett Rogers stepped up to the podium at an EliteXC post-fight press conference to inform Kimbo Slice that his performance against James Thompson was “garbage.”  This led to the infamous, ‘Rogers, you a hater!’ melee, and left most of us assuming that EliteXC would match these two big men up against one another they first chance they got in order to capitalize on the heat.

But what we failed to take into account was that EliteXC was run by morons, so that fight didn’t happen.  Now Rogers is getting back into action on April 11, and FiveOuncesofPain reports that his opponent will be Ron Humphries (5-0) who supposedly fought on that “Iron Ring” show on BET that I didn’t watch beyond the first episode.

So all right, not exactly a marquee matchup, but maybe they plan to build Rogers and Kimbo back up again and then throw them in the mix together later on, right?  Maybe, but Kimbo seems to have other ideas.

(Rogers vs. Murphy at EliteXC: Primetime, 5/31/08)

With a proposed fight between Jake Shields and Joe Riggs scrapped from Strikeforce’s April 11th event due to Shields being tapped to headline their May show, there was a spot that needed to be filled on the "Shamrock vs. Diaz" supporting card. FiveOuncesofPain reports that EliteXC vet Brett Rogers has been asked to step in against an opponent to be named soon. Rogers’s return to competition will come nearly a year after his last fight — a 61-second knockout of Jon Murphy (see above) in the first live MMA fight on network television.

Following that match, the undefeated Team Bison product called out Kimbo Slice for his garbage-ass performance (which led to a brief Internet trash-talk war), and was supposed to take on Paul Buentello at an EliteXC event in November. Unfortunately, the promotion fell apart before that event could take place and Rogers has been inactive since. Whoever gets the Grim next month had better protect his neck — all eight of Rogers’s wins have come by stoppage due to strikes in the first round.

MMA Fanhouse adds that Randy‘s third wife Kim "Sugar Free" Couture will be returning to the Strikeforce cage for their May show, also against Unknown Fighter. When we last saw Kim, she was kicking the tar out of Lina Kvokov at Strikeforce: Destruction in November. It was later discovered that Kvokov was actually a spectator who had mistakenly entered the cage on the way to the bathroom. But hey, a win is a win, and Couture’s first-round TKO increased her pro-record to 1-1. As for the real star of women’s MMA, Gina Carano, she and Strikeforce are still in negotiations, with league boss Scott Coker recently comparing her to a contract hold-out at a pre-season training camp. That’s…encouraging?

(Signaling the arrival of spring, Nick Diaz throws out the first "Stockton Heybuddy" of the year. Photo courtesy of Strikeforce.)

“Someone asked me the other day how my comeback was going so I guess I’ve come back. I love fighting. I love this art. I want to thank Nick Diaz for the opportunity and just warn him that when I punch his head and he lands in the second row he’ll need someone to catch him." — Frank Shamrock

“Frank can talk all he wants, but I’m going to beat him up. Let’s see how much he fights back.’’ — Nick Diaz

The fighters on Strikeforce’s April 11th Showtime card had their first public face-offs yesterday, with Shamrock, Diaz, Josh Thomson, Gilbert Melendez, Robbie Lawler, Jake Shields, Scott Smith, and Benji Radach exchanging words during a press conference. Among the suits in attendance were Ken Hershman — Showtime’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Sports and Event Programming — who announced that the commentary team for their upcoming series of MMA broadcasts would include Gus Johnson (lead play-by-play announcer and host), Mauro Ranallo (play-by-play duties for the "up-and-comers’ series"), Stephen Quadros, Frank Shamrock,  and Pat Miletich. More pics from the press conference are below, and footage of the presser is after the jump, courtesy of Esther Lin via Fightlinker.

(Jake Shields, pictured here with his son Gilbert Melendez.)

Multiple sources have informed FiveOuncesofPain that a welterweight matchup between Jake Shields and Joe Riggs, which was slated to go down at Strikeforce’s "Shamrock vs. Diaz" event on April 11th, has been scrapped. Writes 5oz:

While he was the 170-pound champ of EliteXC, Shields had entertained the notion of going up in weight to challenge Robbie Lawler, due to the lack of challenges at welterweight. We thought the new bodies at Strikeforce would keep Shields entertained at 170 for a while longer, but it sounds like he’s more interested in big fights than welterweight tune-ups, and we respect that. Besides, weight classes are more of a suggestion than a rule at Strikeforce anyway.

Update, 5:30 p.m. ET: Shields vs. Lawler has officially been announced for Strikeforce’s May event, which will take place somewhere in Washington state. It will be a non-title fight, contested at middleweight.

In other Strikeforce news, former UFC heavyweight champ and PRIDE vet Kevin Randleman has reportedly signed a deal to return to MMA competition under the Strikeforce banner. Randleman last competed at Sengoku II last May, where he won a unanimous decision over Ryo Kawamura. Though "The Monster" was terrifying in hs prime, he has lost seven of his last ten fights. The date of his next match and his opponent have yet to be announced.

(‘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.

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

From a new press release sent out by Strikeforce:

(Props: World of MMA)

File under: Things that would be kind of amazing, but don’t have the slightest chance of actually happening. In this quickie interview with Fabricio Werdum, the former UFC heavyweight says his next fight will be for Strikeforce, likely in May (cool!), and his opponent "is possible, maybe, Kimbo" (oh no!). Throwing Ferg against a seasoned killer like Werdum seems to contradict Scott Coker’s previously stated plan to build Slice back up slowly, so we’re raising an eyebrow at this one. But for the record, Fab says that his gameplan would be to take Kimbo down and submit him. Smart thinking, player; you don’t want none of Kimbo in a stand-up war.

Below: Versus chose not to show the direct aftermath of Damacio Page’s Knockout of the Night over Marcos Galvao at WEC 39, and with good reason — Galvao was completely stiffened after the KO, and then suffered a brief seizure. Check out the gruesome fan-shot video below. Fortunately, Galvao was quickly released from the hospital with no apparent injuries, but it was a scary moment for the fighter and his supporters.

(Props: Fightlinker)

(War Machine slips into a brief trance.  This is why we say no flash photography around him, people.)

- Competing at last night’s XMMA event in Montreal, the fighter formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver earned a submission victory over previously unbeaten Guillaume “El Toro” Delorenzi via rear naked choke.  When reached for the comment, the citizens of the world replied, “War Machine?  That guy who threatened the president on MySpace?  He fights?”

- Mike “Quick” Swick will face Ben Saunders at UFC 99 in Germany, according to Five Ounces of Pain.  Saunders last competed against Brandon Wolff, the fighter War Machine refused to face due to fears that he might be both good and relatively unknown, thus earning his dismissal from the UFC.  Using his height and a series of brutal knees, Saunders made quick work of Wolff at "Fight for the Troops."  Now he gets Swick in Germany.  Why not.

- After insisting that he’s been in negotiations with Strikeforce to give this MMA stuff a try, it seems as if Hasim Rahman is even more full of shit than we suspected.  Strikfeforce’s Mike Afromowitz told MMA Fanhouse there has been “no dialogue” with Rahman or his manager about a fight with Kimbo Slice, as Rahman’s manager had claimed.  Maybe by ‘talking to Strikefore’ he really meant ‘watching old Strikeforce fights on the internet?’  As for Kimbo, Afromowitz described those talks as “ongoing.” 

Though he’s being courted by both the UFC and Strikeforce, where he is the reigning heavyweight champ, Alistair Overeem will likely have his next fight back in the K-1 ring.  A report on MixFight.nl, translated by our trusty friend Robert at Free Fight Videos, says Overeem has accepted an offer to fight 2008 K-1 Grand Prix winner Remy Bonjasky at the end of March.

There’s no word yet on whether Bonjasky has officially agreed to the fight, and after seeing what Overeem did to the dude who stomped his head in the finals of the Grand Prix he might be having some doubts.  If he does take the fight he might want to try and bulk up first, considering what a monster Overeem has become.

The bad news for us MMA types is that this further delays Overeem’s return to the land of little gloves.  His recent fights have made me all the more eager to see him in against big time MMA heavyweights, either in the UFC or somewhere else, to see if he can keep up these performances against top-notch opponents in places where there are commissions and – I’ll just say it – drug tests.   Looks like the wait continues.

Just for shits and giggles, rewatch Overeem’s destruction of Badr Hari after the jump.  ‘Cause what else you got to do?

(Poster image courtesy of Frank Shamrock/Yardbarker)

Strikeforce’s first event in its new Showtime contract just picked up another big name. MMA Weekly has confirmed a report by AroundtheOctagon.com that said former EliteXC welterweight champ Jake Shields will be facing UFC/Strikeforce vet Joe Riggs at the April 11th card in San Jose. No, Riggs isn’t the kind of top ten opponent that Shields would ideally be fighting, but at least he’s competing again — which is pretty much how Shields and his father/manager Jack are viewing the situation. As the elder Shields told MMA Weekly:

That seems to leave open the possibility of Shields moving to the UFC when his current contract is completed, where he’d be able to test himself against the best 170-pounders in the world. The Cesar Gracie-trained fighter — who has won his last 11 fights, including victories over such highly regarded opponents as Paul Daley, Nick Thompson, Carlos Condit, and Yushin Okami — will also reportedly headline another Strikeforce event this summer, "against a well-known opponent."

Riggs has gone 2-2 in Strikeforce, most recently scoring a TKO over Luke Stewart at Strikeforce: Destruction last November. While in the UFC, he put together an equally-middling record of 4-4 — and infamously missed weight for a scheduled title fight against Matt Hughes in 2005 — but was able to collect victories against Nick Diaz and Chris Lytle.

After purchasing “select assets” including fighter contracts from Pro Elite last week, Strikeforce quickly went from a surprisingly successful regional promotion to a major player in the MMA scene almost overnight.  In this exclusive interview CEO Scott Coker talks about the deal and the acquisitions, as well as what his organization has planned for its new talent.

CagePotato.com:  Thanks for talking with me, Scott.  Since you purchased the fighter contracts, how has the transition been going?  Do you find that the fighters are eager to fight for Strikeforce now?

I’ll tell you, we’ve had about twenty or so, or about half of the roster, that we’ve reached out to as of this morning and had good conversations about scheduling and match-ups.  I think that, at the end of the day, a lot of these guys just want to get back to work and get back to fighting so they can continue their careers.  So I’d say the transition has been going well.

What about any fighters who might have been hoping to get free of their Pro Elite contracts and sign with the UFC?

I’ve only had that conversation with one fighter.  And we’ve had two or three conversations with that fighter since, and now I think they may be feeling a different way than they were before.  And I can understand the frustration that a lot of these fighters are feeling, because they’ve been out of work for a while.  Not everybody fought on the last show in October.  Some of them haven’t fought since June or July of last year.  

We dealt with that frustration at the very beginning and we understood where it was coming from, but a lot of these guys I’ve known for a long time, their managers are friends of mine, so I think the ice has all been broken.  And the fighter who was originally looking to go to the UFC is now saying, ‘Do you think I could fight by May?’  So I think they see what we’re doing and it’s going to be okay.