(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.

(Horsemeat is a helluva drug.)

In an interview with MMANews.com‘s Chris Howie, Alistair Overeem flatly denies that his growth spurt over the past three years is attributed to the use of performance enhancers such as anabolic steroids, testosterone or growth hormone.

The Dutch-born K-1 standout, who made the jump to the heavyweight class in 2008 fighting just over the minimum weight and now tips the weigh-in scale at approximately 255 pounds the day before his bouts, says that his increase in muscle mass is a result of his diet and weight training regimens.

(Besides sporadically training MMA, Bobby Lashley has been saying his prayers and taking his vitamins and the results have been staggering.)

Strikeforce held a media conference call today with Andrei Arlovski, Antonio "Big Foot" Silva, Roger Gracie and Kevin Randleman to hype their upcoming
 Saturday May 15 “Heavy Artillery” event in St. Louis.

(At a press conference today, Strikeforce president Scott Coker said predictions of his promotion’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.)

In an attempt to disprove  Dana White’s assertation that they are a "bush league, C-level promotion that will probably be out of business next month," Strikeforce today demonstrated a desire to outlive the moratorium date predicted by the UFC president with an announcement that they are organizing a June 16 mid-week show.

I smell a June 16 UFC Fight Night announcement on the horizon.

The yet-to-be-named event, which will be broadcast on Showtime at 11pm ET will take place at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live and will feature former EliteXC lightweight champion KJ Noons, former EliteXC middleweight champion Robbie Lawler and ex-WWE wrestling star Bobby Lashley.

Man, you thought going from Japanese MMA royalty to Strikeforce prelim fighter was bad? Dude. Strikeforce sent out a press release this morning announcing that MMA pioneer Matt "The Law" Lindland — who has been stopped in his last two fights against Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and Vitor Belfort — will be headlining the next Strikeforce Challengers event (May 21st; Portland, Oregon), against Kevin Casey, best known as the jiu-jitsu coach of reality-show ass-pimple Spencer Pratt. Casey’s 3-1 MMA record includes a TKO loss to Ikuhisa Minowa, and three wins against guys you’ve never heard of. His Wikipedia page offers this telling anecdote:

[Casey] began to study Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 1999 when he befriended Rockson Gracie, son of Rickson Gracie…Casey has [promoted him]self to Black Belt in Jiu-Jitsu. He was banned from the school by Kron Gracie the son of Rickson Gracie because of his attempt at self promotion.

Really? A guy who recruited his celebutard buddy Spencer to look hard in a music video about his own awesomeness is a shameless self-promoter? You don’t say. Lindland vs. Casey is the ultimate matchup of grumpy old-timer vs. young entitled d-bag. And if Casey wins, we will never hear the end of it. So train well, Matt…and keep protecting our jobs. If you’re curious, the current lineup for Strikeforce Challengers 8 is after the jump.

(The signs were everywhere, including Jake’s FB and MySpace pages. How did we miss them?)

In an interview with All Headline News today, UFC president Dana White asserted that Strikeforce middleweight champ Jake Shields will be on his way to the Octagon sooner than later. Shields technically has one fight remaining on his SF contract, but it will likely expire before he has the opportunity to fulfill the obligation. White is confident that Shields, who definitely exited the promotion on a high note Saturday night with his dominant win over former PRIDE champion and UFC castaway Dan Henderson, will not be long testing free agent waters.

Although the wheels to add the 31-year-old Californian to the UFC’s stacked welterweight roster are not yet in motion, as soon as Strikeforce exercises its rights to re-sign Shields (something White is confident will likely not happen) he says the UFC will make an offer to the Cesar Gracie black belt.

“Jake Shields is definitely going to leave Strikeforce and he’s definitely coming to the UFC," White told AHN’s Shawn Krest.

(Props: MMAFighting.com)

If you assumed that Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal could only function on cocky trash-talker mode, you need to watch this video taken Saturday night, in which Mo is so emotionally vulnerable after defeating Gegard Mousasi in Nashville that he can’t even give Ariel Helwani an interview while standing up. Lawal credits his victory to his trainers, and to the fact that most MMA fighters don’t have good takedown defense. But overall, he wasn’t too impressed with his performance: "I got lazy a few times. I took [Mousasi] for granted because I didn’t respect his skills all too much because I knew I could beat him. I should have taken him more serious, I couldn’t even finish him…I didn’t want it to go five rounds, I wanted to leave him sleeping, but he’s tough, man, he’s seasoned."

And now, let’s all take a moment to reflect on that fact that King Mo is the light-heavyweight champion of a major MMA organization after just seven bouts — only three of which were actually contested at light-heavyweight. While some may interpret that as a triumph of style over substance, or as a symbol of how thin Strikeforce’s 205-pound division is, I just see a guy who did everything right — a fighter whose brief career should be studied by every young scrapper trying to get into the game.

(Odds of "King Mo" taking another costly Rockstar bath? Considering that this fight happens right after tax season, call it a longshot.)

Strikeforce invades Nashville this weekend, which means there’ll be plenty of fried food, Elvis worship, and a whopping three title fights to throw your money at. We have some legitimately tough choices to make this time around, so let’s gather all the change we can find from the ashtray of our mother’s Chevy Nova and get serious about this.

Betting lines come to us from BestFightOdds.com:

Dan Henderson (-395) vs. Jake Shields (+295)
Gegard Mousasi (-275) vs. “King Mo” Lawal (+215)
Gilbert Melendez (-160) vs. Shinya Aoki (+130)
Jason Miller (-1200) vs. Tim Stout (+700)

The breakdown…

(Nice, playa.)

by Cage Potato contributor Matt Kaplan

Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields is starting to see his April 17 title defense against Dan Henderson for what it is: a win-win. Shields is heading into the last fight of his Strikeforce deal, and if he wins, he not only will have beaten a personal MMA hero, but he also will have UFC president Dana White knocking on his door. And if he loses, well, the UFC will still be knocking. Win or lose, the free agent Shields is getting paid.

In an exclusive Cage Potato interview, Shields spoke about exploring free agency, what he has that Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira does not, “definitely” wanting to fight Georges St-Pierre, and a Strikeforce 170- and 185-pound talent pool that, as far as he is concerned, is all but drained. Oh yeah, and he does not like Frank Shamrock.

Dana White recently claimed that you are being fed to Dan Henderson for the last fight of your contract. He suggested that Strikeforce and/or Showtime might be doing this so that if you lose, they won’t have to pay up for both you and Henderson.

Yeah, I don’t know. I’m not really sure what the motives are. Obviously it’s a really tough fight for the last fight on my contract. It’s not something I really want to push, but it’s a good fight for me as well. It’s a good opportunity to prove myself against a top fighter, so their motives aren’t really that big a deal to me. I’m just trying to go out there and do my thing and win a fight.

Have you and your management begun talks with Strikeforce about a new contract?

(Props: FightersOnlyMagazine)

It’s the first time we’ve seen Brett Rogers in months, and what are the very first words out of his mouth? "Basically, man, I feel like I’m kinda going back to my old style." Nooooooooooo! Grim, you are hereby fined 500 PotatoChips for violating our most recent CagePotato Ban, and an additional 250 for shaving off your badass mohawk for some ill-advised reason.  

Anyway, Brett’s back, and is a month out from his Strikeforce heavyweight title fight against Alistair Overeem. But his November loss to Fedor Emelianenko still weighs heavily on him, and he’s hungry for a rematch: "When I went into that fight, I guess my mind was just playing tricks on me…I was expecting him to be a little more aggressive, and I was just playing off of him, but next time I’m just going through him, man. If he comes in to fight like he came in the first time I fought him, he’s definitely gonna get beat. It’s gonna be a murdalization."

As for Alistair, Rogers calls the Demolition Man a "chipmunk" and a "pretty boy to heart," and vows to crush him. "He’s one of those guys that’s really cocky and arrogant…It’s gonna be a fun fight because I don’t like him. He’s talking about he’s gonna smack me when he sees me? I’m definitely gonna put that the test whenever I see him."

(There’s a reason the Japanese version of The Fonz was never as popular.)

Because of his limited English skills and the general lack of western media access to him, we don’t get to hear from Shinya Aoki in his own words all that often. As a recent interview with Japan’s Gong Magazine (then translated for Fighter’s Only) confirms, that’s a damn shame. Aoki more or less refused to get bogged down in the normal/boring technical discussion about how his style matches up with Gilbert Melendez’s, and instead cut right to what he feels the stakes are in this bout:

“Japan’s best comes to USA. This is amazing…my technical side is evidenced by my long career. It is the same as my old fights so it does not need to be discussed. Instead, the most important point is this: ‘If Aoki loses, it is over for Japan’

LayzieTheSavage with Jason Mayhem Miller – Watch more Funny Videos

When news came out yesterday that Jason "Mayhem" Miller was booked to fight a local banger named Tim Stout at Strikeforce: Nashville on less than two weeks notice, we wondered how the outspoken middleweight felt about it. So, we sent our video editor friend LayzieTheSavage out to Reign Training Center in Orange County to ask him a few questions. In this exclusive video interview, Miller gives his thoughts on his "country boy" opponent, and why he’ll enjoy smashing Stout in the dude’s hometown. He also discusses the challenge of being on the same card as Muhammed Lawal, and what it’ll take to outdo King Mo’s ring entrance. Plus, he tells us a little about the upcoming third season of Bully Beatdown, which he describes as "the most long-lasting show on MTV." So we’re not even going to pretend that The Real World exists anymore, huh?

(Video courtesy of YouTube.com/CBS.)

If you missed the news from last week about CBS doing a Strikeforce-NCIS LA mash-up for an episode of the criminal investigation drama that airs tonight, here’s the skinny.

Sure, LL Cool J will likely never win an Academy Award, and the chances of a mixed martial artist ever making a name for themselves on the big or small screen are slim to none, but there’s something satisfying about seeing MMA fighters cross over onto popular television shows like NCIS: Los Angeles. As cheesy as the fight scenes look and as much as the camera work and dialogue seem like they’re from a budget porno movie, the point is MMA has gone mainstream, which, like it or not, is good for the sport. The better the ratings the show gets, the better the likelihood we’ll be seeing more cauliflower-eared thespians in other shows in the future, so tune in if you get the chance.

by Cage Potato contributor Matt Kaplan

With his new Strikeforce deal completed, it seems like “The Pitbull” might soon be barking up a couple of old trees.

Popular Strikeforce heavyweight Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski (15-7) is set to take on Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva on May 15, and while he isn’t looking past the big Brazilian, he understands that a win over Silva could put him in position to avenge his devastating 2009 losses to Fedor Emelianenko and Brett Rogers in the not-so-far future.

Since his June loss to Rogers, Arlovski has murdered Mike Pyle, beaten up a bully, done a ton of video blogging, and trained with some of the best camps in MMA. Arlovski recently signed a new multi-fight deal with Strikeforce, and the former UFC heavyweight champ is looking to avoid a third straight loss. Arlovski has lost two consecutive fights three times in his career, and if history teaches us anything, it’s that 1) the first man killed in the American Revolution was Crispus Attucks, and 2) after back-to-back losses, Arlovski quickly goes back to crushing people. The sometimes hairy, always scary Arlovski says he has a few scores to settle in Strikeforce, but before he can do that, he needs history to repeat itself on May 15 against “Bigfoot.”

Kaplan: You’ve announced on Arlovski.com your 16-month, multi-fight deal with Strikeforce. Exactly how many fights are you hoping to have in the coming 16 months?

Arlovski: I hope to have four fights in the next 16 months. The first one is against “Bigfoot” Silva on May 15.

In the eight months that you were out of MMA competition, was your focus on a return to the cage, or were you considering other pursuits?

(Photo courtesy of Esther Lin at AllElbows.com)

Sometimes in life we must give up that which we love in order to pursue our dreams. It isn’t easy, and often it rips out some part of our soul, but we suck it up and do it anyway because that’s how badly we want to prove that the top of the MMA world is Japan. Just look at Shinya Aoki up there, stripped of his magic tights and forced to wear shorts like some narcissistic American surfer. Imagine the shame his family must feel. The utter disgrace. And yet, this is what the man is willing to go through to fight Gilbert Melendez in Strikeforce next Saturday. That’s called sacrifice, people.

(Cain Velasquez really knows how to spoil a good nap. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

Spike TV sent out a press release this morning to announce that they’d be showing a free encore presentation of UFC 110, the event that saw Cain Velasquez hammer Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira into a senseless oblivion, and – wouldn’t you know it? – it airs right at the same time as Strikeforce’s event on CBS on April 17.

Obviously, your hardcore fans are not going to miss a free live showing of Dan Henderson "coming for that belt" against Jake Shields just so they can see some fights that they probably already saw. As great as Ryan Bader’s knockout of Keith Jardine was, it’s not worth missing the Gilbert Melendez-Shinya Aoki fight just to see it again.

But just maybe the UFC is hoping to snag a couple of directionless remote control jockeys who feel like watching some fights but don’t realize it until they happen to stumble upon some. If they come across Spike TV first, maybe they’ll be sucked in without ever realizing/caring that they’re missing live action on CBS. Maybe they live their lives in much the same way, marring the first woman who said yes to a date with them and buying the first car they saw when they flipped open a copy of Auto Trader. Maybe this is a sad, yet oddly satisfying existence. Or maybe Spike TV just doesn’t have much else to offer on a Saturday night.

You know that show "NCIS: Los Angeles," right? No, it’s not the one where David Caruso takes off his sunglasses over and over. That’s "CSI: Miami." And it’s not the one with Lt. Dan from “Forrest Gump.” That’s "CSI: NY." And it definitely isn’t the one with Scott Baio and the chick from "Baywatch." That was "Charles in Charge" and sadly it’s been gone for some time now. No, "NCIS" is the one with LL Cool J and a bunch of cameos from Strikeforce fighters who mostly mill around in the background. At least, that’s what this promo would have me believe.

CBS’s latest genius idea (let’s not forget this work of art) to promote the upcoming Strikeforce event in Nashville on April 17 is to take a bunch of fighters and stick them in a show that’s normally about, I don’t know, solving crimes or something. But hey, if "News Radio" could work in an MMA storyline, any show can.