(Fight Fedor? He’s got a thing that night. PicProps: K-1)

After months of Alistair Overeem publicly blaming M-1 Global for keeping him from fighting Fedor Emelianenko, the “Last Emperor” finally came out this week and said he would fight Overeem by the end of the year. Great news, right? Well, it would be, except that Overeem now says he doesn’t want to fight Fedor. At least not until the former consensus No.1-ranked heavyweight gets back on the winning track. Instead, Overeem says he’ll compete in K-1′s 2010 Grand Prix, which could keep him tied up from October to December.

That faint crashing sound you just heard was us throwing our favorite coffee mug – the “I Love Iowa” one we got in grad school – against the wall.

 
(I think the message was quite clear. I specifically told Nick NOT to be scared.)

It looks like Strikeforce has missed the marketing train once again as the promotion has passed on a self-selling grudge match between Jason "Mayhem Miller" and Nick Diaz and will instead once again pair the latter up with KJ Noons in a rematch of their 2007 EliteXC title bout. In that fight, Noons emerged victorious due to doctor stoppage resulting from a cut sustained by Diaz. More memorable than their bout was the in-cage melee between Team Cesar Gracie and Noons’ father a year later after Noons’ fight with Yves Edwards in Hawaii during which Nick’s immortal "Don’t be scared, homie," line was born. EliteXC brass orchestrated a rematch-hyping staredown between KJ and Nick, but as we have learned, whenever a Diaz is involved, anything can, and usually will happen.

This time around Diaz’s welterweight strap will be up for grabs, which makes perfect sense according to Strikeforce calculus. Anywhere else Noons may have to…I don’t know…win a fight at 170 perhaps before getting a shot for the belt. But this is Strikeforce, where logic is overrated and matchmaking is easy if you have a magic eight ball.

(Big ups to Team Thirsty, Team Get Dat Paper and Team Having-a-Second-Reconstructive-Knee-Surgery-in-Less-Than-Two-Years. PicProps: Esther Lin, obvi.)

OK, so here’s a textbook example of why fighters need managers (preferably managers who are not also their girlfriends, because that’s a no-win situation for everyone): Word out of Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal’s camp in the wake of his loss to Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante at Strikeforce: Houston on Saturday is that Mo blew out both the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments in his left knee during the bout. Because he’s an MMA fighter, Lawal wanted to squeeze in one more fight before opting to have surgery, but fortunately cooler (read: sane) heads prevailed. Manager Ryan Parsons now says the former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion could be out for up to nine months.

“Mo wanted to take one more fight, but we decided that this injury should be attended to first,” Parsons told Sherdog.com yesterday.  Um, yeah. No shit.

(You taking notes, Tapout? Now *that’s* how you make an MMA T-shirt. VidProps: YouTube/Helwani)

At this point, it would basically constitute an act of grievous, unforgivable promotional negligence if Strikeforce fails to put Jason “Mayhem” Miller in the cage with Nick Diaz this October. When two of your most popular and similarly-sized fighters have a real life beef that comes preloaded with hype from a giant, in-ring brawl your company already aired on national television, it doesn’t exactly take P.T. Fuckin’ Barnum to figure out what to do. Unfortunately, since grievous, unforgivable promotional negligence is what Strikeforce does best these days, this fight will probably never happen.

And you know who’s going to be really pissed about that? I mean, besides us? Mayhem Miller, that’s who. As evidenced by the above video with Ariel Helwani the very topic of Diaz makes Miller totally incapable of using his “inside voice.”

(King Mo was skeptical about looking into the strange man’s pinhole projector, but eventually his curiosity about seeing a total eclipse of the sun got the better of him. PicProps: Strikeforce)

Aside from the hapless Jorge Gurgel – who has lived in the States so long his nationality could most accurately be listed as “Ohioan,” anyway – Saturday night’s Strikeforce: Houston card couldn’t have gone much better for the promotion’s Brazilian contingent. From Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante stopping Muhammed Lawal to claim the light heavyweight title in the main event to  Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza winning the 185-pound strap after a fight with Tim Kennedy that wasn’t really as close as a lot of people are trying to allege, Brazil pretty much owned everybody’s asses last night.  Again.

In unrelated news, Bobby Lashley lost to some guy whose sideburns made him look like he should be playing trombone in a third-wave ska band. All of our deepest fears and darkest suspicions about the former pro-wrestler’s heart and MMA skills were confirmed. Goddamn it felt good.

Somewhere, whatever notes Scott Coker had scribbled on the back of a Motel 6 brochure about the future of his company probably got crumpled up and tossed in a trash can.

(VidProps: YouTube/KarelMMArts)

Even 12 hours later, it’s difficult to fully grasp the ways in which Jorge Gurgel’s fight with KJ Noons turned into a terrible abortion at Saturday night’s Strikeforce: Houston show. Suffice it to say, a lot of things went horribly wrong and nearly everyone involved failed miserably to do their jobs.

As he almost always does, Gurgel came into the fight with the worst possible game plan, essentially guaranteeing defeat before the bout even started. Meanwhile, Noons crammed not one, but two blatantly illegal strikes into just over five minutes of fighting. For his part, referee Kerry Hatley seemed not to notice either of the infractions, then totally bungled one of the more obvious stoppage situations you’ll ever encounter in MMA. All the while the Strikeforce broadcast team reconfirmed for viewers its complete inability to adjust on the fly when even the slightest controversy rears its head.

(It was 5:15 and still no sign of the cable guy, but Antonio Silva wasn’t about to call that bitch at Comcast customer service again. PicProps: Strikeforce)

So the Strikeforce heavyweight division has come to this: With Fab Werdum injured and Fedor Emelianenko reportedly warming up to the idea of re-upping with the company following his next bout, Scott Coker and Co. appear intent on feeding Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva to either Fedor or champ Alistair Overeem in the coming months. To what end? Unclear, but with Silva the only legitimate (and healthy) 265-pound contender on the roster who hasn’t suffered a seemingly career defining loss lately, maybe it’s the only thing they can do.

At best, a fight pitting Bigfoot against either Overeem or Emelianenko is a place-holder. Just something to do until the promotion can suffer through another round of prickly negotiations with M-1 Global — rumor is Fedor won’t sign a goddamned thing until Strikeforce ponies up the dough for that racecar bed he’s had his eye on – and takes another crack at getting its two best heavies in the cage with each other.  At worst, the Brazilian gigantor actually wins. Then what are you going to do? A Werdum vs. Silva rematch to determine who is The Greatest Fighter of All Time? Don’t think so.

(For some reason, Strikeforce opted to hold this week’s prefight media events at The Black Lodge. VidProps: YouTube/Helwani)

I’m going to tread lightly here, because I don’t want KJ Noons’ dad to physically attack me, but sometimes it just seems like it would be better, maybe, if Karl Jr. didn’t talk. At least not in public. Sure, Noons is a decent fighter, but watching him stumble through six minutes, 35 seconds worth of half-finished sentences, "you knows" and grammar that is probably best described as “Tito-esque” in the above video makes me wonder if a better public relations strategy for him wouldn’t be to just stand there and smile and occasionally flip his lustrous hair out of his eyes.

Noons in fact does spend the first minute of his interview with Ariel Helwani talking about his hair. He’s growing it out, see, just for the experience and just in case he goes bald later in life. You never can be too careful. “It’s pretty crazy, dude,” he says about his plans to see how long he can get it. It takes until the 5:38 mark in this vid for Noons to get to the heart of anything interesting, like the recent comments he made about the UFC being “boring as hell.” When the subject does come up, Noons falls back one of the more tried-and-true defenses for morons who say shit they later regret: It was the media’s fault.

 
(Mo’s ride makes Huggy Bear jealous.)

Muhammad Lawal was on last night’s episode of Sportsnet’s MMA Connected and talked a little bit about his baby — a tricked out cherry red 1980 Cadillac Coupe de Ville

Here’s King Mo’s description of the car he calls his everyday ride:

"[It's got] air bags, 22-inch rims, screens, ostrich interior — all that. It’s nice, dog," Lawal explained. "I can hit the switches and hop up on three front-to-back, side-to-side."

("The first time I got shot at in a war … I knew I was in the right place," PicProps: CanvasChronicle)

There are both positives and negatives about this weekend’s Strikeforce middleweight title fight. On one hand, it obviously sucks that Saturday night’s scrap between BJJ whiz ‘Jacare’ Souza and all-around Awesome Dude Tim Kennedy essentially represents another epic fail by Strikeforce when it bungled plans for its totally-rad-sounding 185-pound title tournament. On the other hand, that this fight gives two seemingly very likable athletes their first chance at a major championship, well, it’s hard to hate on that.

Especially in the case of Kennedy, whose status as what the UFC might call “an elite war fighter” should be well-known to you. The active duty Green Beret not only appeared as the special guest on this week’s Bum Rush podcast (which makes him a prince among men, in our opinions) but he also cut a half-fascinating, half-bone-chilling new interview with Old Dad where he shed some more light on how his experiences “Over There” helped prepare him for a career inside the cage. Essentially, it was kind of like using a cannon ball to train for throwing the shot put.

("So, what’s your dad do? He’s in risk management? That’s cool, I guess." PicProps: Strikeforce)

The most shocking fact to emerge from Strikeforce Challengers 10 on Friday? Joe Riggs and Ryan Couture are the same age. Actually, Couture is a month older. Yet while the fresh-faced Couture made his professional debut last night, Riggs – who is about as grizzled and world weary as a dude under 30 can possibly be – was taking part in bout No. 44 of his nine-year career. Luckily for both, they were fighting opponents brought in specifically to chum the waters.

If you had complicated feelings about Couture’s first-ever pro fight airing on national television, you weren’t alone. On one hand, nobody likes Jacob Dylan. On the other hand, it feels a little unseemly to harbor a grudge against a guy as apparently likeable as the younger Couture just because he won some kind of genetic MMA lottery. Luckily, Ryno solved our emotional torment for us in just a minute, 15 seconds last night, proving he belonged in the cage with a glossy smooth triangle choke victory over local boy Lucas Stark.

(One night, two wins, two different outfits. How are the men supposed to compete with that? PicProps: Strikeforce)

In theory, I was in favor of Strikeforce’s 135-pound women’s tournament on Friday night. At this point in MMA’s development, tournaments feel like a nostalgic throwback to our wild, misspent youth. They’re like that one friend we all have who just turned 30 and now insists on drinking two beers and talking about how crazy he was back in college. More specifically, I was hopeful that this particular tourney would brings some much-needed forward momentum and excitement to SF’s female welterweight division, where right now even the champ doesn’t especially want to be there. In practice however, not so much.

In reality, the truncated fights, overall lack of sizzle and a field that felt from the start like Miesha Tate and three also-rans all conspired to make the tournament a bit of a nonevent. Tate won the whole thing in a little less than two hours, Strikeforce strapped a belt on her (Really? A belt? For that?) and then we all went off and did other things. It all happened so fast that play-by-play shouter Mauro Ranallo looked like he didn’t even bother to shave before he went on the air. That alone should tell you something.

(In my recurring nightmare a Brazilian spider chokes me out with his legs. He’s right behind me isn’t he? / Photo courtesy of Inphotography.com.)

Despite a general consensus that Fedor Emelianenko’s days as a Strikeforce fighter are likely over after he fulfills his last fight obligation with the organization, "The Last Emperor" says that he is happy with the California-based promotion and that he will likely sign another deal with them.

"So far I feel very comfortable fighting, very good with my fighting, and I’m planning [to fight] as long as I can physically," he said in a recent interview with M-1global.com. "As far and I’m concerned we should discuss the possibility of signing another contract for four to six fights." 

(Don’t worry, Gina. We won’t let Cyborg on the set.)

It appears that Cris Cyborg may have taken more than just Gina Carano’s Strikeforce belt when she beat the woman many consider to be the most popular female mixed martial arts fighter of all time last August.

She may have taken her will to fight as well.

360 days have passed since her last bout and while the MMA community holds its collective breath waiting for an update on when (or if) Carano will fight again, her former trainer, coach and cornerman Randy Couture isn’t convinced she’ll ever compete again.

("It seems me stay in the colonies has been extended …" PicProps: SBNation)

MiddleEasy.com is at it again, reporting on Sunday morning that Paul Daley has signed a six-fight deal with Strikeforce and will face Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos in his first bout with the American promotion.

Since getting excommunicated from the UFC for punching Josh Koscheck after the bell at UFC 113 in May, Daley appeared on the inaugural pay-pay-view of the Australia-based Impact FC promotion in July – notching a win over Daniel Acacio — and had been rumored to be in contract talks with Bellator as well as slated to fight in the European United Glory welterweight tournament this fall.

No date is yet known for Daley’s Strikeforce debut. Middle Easy cites an anonymous but “very reliable” source with the news.

(Laugh it up, kid. Jewelry and silk shirts make you look 20 years younger. I could pass as your brother.)

Strikeforce announced today that it has signed Ryan Couture to a contract and that the lightweight prospect who holds an amateur MMA record of 5-1-1 will make his professional debut on August 13 at the next Strikeforce Challengers event at Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona.

The 27-year-old who trains out of his dad, UFC Hall-of-Famer Randy Couture’s Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas, Nevada will take on Lucas Stark at the event.

(Props: YouTube/Svtjeriphone)

Here at CagePotato: The Weekend we like to keep it fairly casual. You know, a hair-down kind of affair where we can all relax, have a couple of cocktails and unwind. That said, when we get an email from The Powers That Be politely, yet firmly asking us to post the video of Sarah Kaufman’s KO slam of Roxanne Modafferi from Friday night, we figure we best hop to it. So here above, for those of you who can’t afford Showtime (Seriously, you’re missing an awesome season of Nurse Jackie) or those of you don’t want to sit through the full fight, is the good part.

(This moment brought to you by Bob Cook, Cain Velasquez and God. PicProps: Strikeforce)

Allegedly rehabilitated a-hole Mike Kyle notched his fourth straight win on Friday night after a pretty entertaining fight with Ron “Abongo” Humphrey at Strikeforce Challengers 9. The two light heavyweights kept an impressive pace for eight-plus minutes and Kyle displayed some fairly dynamic striking before offering the clearly exhausted Humphrey a way out via rear naked choke roughly 3:30 into the second round. When it was over, Strikeforce play-by-play shouter Mauro Ranallo made somewhat vague reference to the victory being “the resurrection of a career once thought ruined” and a legitimately humble-looking Kyle repeatedly thanked God, trainer “Crazy” Bob Cook and his AKA teammates for “sticking by me when a lot of people didn’t.”

What they were both getting at, of course, was that prior to this current resurgence Kyle had basically done everything he could to drum himself out of MMA, in the process becoming the standard-bearer for bad behavior both in and out of the cage. But with seven wins in his last nine fights and now seemingly on the doorstep of a title shot in Strikeforce’s puddle-shallow 205-pound division, are fans really ready to accept Kyle as a renewed human … or as a valid contender?

(“Dear Scott Coker, How do you like me now, bitch? XOXO. Love, Sarah.” PicProps: Strikeforce)

When Sarah Kaufman let it be known this week that she didn’t appreciate having her women’s welterweight title defense against Roxanne Modafferi relegated to the second-string series of America’s second-string MMA promotion, she said she planned to prove she deserved better. In a blog published on Pretty Tough Fighter.com, Kaufman said she would use her bout with Modafferi to demonstrate herself – and, by extension, the entire women’s 135-pound division — worthy of inclusion on one of Strikeforce’s “big shows.” Well, after Friday night’s performance, let us just say: We’re reading you loud and clear, Sarah.

Kaufman turned in one of women’s MMA’s more impressive (and ugly) knockouts last night, when she hoisted Modafferi off the mat and shut her lights out with a slam near the end of the third round in their fight at Strikeforce Challengers 9. If a finish like that doesn’t erase the memory of her previous fight and earn the now 12-0 Kaufman the respect and fanbase needed to be included alongside, say, “big stars” like Bobby Lashley or Herschel Walker on one of the Strikeforce’s A-list broadcasts, we’re not sure what will.

(Video Courtesy YouTube/JoeRogan.net)

Match-ups between four Strikeforce stand-out fighters are being discussed for a potential October CBS-broadcasted event according to various industry sources.

MMAFighting reports that although he is noncommital whether one of the bouts — a light heavyweight tilt between Dan Henderson and Renato "Bablu" Sobral will happen on the card,  if indeed at all, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the fight could take place on the rumored October CBS show.

(“Cheer up my friend, it is not so bad. No matter what, we will always have each other. And I will always have my nearly incalculable personal fortune. And you? Well, you squandered your fleeting fame and gave most of your money to the church … *cough* … did I mention we will always have each other?” PicProps: M-1 Global)

Despite claims by Fabricio Werdum’s manager that his client’s impending elbow surgery is not as severe as initially reported and that he’ll be willing and able to get back in action later this year, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker says a rematch with Fedor Emelianenko isn’t in the cards, at least not right now. Coker told Sherdog.com on Saturday that when he restarts negotiations about Fedor’s future with M-1 Global next week his short list of prospective opponents will include Alistair Overeem, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Sergei Kharitonov.

As for M-1’s insistence that Emelianenko be granted an immediate rematch with Werdum in the wake of the Brazilian’s stunning victory over Fedor late last month, well, the suddenly badass Coker doesn’t appear to give a damn about that.

“I just don’t think they’ll have a choice,” he told Loretta Hunt.

(Jake initially felt some trepidations about it, but Dana assured him that everyone who signs a UFC contract takes pictures like this. PicProps: Sherdog, obviously.)

It must add a certain amount of insult to injury for Strikeforce that the UFC is taking its sweet time signing Jake Shields. It’s almost like Dana White wants to remind Scott Coker (and everybody else) that the MMA world starts and stops at his convenience, not theirs. Yeah, just as soon as he rolls out of bed around 11 o’clock this morning, hits the gym, lunches at Delmonico’s, spends the requisite few minutes berating Marty Cordova and swings by Pinkberry for his snack, he might – if nothing else comes up – get around to locking down the excommunicated Strikeforce champ. Why be so leisurely about it? Because he can, motherfucker. Where else is Shields really going to go?

Despite reports this week from Shields’ own team that he’d finally slapped his John Hancock on one of the UFC’s notoriously draconian legal agreements, the company itself continues to deny it has formally come to terms with the Cesar Gracie Jiu Jitsu product. According to an MMA Fighting.com story published late Friday night however, Shields’ signing actually is looming and once it goes down, he could be looking at facing Martin Kampmann at welterweight in his promotional debut.

(After shaving his chest and face, Karo hit 170 with ease.)

Karo Parisyan spoke with MMAJunkie Radio yesterday and explained in depth the Strikeforce deal, codenamed by the promotion’s CEO Scott Coker as "a cup of coffee," that never materialized.

According to the beleaguered former UFC fighter who has admitted that he has struggled with anxiety and although he hasn’t confirmed the rumor, is said to have battled addiction to painkillers the past few years, the contract was all but drawn up and it was he who rejected the deal because of certain provisions.

(Video courtesy HDNet)

Well, it looks like Strikeforce may finally officially jump the shark if Bobby Lashley gets his way.

The former WWE star will make a guest appearance on Inside MMA as part of Ron Kruck’s "Kruck’s Corner" segment to talk about his desire to fight Fedor Emelianenko in his next bout and explain that he feels that promoters are responsible for his lack of quality opponents he has been matched up with thus far in his young 5-0 MMA career.

("So long, losers!" / Photo courtesy of sports.sho.com)

By CagePotato Comment-Section "Godfatehre" [sic] Old, Bald and Irish

I was recently greeted with the news that Strikeforce would not only be releasing current Middleweight Champion Jake Shields (25-4-1), but they are not even going to bother negotiating with him or making counter-offers.

W.T.F.?

This latest thumb-in-the-eye just adds to the disrespectful treatment that Shields has received at the hands of Coker and Company. Since when does a committed professional fighter who is a former Rumble on the Rock champ, SHOOTO Middleweight champ, EliteXC’s first and only welterweight champ, who just happens to be on a 14 fight win streak, become an unwanted commodity?

We all saw the CBS ads for Strikeforce: Nashville. You know, the flashy ones showing DAN HENDERSON punching! DAN HENDERSON kicking a bag! DAN HENDERSON standing there, making no expression, yet at the same time, being a living legend! And he’s gonna fight outside of the UFC! And it’s for the CHAMPIONSHIP BELT! Yeah, bitch…that’s right! And he’s gonna fight some guy! Some "Shileds" fella….but we don’t have time to talk about him because we just spent all the time in this commercial talking about how wickedly awesome DAN HENDERSON is!

If you were Jake Shields, how could you not feel insulted?

(SURPRISE! Just shittin’ you, Ricco. The fight’s still on.")

In spite of Alistair Overeem’s public statement to MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani today that he never agreed to face Ricco Rodriguez at DREAM 15 this weekend, executives from the Japanese MMA organization are denying that the Strikeforce heavyweight champion has declined a slot on the card.

According to sources close to the fighter, who is currently aboard a plane to Japan under the assumption that the fight is still a go, DREAM officials have denied the reports that have surfaced about Alistair bowing out of the event and they have held steadfast to their claim that Rodriguez will indeed face Overeem.

(Photo courtesy of sarahkaufman.ca)

The Strikeforce 135-pound women’s champion talks about her upcoming title defense, her desire to fight on a major Showtime/CBS card, and the potential of a superfight with 145-pound champ Cris Cyborg.

By CagePotato contributor Brian J. D’Souza

When fans think of women’s MMA, their first thought is often a tossup between pinups like Gina Carano and Miesha Tate or a 2-2 Kim Couture aided by a last name she married into. But sitting pretty at 11-0 with possession of the Strikeforce women’s welterweight championship belt is Victoria, BC’s Sarah Kaufman, who fights Friday, July 23rd, on the ShoMMA: Strikeforce Challengers event to be held in Everett, Washington. It will be her first defense against 15-5 Roxanne Modafferi, but she’s driven not just to get the win, but also by the goal of making it to the next level.

“I started out in dance when I was about two,” explains Kaufman of her earliest pastime, which was interrupted when she took her first Muay Thai class at age 17. “Adam Zugec opened Zuma (MMA gym) underneath my dance studio — when I started that, it was something fun that just took over my life.”

Later, she even tried to work her University classes around her training schedule for MMA, but there was just no compromising her passion.

“After two years of University, I decided it wasn’t really where I wanted to go. Now I’m doing MMA fulltime”

(Batista vs. Undertaker, reffed by Ricky Hatton. A terrifying glimpse into the future of MMA.)

We all go a little crazy sometimes. Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker can certainly be forgiven for losing his mind in the wake of Fedor Emelianenko’s upset loss against Fabricio Werdum, which wrecked Coker’s chance at a heavyweight title fight between Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem on pay-per-view, and even now seems unreal, a bad dream suffered after a night of torture porn and Indian food. But this is the topsy-turvy world of Strikeforce, where up is down, and guys who just got their asses kicked are #1 contenders. As Coker recently said on Sherdog Radio: “My feeling is maybe Fedor should fight Alistair Overeem and whoever wins that fight gets to fight Fabricio Werdum. Alistair vs. Fedor? I’d love to see that fight happen.” 

LOL at "gets" to fight Fabricio Werdum. Is he the champion now? Is that how it works in your little club? Look genius, everybody would like to see Fedor vs. Overeem happen, but unless you want your titles to lose all significance and your matchmaking to devolve into utter chaos, you probably shouldn’t have Fedor challenge for Overeem’s belt after getting subbed in 69 seconds. I know, Brett Rogers got a title shot after being dunced by Fedor, but that situation was different, as Emelianenko was unavailable to fight at the same time Overeem was. In this case, the deserving #1 contender is available (even though he’s asking for an immediate rematch with Fedor, God knows why).

It should be mentioned that M-1 Global has also formally requested a rematch between The Last Emperor and Werdum. The logical title fight, Werdum vs. Overeem, is the only fight that nobody seems to want. Forget it Jake, it’s Strikeforcetown. But Coker’s suggestion of a title shot for Fedor isn’t the only alarming thing he said last week…

("Tell ‘em you want a $125,000 base salary to start, increasing $25,000 with every win."
"And a custom Hummer, like the ones they give to Ultimate Fighter coaches."
"And an immediate shot at Anderson Silva."
"And a percentage of the…wait, what?")

After a difficult bidding period in which Jake Shields was asking for more money than Scott Coker thought he was worth, Strikeforce released their middleweight champion yesterday, putting Shields on the open market. Shields’s Strikeforce contract ended after his April title defense against Dan Henderson, which allowed other organizations to make bids on his services. Strikeforce was in the matching stage of the process, and had the option to meet any competing offers, but ultimately decided that letting Shields walk was their best option.

As Scott Coker said on MMA Weekly radio, "The numbers, there was a big gap between what we thought was real, and what we thought was going to work, and I call that the numbers dance. It is what it is, and we’re going to probably be moving forward with that tournament."

Tensions between Shields and Strikeforce have reportedly been strained since he appeared at WEC 48, sitting next to UFC president Dana White, who mouthed "he’s mine" at the camera. Strikeforce may have even tried to block Shields from attending Saturday’s Fedor vs. Werdum show. 

(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.”