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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Saturday's final Strikeforce event features a number of one-sided fights, at least as far as the betting odds are concerned, none of which have a steeper line than Daniel Cormier over Dion Staring. The Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix winner is as much as a 20-to-1 favorite over Staring, a fact that Cormier isn't very pleased with into the fight.
"It's very unfair. It's unfair to him and it's disrespectful to Dion because of all that he's done in his career," Cormier said in an interview with MMAFightCorner.com. "And it's a little, it's kind of unfair, there's a lot of pressure that comes with that. Because I can go on not even thinking about it, but at some point someone's going to bring it to my attention and it's somewhat unfair both ways. But I think more than anything it's disrespectful to him and everything he's achieved in his career so far."
"In his stand-up, he trained in Amsterdam with Alistair [Overeem] for a long time and at Golden Glory. So for a guy with 35 fights and trains in that gym, you know he's picked up some pretty good skills over the course of his career. And also the ability to make fights ugly, he'll grab you, he'll hold you, he'll press you against that cage, he'll throw big, looping punches and when a guy's good at that, it's hard to kind of counter. You have to be very careful, you have to prepare thoroughly for what type of fighting style he brings to the cage, and he does it every time too."
Despite the lack of respect being shown towards his opponent, Cormier is excited to close out his Strikeforce career where it began in Oklahoma, though he's got conflicting emotions about his time in the organization coming to an end.
"It's good to be back and you know being able to be in front of all the people that got to see me wrestle throughout my career and also the people who got to see me my very first fight in Tulsa in 2009," the Oklahoma State University alumnus said of fighting back in the state where he'd lived for eleven years. "It's crazy that I had my first Strikeforce fight in Oklahoma and I'm going to have my last Strikeforce fight in Oklahoma. Not many times do things come full circle like that. I'm kind of one of the lucky people that actually have the chance to do that. I'm actually really enjoying it."
"It's very sad. I'm very happy to be moving on to the UFC, obviously anybody that fights at the highest levels kind of owes it to themselves to fight in the show at some point and the UFC is the show. But, it's sad to see the place that actually helped me to build my name, and they helped me to make some money and start building my career, it's hard to see it go," Cormier stated. "I don't know exactly how I'm going to feel when I go into the arena Saturday night and when I leave the arena after the fight on Saturday night, but I'm just looking forward to it. It's pretty sad, I wish it didn't happen this way, but all things happen for a reason. But there's going to be a lot of guys that are going to over to the UFC and they're going to get the opportunity to fight some big fights."
Penick's Analysis: It's not fair to Staring and it's not fair to Cormier, but it speaks to why the fight never should have been booked in the first place. If Cormier doesn't destroy Staring, or if the fight is an ugly, grinding style of fight, it's going to hurt Cormier's image before he enters the UFC. The reason he's such a heavy favorite is because there's no reason for him to lose that fight, and coming short of a one-sided win won't be great for him. That's on Strikeforce and Zuffa for putting him in that spot, as well as on him for sticking to being a part of the final Strikeforce event and accepting this fight. He simply shouldn't be fighting someone who is mostly unknown to fans of the UFC and Strikeforce, and it's unfortunately a lose-lose situation for him here into Saturday's event.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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