THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
An exciting lightweight bout between rising 13-0 Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm and 20-3 Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro is expected for Strikeforce's return to St. Louis on May 15th, according to a report from MMAJunkie.com.
The card is set to take place from the Scottrade Center and is expected to air live on Showtime. This bout could be a part of the night's televised card.
Beerbohm has appeared multiple times on Strikeforce cards, and recently signed a multi-fight deal with the organization. In 13 fights, only one has gone to the judges scorecards, and he's picked up an almost equal amount of submissions to TKO victories since turning pro in 2007.
Ribeiro has posted an impressive career since becoming a professional in 2001. In 23 career fights, his only losses have come to some of the more highly regarded lightweights in the world at the time of those fights in Gesias "GZ" Cavalcante, Tatsuya Kawajiri and, in his last fight, Shinya Aoki. He makes his Strikeforce debut in this fight.
Strikeforce in St. Louis is expected to feature heavyweight bouts between Alistair Overeem and Brett Rogers as well as Andrei Arlovski against Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva.
Penick's Analysis: This is a great lightweight fight for Strikeforce. Beerbohm has come on as an entertaining personality in interviews and hasn't yet had a chance to breakout to more fans despite his highly impressive 13-0 start. Ribeiro has lost two of his last three fights, but considering who they came against it's not an indication that he's not a high level fighter. Hopefully this fight does get placed on the broadcast to give both fighters more exposure to the U.S. audience tuning in on Showtime, as it should be a very entertaining and highly competitive lightweight fight.
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...
PART OF THE USA TODAY UFC GROUP