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Strikeforce returns tomorrow night with their fifth major event on Showtime. Featuring the crowning of their first Welterweight Champion in the night's main event and the return of Cris "Cyborg" Santos to action, along with the Strikeforce debuts of Bobby Lashley and Herschel Walker, the night brings a combination of great MMA action and the first look at Lashley and Walker. As always, we'll bring our live round by round coverage to the event tomorrow as the event airs, but let's start with some predictions for the night's card!
EASportsMMA.com Prelim Bout
Jay Hieron vs. Joe Riggs: Former UFC fighters meet in a special presentation on EASportsMMA.com before the Showtime event airs, as Jay Hieron and Joe Riggs take part in a welterweight contest. Hieron, a longtime IFL competitor as well, signed with Strikeforce in August following the collapse of Affliction, in main part to face Nick Diaz for Strikeforce's vacant Welterweight crown. Of course, Diaz ended up skipping out on a pre-fight drug test before that scheduled bout in August, and Hieron got bumped from the main card to face last minute replacement Jesse Taylor. Hieron defeated Taylor by decision to move his winning streak to six fights. Riggs has not fought for Strikeforce since a June victory over Phil Baroni, but has moved his own winning streak to four fights with consecutive stoppage victories in Rage in the Cage events. Both fighters are longtime veterans of the sport, even though Riggs boasts double the amount of fights at six years younger than Hieron. This should be a highly competitive bout, with both capable of stopping the other by strikes or submission, but Hieron is dead set on a shot at the Title, and will definitely need this victory to face the winner of Diaz-Zaromskis. I like Hieron with a unanimous decision in a close back and forth bout.
Showtime Main Card
Bobby Lashley vs. Wes Sims: Bobby Lashley makes his major promotion debut after a 4-0 start to his mixed martial arts career, and stepping in on a week's notice to face him is former UFC fighter and Ultimate Fighter season ten competitor Wes Sims. Lashley, the former WWE wrestler and still TNA wrestler, is looking to make his name in MMA, and has said he'd like to fight the sport's #1 heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko during this current Strikeforce contract. Sims has admittedly not had any training for this fight, but comes in with a definite size and experience advantage. That won't mean much here, however, and Lashley should be able to use his wrestling, and what should be an improved striking and ground and pound game to finish Sims off quickly. I like Lashley with a first round stoppage here.
Herschel Walker vs. Greg Nagy: 47 year old Herschel Walker makes his mixed martial arts debut after a lifetime of athletic achievement and success. A Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Georgia, Walker went on to a fifteen year professional football career. In addition to that career, Walker was an Olympian in 1992, competing in the Two Man Bobsled competition. A sixth degree black belt in tae kwon do, Walker has been working with the American Kickboxing Academy in a twelve week training camp heading into this debut fight, and the AKA contingent have all been singing his praises. Nagy, on the other hand, is only a two fight professional, having begun his training in the sport in 2008. This is an athletic mismatch, as Walker is nothing short of a physical specimen, and it's highly likely he'll roll through Nagy in this one. Strikeforce has taken a definite gamble with Walker due to the "freakshow" feel having a 47 year old fighting for the first time has and will bring them, but it's a gamble that will likely pay off, at least for the short term. I'll take Walker to make quick work of Nagy with a first round stoppage in his first bout.
Robbie Lawler vs. Melvin Manhoef: After a lengthy kickboxing and MMA career with K-1 and FEG in Japan, Melvin Manhoef makes his stateside organizational debut in what should be a hell of a brawl with Robbie Lawler. Manhoef is coming off a first round destruction of Kazuo Misaki on New Year's Eve, and though his style is a bit one dimensional Lawler is one opponent who will be bringing a similar style to the table against him. Lawler has been out of action since June 2009, where his six fight unbeaten streak was snapped in shocking fashion as he was submitted by Jake Shields. Both fighters are looking to make a definite splash in this one, and fans everywhere should be very happy with how this one goes. Manhoef has not left the first round in a fight since June of 2007, and he hasn't been stopped by strikes himself in almost six years. Lawler as well has only been defeated by submission in losses he's suffered since 2004, but with that said both guys will be going for the kill all throughout this fight. This is a tough fight to call, as it depends on who lands their punches first or most often. I'm going to take Manhoef with the first round TKO in this one, though I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the opposite came to pass. Either fighter is capable of it, but either way someone's getting knocked out.
Marloes Coenen vs. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (Women's 145 lb. Championship): This is a great women's bout that should be highly competitive. This one pits the very well rounded game that Coenen possesses against the brutal aggreesion of Cyborg. The key for Coenen is to get this fight to the ground, even though while there it won't be easy to pick this one up. Cyborg's got a very good overall game, but her striking is most dangerous and will be something Coenen wants to avoid. With twelve of her seventeen wins coming by way of submission, she's going to need to find a way to pull one off here to take this one. For Cyborg, she needs outstrike Coenen early and avoid takedown attempts from Coenen. This should be a very good Title fight, and while Coenen was very impressive in her Strikeforce debut victory over Roxanne Modafferi, I like Santos to finish this one off in the third round. There's simply far too much time in a 25-minute Title fight for Cyborg to connect with enough shots to put Coenen away.
Nick Diaz vs. Marius Zaromskis (Welterweight Championship): For the past four years, Nick Diaz has put together a great run of victories, with the exception being the cut stoppage he suffered against K.J. Noons in EliteXC back in 2007. Since the Noons loss, Diaz has won five straight, and has stopped all of his opponents in that stretch. Zaromskis burst onto the MMA scene last summer, winning the DREAM Welterweight Grand Prix with two head kick KO victories in the semis and finals. He then came back with a third straight head kick KO in October only nineteen seconds into the first round. This fight will be the Lithuanian's United States debut, but despite his recent success he's got a highly talented and well rounded opponent in front of him that will give him his biggest career challenge. One of the major factors of this fight will be Diaz's reach, as he brings a four inch height advantage and his lanky, peppering style that he can use to keep Zaromskis at bay and give him fits. On top of that, should the fight go to the ground, Diaz's jiu jitsu is excellent. The simple fact is Diaz has not been actually finished by strikes since 2002 ( I won't count the cut stoppage), and Zaromskis will have a hell of time trying to do just that in this one. This is Diaz's fight wherever it goes, and while it may take him some time to get it finished, finish it he will. I like Diaz by submission in the third round to become Strikeforce's first Welterweight Champion.
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"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...
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