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I love every Faber fight and this one was no exception, but I get the feeling we were in the minority. Wineland fought a very safe fight instead of throwing bombs like most expected. Barboza / Njokuani was awesome. I was impressed with both guys but something about the way Barboza fought concerned me a little. He looked like the clearly better guy but he wouldn't really take the fight to Njokuani. Maybe it's because Njokuani had the faster hands and he didn't want to open up with punches for fear of a counter, but it seemed like we saw alot of Barboza winging single shot leg kicks instead of mixing it up. Seemed like he held back somewhat, although it could just be me not appreciating a good gameplan.

I'm sure Garcia vs. Jung will fall flat to some because the first one was so great. I'me excited, but I really wanted Nam to get his shot at redemption. Getting pumped for the upcoming fights; Njokuani vs. Barboza is really high on my list right now. Ready to see Barao in the UFC too.

I think for as strong as the UFC is they'd rather nip competition in the bud when possible. Sure, the UFC could always sign these guys when their contracts are up, but Diaz and Lawler both just recently re-upped with Strikeforce despite the option to go with the UFC. Now it's a certainty these guys move over (eventually). I've read that while UFC wasn't threatened by Strikeforce, their interest piqued when Coker starting talking about running PPV. I think they figured it would be easier to buy them off now before they got any bigger. This was probably their best chance to buy Strikeforce going forward since Coker couldn't put the money together to buy out his Hockey partners yet. A few more months and Coker might have found worked something out with ProElite or somebody else, gotten the nervous Hockey folks out of the picture, and been in it for the long haul. This is a pretty shrewd long term play in my opinion.

The UFC is wary about doing Cowboys stadium, so Strikeforce thinking about it is funny. And Jerry Jones is the owner of the Cowboys. Jim Jones ran a cult.

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Wilcox-Damm-Satoshi-Ishii-Booked-for-Strikeforce-Challengers-15-30567 Ishii official for Strikeforce Challengers 15. He's fighting Scott Lighty at 205. Interesting fight, I'm still hopeful he can put it together. It will also have Fodor-Douglas and Damm-Wilcox, which are interesting fights.

Yea, No. His fights are hugfests. His fight with Pierce wasn't bad especially at the end, but his fight with Alves was beyond boring. Same with Thiago and Gono. The GSP fight too, although that had as much to do with him being completely overmatched as anything. If you love positional dominance and have a boner for Fitch that's great. But his fights are usually sleepers. It's not a meme', just the truth.

That, and if GSP leaves the division we're going to see Fitch as a champion in five round snoozers instead of three. Ugh.

P.S. how great would Sonnen-Bisping be at this point? Rivera is a pretty good trash talker and he he literally had Bisping with steam coming out of his ears. can you imagine Bisping's short temper with Sonnen antics? Awesome.

Yea, I still hate Bisping. Vitor is going to put him to sleep. I hope he elbow drops him like Hendo did. Great card minus Fukuda getting jobbed. Glad to see Hunto get a win, he's just fun to watch. I'd enjoy Hunt-Barry. I wasn't mildly interested in Ebersole coming in but he won me over quick. Hope we don't have to wait for another Australian show to see him fight again. Noke and Perosh suprised me with how good they looked. I figured Noke would squeek one out and Perosh would get whipped, but I was wrong on both. Glad Gustaffson survived the threats early, I really like him. I had the main event a draw, but I could have seen the second round go to Fitch and not be upset. No way I could see Penn winning because I think round 3 had to be 10-8. It's been a while since I've thought an entire Fitch fight was fun. I love BJ and hope he wins the rematch, but I don't like his odds. Good, exciting show all in all. I'm loving that we're routinely seeing most fights now. Putting two fights on facebook and three live fights on the lead-in is so great! For anybody that missed them, the two facebook fights are still on their page if you want to watch them over.

If Kenny Florian and the creepy doll on the tricycle from Saw had a kid, it would be Ariel Helwani.

i will agree with both of you that size wasn't his real problem.

He said that in the same interview that he claimed he couldn't drop to 145, and look at him now. He might make 177 during his time off, but he's never been 177 on fight night. Hell, that's what Thiago Alves weighed a few days before his last fight. Not buying it. Especially in this interview from a couple of years ago where he said he "walks around" at 168 but at fight he's never more than 160 or so. http://www.fightmagazine.com/mma-magazine/mma-article.asp?aid=235&issid=9 145 will be as steep as Kenny can cut, but he's not a "big lightweight." He's got this.

Kenny will make 145 easy, and he'll do fine there. People get hung up on the fact that he was a middle weight on TUF but the man was puffed up at 170, never mind at 185. Physically, he was never a "big" lightweight. He's going to be a great addition to a division that needs depth and star power, and is probably one win from a title shot.

So is it safe to assume that Rock will only be around through Wrestlemania? I haven't watched wrestling at all since I got married but am intrigued with Rocky being back. If I thought he was going to be around a while I might turn it on again...

<p>Pretty good show. Bummed Kid looked washed up, but we knew that would happen. Mendes looked great, but Omigawa is not getting enough credit. The meme seems to be "OMG Japan is dead!" which in a lot of ways is true, but Omigawa was a live fight, stuff several takedowns which seemed impossible against Mendes, and threatened with a slick inverted armbar. I still think he'll make splash in the UFC, but Mendes is just on another level. Mendes-Nunes would be a great title eliminator, and I'm getting pumped already for the inevitable Mendes-Aldo showdown. </p><p> </p><p> I was getting worried about the Silva fight, but they found their groove and that was an awesome KO. It's funny what one highlight reel can erase in people's minds. I feel back for Okami, but it's time for GSP-Silva. And if GSP really wants to take that much time off to build muscle mass after the Shields fight then there might be time to slip the Okami fight in there anyway. I'd rather they just start planning for the superfight now though. </p><p> </p><p> Bones is the real deal. Bader is a rock and I think his wrestling is some of the best at 205, so I honestly though this could be a fight were Bones gets flashy and winds up on his back. Wrong. He is a man among boys out there, and I think he's going to be champion. What a total freak athlete combined with steadily increasing technique. GSP 2.0. </p><p> </p><p> Man, 155 and 170 are shark tanks. I really love where welterweight is at; you've got guys like Hathaway, Pierce, Ellenberger, Hendricks, Pyle, and Story who are all young guns on the rise. Any these guys would decimate Strikeforce's roster. I'd like to see Pierce against Ellenberger to see who gets the big fight.</p><p> </p><p> I'm still really high on Rocha too. I think that fight was extremely close and came down to the difference of a couple takedowns. There seems to be chatter online about how Ellenberger was flat, but I just think Rocha is dangerous. His sweeps are incredible. </p><p> </p><p> Good show, and I liked that I was able to see basically every fight.</p>

All of the tournaments will be interesting on this season of Bellator I suspect, but man I'm getting really pumped about their featherweight tournament. Great lineup.

I couldn't figure out what was going on there either. I hope Mayhem. But really it coulda been anybody. edit: The comments in the link below have a picture that makes it look like a bunch of random fans, but other commenters say it was AKA guys. I dunno. http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/1/29/1963913/nick-diaz-finishes-evangelista-cyborg-in-a-beautiful-brawl#comments

I'm mildly interested in this Strikeforce show, if only because they've got two non squash matches. The outcome has been obvious on the majority of the last couple fo shows, and Diaz and Walker are foregone conclusions. Other than just enjoying the way Diaz fights, those two fights barely interest me at all. The other two matches I think are pretty solid matchmaking though. Jacare vs. lawler is an interesting striker versus grappler, and there are several things I'm curious about. Can Lawler swarm Jacare and put his lights out quickly? Has Jacare's standup improved enough to avoid getting blitzed by Lawler? Can Jacare put Lawler on his back? Can lawler survive submissions and escape to his feet? I'm torn on a prediction here, but if I'm forced I guess I'll go with Jacare by decision. I think either way Jacare will come out aggressive and get the fight to the ground; just not sure if lawler will rebound. The other main card fight is interesting to me too, given that Roger Gracie is by far the most interesting of the new generation of Gracie's and really the only one with any chance to make a splash in MMA any time soon. He's athletic and I don't see Prangley knocking him out, but Prangley is a good wrestler who really excels at grinding out wins and nullifying another guy's offense. I think Gracie is more athletic and will probably be too much for Prangley, but it will be interesting to see if his wrestling is enough to stifle Gracie.

It may be more about daley doing it on short notice, given that he's missed weight on 3 different major shows.

I'm guessing daley has one of those strikeforce contracts that is only exclusive in the u.s.? Daley-trigg is interesting but trigg's pretty much done, and I think he'd get torched pretty quick.

To be fair, warranted criticism of strikeforce isn't hate, it's just warranted criticism. I like strikeforce, think they put on fun fights, and watch every time. But this conference call nonsense and inexplicably ruling out 5 round fights? Stupid and unnecessary. No title on the line? Stupid and unnecessary. The fourth judge? Stupid and unnecessary. All of these things dampen interest and stir up criticism when all of it was avoidable. I'm excited for this tournament, but a little less than I was before Coker unleashed this bit of bungling. End of the world? No. pointlessly drawing criticism to something that until now was getting the most good press for strikeforce since the eliteXC buyout is not a positive thing, regardless of minimizing spin. Another thing, "the strikeforce title is meaningless anyway" shouldn't be a defense for anything. That's how it got meaningless! A heavyweight title that is considered by fans to matter is money in strikeforce's pocket every time it's defended, period. Adding value to titles would be a great step for them from a promotional standpoint, and they're just not doing it for no particular reason. So I'm not buying into "the titles are worthless anyway." They don't have to be.

It will be the either the highest or second highest rated season of the show ever, so lots of people will care. The announcement was on the main page of espn.com all day. Its a big story.

I have minor beef with the reserve bouts, if only because you've got two decent heavyweight prospects going head to head in johnson and del rosario, and then a part k-1 fighter versus a journeyman in sefo vsm otherreem. I would have done johnson vs otherreem and del rosario versus sefo to give both prospects a chance to shine. If they both win and aren't needed as replacements in the tournament you a really nice challengers headliner or big show undercard fight.

<p>Guys, I'm not convinced this will work, but look at the pub this is getting. This is probably the biggest mma news story of the young new year. Just booking these fights and not calling it a tournament like the ufc does is safer, but the reward is less too. The tournament is a marketing tool that is appealing to the non hardcore fans. If it goes of smoothly it will be the biggest tournament in recent memory in a sport practically built on them. There is a lot of upside to this but I agree I'm sceptical about if it will happen.</p><p> </p><p> I'm afraid fedor wins his first fight then holds out again, or barnet doesn't get cleared. Injuries worry me a little less only because they're starting this so early in the year there will time to heal and still complete it vy new year 2011. </p><p> </p><p> I'm hopeful this works; I think something of this magnitude is what it would take to revive the cbs deal and keep them nationally relevant instead of slipping back to regional levels.</p>

Love this tournament, I'm beyond excited. But I fear it will go the route of the super six in boxing and wind up with holdups, replacements, etc.