Strikeforce is ready to shine tonight as all the fighters are ready to roll.
Main Card Bouts (on CBS)
Fedor Emelianenko (232) vs. Brett Rogers (264)
Jake Shields (184.5) vs. Jason “Mayhem” Miller (184)
Gegard Mousasi (205) vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (204)
Fabricio Werdum (242) vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva (263)
Preliminary Bouts
Marloes Coenen (145) vs. Roxanne Modafferi (140)
Mark Miller (171) vs. Deray Davis (170.5)
Jeff Curran (145) vs. Dustin Neace (150.5)*
Shamar Bailey (170) vs. John Kolosci (171)
Louis Taylor (185.5) vs. Nate Moore (184)
Christian Uflacker (156) vs. Jonatas Novaes (155.5)
* Neace was given one additional hour to make 146 pounds. After he failed to do so, Curran agreed to a catchweight bout of 149.6 pounds. Neace will forfeit 20% of his purse to Curran due to the foul. (I overheard Neace’s corners saying that he’d stopped sweating during that hour, so I had a feeling he wouldn’t be making the 145.)
Notes:
- Dan Henderson and Shinya Aoki were both in attendance. I spoke with Henderson and he still insists that while he and Strikeforce are in negotiations, nothing has been signed yet. Scott Coker says we can hope to see Aoki fighting for Strikeforce in 2010, after the agreement the promotion reached with DREAM.
- Coker named Josh Thomson and Gilbert Melendez as possible opponents for Aoki if he does in fact make the trip to Strikeforce.
- Both Henderson and Aoki are also expected to be in attendance during the fights, so be on the lookout for the fighters and a potential announcement during the television broadcast.
- Scott Smith, King Mo, and Sports Illustrated’s Josh Gross were guests on a special on-scene filming of Inside MMA with Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten. Gross made a mention to Smith along the lines of, “You’re next fight against Cung [Le].” Smith said that this was really the first he had heard of it.
- I talked to Scott on Wednesday at the open fighter workouts and he thought he would be fighting on the December Strikeforce card, but he had no idea who it would be against. After the Inside MMA filming I spoke with Scott again, and he said that it was the first he had heard of the rumor from a legitimate source, and he had no idea about it since Le just vacated the title and was presumed to be gone from MMA for awhile.
- Interesting to see what Strikeforce does with Le, who decided to vacate his middleweight belt to be an actor, but now has apparently decided that he wants to come back. Le vs. Smith would definitely be a stand-up war and a fight I won’t complain about if they set it up.
Follow us on Twitter tonight @MMAMadness for LIVE updates.
