Strikeforce: LA - June 16th (Wednesday!)

[cowboyronnie]

This is tomorrow, a Wednesday? Apparently.

MAIN CARD

* Robbie Lawler (195.5) vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral (193.5)
* Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos (171) vs. Marius Zaramoskis (169.5)
* Tim Kennedy (185.5) vs. Trevor Prangley (185.6)
* Conor Heun (159.5) vs. K.J. Noons (159.5)

PRELIMINARY CARD

* R.J. Clifford (159.5) vs. Jeremy Umphries (159.5)
* Marcus Kowal (134.75) vs. Hugo Sandoval (135.5)

Really nice card 4 fights deep. Those are their weigh-in results in parentheses, BTW.

Noons, Zaramoskis and Lawler are all serious forces in their divisions' top ten. And each real exciting, here with good matches.

[Posey H8er]

I really want to see Lawler win. But I think the implications put in place are stupid. Whoever wins at the 195 catchweight gets a titleshot in their own weight class. That's just stupid.

[Nemesis21]

Lawler over Sobral
Zaramoskis over Santos
Kennedy over Prangley
Noons over Heun

[CPT]

Kinda weird that Lawler actually weighs more than Babalu, though it could be different by fight time.

Also interesting that it looks like they might bring back the Nick Diaz weight class (160), judging by Noons' and Heun's weights.

Pretty decent little show I guess. Especially considering they have the Fedor/Werdum event next week (just what the hell else is even on that card?)

I actually kind of like Babalu to beat Lawler. Hadn't heard about that stipulation where the winner gets a title shot in his regular weight class. I don't think it's stupid just for that reason, but because of the people involved it kind of is. Besides, if Lawler wins, does that mean he gets to go to the UFC and fight Jake Shields? Because there's no MW champion otherwise.

Zaromskis should either win or get exposed as a complete nobody, same with Noons. Not really sure what to make of either guy. I think they are both somewhat overrated, even though nobody rates them that high. Neither one of them is top 10 though, come on.

Kennedy is a good prospect, but Prangley is a tough out for anyone. I'd still pick Kennedy though.

[cowboyronnie]

Noons beat the piss out of Andre Dida, one of the best strikers in the world. I watched that Diaz fight again not too long ago as well, and that was pretty good tooling.

Other stuff.

160 was the Pride limit. They've always used it.

[cowboyronnie]

Did anyone catch any promotion for this thing? The fact it's tonight came out of nowhere.

The Fight Network did have a special, I saw that.

[CPT]

Noons beat the piss out of Andre Dida, one of the best strikers in the world. I watched that Diaz fight again not too long ago as well, and that was pretty good tooling.

Other stuff.

160 was the Pride limit. They've always used it.

I haven't seen it in a while.

Their LW division is 155, not 160.

Noons is top 10 because he beat Andre Dida? Really?

[cowboyronnie]

Noons is top 10 because he beat Andre Dida? Really?

Don't be daft.

[cowboyronnie]

You're right that 160 is a catchweight. I guess Huen wouldn't have had time to cut weight.

Huen looked good. Cyborg looked amazing. ****, it's too bad the dude's 32. He clearly lost a lot of muscle to get to 170 - there was little bf or hydration to cut, evidently - but he still looked 2 divisions bigger than Zaromkis. Jeez. Great fights so far.

[Nemesis21]

Huen/KJ fight was good.


What a TKO victory for Cyborg(male version).

[cowboyronnie]

They were all great fights.

Babalu has never looked that good. His boxing was awesome. Love the snap-kick. Babalu needs to move to 185. He looked so much faster and more agile. Fight Hendo at 195, I say.

Lawler agreeing with the judges. Huh. Class guy. Complacent as a fighter tonight, though. 29-28 for Babalu was definitely the right decision.

Does Cyborg have a tattoo of Whorf on his obliques? Badass.

[cowboyronnie]

Anyone else notice the promo script of Fedor vs Werdum gives "Fedor" some crazy script in a large font with a plain, smaller "Werdum" underneath? M-1...ugh.

[REDDzone]

Zaromskis is mentally weak. Flying knee there? IDK.

Is there any way in the world that dude could get down to 155?

[Cammo101]

Zaromskis is mentally weak. Flying knee there? IDK.

Is there any way in the world that dude could get down to 155?

I bet he could get down to 155 by looking at him. His hype train got derailed in a hurry these last two fights.

[High 5]

Good fights. I kept waiting for Babalu to get knocked out but it never came. That was one hell of a welt on Lawler's ribs.

[jTF2]

nice to see cyborg resurrecting his career.

[2009NBAChamps]

Good night of fights. Tough to see Zaromskis go down again, but the size difference I think was too much to overcome.

The opening fight was awesome and surprisingly enough this might have been SF's most entertaining card despite the lack of appeal and names going in.

[Posey H8er]

Fedor working out in California-

[jTF2]

Fedor working out in California-

wtf?

[Posey H8er]

On Ariel Helwani's show, Evgeni Kogan, the M-1 Global director of operations said Fedor has slimed down a little in this fight and he's much faster than he was against Rogers.