Strikeforce 33 (Diaz vs Daley)

[Posey H8er]

Nick Diaz (c) vs. Paul Daley
Lightweight Championship bout: Gilbert Melendez (c) vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri
Light Heavyweight bout: Gegard Mousasi vs. Mike Kyle

Shinya Aoki and KJ Noons are also rumored to be on this card.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/3/1/202 ... -april-9th


Great card

[Nemesis21]

Cesar Gracie guys FTW !

[CPT]

Pretty damn good card so far.

Too bad it is kind of overshadowed by Strikeforce's failure to get HW tourney bouts on it.

[cowboyronnie]

Bah. If they pull-off adding Aoki and Noons, it's good. But otherwise? Please.

Melendez and Kawajiri is Bisping vs Fitch at 155 - a slapper against a spooner

And Mike Kyle is barely a live opponent.

[Posey H8er]

Pretty damn good card so far.

Too bad it is kind of overshadowed by Strikeforce's failure to get HW tourney bouts on it.

i don't know the true reason for the delay. if SF was worried about overeem and barnett passing drug tests then why is the plan for dallas in june and not somewhere like japan?

[SDM]

Daley and Diaz will be a great fight. A definite must-watch even for a casual fan. Don't care about the others.

[skflives]

I think we all need to take a step back and look at the big picture. Strikeforce has historically seemed unable to walk and chew gum at the same time. Between January 29th and this Saturday March 5th they would have put on 3 major events (Diaz vs. Santos card, Fedor vs. Silva card, Henderson vs. Fejao card) and one Strikeforce Challengers card. That's 4 shows in a little over a month. That's a feat in and of itself for Strikeforce. While the second half of the heavyweight tournament next month would have been nice considering how many shows they are doing can we have reasonably expected Strikeforce not to have something slip through the cracks. All things being equal this is still progress.

[SDM]

I think we all need to take a step back and look at the big picture. Strikeforce has historically seemed unable to walk and chew gum at the same time. Between January 29th and this Saturday March 5th they would have put on 3 major events (Diaz vs. Santos card, Fedor vs. Silva card, Henderson vs. Fejao card) and one Strikeforce Challengers card. That's 4 shows in a little over a month. That's a feat in and of itself for Strikeforce. While the second half of the heavyweight tournament next month would have been nice considering how many shows they are doing can we have reasonably expected Strikeforce not to have something slip through the cracks. All things being equal this is still progress.

Yeah, good point (though it begs the question of why they're flooding the market right now).

[skflives]

Well I am not sure why they are doing so many shows in such a short period of time but I think they definately should be moving towards doing at least one big show a month. I just wish they would give more of their fighters a chance to fight. Quite a few Strikeforce fighters complain about not getting enough fights while KJ Noons, Robbie Lawler and Nick Diaz seem to fight on every other Strikeforce card.

[Cammo101]

I can't decide who I hate more between Daley and Diaz. I have never wanted to see a double KO so bad in my life.

Melendez vs. Kawajiri is 100% going to decision. Rankings wise, this is a good fight. But, it will not be a fun fight to watch.

This card needs Noons vs. Aoki and Hershell Walker vs. a parking cone to give it some name value.

[Posey H8er]

This card needs Noons vs. Aoki and Hershell Walker vs. a parking cone to give it some name value.

maybe to the casual fan, but to most mma fans these are some big names. i really love the way the card is filling out.

[SDM]

Some more news regarding the tourney.

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Strike ... outs-30546

[REDDzone]

Gotta hand it to you guys, you called it. I was more optimistic about this tourney.

Second round in June, when will the end be? 2013? What a joke.

[Cammo101]

Gotta hand it to you guys, you called it. I was more optimistic about this tourney.

Second round in June, when will the end be? 2013? What a joke.

It was a good idea in theory, but Strikeforce had never shown an ability to pull something like this off. This is why the UFC is where it is and why everyone else who tries to compete ultimately fail.

[SDM]

With the tourney, Strikeforce created many of the same problems that felled Affliction. Lots of high-maintenance, expensive athletes who may or may not have the ability left to be a premier fighter, but certainly have name value. Granted, they're not paying Paul Buentello six figures, but bending over backwards to get Fedor back in a tournament he was eliminated from (hell, even co-promoting with M1) and dealing with athletes who have failed drug tests is kind of the same thing anyway, no?

To compete, you have to do it like Bellator. Carve out a niche and build it slowly. I can't create a soft drink tomorrow and expect to go to war with Pepsi. In a while, once the brand is built, I can take out RC Cola and go from there. Coker is just swinging and missing, big time, and it's going to cost him Diaz, King Mo, and others in the long run (not to mention a top prospect like Del Rosario, who they have FAILED to market from day one). Del Rosario, in UFC, would be headlining a Fight Night card by now.

[REDDzone]

It was a good idea in theory, but Strikeforce had never shown an ability to pull something like this off. This is why the UFC is where it is and why everyone else who tries to compete ultimately fail.

And that's 100% fine. The only weird thing to me (and this is mostly other forums as opposed to this one) is the people who WANT strikeforce to fail and call them out for doing the same **** UFC does as well. I hope they do well because that means more free MMA for me. But it is what it is I guess.

[Cammo101]

With the tourney, Strikeforce created many of the same problems that felled Affliction. Lots of high-maintenance, expensive athletes who may or may not have the ability left to be a premier fighter, but certainly have name value. Granted, they're not paying Paul Buentello six figures, but bending over backwards to get Fedor back in a tournament he was eliminated from (hell, even co-promoting with M1) and dealing with athletes who have failed drug tests is kind of the same thing anyway, no?

To compete, you have to do it like Bellator. Carve out a niche and build it slowly. I can't create a soft drink tomorrow and expect to go to war with Pepsi. In a while, once the brand is built, I can take out RC Cola and go from there. Coker is just swinging and missing, big time, and it's going to cost him Diaz, King Mo, and others in the long run (not to mention a top prospect like Del Rosario, who they have FAILED to market from day one). Del Rosario, in UFC, would be headlining a Fight Night card by now.

Agree completely.

[Cammo101]

It was a good idea in theory, but Strikeforce had never shown an ability to pull something like this off. This is why the UFC is where it is and why everyone else who tries to compete ultimately fail.

And that's 100% fine. The only weird thing to me (and this is mostly other forums as opposed to this one) is the people who WANT strikeforce to fail and call them out for doing the same **** UFC does as well. I hope they do well because that means more free MMA for me. But it is what it is I guess.

There will always be someone filling that secondary roll in American MMA. If Strikeforce fails, Bellator will move right in.

I'm not rooting for Strikeforce to fail, but I am rooting for a little competence or else get out of the way and let's see what Bellator can do. They have too many good fighters to be putting on such average cards. The only way to sustain in MMA is to make your own stars. The UFC does this with ease and no one else has figured out how. Sure, Strikeforce has some big names like Hendo, Fedor, and Lawler, but until they can figure out how to use those guys to get over their young talent, they will be held hostage for large contracts and fighters will have them by the balls.

Dana White was willing to cut Jon Fitch over a video game. Scott Coker would wait 17 years to finish this tourney if Overeem was only willing to fight in space. This is because the UFC will just replace Fitch with someone else, where as Strikeforce can not figure out how.

[REDDzone]

They put on average cards? Have you watched any of the last several strikeforce cards? They have all been pretty good IMHO.

I think the UFC just has a hype train that will never be matched. People look at a guy and think just because he is in the UFC that he is automatically better than any rival promotions guys.

Do you guys realize there was legitimate discussion on forums with a ton of people stating that Keith Jardine would take the Strikeforce LHW belt with ease? I mean how absolutely ABSURD is that. There is a perception that a UFC fighter who hasn't won in years is going to come in and whoop these guys in strikeforce when in reality dude can't beat a 185 pound Prangley in sharkfights.

In general I agree with you. I think strikeforce needs to build their own guys up a TON better than they do. That is by far their biggest weakness in my eyes.

As for your last point though, I think its a little harder to tease out causation than you. Is the UFC brand so good because Dana is willing to do the things he does (e.g., cut Fitch for a video game), or is Dana able to make these decisions because the UFC brand is so strong in the U.S.? I don't know the answer, either way, its obviously far superior to whatever the hell strikeforce does.

[REDDzone]

As for the other statement I made, I do believe there is a huge double standard with the two. People need to quit expecting strikeforce to be the ufc, because it isn't and never will be. Just enjoy the fights for what they are.

E.g., If James Toney went to strikeforce and fought Fedor it'd be a freakshow, but in the UFC its normal because of "Toney's seasoned combat experience."

Or how people were saying how big of a mismatch Diaz/Cyborg was (it didn't quite play out that way though, did it?), but then I think an analogous fight was Bisping/Rivera. Pretty much a very technical, superior fighter going against a lesser known guy with one way to win (a big right hand). Both main/co-mains. Did we hear an outcry about the UFC feeding Bisping lesser opponents? I know I didn't.

IDK, maybe I read sherdog too much and take too many troll attempts seriously, and I read too much into some of this stuff.