RealGM

Date: September 10, 2011
Venue: U.S. Bank Arena
City: Cincinnati, Ohio



Main card (Showtime)
Heavyweight Grand Prix Semifinal bout: Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov
Heavyweight Grand Prix Semifinal bout: Antonio Silva vs. Daniel Cormier
Middleweight Championship bout: Ronaldo Souza (c) vs. Luke Rockhold
Light Heavyweight bout: Muhammed Lawal vs. Roger Gracie
Lightweight bout: Pat Healy vs. Maximo Blanco

Preliminary card (HDNet)
Light Heavyweight bout: Mike Kyle vs. Marcos Rogerio de Lima
Light Heavyweight bout: Rafael Cavalcante vs. Yoel Romero Palacio
Welterweight bout: Evangelista Santos vs. Jordan Mein
Women's Bantamweight bout: Alexis Davis vs. Amanda Nunes
Middleweight bout: Dominique Steele vs. Chris Mierzwiak


....amazing card this weekend that needs a thread.

Jesus I forgot this card was this weekend...

Is there such a thing as too much MMA?

I forgot all about strikeforce in general.

before their inevitable demise they are stacking cards. if brock/overeem gets the next titleshot the winner of the GP (probably in february) may get the next shot. i also think mir/nog will happen in late 2011, and i think if mir wins he will get a shot. all is better in the mma heavyweight division.

spykelee wrote:Jesus I forgot this card was this weekend...

Is there such a thing as too much MMA?

Nah but Bellator and Strikeforce in the same weekend. Gotta love it.

Good looking card. I'll take,

Barnett
Big Foot Silva
Jacare
King Mo
Blanco

Kyle
Cavalcante
Cyborg
Nunes
Mierzwiak

Posey H8er wrote:before their inevitable demise they are stacking cards. if brock/overeem gets the next titleshot the winner of the GP (probably in february) may get the next shot. i also think mir/nog will happen in late 2011, and i think if mir wins he will get a shot. all is better in the mma heavyweight division.

The winner of Overeem/Lesnar gets the next title shot and that's perfectly fine but Mir next. I don't know. I don't think beating Big Nog again along with victories over Cro Cop's corpse in an absolute snoozefest and Roy Nelson is enough to get another title shot. I think even with a win over Nog Mir would have to fight and beat the loser of Cain/JDS to get the shot after Overeem/Lesnar.

If Mir beats Nog maybe he gets the HWGP winner and the winner of that fight gets the next shot after Overeem/Brock.

Doubt the hwgp winner automatically gets a shot. Maybe if its BigFoot. Sergei is gg and would supposedly be cut without the tourney to consider. Barnett and the relationship with the ufc is well documented. Cormier is raw but potential.

I am far from a Mir fan, but I think pretty much any big name HW that can string 3 wins together will get a title shot, especially because he's never faced Cain or JDS.

That being said, the timing has to work out. Cain/JDS vs. Lesnar/Overeem probably isn't happening til May at the earliest, and the next HW title fight is probably this time next year. Mir only fighting once in that span would not be ideal, especially since he already hasn't fought since May.

Mir vs. the HWGP winner might make the most sense, just because of timing. But Mir should get a fight (maybe Nog, maybe someone else) in the meantime.

Forgot to talk about the actual card.

Main card looks very solid, and I love the Zuffa influence on the preliminary card, with some fighters people have actually heard of. How long have Strikeforce prelim cards been on HDNet? That seems like a new thing, though I have some recollection of one or two fights being there in the past.

Hopefully Barnett and Silva win and we can salvage a decent final fight for this train-wreck of a tourney.

Solid card. I'm pretty stoked for the King Mo/Roger Gracie fight... and that's the second fight on the main card, wow.

Was listening to the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, and he was arguing that this is the best card Strikeforce has ever had.

Top to bottom he's probably right, but I think there have been ones with better fights at the top. The Nashville card, even though it turned out to be kind of disappointing, was way better on paper, IMO. Shields/Hendo, Melendez/Aoki, and Mousasi/King Mo at the time were all more interesting than any single fight on this card.

Kind of disappointing? That was the worst card ever considering the hype beforehand. 14 miserable rounds (Hendo made the first round exciting) + a brawl on national television. The worst night of Scott Coker's professional life.

I'm not sure how I feel about this card. Hopefully Mo/Gracie is a competitive grappling match and Cormier can hang with Silva. The main event should be good.

Main event will be great... I don't think Cormier does much against Silva, he's not big enough to bully him.

Cool card. It's great to see a young Gracie back in action and actually in a really tough fight. He might not even be the favrite. It's been like 5 years sicne we've seen that. We're talking one of the most talented ever produced by the family and an Abu Dhabi champ.

good opening fight on the undercard. Hopefully setting the tone for a great night of fights.

cowboyronnie wrote:Cool card. It's great to see a young Gracie back in action and actually in a really tough fight. He might not even be the favrite. It's been like 5 years sicne we've seen that. We're talking one of the most talented ever produced by the family and an Abu Dhabi champ.

Gracie was a pretty big underdog last time I checked.

Pezao De Lima is a beast. He is a talented kickboxer and strong enough to stay on his feet, but skilled enough to work off his back. Hopefully he's poised tonight and takes out that degenerate, Mike Kyle. Can't wait to see that fight. This is a great night of MMA between Strikeforce and the start of Bellator's season.

Wow I've loved Mein for a while now, but that was an awesome show! He surprises you with some snap on those shots. That was some slick boxing, and some excellent conditioning absorbing those leg kicks. What a performance! TKO in the 3rd round, he looked awesome.

I think he could use some work on not pulling out with his hands at his side though. Could see him getting caught doing that for sure. But by and large, tons of heart, very technical, and great conditioning. Excellent performance.