Diaz-Riggs for Strikeforce Welterweight Belt; Four Title Fights Slated for August 15 Event
When welterweights Nick Diaz and Joe Riggs square off in a rematch at Strikeforce’s August 15 event the promotion’s newly-created 170-pound title will be on the line, according to MMA Weekly.
The Showtime-televised event, which takes place at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, features three other title bouts as Gina Carano and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos meet for the Strikeforce 145-pound Women’s Championship, heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem takes on Fabricio Werdum, and lightweight champions Josh Thomson and Gilbert Melendez unify their titles.
In their previous meeting in early-2006 at UFC 57, Riggs topped Diaz by unanimous decision but even more memorable than their fight inside the Octagon was the one that took place after they left the cage, as the pair brawled at the hospital.
Diaz (20-7) has won five-straight, including recent victories over Frank Shamrock and Scott Smith, while Riggs (31-11) has won back-to-back fights over Luke Stewart and Phil Baroni.
For the latest Strikeforce rumors check out the MMAFrenzy.com MMA rumors section.
[Pictured: Joe Riggs]
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should have been shields instead of riggs
Ya no kidding. Probably becasue shields just called out Cung Le, since he thinks hes a MW now. Guess Diaz will finally get that belt hes been wanting.
NO offense guys but clearly we do understand that Sheilds and Diaz train with one another, also along with Gilbert Melendez @ Cesar Gracie camp… So they won’t be fighting anytime soon… Furthermore Mr. Gracie has stated that he wants Diaz to fight @ WW because it will be his natural size and weight… Sheilds is going to fight @ MW for StrikeForce “until he goes to the UFC”<—- per Cesar Gracie… Sheilds is the best WW out of that camp imo but Gracie and Diaz have an understanding and essentially that is that… “rumored” is Shields v Linland by the way…
This fight has Diaz power play written all over it, similar to Diaz v KJ Noons he wants a title it is what it is, and well I can’t wait to see 4 title fights in one night, its a little bit of awesome if you ask me..
Must be nice. I think I’m going to start a promotion called jcohl-force, and put myself in a LHW match for an imaginary championship against someone I know I can beat, like my neighbor Mr Moretti.
Afterwards when we’re at the hospital and he’s having his artifical hip looked over, I’m going to cheap-shot him to leave absolutely no doubt just how much of an @$$hole I really am…
After I submit him, but before we go to the hospital, I’m going to jump in front of a camcorder, and give a pro-wrestling-style interview with a pronounced speech impediment and talk about how well I’m “representing” my zip code or area code or NPC code or whatever the heck it is Diaz is trying to communicate when he wins a match.
On a more serious note, I’m glad to see Strikeforce hanging in there, because in their own way they are serving the sport as a whole, and entertaining a lot of fans in the process. It sounds like a good night of fights, too good in fact to be ruined by a Diaz snagging a title.
It’s been a while in coming, and Diaz has chased a belt the way that creepy dude in Lord of the Rings chased that gold wedding band.
Come to think of it, didn’t that guy have a speech impediment as well??
And if somehow Riggs defeats Diaz again, it’ll make all my hard work at the grill and cleaning the pool before the event, as well as the costs for beer and chow I always get stuck with, primarily because the guys in my MMA-watching crew [all 11 of them] are cheap, WELL WORTH the time and money…
you have those friends too, hahahahaha I know the pain kid
StrikeForce isn’t going anywhere and well they have never had a WW champ, we are looking at 4 titles being on the line that is um huge… And you shouldn’t hurt Mr.Moretti he did nothing to you play nice young man, kinda funny tho
fr702, I’ll let that old man slide this time around because it’s you asking, but the next time he gimps over to the fence and gets in my face about my frisbee on his property, I’m going to Severn-choke that old man on his front lawn, and in front of his adorable granddaughter, artificial hip or not!
Thats how the Diaz brothers taught me to roll…
I definitely hope Riggs can beat him again, and make all your time and money worth it.
Regardless of the outcome of any MMA fight, and my wisecracks and occasional complaints and concerns about “getting my money’s worth”, my time and cash are always well spent IMO on this sport.
One thing I agree 100% with Dana White on, and we’re both probably way off-base, is that in 10 years time MMA can be the biggest sport in the world. If I in any super-small way can contribute to that thru my purchase of walkout wear, PPV’s, carrying Showtime on my cable package, live event attendence, etc, I can die a happy man…
Dude…
Stop being me better than I can be me.
jcohl im not trying to nit pick here but i doubt the ufc will ever past soccer in terms of popularity across the world. soccer is the worlds sport, the ufc/mma beating it? i doubt it unless they put on events that are on regular tv and not cable/satelite/ppv.
as far as most popular in america, I doubt that as well, without a network tv deal I dont see it happening, and I doubt a network will man-up and take a risk anytime in the next 3-5 years. [im talking ABC, CBS, NBC] people still call this sport brutal and such, freakin football players blow out ligaments and break bones, sometimes necks, and noone complains thats brutal.
As much as I hate to say it or think about it, I think the ufc is just a fad right now, its whats in, if they keep on putting events on once a month they are going to run into the problem they are having with the dallas event more often, which is no legit main event. dont get me wrong i love mma as im sure most of us on this site do, I try to catch any mma event/show i can whether it be a big organization, or a local one around the state. i am talking in terms of the general acceptance and new casual fans who just want to see ko’s and dont appreciate the entire mma game, and the talent and skill and training and dedication it takes in order to even make it to any organization.
more often we are gonna see or here idiots trying to pick a fight with some guy and saying “dont make me UFC you” [i remember gunslinger posting an experience like this a few months ago.] the casual fan thinks that just anyone can train a few weeks or months and then be on the same level as the top talent in the UFC. I have heard completely sober guys make retarted comments like this and seriously believe its true. until the general public can understand what the fighters go through leading up to and including the fight, and appreciate it, the sport will never become the most popular in the country let alone the world.
another factor I think that is contributing to the ufc’s sudden rise is people want to be entertained now, they dont want to see a jitz black belt or an all american/national wrestling champion working on the ground to get a sub or score points to win a match, they want to see brutal ko’s.
You do know that CBS HAS a deal in place with an MMA org, right? It was with EXC, now with Strikeforce after that purchase. 4 shows on CBS, 16 on showtime. If that deal goes well, I fully expect it to be renewed.
I also expect one of the other networks to want to jump in on the act.
Maybe NBC will call up the UFC, they are desperate for ratings. That’s why they keep canceling shows and have now bumped Leno to a 10pm (EST) slot, they can’t come up with a new hit to fill that slot.
bigchris2328 – 5 years ago MMA’s detractors said that the sport was a fad, and that it was human cockfighting, and so on. It was illegal in a whole bunch of states, and hardly anyone outside of the hardcore MMA fan community or your high school geometry club knew what an Octagon was.
Fast forward to today, and not only is MMA gone mainstream, but I’ve read several articles that show that MMA is more popular with young males than American football or baseball.
Sure, they need to be educated in what it means to be a pro MMA fighter, but clearly the interest is there.
I recently read in the NY Daily News while on a flight home that enrollment in martial arts programs and high school wrestling is way up nationwide, in part thanks to the rise of the UFC and MMA.
Five years from now, who knows where the sport will be, but predicated on the rise of the last 5 years, I’m betting the sport will be bigger then than it is today.
And I’m betting by that time UFC Fight Night’s will be on some “major” TV network, most likely NBC.
Also, lets not confuse the UFC with the entirety of MMA.
Yes, I agree that the UFC might not singlehandedly become the greatest sports promotion in the world, but MMA is essentially a sub-type of organized fighting, which anthropologically speaking predates soccer’s global popularity by about 5,000 years of recorded human history. Pancrase, or pankration, was an Olympic sport, and by which I mean THE FIRST OLYMPICS, in Athens. Soccer was yet to be thought of when some of the first Olympics biggest celebrities were essentially doing cageless MMA, or more accurately NHB combat. All of the great cultures of Asia and Africa and even the Americas all have records of their version of UFC fight night, but fossilized soccer balls, not so much.
People like to fight. Mankind is a predatory species, which is why in an evolutionary sense our eyes face forward. Long before we used our opposable thumbs to make the wheel, or the printing press, or the iPod, we used them to make fists and fight each other in one form or another with a pre-determined set of guidelines. In the usually peaceful and neutral country of Switzerland, the locals have been “schwinging” for over 900 years. How long have the Japanese had a wide variety of striking/grappling hybrid contests?
The Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians, the Chinese, the Mayans, even the Native American cultures all have something that can be traced to today’s MMA.
Stuff like baseball or basketball or soccer? Again, not so much.
It’s in our DNA in a way soccer never can be, so trust me when I tell you that MMA most definitely has a shot at being the first true global sport. Apparently the wheel keeps on turning in this new century for humankind’s oldest organized sport…
I think the most important point you made Jcohl, was the one about MMA being very popular with younger people. In ten years those younger people are going to be older and a new generation of young UFC crazed fans will come about. Then ten years later those people will be older and so on and so on. Its a process. That will eventually work its way up to the day that a 70 year old man and a 12 year old kid can both say “wow did you see that fight last night” Its gonna happen cause we will be those old men. While at the same time every single day a new young MMA fan starts to fall in love with this wonderful sport. Disco music and pogs were fads. MMA just isnt.
Nice work, jcohl. I also refer back to Dana’s point in the vlog the other day about if you have four street corners and there’s a sport being played on three and a fight breaks out on the fourth, everyone stops to go watch the fight.
As far as MMA being more popular in the young male demo than football or baseball. I’m not exactly sure about that, but I will say that on several occasions an Ultimate Fight Night has gone head to head with Red Sox and/or Yankees games on ESPN and absolutely romped them as far as ratings in the 18-35 male demographic.