Strikeforce: Melendez-Aoki, Diaz-Sakurai, Cyborg-Toughill, Lashley-Rogers Likely
Just hours after the conclusion of Saturday’s “Strikeforce: Miami” event, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker sat down with MMA Fighting to discuss the next fights for champions Gilbert Melendez, Nick Diaz, and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, as well as heavyweight prospect Bobby Lashley.
Melendez, the lightweight title-holder, is expected to return against DREAM lightweight champ Shinya Aoki, while recently-crowned welterweight champ Nick Diaz is likely to fight Hayato “Mach” Sakurai, not Jay Hieron, in his first title defense.
“Cyborg,” the 145-pound women’s champion, will face Erin Toughill next following her successful title defense over Marloes Coenen on Saturday, with the title-holder then fighting the winner of the upcoming eight-women 145-pound tournament.
Lashley, who improved to 5-0 with a first-round TKO of Wes Sims at “Miami,” will stay active and could fight heavyweight contender Brett Rogers in his next bout.
For the latest Strikeforce news and Strikeforce rumors stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
Pictured: Gilbert Melendez
Tags: Bobby Lashley, Brett Rogers, Cristiane Cyborg, Erin Toughill, gilbert melendez, Hayato "Mach" Sakurai, Jay Hieron, Nick Diaz, Shinya Aoki
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heiron is really getting screwed by strikeforce..sakurai doesnt deserve a title shot.. he has lost his last to fights to the guy who just got killed last night and akihiro gono.. come on FR702.. you can make a better matchup than this haha.. and guyborg is fighting yet another sexy woman fighter for the 3rd stright time.. hopefully my girl toughill can pull this one out.. they are really throwin lashley to the wolves if he is gonna fight rogers.. i was hoping to see lashley vs munson, a guy who will be able to wrestle with lashley..
Well lashley did ask for a challenge and he is def gonna get it. U know rogers is gonna be super hungary for a win after his ko loss to fedor. And yes heiron is def getting screwed. I’d really like to see him back in UFC sometime. And maybe melendez will show aoki wat it is to be well rounded fighter…
Definitely not a good match-up for Lashley. Personally, I thought the way Diaz looked last night night, GSP might be the only WW that can beat him.
Fred , you read my mind . The way Diaz has been beating these guys as of late it looks like GSP might have something to fear . I like watching GSP fight and he is a great fighter but Diaz may be better now ……. he has better hands than GSP and a better ground game . It’s the kicks he lacks over GSP but not a large factor with Diaz’s reach
Diaz cant beat GSP even with how great Diaz has looked lately. I know BJ is a natural lightweight but ask him what GSP does to great strikers with bjj black belts. GSP would take diaz down, beat him up a little, let him up and repeat till either the ref stopped it or the judges gave him a ud win.
Mayber Heiron isn’t getting the title shot via the Maynard effect.
That is a strong possibility.
Posters, please.
GSP fear Nick Diaz?
If that wasn’t so pathetic I’d pop a rib laughing.
Assuming that Diaz could even pass the whiz quiz, what did any of us see last night that would cause the Greatness to “fear” some gangsta wannabe?
Yes, Diaz did a good job in his fight against Whitemare. He should be commended for that, making weight instead of asking to fight at made-upweight, coming to the buidling on time, and remembering his cup.
Diaz even got to broadcast his trademark profanity into the camera for the viewing audience.
And as a reward Scott Coker handed him a shiny new belt.
But lets not motorcycle jump from the ridiculous to the sublime with talk of GSP “fearing” anyone on the planet at 170.
And yes, Jay Hieron is getting screwed, but unfortunately thats just symptomatic of the sport’s uneven growth and Strikeforce’s unusual composition.
While Brett Rogers has twice as much MMA experience as Bobby Lashley,and is a bit bigger, he lacks Lashley’s ground and athletic ability, which sort of evens out the playing field. Plus Lashley trains with ATT, which is a big help.
Rogers best chance for a win is to catch Lashley coming in or in transitions, otherwise he’s going to get gNp’ed into another loss.
Really interesting to me here is the Guyborg-Toughill fight.
Toughill, or now Mrs Neil Melanson, has started training catch-wrestling with her husband over at Xtreme Couture since re-thinking her retirement, so I’m wanting to see if she can meet Guyborg on an near-equal submission level.
Plus she’s as big if not bigger than the champ.
The ‘Force keeps cranking out decent events and signing fights that I want to see, so I keep Showtime on my cable system or I buy the fight online if I’m on the road.
It doesn’t get any simpler or better than that…
I think you’re being a little harsh on Diaz there jcohl.
First, Diaz has only failed one drug test, and I wouldn’t exactly call pot a performance enhancing drug. You should be awarded extra if you successfully fight someone while stoned out of your tree.
He’s from Stockton (the same Stockton that boasts the second higherst violent crime rate in California), so he can act as “gangsta” as he wants; he’s just a product of his upbringing.
What he did to Whitemare, and considering his last two very impressive wins in Strikeforce, that new shiny belt Coker/fr gave him is more than deserving.
And while I’m 100% certain GSP fears no 170 pounder on the planet, Nick is probably a bit bigger than GSP, has that nice reach, and has superb Cesar Gracie jits (bjj for MMA). If anyone has a chance at beating GSP, Nick’s the guy (and I said “chance”, I don’t necessarily think he “will”). And he’s younger than GSP too, so always time to grow and improve on his already impressive skillset.
GSp wouldnt fear a fight with Diaz … but Diaz is the second best ww right now . They obviously wont fight anytime soon , but whether we like him(i do) or not Diaz is putting away guys in stellar fashion that is impressive . GSP doesnt like to be hit and would take this to the ground but would that help ? Very interesting .
Diaz only failed one drug test, but he completely failed to show up for another one (even after being given 3+ chances), which is as good as an admission of guilt, IMO.
Oh sweet baby Jesus sleeping in his crib…I can see it now…a condition is being created post-Strikeforce Miami wherein Diaz beating guys like Whitemare, Scott Smith, and LilShammy suddenly puts him in the same league as Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves and Josh Koscheck.
One poster went as far as to claim that “Diaz is the second best ww in the world right now”.
Really?
Again, I would laugh if that wasn’t so sad.
How does anyone come to that “logical” conclusion, when other than Saturday night Diaz hadn’t fought at 170 since mid-2008?
And Diaz lost to KJ Noons in late 2007.
Thats KJ Noons, the 155er with like 8 fights under his belt.
How in the He11 would he get past Jon Fitch, the ACTUAL second best 170er on the planet? Or Josh Koscheck? Or Thiago Alves?
As it relates to GSP, he’s already fought men that were bigger, had better reach, and better BJJ.
And he’s beaten them all.
What exactly is the 209 bringing to the cage that Fitch, Koscheck, Alves, and BJ Penn haven’t?
As for me being “harsh” on Nick Diaz, consider that fighting at whatever weight you feel like showing up to the weigh-ins at doesn’t speak well for Diaz’s sportsmanship and professionalism, and neither does dodging whiz quizzes for signed fights.
As for his “acting barrio” because he may COME from the barrio, I can’t sign on to that either. I know a lot of people, including my own gf, who come from neighborhoods as bad or worse than Stockton, CA, and they CHOOSE to go thru life behaving in a civil fashion, and not like they’re ready to be fitted out for an orange jumpsuit and a stretch of highway to clean up.
Support Diaz if you care to, but lets try and discuss him here at the frenZY as an MMA fighter reasonably. Right now he is a big fish in a small pond. In the UFC he would be shark bait, and moreso he knows it. Calling out GSP only further serves to embarrass himself. Diaz needs to concentrate first on actually consistently fighting at 170, taking care of business in a respectable and respectful fashion, and working towards cleaning up his personal act.
Once he does that, we can come back and discuss exactly how badly GSP would beat him in a theoretical throwdown…
Strikeforce is moving along fairly good its going to take time the stack up there divisions. There Welter weight/ Light Heavy division is there weakest at the moment IMO.
If Strikeforce takes there time by adding a few pieces like David Loiseau ,Karo Parisyan ,Jason Day ,Paulo Filho ,Ninja Rua ,Jason Macdonald ,Wilson Gouveia ,Matt Horwich ,Denis Kang ,Ricardo Arona ,Thales Leites ,Xavier Foupa-Pokam ,Travis Lutter.
or
Getting a few fights off of other guys like Shinya Aoki ,Eddie Alvarez ,Tatsuya Kawajiri ,Joachim Hansen ,JZ Calvancante ,Ryo Chonan ,Ikuhisa Minowa ,Hidehiko Yoshida ,Mark Hunt ,Jeff Monson
or
Adding some lighter weights like 145/135 could even help.
or
TV Show on trying to get some top guys from around the USA, kind of like a TUF knock off. Ya they got a strikeforce challenger events ,but I cann’t just turn on the TV and watch it, and you really have no inside of the fighters personality like you get from TUF which help towards liking a fighter. (Be coming a fan of a fighter)
+
The return of Barnett should make things interesting.
Strikeforce is putting on some good cards but there not at the UFC level, maybe in a year or 2 they can get a fight every month regularly
It seems to be Hieron’s fault about his title shot situation. He did turn down the “title fight” with Zamroskis because Zamroskis isn’t a big name. So I guess Hieron or his management screwed him.
^^^ Truth…
Jay Heiron’s last contracted fight for Strikeforce was against Joe Riggs, he is essentially a “free~agent” now just throwing that little tid bit of info out there
That is interesting, and probably has a lot to do with him not getting a title shot at this point.
So the question then is “has Jay Hieron done enough in Strikeforce, Affliction, and the IFL to work his way back to the UFC?”
And does Dana White need yet another 170er who doesn’t have a prayer of getting within 2 fights of a shot at GSP?
Lashley is getting a lot of negative comments thrown his way. I have heard his speed, athleticism, striking, and even his wrestling questioned. I keep hearing how Lesner was a far superior wrestler and athlete than Bobby. Bobby was and is a great athlete. He was a very good football player, very fast, and a great college and post college wrestler. Bobby won 3 NAIA National Championships and two armed forces championships along with a silver medal in the world armed forces championships. He was training for the olympics and had a real shot before being injured in 2003. He was on the World team as an alternate in 2003. He was fast enough to run college track and his quickness was one of his strengths. Bobby also has steadily gained weight over the years contrary to some reports. After winning a Kansas High School wrestling state championship at 160 pounds he won his national championships at 177-192. In 2003 he was wrestling at 211 but walking around at closer to 230. Don’t underestimate him.
sbaker,
i think the difference here, is that brock was thrown to the wolves right away. He fought Mir, Herring, Couture, and Mir again. And some would argue that his first fight against mir was “solen” from him.
Lasley, hasn’t fought the same caliber fighters to justify the hype surrounding him. The wes sims fight didn’t help much either. Wether it was an early stoppage or not, he did win, but against Wes sims, and a pathetic we sims at that.
Long story short, which is not my specialty, but Lashley has to actually FIGHT somebody to be considered SOMEBODY in MMA.
IMO the guy is just a prospect, and can’t really help the hype surrounding him, plus MMA is also a business and Scott Coker is trying to get eyes on his product, so he sets the hype generator to max and lets it fly, same as Dana White does.
A lot of the hype is also generated by pro wrestling fans and MMA/Pro wrestling crossover fans.
I’m familiar with Lashley’s credentials, and posted them months ago at on another thread, but thanks for saving me the trouble of re-posting them for those late to this particular party..
The guy deserves respect fo being a military veteran and a great amateur wrestler.
Maybe you can say the guy even deserves respect for his work in the WWE and TNA, but I’ll pass on that.
In MMA, to date, Lashley hasn’t done squat, and thereby hasn’t earned any in-cage respect.
As soon as he does, I’ll be amongst the first to give it to him.
Until such time, he really shouldn’t be mentioning names like Overeem and Fedor.
That work for you?