Pictured: Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza weighs in for StrikeForce: Houston yesterday. Photo by Esther Lin courtesy of StrikeForce. Total-MMA staff agrees on the result of every bout but Souza vs. Tim Kennedy!

It hasn’t been all smiles under the warm California sun for our friends at StrikeForce. The San Jose-based promotion has taken a few hits in its recent attempts to go “international” — among them, the defection of middleweight champion Jake Shields, an embarassing showing on national TV, and most recently, injury issues with their newly crowned champion Fabricio Werdum. But as the lineup for tonight’s StrikeForce: Houston show illustrates, they still have the roster to put on a strong show.

A light heavyweight title bout which would be a good offering on any ZUFFA show headlines, while the absence of Shields makes way for two of the game’s grittiest to take center stage, to contest the vacated middleweight crown. A solid undercard airs in a webcast on Sherdog.com, including the sublime jiu-jitsu of world champion Andre Galvao against old favorite Jorge Patino.

So maybe sometimes things fall apart… but they still end up okay, at least for this viewer who just wants to catch some good MMA action on a Saturday night!

Tonight’s show is handicapped by Jacob Lawton (JL) and me (TH). Read the rest of this entry »

Tonight, Strikeforce and M-1 Global offer a huge show for any MMA fan — as the greatest of all time, Fedor Emelianenko, takes on one of the world’s top ten heavyweights in Brazilian jiu-jitsu luminary Fabricio Werdum. The bout will be broadcast live 10 pm EST from the HP Pavillion in San Jose, CA on Showtime, delayed on the West Coast, and likely streamed illegally everywhere else.

Earlier this week, I enjoyed a Fedor Emelianenko interview — and yes, I realize there’s nothing unusual about that. He’s had some classics, like earlier this year where he took some of his fellow sportsmen for “forgetting their flags,” describing his religous faith, and more. His quiet integrity is what makes me a Fedor fan, the qualities that Dave Meltzer references when he dubbed the man the “anti-Brock Lesnar” recently.

But what struck me about this interview, which was sent from Strikeforce’s office and posted on Youtube, was that Fedor Emelianenko, the greatest of all time, appeared almost as burned out as I am about MMA lately. Among other things, he admits he doesn’t enjoy watching MMA fights; and essentially struggles to say anything at all about his opponent.

Still, the fights are on — and they should be well worth watching.

The show will mark the first time the world’s #1 male and female fighters will appear on the same show. There’s still honor in this game.

As Fedor puts it in that very interview, “I do not consider myself to be the strongest fighter or be a very special person… there are a lot of people who pray for me and that’s why I want to be the representative of my country… I just want people to remember me as the honest person, the person who loves his country, his motherland and who glorifies the Orthodox Russia.”

My predictions follow.

Read the rest of this entry »

(Author’s Note: This article had been planned since Strikeforce: “Heavy Artillery” but was pushed back due to scheduling issues.)

It’s a tough time to be a fan of Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski.

Two of his last three fights have seen him on the receiving end of vicious knockouts, with his last fight causing many to wonder just how many years Arlovski has left in a sport that, like so many other former champions, may have finally caught up to his level of skill and, in fact, passed him by. Still, Arlovski remains one of the most popular Mixed Martial Artists actively competing- his ovation at Strikeforce: “Heavy Artillery” easily surpassed any of his fellow fighters. Arlovski also remains one of the most marketable fighters in the sport- as seen during his “Heavy Artillery” entrance, Arlovski may be the first and only fighter to ever land famed clothing company Dolce & Gabbana as a sponsor. So where did it all go wrong, and more importantly, how and why? Does Arlovski still have enough left in him to turn things around in the face of a three-fight losing streak, or will his popularity and marketability truly be put to the test as Arlovski continues his free-fall from the Heavyweight rankings?

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Pictured: Overeem and Rogers square off at the weigh ins.

This card had a decent amount of compelling stories on paper and the finished product as a whole lived up to the billing.

There was an interesting story and angle for every televised fight. In the opener you had two hungry light heavyweights looking to move up the rankings. This was followed by what I called a really irrelevant fight, but the fan in me was still interested to see Gracie and how he would perform in only his third pro fight even if it was up against a one dimensional over the hill Kevin Randleman. The rest of the card featured their top middleweight prospect, one of the biggest heavyweight stars against one of the biggest heavyweights, and the return of the champion against an up and coming dangerous challenger.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tonight in St Louis, Strikeforce looks to bounce back from last month’s debacle with a solid card of talent — particularly at heavyweight. Two of the top ten face off in the main for the promotion’s crown, with another longtime contender is featured in the co-main. Roger Gracie, now campaigning at light heavy, is among the featured talent on the undercard, against a former UFC heavyweight champion, no less. So, can they do it? Staff writers Jacob Lawton and Bryan Belangia offer their predictions on each feature bout. Jacob sees only one bout going to the judges’ scorecards, and Bryan doesn’t see any of the bouts going past the second round. We’d guess fireworks are in the air…

We do know the show will kick off 10pm EST from the “Show Me” state, and will be televised live on Showtime.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pictured: Alistair Overeem, who faces Brett Rogers on Saturday at Strikeforce in St Louis

(Editor’s note: Oliver Saenz is the lead administrator of MMA Figs, the largest website for UFC collectibles and action figures — we’re happy to have him contribute this week. Visit MMAFigs.com for all the latest UFC action figure news, views, previews and reviews. If you’re interested in contributing to Total-MMA, please contact us! — Tommy)

At first glance, the appeal for the upcoming Alistair Overeem vs. Brett Rogers fight for the Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship is pretty basic: it’s two very large men with four very powerful arms trying to knock each other senseless. But upon closer inspection, this bout has a level of intricacy that few of today’s heavyweight bouts can honestly claim to have.

Read the rest of this entry »

So Strikeforce has gone from a small to medium sized San Jose based promotion with a lot of local talent and a few big names to network television and cable TV in very quick fashion but you have to wonder are they getting too big too fast. 

In Strikeforce’s MMA debut they came out guns blazing with a lineup that included Frank Shamrock, Cesar Gracie, Gilbert Melendez, Josh Thomson, Clay Guida, and the MMA debut of Cung Le.  The event still holds the record for the largest paid attendance for MMA in the United States. 

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Pictured: Jake Shields dismantles Dan Henderson at Strikeforce: Nashville last night

Strikeforce: Nashville won’t be ranked among the most exciting bell-to-bell action shows of the year 2010, but as the final bell sounded it certainly had offered some interesting results.

The fast rise of “King Mo” Lawal continued with an upset over a tentative Gegard Mousasi. In just his seventh bout, Mo scored takedowns at will and pounded away with shots for a convincing decision victory against a top ten ranked opponent.

The #2 ranked lightweight in the world, Shinya Aoki, was defeated in a slow and methodical bout by a sprawling and brawling Gil Melendez — this, only weeks after the consensus #1 suffered the same fate. Our old friend Dave Walsh at HeadKickLegend commented about the result today, and how difficult it can be to rank Japanese and North American-based fighters together when the rules of engagement differ so much. Personally I like the diversity of style that MMA fans enjoy, but I also see his point.

The main event saw Jake Shields come back from a brutal knockdown to perform a grappling clinic against Dan Henderson, en route to another earning another unanimous decision victory. Shields’ ability to always impose his game, along with Henderson’s advancing age, had caused me to pick him for the unpopular upset here - the first reaction on my Facebook account came “You picked Jake over hendo lol, nooooo way in hell” — and his tenacity mixed with sublime groundwork didn’t let me down. As the final bell rang, it felt like Shields had won over a critic or two, including Frank Shamrock on commentary, and turned a bit of a corner.

Unfortunately, all seems to be forgotten due to what happened after that final bell….

Read the rest of this entry »

Pictured: Jake Shields and Dan Henderson square off at the Strikeforce: Nashville weigh-ins yesterday.

Tonight in Music City USA, our good friends from Strikeforce will offer what would appear one of the most intriguing MMA shows of the year. The main features their middleweight champion Jake Shields against former PRIDE champion Dan Henderson in one of the promotion’s most celebrated matches ever. Light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi defends his strap against “King Mo” Lawal, and backing it up will be Shinya Aoki in his debut on US soil against an elite lightweight in Strikeforce’s titlist Gil Melendez.

Simply put, I think this is about as good as we’ll get in 2010. It’s downright criminal that our predictions haven’t already been posted, so let’s get right to it:

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Repost from K-1 LEGEND

Vadim Finkelstein is a name that many MMA fans have learned over the past few years, especially within the last few months and Fedor’s epic contract negotiations with the UFC then the signing with Strikeforce. M-1 Global has shot into the minds of MMA and combat sports fans with all of this, never mind the M-1 vs The World series that airs on HDNet. M-1 Global has a big co-promotion coming up with Strikeforce, with M-1 fighter Fedor Emelianenko taking on Brett “Grim” Rogers on CBS.

Our passion may be kickboxing, but that doesn’t mean we don’t get excited over stuff like this, so we had to get to the root of matters and talk to the man himself, Vadim Finkelstein.

K-1 LEGEND: Has M-1 Global lived up to your expectations so far?

Vadim Finkelstein: Basically, I’m satisfied with the evolution of M-1 Global. The organization, in the format you can see today, has been functioning less than 2 years. The last year we had many experiments. A new system for the fighters moving up the ladder will be introduced starting from the next year’s season. It will be a more robust Olympic-like system.

K-1 LEGEND: What are your plans for M-1 Global and who do you see as the top prospects to reach possible Fedor levels?

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