Diaz- Cyborg Title Bout headlines Jan 29 Strikeforce

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Diaz-Cyborg-Title-Bout-Headlines-Jan-29-Strikeforce-28936


Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz will put his title on the line Jan. 29, but it won't be against Jason “Mayhem” Miller. Instead, Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos will get his shot at Diaz’s crown in the main event at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

The promotion made the bout official early Wednesday morning, along with three other previously reported contests. As expected, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza will defend his middleweight championship against Robbie Lawler in the evening’s co-main event. The Showtime-televised card will also feature a heavyweight attraction as 1982 Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker will battle Scott Carson. Rounding out the card will be a 205-pound tilt between grappling superstar Roger Gracie and UFC veteran Trevor Prangley.

Diaz is fresh off a dominating October victory over nemesis K.J. Noons. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt peppered Noons with straight punches throughout the fight, using his range to break the smaller fighter’s jaw and earn a clear-cut unanimous decision. The Cesar Gracie product has been on a roll since losing to Noons in 2007, winning eight straight fights. Diaz holds notable victories over Scott Smith, Hayato Sakurai and Dream welterweight champ Marius Zaromskis in that span.

‘Cyborg’ made his debut at 170 pounds in June, knocking out Zaromskis midway through the first round at Strikeforce “Los Angeles.” However, Santos has not fought since. Prior to the Zaromskis victory, the Chute Boxe product had fought primarily at middleweight throughout his career. He is 1-1 in Strikeforce competition, his other promotional appearance being a split decision loss to Joey Villasenor in the main event of “Challengers 2” last year.


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Comical mismatch.

To be fair, it's an easy fight for Diaz. It's a mismatch but it's not a UFC type mismatch because in the strikeforce WW rankings, Cyborg is top 5. That's more down to their lack of depth at that division than his quality admittedly but they're struggling at 170.

Cyborg loosing 4 out of his last 7 fights, getting a title shot..... typical Strikeforce mismatch.


Oh well atleast he won his last fight, so it is an improvement on their HW title matchmaking

How many losses has he got at WW?? Oh, none. Right. And is he ranked top 5 at WW in strikeforce? Yes? Right. So it's not anything close to the UFC's match-making which is either ridiculously mismatched. Or pointless irrelevant fights.

Rogers beat Arlovski. 2 time UFC HW champ, then lost to the best fighter of all time. He wasn't necessarily deserving of a title shot but he was in their top 5.

I agree with anfield here youve got to work with what you have!

exactly. And they rarely match up guys who are more than 5 places apart within the company rankings.

Hilarious excuses to cover up the fact which is SF blatant mismatches to help promote fighters, a poor low level roster, and general incompetence in matchmaking.

Far better and more competitive match-making than that exhibited by the UFC.

who within strikeforces WW division would be a better opponent

To be fair Paul Daley would be a better, more competitive match up. But I think there doing the fight thing here. This is a mismatch based on ability more than anything. In terms of rankings its very fair as both are top 5 in SF. GSP vs Fitch turned out to be a complete mismatch, BJ Penn vs Sanchez the same. But you didn't hear anyone complain about it before because simply, that's the best that was on offer.

Giving Rogers a title shot was a poor idea though, that's something that should never have happened. This is nothing like that.

Also, while the UFC put some mismatches on at times, that's simply because they have a huge roster and not everyone can get someone on there level. Fighters have to fight fighters above them if there going to get to the next level, and some fighters just need a gimme fight if there on a losing streak. Nothing wrong with that.

Who was that guy that the UFC released? You know the guy, he's on a three fight win streak? He even called out Diaz...

ChelseaQuinsfan wrote:
Also, while the UFC put some mismatches on at times, that's simply because they have a huge roster and not everyone can get someone on there level. Fighters have to fight fighters above them if there going to get to the next level, and some fighters just need a gimme fight if there on a losing streak. Nothing wrong with that.

Exactly.

Sometimes the UFC simply can't put on similar ranking fights, simply because their fighters are on the very top of their game, whereas the competition isnt, e.g. Anderson, GSP etc.

That's nonsense. In terms of rankings, the champion should NEVER face anyone outside of the top 5. And the UFC have a massive roster so they have NO excuse for the constant mismatches. They will have their number 5 guy fight their number 14 guy, and they'll have their number 9 guy fight their number 11 guy. Rather than being smart and going with 5 against 9 and 11 against 14.

Daley called out Noons, that's the fight he's going to get. great match-making.

When has any title fight happened between the champion and a guy outside the top 5?

Some times its smart to fight there number 5 guy fight there number 14 guy though. If number 5 has lost two straight fights and been dominated, then it's best for him to fight a lower standard fighter to help him regain his confidence.

ChelseaQuinsfan wrote:When has any title fight happened between the champion and a guy outside the top 5?

Some times its smart to fight there number 5 guy fight there number 14 guy though. If number 5 has lost two straight fights and been dominated, then it's best for him to fight a lower standard fighter to help him regain his confidence.

Don't mean to switch sides but admittedly Dan Hardy wasn't top 5 when he fought GSP.

Sorry mate, i meant to post "and it should be the same for everyone else". Fighters should never fight anyone who is ranked more than 5 spots above or below them.

Although it's debatable whether Leites, Cote, or Hardy were top 5 as it happens. And BJ was given a title shot despite being unranked at WW.

The_Axe_Emperor wrote:

ChelseaQuinsfan wrote:When has any title fight happened between the champion and a guy outside the top 5?

Some times its smart to fight there number 5 guy fight there number 14 guy though. If number 5 has lost two straight fights and been dominated, then it's best for him to fight a lower standard fighter to help him regain his confidence.

Don't mean to switch sides but admittedly Dan Hardy wasn't top 5 when he fought GSP.

Welcome to the

Wasn't Hardy top 5 by UFC standards?

GSP
Fitch
Alves
Hardy
Kos

???


Coté was a replacement for Okami, that was sort of an unfortunate situation. He wasn't originally given the shot, but he was close to being top 5 in the UFC.

Not sure about Leities, I think he was close as well, if not in the actual top 5. 5 fight win streak and a win over top ranked Maurquardt.

And I kind of agree with what your saying about how a fighter should never fight anyone with 5 spots behind them. I see where your coming from but I do think it is important for fighters to have the odd gimme fight.

Josh Thompson for example fought Pat Healy, who wasn't on his level or anywhere near him rankings wise. It was still a brilliant, gimme fight to make for Thompson.

BJ was the best LW in the world though, and really that was one of the biggest fights the UFC could make at the time. There weren't any other clear contenders at the time, everyone else had already been beaten or weren't experienced enough.

Super fights are a fair exception. Say Fedor wins the HW title this year, and he also beats Werdum and Barnett. Would you object to Hendo moving to HW and giving it a go?

Agree on the Thompson-Healy fight. That was a mismatch. Just like Alves-Howard. But the UFC has far more examples. Jon Fitch - Mike Pierce for example. And Strikeforce don't have even close to the depth the UFC have. The UFC has NO excuse for the amount of mismatching that goes on.

Hardy has never been above Kos, and if he has he really shouldn't have been. Kos's record is far superior to someone who got a title shot off a split decision, one impressive performance, a gift victory over Davis and then beating Swick. Hardy may have been top 5 at the time to be fair.

Leites win over Nate the Grease was controversial and he recieved little or no recognition for it. He wasn't top 5. All the other people Leites had fought on his little win streak were crap in all honesty.

Cote wasn't top 5, but it's fair that he was a replacement(albeit not a late one). SF have been massacred on here if fighters they get in as late replacements aren't up to scratch though.

ChelseaQuinsfan wrote:BJ was the best LW in the world though, and really that was one of the biggest fights the UFC could make at the time. There weren't any other clear contenders at the time, everyone else had already been beaten or weren't experienced enough.

Super fights are a fair exception. Say Fedor wins the HW title this year, and he also beats Werdum and Barnett. Would you object to Hendo moving to HW and giving it a go?

Agree, Superfights are a fair exception BUT Superfights should take place at catchweighs if possible. GSP-Penn should have had an agreement on what weight they could both enter the cage on fight night, not just making weight. BJ was the guts of 20lbs lighter than GSP on fight night. If Hendo fought Fedor, then a 220 weight limit should be in place.

it's also worth noting that the same Pat Healy who was meant to be an easy fight for Thompson, holds a win over Dan Hardy and Paul who were apparently a legit challanger, and a top contender for GSP's belt.

But see I think Thompson-Healy and Alves-Howard were examples of good mismatches. I think Fitch vs Pierce was an example of poor mismatch making (even though it turned out to be fairly competitive.) because it wasn't needed. Fitch already had two fights after his loss to GSP so Pierce was an utterly pointless fight.

I wasn't entirely sure who was above who at the time, I just knew that Kos had lost recently and Hardy hadn't, but your probably right. I do think he was top 5 in the UFC though.

On further inspection, aside from beating Nate the gate keeper with the assistance of 2 docked points (and it was still a split decision) his other victories were Pete Sell, Floyd Sword, Ryan Jensen and Drew McFederies. Ye he wasn't top 5 at all. That was an example of poor match making, and the match itself was evidence of that.

I think, whatever company it is they should be excused if one of there main event fighters get injured. It's hard to do anything about it, and really there was absolutely no one else available for the UFC. This is when there talent pool at MW was extremely thin.

I barely agree with the criticism Strike force gets for there supposed mismatches. The only one recently that I had a problem with was Rogers getting a title shot against Overeem. but to be fair, Overeem put them in that spot by not defending his belt in three years.

And I think that's fair enough as well, but I guess the general feeling was that BJ was a former champion at 170 and that there first fight was very close. I agree a catchweight would have made more sense, but I think from there mind that's what they saw.

Fedor could easily make 220, I don't think he's far over that normally anyway.

Hardy lost to Healy in his 4th ever fight when he was 22. Daley lost after he had 11 fights, when he was 22 and a pretty shit fighter. This was very early in there career, not very fair to compare IMO.

Coleman lost to Maurice Smith, does that mean he isn't fit to fight Fedor?

Healy was in his 11th fight with a 5-5 record when he fought Hardy, and his 17th with an 8-8 record when he fought Daley. He also beat Carlos Condit. So he holds victories over of the top 10 WW's in the world, he had won 5 of 6 at WW which was one of the best runs of his career and dropped down in weight. He's not a great fighter but it's not like he was some bum who'd never fought anyone. And if you look at the guys that beat him, there's a few decent names on their as well.