Report: Mousasi vs. Sokoudjou to round out Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers
While only one fight appears to be “officially” confirmed for Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers , over the past 36 hours reports would indicate that the televised portion of the organizations debut card on CBS has finally been set.
In a report earlier today, sources close to the organization confirmed to MMAJunkie, that Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou would fill the void and face off with the Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi . Mousasi vs. Sokoudjou was originally scheduled to take place as part of the semi-finals at the DREAM. Super Hulk Tournament. Mousasi was unable to participate due to a shoulder injury, while Sokoudjou advanced to the finals by defeating Bob Sapp.
According to reports the fight will be a non title affair as part of the nights 4 televised bouts.
The rumored final televised card is as follows.
* Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers
* Jason “Mayhem” Miller vs. Jake Shields (for Strikeforces middleweight title)
* Gegard Mousasi vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
* Antonio Silva vs. Fabricio Werdum
While all indications are that this should be the final televised card, only the nights headline fight has been officially confirmed by the organization, while some of the other fights ar still waiting on approval by the Illinois Athletic Commission.
Now that looks like a very nice card, looking forward to watching that one.
Sokoudjou vs Moussasi should be a Moussasi demolition, but Soko is dangerous.
Great looking card, for sure, but this just reeks of EliteXC’s “Okay, but now what Syndrome.”
Werdum/Mousasi/Shields/Fedor
And that is the bitch of it all for me. They should not have a “now what” problem. They have plenty of talent for their big shows…………obviously more than enough for a challengers series.
Honestly I hope I jumped the gun a bit and the addition of a full time matchmaker will resolve these scheduling issues. I really think it’s just a scheduling issue.
Sergio I think SF has a little more depth than Elite XC and there’s a good number of intriguing HW matchup’s with some of the up and comers like Cormier and Lashley if he signed.
There’s also a guy named Dan Henderson who has hit a snag with the UFC and would be one hell of a title fight against Moussasi down the road if they could make it happen.
Now the problem is that with all the late additions will it be enough time for good camp????
That was the point of my piece the other day, they have the talent, but I’d sure as heck want to know who I was fighting in time to prepare for them.
Strikeforce always had entertaining shows with really good match-making. They might not have had the star power but the fighters they paired off were compelling to the hardcore fanbase.
Now that they’re expanding, they NEED star power but they’re sorely lacking in it. No one in the mainstream knows who their HW champ is. Hell, they probably assume it’s Fedor. What’s left for Mousasi after this?
There are some a handful of decent match-ups at MW between Shields/Miller/Jacare/Diaz/Lawler so that’s no problem.
But they’ve got nothing at WW and LW save for a Thomson/Melendez rematch.
They have access to the DREAM roster now, still might not solve LHW but it make LW thick. And if we are really honest, it’s not hard to build a LW contender……..I see plenty on well respected top 10 lists with fighters that probably are not top 20, but a good record and some impressive “looking” wins and that is solved.
LHW is an issue, but that is part of the growing process, MAKE stars not always accept others table scraps.
Daniel Cormier and Bobby Lashley are really good prospects but are 2 years away from any kind of title shot. These are long-term investments but SF needs a shot in the arm NOW!
Fedor was huge but that should have really been the catalyst for SF positioning themselves as a major national MMA company. Instead, we’ve seen little to no promotion for their still unofficially empty 11/7 card.
I would loooooove to see Hansen in SF. Kawajiri too, for that matter. Where’s THAT rematch? A Crusher/Gilbert rematch too while we’re at it.
I guess my deal is I’m thinking as to how SF can get mainstream and I don’t think it’s gonna be by brining over Dream’s 155ers. But hey, if they can still cater to the hardcores like they have AND expand without going bankrupt, I’m fine with that.
man a lot of people critizice Strikeforce for taking a long time to develop their cards
but i dont care that it took less than 30 days from the event
it is a good card for their debut
* Fedor Emelianenko KO 1st
* Jason “Mayhem” Miller Decision
* Gegard Mousasi KO 1st
* Fabricio Werdum Sub 2nd
Now whats SF gonna do about promoting their LHW champ if Sokoudjou KO’s Mousasi in the first of their non-title scrap.
Bad a** card better than ufc 101,102,103 and maybe104 if it wasn’t for the shogun machida fight..
Fedor – submission 2nd rd
Shields- submission- 1st rd
Mousasi- TKO- 2nd rd
Big Foot- TKO 3rd rd
xtreme I agree with you on the card 100% as for the time to put this card together my problem is that 29 days to get ready for a fight will only leave an opening for “well I didnt have that much time for this fight and thats why I didnt perform to the best of my abilities”.
Now who am I to say that they havent been in the gym training already but being in the gym and training is whole different world than being in the gym training with an apponent in mind and a game plan with it as well.
That being said I cant wait to watch. Still as a fighter it would be better to have no doubt in your mind when walking in the cage.
Sergio good points on Lashley and Cormier, but let’s not forget in the fight biz hype can be manufactured easily.
Lashley’s WWE background can be used no different than Lesnar’s was for a title shot after a 1-1 record.
I also think there’s actually enough HW’s right now to build a few fights before they even need to expose one of those fighters to Fedor. Werdum, Silva as examples and Overeem if he ever comes back.
My last point is SF is certainly not going to pump out one show a month like the UFC is right now so there isn’t as much pressure yet to compete on that level.
If LHW wasn’t so damn stacked, I would recommend Lashley drop to 205 but honestly, he’d be raped there and would fare better in the more shallow HW division, even if he was a bit on the small side.
But you’re right, a few solid wins by either wrestler could propel them into title contention buuuuut seeing as how SF isn’t pumping out one show a month, how long will it take to get those wins?
how much does Lashley weigh???? cut to LHW?? wouldnt mind seeing him in that divison but your right Sergio, better off in HW for now.
He weighed in at 255 against Sapp but he still has a ton of “beach” muscle.
He wrestled in college at 170-180.
I got sokoudjou shocking the world in this one. I think Mousasi is getting a little too cocky and Sokoudjou is a dangerous fighter coming in off of two wins. And every star fighter needs one big loss to motivate them, and this may be it for Mousasi.
Wow, this card keeps getting better.
Coenen vs Toughill just added to the cad. Amazing mega card. Good job Strikeforce.
Oh and to answer everyone’s questions. Strikeforce tells fighters in advance they will fight, and tells them 2 or 3 names who they will be fighting. They are aware of everything months before the fight becomes official. Everyone should have a 4 – 6 weeks to train. The main event and co-main eventers (Fedor vs Rogers and Shields vs Miller) should have 8 – 12 weeks to train for this event.
Anyone who thinks that Bobby Lashley should try and cut 50 lbs. of muscle and drop to LHW might want to lay off the booze.
He is a big muscular man. This isn’t the same guy who wrestled at 177lbs. in 1998.
His body has changed and developed.
Shane Carwin wrestled at 171 lbs. his senior year in high school if he loses to Brock would you suggest he cut to LHW?
This will be a good card since it is free but I’m not expecting any real suprises as far as winners go. Miller vs. Sheilds is the fight I am looking forward to the most as I think it is the closest match on the card but the other three fights i don’t see going farther then the first round.
Fedor Sub rd1 RNC
Miller Split Decision
Mousasi KO rd1
Werdum tko rd1 Strikes
Yeah, pumping your body full of HGH for 4 years while pro wrestling will definitely “change” and “develop” your body.
There’s a huge difference between 18-year old Carwin wrestling in HS and 22-year old Lashley wrestling in college.
Yeah no kidding there’s a huge difference between an 18 year old Carwin and a 22 year old Lashley, but if you read my post without twisting it around I wasn’t comparing the two against one another.
I was simply saying if you’re going to outlandishly suggest that one huge guy try and suck his body dry to drop to LHW because he used to be smaller over 10 years ago that you might as well throw some other big guy into the mix and suggest the same thing because he was smaller over a decade ago.
No matter how you want to spin it saying Bobby Lashley should cut to 205 is dumb.
You WERE comparing the two. You used Carwin wrestling at 18 as an example to compare me talking about Lashley’s collegiate wrestling experience.
And Carwin is a naturally big guy. He’s 6’5″ and uses 5XL gloves. Lashley is a blown up 250 at 6’1″ with cardio-stealing beach muscles.
Dude you can keep trying to turn this back around on me all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact you made an asinine statement saying Lashley should cut down to LHW. Just drop it.
Mousasi is number 3 or even number 3 LHW in the world
Too bad he is in SF
I guess signing Shaolin, and having undefeated prospects like Billy Evangelista and Lyle Beerbohm is no big deal.
Not to mention they have KJ Noons under contract when he comes back to MMA.
WW you’re right as of now they’ve got Joe Riggs and a disgruntled Jay Hieron who got what he deserves.
Now he’s saying he only wants big fights at this point in his career, but signed with Strikeforce to fight at 170 anyway and now is unhappy. He makes zero sense especially when you consider he said the money was about the same.
Looks like a good card, would be nice if they had Lashley vs. Cromier as well. I mean why not. Also to back up a previous post, yeah there is a problem if Mousasi loses this fight but I don’t think that is going to happen. Anyway, I’m happy I got my ticket.
Lashley has spoken in news before about cutting down to lhw. Either on MMAlive or Inside mma.
Carwin has never talked about cutting down and has been wrestling at over 200lbs since he was a sophmore in college.
Jay Hieron went the easy route and he knows it. If Shields would go back down to ww than I think we would see a great
fight.
Snowball’s chance >>> Soko’s chance
I’m kind of disappointed. I’m not really excited about Fedor or Mousasi’s fight. I am looking forward to Shields/Miller though.
This card has at least 5 top 10 fighters on FREE TO AIR TV. The UFC rarely puts together cards this good and charges fifty dollars. So stop complaining. An equal card from the UFC would look something like this
Lesnar VS Carwin
Nog VS Valasquez
Machida VS Jardine
Bisping VS Thiago Silva
Something like that. It is just the marketing isn’t as strong. But the fighters are just as good if not better.
And I would be much more interested in that card then I am what’s gonna be on CBS.
I’m sorry that I’m just not that excited to see Fedor fighting Rodgers in a fight that comes down to a guy basically having a puncher’s chance against one of the two or three best fighters in the world. Then a guy of Mousasi’s caliber fighting a dude like Sokoudjou who was 1-3 in the past two years until he won a few freak show fights and in one of those fights came across as a complete idiot during the fight and on top of that the title isn’t even up for grabs so any tension that could have been there is sapped from it and if Sokoudjou wins Mousasi comes across looking like a paper champion.
On top of everything else, like a few people have pointed out in this and a few other posts, how can we expect top shelf fights when there are no way some of these guys have gotten in proper training camps?
So yes, it’s free and that’s wonderful and I’ll for sure be watching, but this card isn’t nearly as great as some are making it out to be.
With regard to MM izzle my Nizzle, I am happy to have shelled out for this card but to say there are five top ten fighters on this card is a little much if you meant p4p. On the other hand if you meant in their divisions then five is the number no more then that. All the betting favorites are top ten in their respective divisions ( Fedor, Mousasi, Shields, Werdum). Rogers is also a top ten HW, so I will give you five. On the fake card you made up I count seven of the eight as top ten in their divisions with Jardine being the only one not to make the cut (Bisping is like number ten WW).
No i didn’t mean p4p because p4p means nothing at all. It is nothing more than people trying to deny the fact that weight matters in fighting. Bisping is a MW and I (personally) don’t think he is top10 along with Carwin and Valasquez. Hype gets those 2 top 10 spots.
Your right my bad about Bisping, If you take out carwin and velasquez who you got in top ten hw then?
Her we go. Well just on my gut feeling, opinion of ability and results against class opponents.
Fedor, Overeem, Nog, Barnett, Arlovski, Dos Santos, Lesnar, Gonzaga, Werdum, Mir. I just don’t think Carwin has it and Valasquez’s performance against Kongo was terrible. I wont say it was fixed but why, if you keep rocking a guy with strikes, would you try and grapple with him when you know he is a fantastic wrestler?. Stupid or more to that story than we know.
Are you actually ranking Overeem, Nog, Arlovski, and Dos Santos over Lesnar or is that just 10 names in no order?
Well, your argument seems to consist of “ZOMG, HE’S SO BIG N MUSCLEY, HE CLD NVR CUT DWN 2 LHW, NOOB!” so I will take your advice and drop it.
I’m talking more about fights that will draw. David brought up the talent exchange with DREAM, which is great but your average MMA fan doesn’t know who Tatsuya Kawajiri is. Granted, they can build up the Shaolins and the Crushers but that will take time and recent history has shown us that promotions that sign Fedor, for one reason or another, usually don’t have a lot of it on their side.