Strikeforce and the Next Event: Evolution

There are two exciting news items that are coming up post the Fedor vs. Rodgers fight. Firstly, Strikeforce is about to sign two new heavyweight fighters. There is some speculation who they are going to be but most likely it is going to be Bobby Lashley and Andrei Arlovski.

Both fighters are exciting to watch. Lashley is a well-known and marketable WWE wrestler who can make money for Strikeforce in the same way Lesnar is UFCs moneymaking machine. He is coming off a win against Bob Sapp. The other fighter could be Arlovski, an ex-UFC champion, and although recently he has shown a weak chin, his two losses are to the very formidable Brett Rodgers and the MMA king Fedor Emelianenko.

This is going to be a very exciting addition to the Strikeforce roster which is growing in strength very quickly. If Dan Henderson can be signed and agreed at a reasonable price, the organization could really gain enough bandwidth to be able to hold events regularly and eat away the MMA fan dollars that are going to UFC at the moment.

Here are some of the big names they have so far in the heavyweight division:

Alistair Overeem, Fedor Emelianenko, Brett Rodgers, Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva, Roger Gracie. (although Roger is still an undercard draw, he has more accomplishments in jiu jitsu than anyone

If they can sign Jeff Monson, Sergei Kharitonov, Andrei Arlovski and Bobby Lashley, this would be great and would give Fedor plenty more fights to display his skill. If Fedor manages to continue fighting regularly and defeating several guys a year, this should help the organization gain the critical mass that it needs at the moment. Josh Barnett I think is gone forever actually even if he can get cleared to fight in the US. Nobody wants to organize a big event and have Barnett screw it up by using steroids for the third time.

Other divisions are still quite weak, but in time this could also change.

The other possibility (although not very likely) is a Grand Prix style tournament of the Pride days. A dream match-up between legends is something that the public would like to see and there is some discussion whether there could be one to determine the best heavyweight fighter in the world. Strikeforce should learn from Pride and provide the best fights and entertainment.

The other big news is of course Strikeforce: Evolution, the next Strikeforce event scheduled for December Muhammed Lawal's (King Mo) opponent has not yet been determined but whoever it is, it is always nice to see this up and coming fighter compete in the LHW division. His fight with Gegard Mousasi could be the next draw possibly together with Fedor.

It is always exciting to see a brazilian jiu jitsu legend compete in MMA and we are going to see exactly this in the Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza fight against Matt Lindland. I doubt Lindland stands any chance against Jacare who has extremely good takedowns and submissions combined with explosiveness. Jacare is certainly going to be a big challenge for Jake Shields who is also a submissions master but nowhere near the level of Jacare who is twice brazilian jiu jitsu world champion and an ADCC champ.

If you then look at what fights UFC is putting on, you suddenly begin to realize that Strikeforce has the potential to become a very big organization. Execution is what will matter and managing the risks of doing business with companies like M1-Global should be a key focus.