'STRIKEFORCE Tribute Night': Two Fight Cards, 90 Miles Apart on Friday

Two cards, about 90 minutes apart, and easy driving distance from Hartford and New York City. Both on one night. And with the fighters headlining these cards, let's just say that this is basically STRIKEFORCE Tribute Night.

Why did I type 'STRIKEFORCE Tribute Night'? Simply because Mo Lawal, Bobby Lashley, Cheick Kongo, Alastair Overeem, Jacare Sousa and Gegard Mousasi will all be in action on those two separate cards Friday night. They all fought in STRIKEFORCE for some point of their MMA career. Also current BELLATOR CEO Scott Coker is the founder of STRIKEFORCE, which he sold to ZUFFA in 2011. There it is, a coincidence folks.

At Mohegan Sun Uncasville, will be a proper card of MMA, as BELLATOR MMA returns for a new season, and as the tournaments will dissolve, a restructuring of one sort has taken over the landscape since Coker joined the promotion. The second meeting in the featherweight division between Pat Curran and Patricio Freire will have Curran defending his title. Kongo, Lawal and Lashley will also be on the main card. Lashley is also the current TNA IMPACT Wrestling world champion.

 

CARD
Featherweight championship

(145 lb/65.25 kg)

Pat Curran (c) v Patricio Freire

 

The card will air live on SPIKE Friday night. That 'other' card in Connecticut on Friday will air at the same time on Fox Sports 1, and will be held at Foxwoods. Jacare will fight Mousasi as that match is the headliner, while Overeem will also be in action. 

In Case You Missed It...

Mo Lawal has signed a deal with BELLATOR and IMPACT Wrestling.

Hopefully he'll be able to get back on track despite his problems with his health, roids and calling a Nevada Athletic Commission member a 'racist bitch' (uncalled for), even though he apologized to her.

Will this deal with BELLATOR and IMPACT (TNA Entertainment LLC) worth waiting for King Mo? We'll see.

ZUFFA acquires strikeforce! **RANT**

Is this the darkest day in MMA to date?

Saturday, en route to Bellator 36 at Shreveport's Municipal Auditorium, an hour before I left, I realized that ZUFFA LLC, the number 1 mixed martial arts promoter in the world, owners of Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting, would acquire the number 2 MMA promotion in the world-Scott Coker's strikeforce.

And after I enjoyed a night of action on Showtime last Saturday with Marloes Coenen retaining the women's title in an epic fight with Liz Carmouche and Dan Henderson defeating Feijao for the lightweight championship, who knows where the organization will go from here.

Strikeforce was one of my favorite MMA promotions, and I have been following MMA for the past few months. But again, who knows what ZUFFA will do with this organization...oh wait, listen to what ZUFFA president Dana White has to say on the acquisition.

To me, as much as I hate Dana White, I hope he doesn't drain the shit out of strikeforce like he did PRIDE. I hope that Bjorn Rebney and everyone at Bellator (now the number 1 promotion in my opinion) wake up and keep making BELLATOR the number 1 alternative for MMA (and they put on a good show on Saturday) as opposed to the ZUFFA empire!

One Punch, That'll Do It!

Herschel Walker, at 48 years old, still going strong!