Joe Rogan Interview
Joe Rogan on his weekly Ustream Podcast where he talks about Fedor’s loss to Werdum, Overeem demolishing Rogers, Cung Le, and UFC 116’s welterweight bought between Chris Lytle and Matt Brown.
MMA Live Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery Preview
MMA Live has the post-fight reaction from UFC 113. What does the future hold for Paul Daley? Strikeforce heavyweights Alistair Overeem and Brett Rogers stop by in advance of their title fight. Din Thomas checks in before taking on Ricardo Mayorga.
The Shoot: Brett Rogers
Brett Rogers talks Alistair Overeem.
H/T to: Bloody Elbow
Pair Of Bouts Added To May Strikeforce Event
A light-heavyweight and middleweight bout have been added to the Strikeforce St. Louis: Heavy Artillery fight card, which is scheduled to take place on May 15 from Scottstrade Center in St. Louis, MO.
The lightweight bout will feature Kevin Randleman against Roger Grace; Randleman, as of late, has been in a funk in the latter stages of his career. He has lost seven of his last nine fights since late 2004, with his most recent action being last June, a unanimous decision loss to Mike Whitehead at a Strikeforce event,
Meanwhile, Gracie is 2-0 since he moved over to the MMA ranks; however, he hasn’t fought since a win overYuki Kondo at Sengoku Second Battle in May 2008.
The second bout recently added puts together a pair of middleweights, Joey Villasenor against Ronaldo Souza.
Villasenor is enjoying a current four-fight win streak; however, he hasn’t fought since June 2009; on the flip side, Souza is looking to build upon his most recent bout, a first-round submission victory over Matt Lindland in his Strikeforce debut last December.
With these two recent additions, Strikeforce St. Louis: Heavy Artillery is as follows:
PRELIMINARY CARD (unaired portion of card):
- Darryl Cobb vs. Booker DeRousse
- Tom Aaron vs. Matt Ricehouse
- Pat Benson vs. Erik Steenberg
- Mike Chandler vs. Sal Woods
- Lee Brousseau vs. Fransisco France
- Justin DeMoney vs. Jesse Finney
MAIN CARD
- Lyle Beerbohm vs. Vitor Ribeiro*
- Roger Gracie vs. Kevin Randleman
- Ronaldo Souza vs. Joey Villasenor
- Andrei Arlovski vs. Antonio Silva
- Alistair Overeem vs. Brett Rogers
* – not officially announced
Six Bouts Announced For Strikeforce Event In St. Louis
Although the main card is in its formative stages, the preliminary card for Strikeforce St. Louis: Heavy Artillery is coming along nicely. what is known at this point is that Alistair Overeem will take on Brett Rogers while Andrei Arlovski will face Antonio Silva.
The event will take place on May 15 at a yet to be announced venue, with the six preliminary bouts to be part of the untelevised portion of the Showtime broadcast.
With the announcement of the six preliminary bouts, Strikeforce St. Louis: Heavy Artillery is as follows:
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Darryl Cobb vs. Booker DeRousse
- Tom Aaron vs. Matt Ricehouse
- Pat Benson vs. Erik Steenberg
- Mike Chandler vs. Sal Woods
- Lee Brousseau vs. Fransisco France
- Justin DeMoney vs. Jesse Finney
MAIN CARD
- Roger Gracie vs. Kevin Randleman*
- Lyle Beerbohm vs. Vitor Ribeiro*
- Bobby Lashley vs. TBA*
- Andrei Arlovski vs. Antonio Silva
- Alistair Overeem vs. Brett Rogers
* – Not officially announced
Rogers To Take On Overeem At Strikeforce Event In May
What had been considered a longshot actually will take place in May. The longshot in question? A bout pitting Brett Rogers against Alistair Overeem in a Strikeforce event.
Apparently, according to Strikeforce official Mike Afromowitz, the two will in fact collide in a five-round championship bout on May 15.
Rogers and Overeem will grace the cage at Strikeforce St. Louis: Heavy Artillery, which will take place on May 15 from a yet unnamed venue in St. Louis, MO.
While Overeem holds a 32-11 MMA record, this will be his first Strikeforce appearance since his decisive win over Paul Buentello, capturing the heavyweight title back in November 2007. Since that time, he has fought seven times outside the Strikeforce banner.
Meanwhile, Rogers’ last bout was against Fedor Emelianenko, the end result being a TKO loss back in November 2009.
M-1 Global, Strikeforce Claim 25 Million Watched Event
I suppose it depends on who you actually believe as viewership numbers can be manipulated to a degree, but according to M-1 Global and Strikeforce, 25 million worldwide viewed the Fedor Emelianenko-Brett Rogers main event that took place on November 7 at Hoffman Estates, IL.
The event, viewed mainly through CBS (United States, 5.46 million viewers) and Russia’s Channel 1 (16 million viewers), was also televised to some degree in China, Latin America, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ukraine, Finland, Africa, Turkey, Israel, Indonesia, Bulgaria, Romania and Malta, according to the promotion.
M-1 Global also stated that with the help of its numerous television agreements, the Fedor-Rogers bout “delivered worldwide more than any other MMA show in the history of the sport.” Added M-1 Global CEO Joost Raimond:
“We are extremely happy with the preliminary broadcast reports. The demographics of these numbers were very promising as our network broadcasting partners in the U.S., Russia, and Korea reach an enormous audience alone.”
Perhaps it is just me, but I would like to see who put these viewership numbers as there are certain MMA organizations that oftentimes will inflate their numbers in order to pump up their company.
Strikeforce: Lawler vs. Riggs – Official Results
Below are the official results from Strikeforce: Lawler vs. Riggs, which took place Saturday at Scottrade Center in St. Louis, MO:
Preliminaries
- Jesse Finney defeated Josh Baumgartner (kimura), 1:55 of Round 1
- Mike Kyle defeated Rafael Cavalcante (KO), 4:05 of Round 2
- Booker DeRousse defeats James Wade (TKO – strikes), 4:06 of Round 1
- Tyron Woodley defeated Sal Woods (north-south choke), 4:20 of Round 1
- Lucas Lopes defeats Scott Ventimiglia (disqualification – knee to a downed opponent), 3:26 of Round 1
- Pat Benson defeated Dave Cochran (armbar), 2:18 of Round 1
Main card
- Jake Shields defeated Robbie Lawler (guillotine choke), 2:02 of Round 1
- Brett Rogers defeated Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski (KO), 0:22 of Round 1
- Nick Diaz defeated Scott ”Hands of Steel” (Brabo choke), 1:41 of Round 3
- Joe Riggs defeated Phil Baroni via unanimous decision (30-27)
- Mike Whitehead defeated Kevin Randleman via unanimous decision (29-28)
Strikeforce Card Nearly Complete
With the addition of Raul Castillo and Brandon Michaels to the fight card, Strikeforce’s April 11 event is nearly set, with the only match remaining to fill is a bout against Brett Rogers. Below is the tentative fight card for the veent, set to take place on April 11 from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA:
- Nick Diaz vs. Frank Shamrock
- Josh Thomson vs. Gilbert Melendez (for Strikeforce lightweight title)
- Benji Radach vs. Scott Smith
- Hitomi Akano vs. Cristiane Santos
- Buck Meredith vs. Luke Rockhold
- Eric Lawson vs. Richard Montoya
- Raul Castillo vs. Brandon Michaels
- Zak Bucia vs. James Terry
- Shingo Kohara vs. Jeremy Tavares
Barnett vs. Rogers At Affliction: Day Of Reckoning?
Although nothing is etched in stone as of yet, according to FiveOuncesOfPain.com, Affliction is trying to put together a bout which would feature Josh Barnett against Brett Rogers for the Affliction: Day of Reckoning card, scheduled to take place on January 24 from the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. Barnett has been advertised for the event but with no opponent as of this writing. Once more fighters have been added to this event and who Barnett’s opponent will be, Octagon Buzz will pass that along to you, along with the most up-to-date MMA news.
