Strikeforce

There are times when respect matters more than anything. Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold may have earned credibility amongst his peers, but it is his place in the bigger picture which still pushes his buttons.

Rockhold steps into action this Saturday against No.1 contender Tim Kennedy. He is expecting a war, but knows no matter what caliber of performance he puts on, the recognition of his place amongst the sport's best middleweights could still be overlooked.

Since hitting the Strikeforce cage in 2008, Rockhold has battled his way from prospect status to undisputed champion of the 185-pound division. He is a proud champion, and fully prepared to do whatever it takes to make a statement against Kennedy.

"You only live once and I live to be the best," Rockhold told Bleacher Report in an exclusive interview. "Until I am I won't be happy. I have to keep putting on solid performances against whoever I face and I plan on doing that this coming weekend. I have to put a stamp on fights.

"In Strikeforce it doesn't seem that we get the respect we deserve and I plan on putting a stamp on this one. I want to let everyone know I can compete with and beat anybody.

A quick look at Rockhold's record and it becomes clear his performances speak for themselves. All but one of his victories have came within the first round, and he's been able to put his opposition away in a variety of fashions.

He has been able to capitalize on a well-rounded skill set which will most definitely be put to the test when he squares off with Kennedy. He knows Kennedy wants to take their fight to the ground and Rockhold plans to have a few things waiting for him.

"I want to keep my distance, use my range and reach in this fight," Rockhold said. "If he does manage to close the distance and get inside, my counter-wrestling is on point. If he gets me down he won't be able to keep me there. I can get up no matter who is on top of me and Kennedy won't be any different. I want to keep my distance and catch him coming in. I believe I can do that.

"He's coming in there to beat me and I don't like losing. I'm in this to win. He wants my belt and that just isn't going to happen. Anyone who comes after it—I have to go out there and put it on them. I have to beat their ass.

"I'm bringing a high-paced, exciting fight. I don't like boring fights and I want to keep the fans excited. From top to bottom this fight card is amazing and it's going to end in dramatic fashion with the main event. I'm either going to knock his head off or I'm going to rip it off; one or the other. Fans need to tune in because they are not going to want to miss this."

Ronda Rousey is changing the game with her sexy photos in ESPN's annual Body issue. The issue hits newsstands on Friday, but there are sneak peaks at the link provided.

It's easy to stereotype female MMA fighters as less-than-glamorous. We traditionally don't think of fighting as an activity for beautiful women.

Laila Ali bucked the trend in women's boxing with her stunning beauty and in-ring success, and now Rousey could have a similar effect on MMA.

Rousey is the reigning Strikeforce bantamweight champion. She is a ruthless submission-artist, and the arm bar is her weapon of choice. She's 5'6", and she has defeated all of her opponents by arm bar in the first round.

Her grappling skills should come as no surprise. Her base is Judo, and she is so developed in that discipline that she made the US Olympic team in 2004 at the age of 17. She then won a Bronze medal in 2008 in Beijing.

A lady so skilled in hand-to-hand combat that looks like Rousey is a marketing gold mine. The ESPN Body issue completely reveals Rousey's physical appeal, and her pics do the best job of conveying personality.

It's like looking at an as-yet-created character from the next Tekken video game or a sexy boss villain from Kill Bill 3.

Rousey is walking a thin line. As long as she can keep her balance, it could be very prosperous. The ESPN Body issue could be the springboard she needs to achieve the next level of stardom.

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Ronda Rousey can fight, specifically she is a vicious submission artist. Her fighting style is exciting and aggressive. She may be set to excite her fans in a new way.

Once they get a load of the Strikeforce champ in the new ESPN the Body issue, it'll change the way you look at her.

For those that are unaware of the concept, ESPN does an annual issue of their self-titled magazine that shows prominent athletes "tastefully" nude.

Rousey is one of the athletes that appear this year, and she does not disappoint. She and surfer Maya Gabeira stole the show for me. Click here to see the full slideshow.

The 5'6", 135 pound Rousey hails from Venice, California, and she certainly has a body fit for the beach—or the cage, the swimming pool, the grocery store or wherever else she lets you take her.

One look at these pictures, and if you didn't already know, you would never guess that this young lady goes by the name: Rowdy Ronda.

She is the current Strikeforce bantamweight champion, having defeated all of her opponents via armbar. Her base discipline is Judo, and she is so accomplished in that discipline that she qualified for the 2004 Olympic team at 17 years old.

Now she's 25 years old, and most would agree that she has grown up nicely.

She was already gaining popularity because of her fighting skills; this will only augment her rise. Ronda, I salute you for your multitude of talents and girl-next-door sexiness.

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If there was any doubt that Sarah Kaufman's game plan for her Aug. 18 fight against Ronda Rousey would be highly geared toward striking, that can now be put to rest.

The top contender for the women's bantamweight championship recently spoke to MMAjunkie.com Radio and let them know that she's going to be looking for the knockout. 

"It's no surprise that Ronda doesn't like being hit," Kaufman told MMAjunkie.com Radio. "She said that, and I guess you can't really blame her for not wanting to get hit. It's not a shocker there for the average person to not want to get hit.

"But I hope she's been training a lot in the striking department, just for the pressure, because she's not going to like it." 

Known for her devastating power and relentless assault when she senses that her opponent is weak, Kaufman has finished 10 of her 16 career opponents by way of knockout.

"Ronda hasn't been in the sport very long, so she hasn't developed that side of her game yet and is really relying solely on her judo at this point," Kaufman said. "She's a good athlete; you can look at her and see that. She moves well, and with her judo, she's done well. 

"I think it's going to take a while before she has any ground to stand on as far as the striking." 

With only one career loss, a third-round submission to Marloes Coenen in October 2010, Kaufman is currently ranked in the top five among most women's worldwide pound-for-pound rankings. She holds victories over numerous top contenders including Liz Carmouche, Alexis Davis (twice) and even former Strikeforce women's bantamweight champion Miesha Tate.

"Ronda hasn't fought someone like me yet. It's going to be a shock for her," Kaufman said. "I definitely want to test [Ronda's] chin, for sure," Kaufman said. "I don't think Miesha came up with the greatest game plan, just running straight at [her]."

Kaufman herself is a former Strikeforce women's bantamweight champion and will be looking to deface the currently undefeated record of former Olympic Judo silver medalist Rousey. 

"It's hard to stay at the top once you're at the top," she said. "Everyone below you is gunning up, and you've already reached that pinnacle. That being said, Ronda has only had five fights, and I think she is going to be nervous and is definitely going have the jitters when it comes to how serious my style is vs. her style, as well as caring about having that title. " 

After suffering an injury in her most recent fight, former Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate finally got back in the gym recently and is already preparing for her next fight. 

According to Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker, Tate could be back in the coming months.

"We don't have anything to announce officially, but I believe you'll see her back in the cage in a relatively quick manner," Coker told MMAjunkie.com Radio host George Garcia on Wednesday. "She's pretty much healed up and ready to start training. But you'll see her back in the cage the early part of fall."

Tate’s left arm was damaged in her first Strikeforce women’s bantamweight title defense against the undefeated Ronda Rousey in March.

The highly entertaining bout was ended in the blink of an eye when Rousey slapped on her trademark armbar and got the submission, but not before she tore ligaments and muscles in Tate’s arm.

Yesterday was a great & vigorous practice & today had some awesome cardio! Love being back to the grind!

— Miesha Tate (@MieshaTate) June 27, 2012

Tate was put on medical suspension following the fight against Rousey by the Ohio Athletic Commission, and it is not yet known whether she has been given approval to get back in the cage.

Though hers was the most publicized, Tate is not the first woman to fall victim to injury in Rousey’s armbar. The former Judo Olympic medalist infamously snapped Julia Budd’s arm with a gruesome armbar in just 39 seconds.

For fans of Ronda Rousey, June 27 will go down as a great day. 

The Strikeforce female bantamweight champion will reportedly be posing naked in ESPN The Magazine's upcoming Body Issue. The Body Issue has long been the magazine's way of showcasing athletes au naturel with the focus being on the beauty that is their body. 

Rousey confirmed on Twitter this afternoon that she will be posing nude in the magazine. She will be the third female mixed martial artist in the magazine which has featured both Gina Carano and Cris "Cyborg" Santos. 

Rousey has quickly become the face of women's mixed martial arts and has been able to get fans to care about WMMA again with her ability on the microphone and in the cage.

While there isn't any word on what the photo will showcase, it's probably a good guess that it will focus on her girl-butt. 

The Body Issue is ESPN's way to artistically show athletes naked and focus on their amazing musculature. For Rousey to be included in it means that she has been recognized by the industry leader in sports as a relevant athlete with an interesting body. 

Past MMA fighters have included Randy Couture and Jon Jones. Couture's photo focused on his ridiculous cauliflower ear while Jones' photograph showed the UFC champion in action, throwing a knee. 

The issue will be hitting news stands July 13 and will also feature the United States female volleyball team and various other professional athletes. 

Strikeforce Middleweight champion Luke Rockhold is busy preparing to fight Tim Kennedy, a notion he hopes his opponent shares.

Rockhold spoke about his concerns with facing Kennedy today on a conference call for their July bout and MMAJunkie has the story.

"I'm not the biggest fan of Greg Jackson game plans, so I just hope he comes out and fights me in the middle, and fights me everywhere," Rockhold said. "It's mixed martial arts. I quit wrestling for a reason, so I want to fight, and I'm looking for a fight."

Rockhold was speaking about Clay Guida's performance in the UFC on FX 4 main event. The performance earned Guida a lot of backlash from MMA fans and analysts along with a warning for inactivity during the fight.

Although Rockhold was critical of the excitement level brought on by such gameplans, he was quick to note the intelligence level in devising the strategy.

"I mean, they have a smart game plan; they follow the game plan," Rockhold said of Jackson fighters. "It's not the most exciting game plan most of the time, but it wins them fights sometimes. It doesn't excite me much; I'm not a big fan of his style. "

Perhaps where Rockhold made his most critical analysis when discussing how Jackson likes to play up to the judges in between rounds.

"[Jackson] also yells the guys' names in the corner – 'Great job. Wonderful low kick, Tim Kennedy,' and this and that. I think [he] tries to play into the minds of the judges a lot. It's a form of cheating, to some extent," Rockhold said.

While Rockhold made a mixed bag of comments towards Jackson by giving him both praise and criticism at the same time, two of Jackson's students were quick to back him up. Both Kennedy and Nate Marquardt, who will be challenging for the Strikeforce Welterweight title in July, were quick to defend their coach.

Kennedy arose the question of another of Jackson's fighters earning Knockout of the Night honors in the opening contest.

"That same night when people were harassing Clay Guida for his performance (at UFC on FX 4), we had the 'Knockout of the Night' with Cub Swanson going out there and doing some insanity in the cage to finish one of the best kickboxers in that division," Kennedy said. "Did anybody mention what a great performance Swanson had (against Ross Pearson) ... and hey, congratulations, Greg Jackson, for having 'Knockout of the Night?' No. They're like, 'Clay was running.' Well, Gray hits really hard and he's a really great wrestler."

Marquardt also pointed out that it's up to the fighter to perform.

"You can't blame Greg for any of this stuff," he said. "He doesn't come up with a game plan thinking, 'Oh, we should do this because it would be real boring.'... The fighter has to take the criticism there because your job is to go in there and fight."

It will be interesting to see how both fighters come out given that both Kennedy and Marquardt will be in title matches against very dangerous opponents. It was also nice to see both sides of the argument about "boring gameplans" come into play as fans can easily make a case for either side.

The Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Kennedy event will be headlined by the aforementioned title bouts featuring Rockhold and Kennedy as well as a welterweight clash between Marquardt and Tyrone Woodley. Also on the card will be the middleweight debut of Roger Gracie and fan favourite, Robbie Lawler.

Rafael Cavalcante's recent drug test failure following his fight against Mike Kyle is another unfortunate happening in a string of negatives for Strikeforce.

Cavalcante's failure follows a drug test failure by ex-Strikeforce employee Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal. In addition to his failure, Lawal blasted the athletic commission, which led to his release from the company. 

Lawal has now signed with Bellator, which hurt Strikeforce as Lawal was one of the top stars in the company.

In addition to those two drug test failures hurting Strikeforce, another loss of a significant star has hurt the company. Paul Daley recently requested, and was granted, his release from Strikeforce. With his loss, Strikeforce lost yet another marketable star to their opposition, Bellator.

All of this falls on the heels of Brett Rogers' arrest and release from the company last year, an event that created a bad image for the company. It cannot be directly attributed to the slumping of the company, but it definitely hurt its image.

Oh, and remember Brandon Saling, the man who had one fight with Strikeforce before they found out he was a Nazi sympathizer with a past of sexual misconduct? That definitely brought negative attention to Strikeforce.

With all of these marketable fighters no longer in active competition with the company (Daley, Rogers, Cavalcante and Lawal), in addition to the poaching of talent by the UFC (Dan Henderson, Nick Diaz and the entire heavyweight division), it is no wonder why Strikeforce's numbers have been so bad lately.

The company is having trouble garnering respectable ratings for their shows. The recent drug test failures have now shown that Strikeforce is on its deathbed, if it isn't already dead to begin with.

I don't think the company has the strength to rebound at this point. Bellator is gaining steam through exciting shows, company-made stars and the signing of former Zuffa talent. Bellator is on a path of overtaking Strikeforce in the near future.

Strikeforce's numbers will continue to falter and will lead to the overall demise of the company. Some of the fighters will make it to the UFC, such as Luke Rockhold, Tim Kennedy and Gilbert Melendez. Others, who don't have as much name value, will be left unemployed, looking for opportunities from other promotions.

Strikeforce had a great run, but its faults have been exposed recently. At this point, it is safe to say that Strikeforce is dead and buried. Enjoy the memories, because it will soon be a thing of the past.