Strikeforce

For a second-tier promotion owned by Zuffa, it's surprising how little a canceled Strikeforce card can affect the mixed martial arts world.

Sure, it's sad that 19 other fighters have been dumped by one injury.

However, with the state that Strikeforce has been in since the "merger" with UFC, the dissolution of the heavyweight division and the various defeats of Fedor Emelianenko, the sad truth is the promotion has barely rated higher than any other regional show.

That's ultimately been the problem since the great purge of talent in 2011 that sent Nick Diaz, Alistair Overeem and Dan Henderson to the Octagon.

Strikeforce once had enough talent to fill out a main card from top to bottom, but now has to make do with two-fight cards at best. Moreover, the one time there's a single-fight card like Melendez vs. Healy, the worst happens and everything implodes.

Basically, Showtime had no choice.

Hardly anyone was going to watch this event in the first place. With Melendez gone, there was no point in even broadcasting it.

If that's not prophetic, I don't know what is.

At the very least, there is a silver lining for those that wanted action this weekend, with an awesome UFC lineup that same night.

As the polar opposite of the canceled Strikeforce event, UFC on Fuel: Struve vs. Miocic has everything that makes an MMA night matter, with deep weight classes, division relevance and legitimate star power.

With the exception of a Ronda Rousey fight, it seems that Strikeforce can no longer deliver even one of those three criteria on a regular basis anymore.

[McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist and FightFans Radio writer. His work has appeared in GamePro, Macworld, & PC World. Talk with him on Twitter.]

It appears the MMA injury bug isn't quite done as yet another major fight will be scrapped due to injury.

As reported on Twitter as well as on MMAjunkie.com, former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir was injured and has been forced to withdraw from his Strikeforce bout against Heavyweight Grand Prix Champion Daniel Cormier.

According to @sportsrage, Frank Mir is out of his Strikeforce fight with Daniel Cormier.

— Adam Martin (@MMAdamMartin) September 19, 2012

Following a very rough week of injuries for the UFC in which UFC 153 was nearly destroyed, one of the most anticipated Strikeforce fights of the year will now have to find a way to feel in a massive void.

The Strikeforce event in which Cormier and Mir were slated to fight was scheduled for November 3 in Oklahoma City. 

After Strikeforce saw many of their top fighters leave for the UFC, Frank Mir was to break ground on the possibility of UFC fighters taking fights in Strikeforce. Mir is coming off a championship loss to UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior dos Santos.

For Daniel Cormier, this was going to be a major test and likely his final fight before entering the UFC. Many believed a win over Mir in Strikeforce would secure an immediate title shot when Cormier stepped into the Octagon for the first time.

While losing the Cormier-Mir fight is a huge loss to Strikeforce, the November card will also feature another title fight between Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold and exciting up-and-comer Lorenz Larkin. An anticipated fight between Liz Carmouche and Sara McMann is also scheduled on the card.

There is no word yet whether Cormier will face a new opponent or be removed from the card, but for now, it doesn't look good for one of the best fighters remaining in Strikeforce.

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While Ronda Rousey has been the marquee female figure in MMA this year, you won't want to miss these two women face off later this year in Strikeforce.

MMAfighting.com reports that Strikeforce: Cormier vs. Mir will now feature a women's bantamweight bout between top up-and-comer Liz Carmouche and Olympic wrestling silver medalist Sara McMann.

Carmouche has looked very impressive since losing back-to-back fights in Strikeforce against Marloes Coenen and Sarah Kaufman in 2011 by bouncing back to win back-to-back fights in Invicta. In Carmouche's last bout, she picked up the win by submission via rear-naked choke in the second round.

Her opponent is the former Olympian Sara McMann. McMann, whose ink is still wet on the Strikeforce contact she signed earlier this week, will be making her Strikeforce debut coming off her Invicta Fight of the Night victory over Shayna Baszler back in July. 

Since making her MMA debut in 2011, McMann has gone 6-0 and will look for the biggest win of her young MMA career against Carmouche.

Strikeforce: Cormier vs. Mir is scheduled for November 3 in Oklahoma City and will be headlined by a huge Strikeforce-UFC crossover fight between Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix winner Daniel Cormier and former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir. Also on the card is a fight for the middleweight championship between Luke Rockhold and Lorenz Larkin.

There was no indication whether the bout would be featured on the main or preliminary card, but the winner of this bantamweight matchup will likely be next in line for a title shot against Ronda Rousey sometime in 2013.

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Dana White's once-resolute stance on females fighting in the UFC has, over the last six months or so, gradually begun to change. 

Most of that—OK, nearly 100 percent of that—is due to the burgeoning popularity of Strikeforce bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey. White has certainly been impressed with Rousey's rising profile in the mixed martial arts world, but he's also clearly become a fan of her fighting. Put simply, Rousey's dominance in the cage has caused White to take a step back and admit that women may indeed step foot in the Octagon at some point in the future.

Gina Carano's exit from the sport in 2009 cast a pall over the future of women's fighting. She was the lone female superstar, and there didn't seem to be any prospects who could pick up the mantle Carano dropped when she decided to start making movies. Rousey changed all of that and is now the single biggest star on the Strikeforce roster, male fighters included.

Kansas City-based Invicta Fighting Championships is helping to further the cause. The all-women's promotion—which is only available at the moment via Internet live streams—is building up a roster of talented female fighters with a reputation for exciting fights.

But they're also helping to bolster the Strikeforce roster with a talent-exchange deal. Former bantamweight champ Sarah Kaufman is heading to Invicta in October, and one of the best prospects on the Invicta roster is going the other way: Former Olympic wrestler Sara McMann will head to Zuffa-land to fight for Strikeforce.

“Since we established Invicta FC at the beginning of this year, our goal has been to produce the best possible match-ups between women mixed martial artists and, to achieve this, we sometimes need to import talent like Sarah Kaufman from elsewhere as well as to send talent like Sara McMann to a place like Strikeforce where there is a healthy amount of championship level professional women’s MMA competition just like there is on our roster,” said Invicta FC President Shannon Knapp in a press release.

McMann, a silver medalist at the 2004 Olympics, poses an interesting threat to Rousey's reign, at least from a technical perspective. Both women are Olympic medalists, with Rousey medaling in Judo at the 2008 games. One could say that McMann's wrestling skills are on par with Rousey's judo skills, and that could make for a supremely interesting matchup for the reigning women's bantamweight champion.

We've seen Rousey compete against wrestlers in the past—Meisha Tate is the most notable example—and she's had no problems against the style thus far. But it's no great secret that Tate's wrestling game pales in comparison to the kind of skill McMann brings to the table.

Rousey is in a difficult place. There aren't many females left in the division who present much of a problem for her in the cage, and there is only one other opponent that fans are desperate to see her face. But with Cristiane "Cyborg" Justino refusing to drop down to 135 pounds for a fight with Rousey—and the champion refusing to move up in weight—there aren't many options available.

McMann could be that option. Her skills and athletic pedigree could vault her into a title shot against Rousey with just one emphatic win in Strikeforce. It may not be the most marketable fight in the world, but it would be a tough test for Rousey. And at this point, I wouldn't mind seeing it happen.

Olympic silver medalist Sara McMann has officially begun her journey with Strikeforce.

McMann, who earned that silver medal in freestyle wrestling in the 2004 Olympics, has a great background in grappling.

This may be the fighter, in my eyes, to challenge Ronda Rousey.

As reported by MMAweekly.com, McMann will likely make her debut on a card dated November 3. This signing will keep McMann from competing in Invicta FC, an all-women's promotion where she would have likely challenged for the title.

Notably, McMann has earned victories over Shayna Baszler, Hitomi Akano and Tonya Evinger. Her wrestling will be second-to-none, something that many women fighters lack in their respective arsenals. 

As stated previously, I believe McMann may be the biggest threat, outside of Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos, to Ronda Rousey's crown. Rousey relies on a spectacular submission game and superior grappling to take out opponents.

McMann may be challenged in that grappling category. McMann's top game is stifling and she has a submission game of her own (of her six wins, two are by submission).

She has good weight cutting abilities and should be a big, strong bantamweight in the women's division. That is one thing that Rousey also possesses, meaning this could be a great chess match.

Likely, McMann will have a tune-up fight before even being considered for a title shot. If she is impressive in that fight, there is a good chance she could earn a title shot due to the shallowness of women's MMA.

Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold has his next opponent scheduled, and it isn't Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza like most expected.

Instead, according to MMAweekly.com, Rockhold will fight Lorenz Larkin on a November 3 Strikeforce card. This will be an interesting standup battle, as both men are striking based fighters.

Larkin likely earned the title shot with a unanimous decision victory over Robbie Lawler in July at Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Kennedy.

Before that, Larkin was one of the hottest prospects in the light heavyweight division. That was before a hiccup against Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal, where he was grounded and pounded into the loss column.

After the fight, though, Lawal tested positive for a banned substance, effectively making the fight a no contest. Therefore, Larkin avoided his first ever loss.

Larkin has 13 career wins, with eight coming by knockout. With just one fight coming at middleweight, one has to believe his size will be an advantage in this fight.

The champion, Rockhold, has looked great since winning the title against Souza. The 10-1 American Kickboxing Academy product has defended his title twice over Keith Jardine and Tim Kennedy.

Rockhold has been very vocal since winning the title about fighting crossover fights against UFC talent. But, I think he has a legitimate threat in front of him in Larkin.

It appears this will be a co-main event to a heavyweight showdown between Daniel Cormier and Frank Mir. So far, this card is developing nicely.

Much has been made of Ronda Rousey’s Olympic credentials since she entered the sport of mixed martial arts, yet the MMA exploits of Sara McMann, an Olympic silver medalist in freestyle wrestling, have been accompanied by relatively little fanfare.

There are perfectly understandable reasons for this, of course. Rousey hasn’t gained notoriety simply because she earned a bronze medal in Judo at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Rather, she has generated column inches largely as a result of both her physical and verbal gifts.

Inside the cage, she competes with a ruthless ferocity that would have Mike Tyson licking his chops. Outside the cage, she displays a charismatic personality and is eminently quotable in her interviews.

Conversely, Sara McMann has gone about her business with serene efficiency. Her opponents’ limbs are rarely in jeopardy, while she also appears unwilling to ramp up the rhetoric when a reporter shoves a microphone in front of her face.

Despite their many differences, it is their similarities that suggest they would combine to produce the most compelling contest in women’s MMA: accomplished athletes, unyieldingly competitive, champion grapplers, etc.

Many of you are doubtless wondering, “What about ‘Cyborg’?!”

Well, Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos has seemingly removed herself from the equation, citing her inability to make 135 pounds. However, one questions the legitimacy of such a claim.

While “Cyborg” struggled to make 145 pounds before she, ahem, took an involuntary break from the sport, it is worth asking whether Santos’ weight issues had something to do with the fact that she shot herself full of more steroids than the cast of Pumping Iron.

Looking back at her early fights, the physical transformation is nothing short of astounding. As Rosi Sexton pointed out earlier this year, “Cyborg” essentially transformed into a man who beat up women for a living.

If we’re being honest, she probably could have been arrested for battery after most of her fights.

If Santos is legitimately off the juice when she returns to the cage, does anyone doubt that she will have shed some muscle mass? Indeed, I would expect her to drop at least 10 pounds of muscle, based on how she looked early in her career.

As I see it, that is more than likely the real reason she wants no part of Ronda Rousey at bantamweight. “Cyborg” must doubt whether she will be able to compete on a level playing field with an athlete the calibre of Rousey.

And who can blame her? When you have competed with such a prohibitive edge for years—as we all suspect she has—it is natural to question how much of your success was achieved on merit.

Sara McMann will have no such doubts should she and Rousey ever be matched up. Once you realise what the former silver medalist brings to the table, it becomes apparent that she is a hellish matchup even for an Olympic-calibre judoka.

Rousey thrives on her ability to trip and/or throw her opponents in order to set up the patented armbar. Do you for one second think that Ronda is going to rag-doll an elite wrestler like McMann? Not on your life, son.

If you want to see Rousey put on a striking demonstration, pitting her against Sara McMann is your best bet. Moreover, McMann appears to be the more advanced of the two on the feet.

Then again, it isn’t particularly easy to judge Rousey’s striking based on the cumulative two minutes she has spent exchanging blows thus far in her career.

Unfortunately for us, it is doubtful that this contest will take place any time soon.

While Strikeforce are willing to loan out their fighters to Invicta FC, I am not convinced Shannon Knapp would be open to allowing Sara McMann to head over to Showtime and possibly win another organisation’s belt.

I invite you to read an article I authored a few weeks ago, regarding the possibility of Zuffa purchasing Invicta FC in order to grow women’s MMA and develop some of the raw talent we have already witnessed in the fledgling fight league.

Promoting Invicta under the Zuffa banner offers us the best chance of seeing the best in women’s MMA competing with each other regularly.

And putting together Ronda Rousey vs. Sara McMann would be right at the top of their to-do list.