Strikeforce: Los Angeles Preview

The card is scheduled for tomorrow to coincide with the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Basically, they’re doing this in hopes to sell more video games when they finally release the EA Sports MMA game. Bobby Lashley was supposed to fight a highly touted tomato can, but he pulled out due to a knee injury. Anyway, let’s meet the Misfit Toys.

Robbie Lawler vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral (195-pound catchweight fight)
The headliner was thrown together using Babalu instead of Mayhem Miller because everyone figured Mayhem would be suspended after the Nashville brawl. The winner of this fight gets a title shot in their respective division – Babalu at 205, Lawler at 185. I’d say that is a strange way to earn a shot at the champion, but this is Strikeforce where you don’t even need to win fights to earn a title shot. I wouldn’t be surprised if this fight ended in a double-knockout and both guys got a title shot. Call me crazy, but I think Babalu is going to be too big for Lawler.

Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos vs. Marius Zaramoskis
Zaramoskis lost his American and Strikeforce debut in January to Nick Diaz. “Cyborg,” who shares the same nickname as his wife, is coming off a win at Samurai Fight Combat 2 so… yeah… I really don’t know what to make of this fight. I’m not terribly interested in it.

Tim Kennedy vs. Trevor Prangley
These guys are making the leap from Strikeforce: Challengers Series to Strikeforce: Regular People Edition. That means they’re employed by the same people, but they fight on Fridays instead of Saturdays. Except, now they’re fighting on Wednesday because there’s a video game convention.  Kennedy is the younger fighter, but Prangley has only lost one fight in his last 13 bouts. That’s almost Kennedy’s entire career. Warning: Prangley is South African, so his entrance music will be vuvuzelas.

Conor Heun vs. K.J. Noons
This should be interesting. At 31, Heun has run up an 11-3 record and is coming off a loss. For some reason, he’s fighting KJ Noons who is 8-1 and was once the EliteXC lightweight champion. He was the only EliteXC lightweight champion, yet he was stripped of his title about a month before the organization folded. Does the winner of this fight get a shot at Gilbert Melendez? Perhaps Fedor will deign to fight the loser? Maybe Heun will get an immediate title shot – win or lose – because someone at Strikeforce likes his haircut.

PRELIMINARY CARD – The other fighters will have to be struck by lightning like Touchdown Jesus for these last two fights to appear.
R.J. Clifford vs. Jeremy Umphries
Marcus Kowal vs. Hugo Sandoval

[Babalu before Mousasi happened via Getty]

*I’ll have an MMA post for pretty much every day for the rest of the week. Lots of stuff to cover, so check back tomorrow. Chuck, Rich, TUF finale, Fedor… lots of stuff.