Strikeforce Preview: Hey, It's Keith Jardine! In A Title Fight!

It really speaks to the awesome lunacy that is the Strikeforce title picture. The titles that exist are defended randomly. With the abolition of the heavyweight division, sometimes they just go away. The key with Strikeforce is that you just have to enjoy it. Even with Zuffa in charge, Strikeforce still puts on mystifyingly entertaining shows. I’m convinced the only reason Strikeforce has any belts at all is to keep Cris Cyborg and Gilbert Melendez entertained.

So I’m not going to focus on the fact that Jardine earned his title shot with a majority draw against a light heavyweight. The fact that’s he has never fought at middleweight? I’m sure it will make great banter for Mauro Ranallo and Frank Shamrock on Saturday night.

The important thing to remember is that this card is available to everyone because Showtime is having a free preview weekend. That works out great for me because I canceled Showtime as soon as Homeland ended last month. What a great show.

Enough about how great Homeland was. When you get past the Keith Jardine title fight thing (Which I clearly have), you’ll notice that some of Strikeforce’s best young fighters will be on display Friday night. King Mo will face an undefeated 25-year-old in Lorenz Larkin. Undefeated Tyron Woodley (probably Strikeforce’s top prospect) will face a young (22) 30-fight veteran in Jordan Mein. Mein has won 6 straight including his Strikeforce debut against the male Cyborg and a decision victory over The Whitemare back in June. Also, Adlan Amagov moves off the Challengers cards with a chance to be the latest guy to knock out Robbie Lawler. It looks like this could turn into a classic Strikeforce card that no casual fan cares about.

If you’ve read this far you know what a fun show this could be. Also, thank you for reading this far. Even Luke Rockhold’s mom stopped reading four paragraphs ago. That’s probably because she knows what her son is going to do to Keith Jardine.

Main Card – Showtime – 10pm Eastern
Luke Rockhold (8-1, 7-0 SF) vs. Keith Jardine (17-9-2, 0-0-1 SF)
Adlan Amagov (9-1-1, 2-0 SF) vs. Robbie Lawler (18-8, 1nc, 2-4 SF)
Lorenz Larkin (12-0, 3-0) vs. Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal (8-1, 3-1 SF)
Jordan Mein (23-7, 1-0 SF) vs. Tyron Woodley (9-0, 7-0 SF)
Tarec Saffiedine (11-3, 3-1 SF) vs. Tyler Stinson (22-7, 1-0 SF)

Prelims – Showtime Extreme – 8pm Eastern
Alonzo Martinez vs. Estevan Payan
Nah-Shon Burrell vs. James Terry
Trevor Smith vs. Gian Villante
Ricky Legere vs. Chris Spang