Hey, quit harping on fights that won’t happen like the one between Josh Koscheck and BJ Penn (he already told you he was retired! Leave BJ alone!). There’s plenty of interesting stuff that IS going down this weekend, even if many of the fighters involved face more uncertainty once their evenings are over.

Read more: http://www.spike.com/articles/fxjx89/uncertain-proving-grounds-barnett-vs-cormier-and-bellator-69

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Also, as a reminder, I’ll be live-blogging tonight’s Star Boxing card at the Times Union Center, part of which will broadcast live on ESPN as part of Friday Night Fights. You can check that out right here on the Mixed Marshall Arts blog. The live blog will kick off at 7:30pm EST.

Last night it was reported that Strikeforce Middleweight champion Luke Rockhold will defend his title against “The Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine on Saturday, January 7th.

The news was met online with an avalanche of ellipses and “wait, what?”

Rockhold won the Middleweight title from Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza in September. Jardine was a contestant on the second season of “The Ultimate Fighter” and is most famous for knocking out Forrest Griffin in 2006 and defeating UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell by split decision in 2007. After the latter upset, he went 1-5 in the UFC and was let go after a loss to Matt Hamill. Jardine’s most recent outing was his debut for Strikeforce, where he fought Gegard Mousasi to a draw.

If you’re wondering how any of that entitles Jardine to a title shot, you’re not the only one.

But this is the Strikeforce Middleweight Title we’re talking about. That’s not meant to be a knock against Rockhold, a very talented Top 5 Middleweight with strong finishing skills and a lot of depth in his game. But he, especially as champion deserves a better quality opponent.

But that’s the problem with Strikeforce: outside of its Heavyweights, their divisions are anemic. As a result, you’ll see guys like Jardine (and in some cases fighters coming off a loss!) getting title shots.

The thing to understand is that Strikeforce started out as a regional promotion that went national after some high-level signings and its deal with Showtime. Over the last few years they’ve built a roster that, on paper, looks pretty solid to the hardcore MMA fanbase. But its stars are littered across several divisions, meaning that it’s had no shortage of superstars but few fights that could draw an audience outside of its niche. As a result, it has worthy champions who don’t have challengers; in particular Nick Diaz, Luke Rockhold, and Gilbert Melendez, each of whom is a legitimate Top 5 fighter in their respective weight divisions. It wasn’t a problem when the goal of the promotion was, by its own admission, to put on entertaining fight cards.

Now that they’re owned by Zuffa, though, there’s going to be increased scrutiny over its matchmaking and it will face more questions as to its legitimacy and relevance.

In my mind there’s three options. One is to simply absorb guys like Rockhold into the UFC so that they can get the opportunities (and paydays) they deserve. The second would be to simply do away with the title belts and put the focus on having entertaining fight cards. Some might balk at that idea since there’s a prevalent belief that championships are a requisite for any fight promotion. But if MMA can learn anything from professional wrestling, it’s that a title is meaningless and doesn’t add a cent to an event’s live gate if it’s not perceived as relevant, let alone prestigious.

The third option, which is only viable if the UFC plans on keeping the Strikeforce brand and promotion operational in the long-term, is to restructure its roster from the bottom up and start scouting regional promotions for talent. This would, naturally, create the perception of Strikeforce as the UFC’s farm system. Realistically, though, that’s already the case. And being perceived as a breeding ground for UFC fighters is better than its current reputation as a promotion treading water while Zuffa figures out what to do about the Showtime contract.

I’d love to see them go with the third option. Not only do I think it would make Strikeforce’s divisions and fight cards more competitive and intriguing, but it would also make the UFC itself better by weeding out fighters who look great on paper until they’re put at a level they’re not mentally or physically prepared for and wash out. Strikeforce also already has, to an extent, some of the infrastructure required to make this happen. After all, Rockhold himself emerged from their “Challengers” series, which sought to do the sort of thing I’m suggesting they do with the promotion as a whole.

Regardless, something has to be done, because as much as I like Keith Jardine, him as a challenger for a title simply doesn’t cut it.

Le took literally the beating of his life this past Saturday night, and it was totally avoidable.

 I’ve read both ire and praise directed towards Joe Rogan after he vehemently criticized the stoppage in the second round of Saturday’s fight between Wanderlei Silva and Cung Le.

 Surely, Rogan has been around long enough to know better than hugging your opponent’s calves with your face on the mat while he pounds the side of your head doesn’t quite qualify as a “takedown attempt” as he insisted.To be fair, though, the original angle did show Le as being deceptively active. It was only when they showed the angle that the referee saw – where Le’s face practically exploded after a knee before collapsing to the canvas – where it was absolutely clear that fight was over and whatever Le was doing was pure reflex. Rogan, to both his detriment and benefit as a color commentator, is first and foremost a fan of the sport. I think his fanboyish obsession with Le – one that he shares with no shortage of fans in the sport – got the better of him. Still, this ignores that having a loose grip on whatever happens to be in front of you is not enough to qualify as intelligently defending yourself, and the fact that when it was stopped, Le’s hands were apart.

 Personally, I think Rogan owes referee Dan Snell an apology for calling him out in public for a bad stoppage and then harping on the point. There have been bad stoppages in MMA – and there always will be – but that wasn’t one of them.

 As for the fight itself, Wanderlei looked like it was 2001. Clearly his return to Chute Box has reinvigorated him physically and mentally, as that was the most focused and on-point I’ve seen him in years. After losing four straight, he got a much-needed win against a legitimately dangerous opponent. I won’t go so far as to say he’s back, but it’s a step in the right direction.

 Le, on the other hand, should not fight at this level if he’s not going to take it seriously. I’m not talking about his waist, either, which too many people harped on. Le’s always had a thicker core. Sure, he had an extra pound or two he didn’t have a few years ago, but the guy is 39 years old. The problem, though, is moments like when he had Silva rocked and primed for a kill in the first round with a spinning backfist, which he followed up by completely wiffing on a stupid wheel kick. It only got more frustrating as the fight went on. Early in the fight, he was able to keep Silva at a distance with devastating front kicks. As the round wore on and especially when he got in trouble in the second round, he resulted to more spinning back kicks, axe kicks, and other gym rat bullshit.

 I mean no disrespect to his love of San Shou and devotion to the form. Okay, maybe I do. See, the thing is, that sort of thing is all well and good when you’re in Strikeforce fighting an aged and broken Frank Shamrock and other hand-picked opponents in-between film shootings. But the UFC is on a whole different level. They’re going to put you in there against guys that can do some real damage, and if you’re not going to take it seriously enough to throw a straight punch when you need to, you’re going to end up without a nose at the end of the fight.

 More than reckless in terms of competition, Le’s choices posed a very real danger to himself in that fight. Maybe he’ll realize that, or maybe he’s still not that serious about MMA and just needed or wanted to pick up a paycheck in front of his home crowd.

 As bad as Saturday night was, just imagine if things had gone as originally planned and Le stepped in there against Vitor Belfort. That fight would have been even harder to watch.

This Saturday night is the “Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery” show from St. Louis, Missouri, headlined by that other heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem taking on Fedor’s most recent opponent and rising MMA star, Brett Rogers.

Big muscles, anemic reputation - Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem (Photo: K-1)

The burning question isn’t whether Overeem’s skills may have faded over the last two and a half years whilst he battled far lesser competition overseas, or if Brett Rogers can use a superior ground game to overcome Overeem’s more technically sound striking. It’s whether or not Overeem is going to fight clean of Performance Enhancing Drugs, and if the Missouri State Athletic Commission is going to test him at all.

Jonathan Snowden over at Bloody Elbow wrote about Missouri’s secretive testing procedures, which seem to indicate it’s likely Overeem won’t be tested at all and, if he is, it won’t be as thorough and accurate a test as one might encounter in one of the more reputable States with an Athletic Commission (eg. Nevada, New Jersey).

Some have taken the media and bloggers to task for crucifying Overeem for what is, to date, unconfirmed speculation of drug use. Overeem himself says that it’s not unheard of for someone to gain ten pounds of muscle mass a year, and he’s also in the past attributed his dramatic increase in size to a diet heavy on horse meat.

Regardless, it creates even more questions of legitimacy in a fledging promotion that has been plagued with them over the course of the last few months.

Overeem, whether he’s using performance enhancing drugs or not, has not faced a real test at heavyweight in his career. All name fighters he’s beaten, a la Mirko Cro Cop, have been long past their prime. He has taken fights for the sake of appearing on the card despite several opportunities to fight in the States. It certainly raises a lot of questions. Not just about whether or not he’s clean, but whether or not he’s confident enough in his own abilities to face a real challenge at heavyweight.

It almost seems as if Strikeforce would have been better off without Fedor Emelianenko. Now they have a costly WAMMA Heavyweight Champion (a title granted by an organization that is for all intents and purposes defunct) whose management brings them back into the room after every fight and a promotional champion who will never be seen as legitimate in the eyes of fans. Even a convincing victory over Brett Rogers and subsequent win over Fedor Emelianenko will not alleviate the speculation about his size increase.

Some will argue that focusing on the lighter weight classes would cause Strikeforce to flounder and lose money without a heavyweight drawing card. Unfortunately, that discounts the fact that Emelianenko has become a bottomless pit of money for which they’ve seen absolutely no financial return and that, unlike Japan, fans in North America won’t pay money to see a fight if they don’t consider one or both of the fighters to be legitimate.

As I’ve written before, Strikeforce’s biggest obstacle to success is the view fans have of it as a disaster waiting to happen. Right now they’re trying to run uphill with a Russian heavyweight managed by crazy goons, a disgraced promotional champion who won’t fight stateside, and a post-fight mugging on network television amongst other mis-steps. As unfair as Dana White’s comments are at times, he’s not pulling these observations out of thin air.

It’s too late to steer the ship in the other direction, since they’ve already set the stage for an Overeem/Fedor fight or rematch with Rogers. But once they’ve hit that landfall, they’d be better off as a promotion if they followed part of the formula for success that brought the UFC to dominance in the sport – focus on the fighting and make the fighters the stars of your promotion, and not the other way around.

Take, for example, the recent signing of James Toney to the UFC. Yes, Toney is past his prime and will most likely be used as a sideshow attraction and/or to prove some sort of point (as Freddie Roach has alluded to). And yes, Dana White now looks foolish for spending so much time and energy condemning promotions such as Strikeforce that put on what he terms as “freak show fights,” a term he did not invent but never the less made his own via ad nauseum usage.

However, there’s another fighter who continues to receive an inordinate amount of coverage and attention despite the fact that he clearly thinks of and treats Mixed Martial Arts as a secondary career. This fighter is anything from a complete fighter and has openly demonstrated his aversion to fighting anybody with any legitimacy in his weight division. He’s a passerby in sport despite the insistence of his fight promotion. He never has, and likely never will, agree to face someone that poses any threat to him. Yet the MMA media rarely calls him, or the promotion, out on it.

I’m talking about Cung Le.

Le became Strikeforce’s Middleweight Champion after he beat Frank Shamrock in March of 2008. He vacated the title last Fall citing a commitment to and desire to expand upon his film career, which consists of schlocky B-level Hong Kong action flicks to be specific. Jake Shields won the vacant title in November and on the very same broadcast, it was announced that Cung Le was returning to Strikeforce to face Scott Smith three weeks later on Showtime.

At a press conference after the event, a reporter half-jokingly asked Shields he thought Cung Le was ducking him. Shields surprised the room by saying yes, and saying that obviously his former colleague had absolutely no interest in fighting someone at a higher level of competition than he was used to. He offered the timing of Le’s respective announcements as proof.

Cung Le has the fans' interest, but for how long?

Immediately, Le went on the defensive. He claimed Shields was using Le’s name to get publicity, even though by that point Jake Shields had fought in front of a national audience on broadcast television twice while Le had all but disappeared from the minds of MMA fans and is a complete unknown to casual fans. Le’s fans and apologists, however, went on the defensive and accused Shields of ducking opponents and tougher competition in the past, even citing his decision to sign with the fledging EliteXC instead of the UFC as proof of his bitch-assedness.

Time proved them wrong in a big way. Shields is scheduled to face Dan Henderson next month, fighting a guy with a lot more experience, arguably more skill, and a significant size advantage. Cung Le, in the meanwhile, has re-iterated his desire to fight Scott Smith or Frank Shamrock in a rematch, and no one else.

To put things in a clearer perspective, let’s look at the two men he’s interested in fighting.

The first is Frank Shamrock. As I mentioned earlier in this blog, the two fought in March of 2008. He’s eager to fight and is arguably one of the greatest fighters at 205 pounds that the sport ever saw, but Frank’s best days are far behind him. This isn’t just a fighter that’s past his prime: his physical peak was over a decade ago. To put things in perspective, the last time Frank Shamrock was competitive in the world of Mixed Martial Arts, we were still referring to 205 pounds as Middleweight and William Jefferson Clinton was the President of the United States.

The other potential opponent, Scott Smith, is a former UFC washout whose highest profile win in the last three years was over Benji Radach, who is hardly a world-beater himself. Smith defeated Le in a shocking come-from-behind third round knockout last December. Le was handily beating Smith up to that point, and while Smith proved once again that he’s a fighter with an abundance of perseverance and heart, he is still sorely lacking in skill and depth as a fighter. I have to admit that I’m always intrigued by Scott Smith’s fights, but it’s not entirely unfair to say that he’s a one-dimensional fighter at best.

These are the only two men Cung Le will consider fighting: the has-been and the plucky never-was. How anyone can, with this knowledge, give Cung Le any serious consideration or attention in this sport is beyond my understanding or patience level.

I get that to an extent, he’s an attractive fighter for Strikeforce due to his unique and entertaining striking style, but that alone can’t and won’t make him a main event draw. It was enough for Strikeforce to pull in a strong live gate a few years back, but outside of San Jose – and on pay-per-view – Le is not going to draw a dime.

MMA still has a lot of room to grow and a lot of work to do when it comes to educating the mainstream. However, fans of the sport have come to appreciate and understand the sport. In other words, you can have a fighter like Le that can generate buzz and interest, but people also have to believe that he’s a legitimate threat in his division before they invest money specifically to see him.

As far as I’m concerned, Le is a flashy and entertaining striker to watch. In the end, however, he’s no different than Herschel Walker and Bobby Lashley. Like them, Le is a fighter that generates some talk and interest from a fanbase that might not normally seek out Strikeforce or MMA in general, but is barely a complete mixed martial artist, let alone a competitor.

If that comparison is unfair to anyone, it’s not Le. It might be unfair to Herschel Walker, who has shown the utmost respect for the sport, seems to legitimately love doing it, and actually has the name recognition with the casual fan that Cung Le seems to think he has. It might even be unfair to Bobby Lashley, who at least has presented some upside and potential to eventually be able to compete with the more skilled fighters in the heavyweight division. Cung Le, through both his choice of opponents and statements, has made it clear that he possesses neither the inclination nor the desire to better himself as a fighter.

He belongs in entertainment, not in sport.

I’m sure analysts and journalists more in the know can say with more confidence who Le will fight next. I would think smart money would be on Frank Shamrock, who knows how to promote himself and a fight despite the fact that nobody thinks h has a realistic chance, so that Le can go into a second bout with Scott Smith coming off a win.

Then, if he won’t fight Shields, let him go. Dana White may seem to be talking out of both sides of his mouth when it comes to signing fighters that draw mainstream chatter and little else, but he is right about one thing: Strikeforce is able to get mileage out of Cung Le and Herschel Walker now, but if they want to be taken seriously beyond that they’re going to have to distance themselves from that sort of thing, and it’s going to have to be sooner rather than later.

Sports are certainly no exception.

Fighting for acceptance: Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (right).

For whatever reason, the plight of women in sports – at least professionally – is not seen as a priority. Part of the reason is that sports (particularly in the United States) are still seen as more of a male pursuit. Sure, more and more women are becoming vocal fans and consumers of team sports such as football, but for the most part it’s still seen as a male-dominated industry. The participants are all male, the advertising is directed at males, and the various attitudes and personalities of the participants and personalities contained therein are rooted in stereotypical (and sometimes borderline chauvinist) male attitudes.

While change is occurring on the amateur and collegiate levels, it seems slow going for professional sports. Some blame the WNBA’s lack of popularity on poor marketing, but the fact of the matter is that much of it is due to long-standing attitudes when it comes to women participating in team sports. Many observations are made publically and without shame by both sports fans and those in the media regarding the perceived lack of feminine qualities these female athletes possess. The league, like so many other female sport pursuits, is treated as a joke moreso for its mere existence than for any shortcomings in physical competition.

Interestingly, this doesn’t traditionally carry over as heavily into individual competition. Women’s Tennis, for example, is far more popular stateside than the men’s. The names and personalities are far more recognizable and marketable, and not just because there are more American women in the upper echelon of competition than men. And aside from the embarrassing amount of coverage and attention given to the perennially unseeded Ana Kournikova, very little of it has to do with the marketing of these athletes as sex symbols.

Gina Carano: fighter, centerfold, or both?

Unfortunately, the same can’t always be said for Mixed Martial Arts. The only women given attention on a wide scale are those that are deemed more physically desirable and/or are willing to pose in suggesting photo spreads. I am not trying to vilify the Gina Caranos and Meisha Tates of the sport. They can’t be blamed for knowing how to market themselves. There is, however, a double-edged sword: you become a household name, but for all the wrong reasons. People may be more apt to buy a magazine with your picture in it than a ticket with your name on it.

On the other hand, the argument could be made that they’ve advanced the sport in a very real way. Those adhering to a more hardline feminist ideology may deem it exploitive or even repulsive, but the fact of the matter is that Gina Carano’s pretty face put women in a main event spot and made Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos – an uber-talent who otherwise would have gone unnoticed – into a household name.

The problem now is how we proceed from here. There are always going to people who notice the more physically attractive participants and focus on that aspect of their being rather than their technical prowess. I mean, Hell, I’ll be the first one to admit that I admire many of them for more than just their crisp boxing or jiu-jitsu prowess. On the other hand, I think we need to draw and maintain a firm line between being able to accept the marketing of certain female fighters as sex symbols and marketing certain fighters because they’re sex symbols despite the fact that their talent and abilities are suspect.

Despite the view held by many in the mainstream that the sport is legalized barbarism and bloodsport, the acceptance of women is not be as much of a problem in Mixed Martial as it is in other sports. Certainly no female boxer would be able to headline a major fight card over reputable and marketable male names. And yet, Gina Carano and Cristiane Cyborg headlined a televised fight card back in August that included names such as Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Gegard Mousasi, and Febricio Werdum. Coming out of the event, many fans and analysts criticized Carano for being all flash and hype, pointing to her sound defeat at the hands of “Cyborg” as proof. I disagree and make the argument that it spoke more to the freakish strength and uncanny abilities of Cristiane Santos than it did to any lack of skills on the part of Carano. Additionally, one has to wonder if some folks aren’t just a bit too eager to write off a popular female fighter for the sake of showing that women aren’t as viable in the sport – in terms of marketability or competition – as some seem to think.

Drive & determination: Roxanne Modafferi mounts her competition.

Me, I’m glad that we have the Gina Caranos and Meisha Tates who may be good to look at but also possess some legitimately dangerous tools in their arsenal. I’m also thankful for the likes of Sarah Kaufman, who may not have wowed the crowd but put on a respectable display of technical striking en route to her first 135 pound title back on February 26^th. I’m also thankful for the likes of Muay Thai specialist Marlos Coenen, who hung in for almost three full rounds against a dominant champion and showed tremendous heart in the process. And I’m thankful for Roxanne Modafferi, the #3 ranked 135 pound women’s fighter in the world, whose unbridaled enthusiasm for the sport is as contagious as it is inspiring.

It’s great that we have these women to lead the way into a new era of acceptance for women in MMA and sports as a whole. They’re a testament to the heart, skill, and determination that make this sport so intriguing. Every sport should be so lucky as to have such worthy pioneers, and I look forward to the day when they consistently get the attention and spot on a major televised fight card that they deserve.