Now that Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg is wrapped up in the MMA history books and filed under the category of ‘M’ for ‘My god this Nick Diaz…’, we all have UFC 126 to look forward to next weekend. But before we magically skip ahead six days in the future, the world must fully encounter this week’s Sunday Morning Rumor Mill. Enjoy.
- The altercation that happened after Diaz submitted Cyborg last night was not from anyone associated with Mayhem Miller or AKA as what some previously suggested last night (in fact, Mayhem wasn’t even in attendance). When Diaz won, a few Cyborg fans were heckling Diaz and eventually threw what appeared to be a bottle of water and a cup of beer, exactly in that order. Nick Diaz walked over to them, and started to throw a few verbal jabs in their direction. Within seconds, a lot of Nick Diaz fans ran over to the Cyborg fans and essentially just engaged in a moderately-sized brawl. It took a while for security to break them up. At the press conference, Scott Coker didn’t want to discuss the altercation and only said that he knew who was in the seats and that he will ‘talk to them’.
- As of last night, judging from the conversations from Strikeforce in the HP Pavilion, it’s about 99.9% confirmed that the second leg of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand-Prix in April will take place in Japan. About 100% of that decision was due to Alistair Overeem’s megalithic popularity in Japan, along with Josh Barnett.
- Scott Coker met with Sotaro Shinoda, a representative for the company that co-produced Pride FC, to discuss what needs to be done to bring Strikeforce to Japan.
- Satoru Kitaoka was hanging around San Jose for the weigh-ins and the event last night. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s signed to fight with the organization in Strkeforce’s first trip to Japan.
- Roger Gracie’s next opponent will most likely be Jeff Monson.
- King Mo is slated to compete in Japan, no opponent named as of yet.
- Steven Bash, M-1 USA VP of Legal Affairs, attended Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg. This was the first Strikeforce event that he attended without Fedor being on the card.
- Bjorn Rebney is really close to ironing out southern California locations for the next season of Bellator.
- Darren Uyenoyama says that he will fight in Strikeforce, on US soil.
