Saturday, January 29, 2011

Strikeforce Title Fights Tonight!

Poll results: Which titles will fall at tonight's "Strikeforce Diaz vs. Cyborg" event?

Strikeforce and Showtime roll out a championship doubleheader tonight with "Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg."

Welterweight champion Nick Diaz takes on hard-hitting Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos, and middleweight titleholder Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza meets veteran Robbie Lawler in the co-headliners.

In our latest MMAjunkie.com/"Inside MMA" poll, we wanted to know which titles will change hands at the event.

Tonight's event takes place at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., and it also includes the return of former NFL great Herschel Walker. But the two title fights have taken top billing.

The results of the poll were revealed on Friday's new episode of "Inside MMA," HDNet's weekly MMA news show, and the majority – 53 percent in all – believes neither title will change hands.

A meager 5 percent believes both belts will change hands. Additionally, 9 percent believes just Diaz's belt will be lost to Santos, and a substantial 33 percent believes Souza will relinquish his title to Lawler.

Diaz (23-7 MMA, 4-0 SF), of course, looks for his second consecutive title defense. After winning the vacant belt with a TKO of Marius Zaromskis, Diaz then defended it with a decision win over K.J. Noons. Many argue that Santos (18-13 MMA, 1-0 SF) isn't a worthy opponent, especially given a recent 1-4 skid from 2007-2009. But the PRIDE vet has the type of power to stop a fight with a single punch, especially since he's moved down from middleweight.

Souza (13-2 MMA, 3-0 SF), meanwhile, looks for his first successful title defense. Back in August, he won the belt, which was vacated by Jake Shields, with a decision win over Tim Kennedy. He looks for four straight victories when he meets Lawler (20-6 MMA, 2-2 SF), a former EliteXC titleholder who's won seven of his past nine fights, which includes Strikeforce wins over Melvin Manhoef and Matt Lindland.

So do the voters have it right? Which titles will fall? State your case in the comments section below.

Additionally, don't forget to vote in this week's new poll on the MMAjunkie.com homepage. We want you to predict the outcome of next week's UFC 126 headliner between middleweight champion Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort.

And for more on the "Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg," stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.

No comments:

Post a Comment