MMAConvert.com

It looks like the Strikeforce April 17 event is all but officially announced for CBS. Jake Shields tweeted earlier today that his title defense against Dan Henderson and the rumored Gegard Mousasi vs. King Mo fight are official. MMA Weekly confirmed those two bouts will co-headline the event.

“It’s true that I haven’t defended it for 2 years. Actually, i had something scheduled for 2009. but then I got injured. The real truth is that there weren’t any real opponents for me to fight at the beginning of Strikeforce. Everything was new and there was no one to fight. They didn’t complain and I competed in Dream and K-1 in the meantime. Then when real fighters came, I got injured in 2009. I cut myself, and had a serious bacterial infection…I will definitely fight Fedor this year. There’s no doubt about it, unless he says no. I don’t believe he will, but I’m a little worried about his managers. I’m sure he wants to fight, but I’m not sure people behind him do too…Besides Fedor, there’s Brett Rogers. Big guy that doesn’t worry me that much. Strong, but talks to much. I will fight him soon as well. Then there’s Fabricio Werdum, and I definitely want to kill him. He’s a loudmouth, but I think he’s first in line for Fedor, so that fight will wait a bit. Finally there’s Andre Arlovski. A very good fighter I will also fight eventually…I wouldn’t say UFC has the toughest competition. I think Strikeforce is getting stronger, theres me, Rogers, Fedor, Werdum, Arlovski… I’m not sure, I’d even say that the Strikeforce HW division is stronger then UFC’s right now. So no, I’m not thinking of going there…I think I’m currently in the top 5. There’s Fedor, and that big guy from the UFC, Brock Lesnar. Not sure about the rest, id say Dos Santos is up there. He really impressed me.”

—Alistair Overeem in an interview with Index.hr, translated via Sherdog.net & BE, reiterating his intentions to fight Strikeforce’s top heavyweights

It’s no secret fans and writers are getting frustrated with Alistair Overeem not fighting for Strikeforce in the US, especially when he continues to take pointless fights overseas. I gave him the benefit of the doubt last year when he said he would compete for Strikeforce in early 2010. But now that that time has come, we hear Alistair is being booked for K-1, DREAM and Golden Glory fights and won’t fight for Strikeforce until later this year. It’s getting old and very difficult to take anything he says seriously. If Overeem’s priorities are overseas, fine, but he needs to relinquish the title and quit talking about fighting here until he’s actually ready to follow through it. Overeem vs. Fedor, Rogers, Werdum and Arlovski are all fights I’d like to see, but at this point, I won’t believe them until I see them.

On a semi-related note, Fedor Emelianenko would still like to fight Brock Lesnar…just as soon as he remembers who he is.

Jason “Mayhem” Miller, King Mo, Babalu Sobral and Fabricio Werdum show Wanderlei Silva a little love for his upcoming fight against Michael Bisping at UFC 110.

Aaron Tru, the same reporter who got choked out by Cris Cyborg, lets Fabricio Werdum leg kick him around the four minute mark. Funny stuff.

With Alistair Overeem off overseas doing whatever Alistair Overeem does, all signs have pointed to Fabricio Werdum getting the next crack at Fedor Emelianenko. And now according to Werdum himself, the fight is “99% confirmed.”

“The fight against Fedor is 99% confirmed to April 16th. I have three months to train to the most important fight of my life. I already have a strategy set. I can’t submit a guy like Fedor in the arm, in the leg, he would never tap… I’ll make history. Beat Fedor doesn’t mean I’m better than him, because he’s the man, but I’ll be better than him in that night.”

Kudos to Werdum for managing to declare impending victory and give Fedor major respect all in the same breath. I’d love to know what his strategy is though, because if Werdum doesn’t think he can submit Fedor, how does he expect to win?

Hmm…maybe if he had Superman’s super breath he could freeze him into submission…oh wait, nevermind, that won’t work either.

Image via Esther Lin for Showtime

It’s been six months since Andrei Arlovski’s stunning knockout loss to Brett Rogers and he still doesn’t have a home. However, according to Fabricio Werdum, Arlovski may be headed to Strikeforce starting with a rematch from their UFC 70 bout.

“I must fight in February or March, and I imagine that it could be against (Andrei) Arlovski. I lost to him by 2×1, it was an ugly fight, nobody liked, but I never choose opponents, I can fight anyone, but then I wanna fight Fedor.”

The second and third round of their first fight was about as exciting as watching paint dry, so I really don’t understand why Strikeforce would even consider booking the rematch. Some things are just better left in the past, and Arlovski-Werdum is definitely one them. Werdum-Rogers, Arlovski-Rogers II, Arlovski-Silva, Werdum-Fedor, Arlovski-Fedor II, Arlovski-Overeem would all make for better fights than rounds four, five and six of that snoozefest.

Inside MMA airs on HDNet every Friday night at 9PM ET.

Inside MMA Archive

Segment with Jeff Curran after the jump.

CBS has released fight clips from the Strikeforce “Fedor vs Rogers” event. Fanhouse has video of the full event.