MMAConvert.com

Strikeforce “Overeem vs. Werdum” takes place later tonight at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas. The event airs on Showtime at 10pm ET/PT. The broadcast will be preceded by a prelim special on HDNet at 8pm ET.

In the main event, Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum meet in a Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix quarterfinal bout.

In the co-main event, Josh Barnett and Brett Rogers meet in the other Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix quarterfinal.

In other heavyweight grand prix action, Jeff Monson takes on Daniel Cormier in a reserve bout.

Chad Griggs and Valentijn Overeem meet in the other reserve bout.

KJ Noons and Jorge Masvidal fight for a potential lightweight title shot against Gilbert Melendez.

Results and recap after the jump.

Continue reading this post

The Strikeforce “Overeem vs. Werdum” weigh-ins took place earlier this evening at the AT&T Plaza in Dallas, Texas.

All fighters on the main card made weight.

The weigh-in results:

• Alistair Overeem (256) vs. Fabricio Werdum (246)
• Josh Barnett (256) vs. Brett Rogers (258)
• Daniel Cormier (239.5) vs. Jeff Monson (234)
• Chad Griggs (234) vs. Valentijn Overeem (234.5)
• Jorge Masvidal (155) vs. K.J. Noons (156)
• Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante (155) vs. Justin Wilcox (156)
• Magno Almeida (155) vs. Conor Heun (155)
• Nah-Shon Burrell (179) vs. Joe Ray (180)
• Mike Bronzoulis (170) vs. Todd Moore (169.5)
• Brian Melancon (175) vs. Isaac Vallie-Flagg (170)

Fighters in non-title fights are allowed to weigh in one pound over the weight class limit.

Strikeforce “Overeem vs. Werdum” will take place tomorrow, June 18, at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas and will air live (tape delayed on West coast) on Showtime at 10pm ET/PT. The broadcast will be preceded by a prelim special on HDNet at 8pm ET.

More Strikeforce weigh-in pics at CombatLifestyle.com

Paul Daley may be coming off a loss from a title fight against Nick Diaz, but that isn’t stopping him from asking for another one. Following Dana White’s announcement that Nick Diaz was vacating his title to fight George St. Pierre, Paul Daley told ESPN that it only makes sense that his upcoming fight against Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos should be for the vacant Strikeforce welterweight title.

“Nothing’s been said but, to me, it makes sense. Nick Diaz vacates the title, we were the last two guys to contend for the Strikeforce welterweight title, so it’s the only thing that makes sense to me.

“I would suggest, if I was promoting it, that the next fight is for the title.”

While it remains to be seen if Strikeforce officials agree, Daley sees the title as a means to get a rematch with Diaz should he lose to GSP at UFC 137.

“I want a Diaz rematch. If Diaz loses to GSP and my fight’s for the title, I’ll get the title and then use it to line up a rematch with Diaz. I know it’s within my power to beat Diaz. It sounds stupid because I lost to him, but had I not have got caught with a certain shot around the two-minute mark, I wouldn’t have been fighting on instinct and the fight would have been a lot different.

“He had the ability, the skill or the fortune to land that shot to the temple, which I couldn’t recover from with the pace he was setting.”

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t mind watching Diaz and Daley throw down again if the stars were to align. That was easily the most exciting round of fighting we’ve seen this year. What else would be exciting in that guilty pleasure kind of way would be Paul Daley and Josh Koscheck coaching a season of TUF after their post-fight sucker punch incident that earned Daley a lifetime ban from the UFC. Daley knows Dana White would never let it happen, but he likes the idea of it.

“[The punch ] is a bit hard to comment on… but I would have thought I could have thrown a better punch and knock him out, given that Koscheck wasn’t expecting it!” quipped Daley.

“[TUF] would be good! That would be very interesting. Would Dana White let it happen? I doubt it. I don’t mind TV, I don’t mind going up against Koscheck. My season would definitely be interesting because I say things how they are. I don’t play up for the cameras. It would be funny.”

I know I’m not supposed to want it given how far out of line Daley was that night, but yeah, I’d watch. For better or worse, we all like to watch a good train wreck, right?

Other Strikeforce odds and ends…

— Scott Coker told MMA Junkie today the winner of the KJ Noons vs. Jorge Masvidal fight will be the “frontrunner” to challenge Gilbert Melendez for his Strikeforce lightweight title next, though he wouldn’t commit to guaranteeing them the title shot. He wants to see how their fight plays out in addition to the JZ Cavalcante vs. Justin Wilcox fight on the undercard.

— Scott Coker says there is no update on Strikeforce women’s middleweight champion Cris Cyborg’s contract status. They’re currently locked in negotiations, or as Coker put it, they’re “dancing.”

“It comes down to business,” he said. “It’s probably happened with every single guy in this room at one point or another. It maybe just was under the radar and they weren’t talking to the media like ‘Cyborg’ did. But I don’t blame her. She was frustrated, and we were frustrated.

“But there’s a certain dance the promoter and the athlete do. … And we’re dancing.”

— All 20 competitors on this weekend’s Strikeforce “Overeem vs. Werdum” have been cleared and licensed to fight this weekend in Texas. That includes Josh Barnett.

It’s no secret Strikeforce is running out of title contenders for Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez. Nick Diaz realizes this and plans to try his hand at professional boxing later this year while Gilbert Melendez is calling for a title unification bout with the UFC lightweight champ. Strikeforce’s fearless leader Scott Coker however says hold up, we still have guys to fight Nick and Gilbert.

On Sherdog radio earlier this week, Coker sounded less than thrilled about Nick’s boxing plans, mainly because he wants Nick to fight Tyron Woodley later this year as well.

“That’s something where we’re going to have a conversation with Cesar and Nick,” Coker said Monday during a “Savage Dog Show” interview. “I know Nick’s always wanted to box. … We’ll see what happens in the future, but we’re expecting Nick to fight back in the cage before the end of the year. He’s going to be busy. We’re going to keep him on a busy schedule.”

“Tyron Woodley has been bugging me all weekend,” Coker said. “Nick doesn’t feel like he has anybody left to fight, but ‘T-Wood’ is a guy that’s getting better and better. I think Nick fighting ‘T-Wood’ is probably his best wrestling test to date. I don’t think Nick’s fought a wrestler that has better skills in wrestling than Tyron. That’s a fight we’re definitely looking at.”

I imagine that will be a rocky negotiation. Nick and his manager Cesar Gracie have shown virtually no interest in fighting Woodley anytime soon, and it’s hard to blame them. Plain and simple, it’s a very risky fight for Nick to take. Woodley has hardly any name value and his strength happens to be Nick’s weakness. If Nick’s going to fight a wrestler it really only makes sense for him to fight someone in the UFC like Georges St. Pierre or Josh Koscheck where Nick actually has something to gain out of the fight.

Meanwhile, rumors have been floating about Jim Miller moving over to Strikeforce to challenge Melendez for his title, but according to Coker, there’s no truth to them. Instead, Coker envisions guys like KJ Noons, Justin Wilcox and Jorge Masvidal stepping up to fight Melendez.

“We have some guys that are up-and-coming, we do some elimination fights. I think guys names like K.J. Noons; or maybe after a couple more fights a guy like Justin Wilcox, who is an amazing wrestler, could give Gilbert a hard time; or even Jorge Masvidal. There’s three guys that I think after a couple more fights could get there.”

“Yeah absolutely,” he answered when asked if the next 155-pound contender will come from Strikeforce’s current roster. “We have a great roster, we have a great television contract, we have our own contracts to fulfill with the athletes, and we’re going to go do that.”

Again, those are risky fights for Melendez as neither Noons, Wilcox or Masvidal are considered top ten opponents at the present time. Unlike Nick though, Melendez doesn’t have a viable alternative to earn a big paycheck while the UFC-Strikeforce transition plays out, so if he wants to get paid, those are the type of opponents he’ll be forced to face in the foreseeable future.

Image via Esther Lin for Strikeforce/Showtime