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Let me ask you a question. Following the Scott Smith vs. Benji Radach barnburner, did the thought ever cross your mind that Smith wrongfully won the fight?

“After Cyborg missed her weight at the second weigh-in, I rejected the fight. Then, while my manager and Josh (Barnett) were talking to athletic commission and promoter, I went back to my room with Shannon (Hooper) and Megumi Fuji, and waited. After while, the promoter asked me to reconsider, was called to come down to the lobby, then we began talking again….At that point, I have expressed my thought to the promoter, which was, in a sport called Mixed Martial Arts, if you allow a fighter to break rules, then from that point on, it will become something other than sport…Even popular fighter like Gina Carano missed the weight in the past, and her opponent had to fight under the weight disadvantage. If this kind of things gets accepted in women’s MMA then this no longer is a sport, it becomes a sport where competitor can ignore the rules. So as a competitor of this sport, I felt, this needs to be stopped, therefore, I rejected to fight her and asked promoter to put an effort on preventing this type of incident. And I kept saying that I would fight as long as Cyborg can bring her weight down to the agreed weight, but this was rejected. In any world, it’s wrong that a competitor who broke the rules gets protected.”

–Hitomi Akano, via MMA Weekly, talking about what went down behind the scenes during the Cyborg weigh-in fiasco, and voicing her concerns about what women’s MMA will become if the rules aren’t enforced.

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ESPN MMA Live Archive

If you missed it, you definitely missed out.

In case you forgot, the UFC countered this past weekend’s Strikeforce event with a replay of UFC 94 “St. Pierre vs Penn 2.”

The CSAC has released the fighter payouts for Strikeforce “Shamrock vs Diaz.” Keep in mind, these figures represent the base contracted pay the fighter receives from the promotion. These figures do not include any additional bonuses or sponsorship money, which in many cases exceeds a fighter’s base pay. These numbers also do not account for taxes, insurance, and license fees.

–In the video above, Tito tells Ariel Helwani he plans on returning to cage hopefully in August. No idea where he’s going yet, but Strikeforce seems like a strong possibility now. Word is him and Babalu were talking a little trash cageside, so that seems like logical fight to start with. Tito was disappointed Frank lost, and said, “I felt like I was watching money disappear.”

–Alistair Overeem’s return to Strikeforce could be against Fabricio Werdum. Werdum isn’t signed yet, so obviously nothing is official, but at this point, he definitely seems like the best option to challenge Overeem for the heavyweight title. After watching Brett Rogers fight last night, it was apparent, to me at least, that he’s not ready for Overeem. Nevertheless, he did lobby for the fight. “Before everybody walks away, I mean I wouldn’t mind fighting Overeem,” Rogers said. “That would be nice right there.”

–Strikeforce did a live gate of approximately $750k with 15,211 in attendance. Solid numbers given the current economic climate. Coker commented, “We tried to be considerate and make it affordable for everybody. … Would we like to scale (up) the prices and bring in more revenue? There will be a time for that. We’ll keep building it.”

–Frank Shamrock says, “Nick Diaz kicked my ass tonight.” Diaz credits the ass kicking to his dedication in the gym, still says other MMA fighters don’t put in the work he does.

–Carano vs Cyborg in August for women’s title? Gina deal is apparently close to being completed.

–Kevin Randleman has signed with Strikeforce. He had a great quote, “I love my job, it’s the best job in the world…I live in the best country in the world: America…and I live in the best world in the universe: Earth.”

Strikeforce “Shamrock vs Diaz” took place earlier this evening at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. The event was broadcast on Showtime.

In the night’s main event, Frank Shamrock returned to the cage for the first time since he fought Cung Le to face Stockton’s Nick Diaz.

Gilbert Melendez and Rodrigo Damm faced off in a lightweight battle for the Interim Strikeforce Lightweight Championship.

Scott Smith and Benji Radach battled it out in an exciting middleweight bout.

Cyborg Santos faced off against Hitomi Akano in a women’s bout.

Brett Rogers returned to action against Ron Humphrey.

Results and thoughts after the jump.

We’re only hours away from Strikeforce “Shamrock vs Diaz”. The event airs live from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California at 10PM ET on Showtime. If you’re looking to put down some cash on the fight, BetUS has the latest odds below.

Videos courtesy of AllElbows.com.

Main card video after the jump.