"As far as Dana White goes, the only freak show I got is the one between my legs. I'll let him see it and slap him with it if he wants. My thing is, Dana White doing all of that talkin', after I knock his boy out, he can get in the cage. He do all that talkin' like he's a fighter, you know what I'm sayin'? Alls he gotta do is take his nice slippers off and come up in the cage and I will whoop his ass too. All of that shit will be over.

I was impressed with Chris Leben and I was impressed with Stephan Bonnar. They come to fight. That's what the fans want. That's what we need in boxing. We don't need no mismatches, like Chavez and Duddy. Those two guys were garbage; extra garbage. The only reason they give him the props that he got is because of his daddy. His daddy wasn't shit anyway. His daddy lost to Pernell Whitaker and then after that, he fought taxi cab drivers. And they had the nerve to put it on pay-per-view? Oh my goodness. That's why, even though Dana White is a toes-eatin' motherfucker, he puts on good shows every month, you know what I'm saying? In boxing, it's all about the main event, but at MMA events, the people are in their seats at the prelims, dog. When is the last time you seen that from us?

hopefully, I can fight ol' stiff-ass, coward-ass Brock Lesnar. That motherfucker ain't shit. Then, did he have the nerve to say he's still a bad motherfucker after the fight? That motherfucker had a pink skirt on that night. You don't turn your back and run from punches. They ain't never seen me, but come August 28th, I'm going to be ready; all guns blazing. They have no idea."

Strikeforce is moving forward with plans to launch an eight-man, two-night middleweight tournament at a Showtime-televised event in October, said CEO Scott Coker on Wednesday.

Coker said recent reports that the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation had rejected Strikeforce’s request to hold a four-man tournament on Aug. 21 -- thus forcing the promotion to move to a single championship bout -- weren’t correct.

As reported by Sherdog.com throughout June, Coker said the promotion always had its eye on hosting both a championship bout and a tournament from the start.

“We always felt that crowning a champion would be the first priority,” said Coker. “We will host a tournament in October. It looks like the first round will take place then, which will lead to the final four in December.”

Coker said the promotion has initial plans to run the semi-finals and finals in one evening this December.

California is a possibility for one or both events, said Coker; the California State Athletic Commission regulated a four-man, one-night tournament with Strikeforce in 2007.

In Texas, Coker said he only inquired about the tournament format with the commission, but was told it wouldn’t be allowed.

“They told me the reason they had stopped (allowing) tournaments was because of the Toughman contests,” said Coker.

Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Tim Kennedy with vie for the middleweight title recently vacated by UFC-bound fighter Jake Shields at Strikeforce “Explosion” on Aug. 21 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

Former EliteXC champion Robbie Lawler, Melvin Manhoef, Kazuo Misaki, Luke Rockhold, Jason “Mayhem” Miller and Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz are among those being considered for the eight-man tournament.

Silva, Kharitonov, Overeem Shortlisted for Fedor

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker will begin discussions with co-promotional partner M-1 Global as early as this weekend for the third and final event on their existing contract. It will be the first time the companies talk shop since Fedor Emelianenko’s stunning 69-second submission defeat at the hands of Fabricio Werdum on June 26 in San Jose, Calif.

At the top of the list will be determining Emelianenko’s next opponent and where the event will take place, as well as negotiations to re-up a deal to produce additional events together into 2011.

Regarding Emelianenko, Coker said he’s well aware that M-1 Global has its sights set on its client Emelianenko getting an immediate rematch with Werdum, who snapped the 33-year-old Russian’s unmatched 28-fight win streak amassed over nearly a decade.

Werdum has openly stated he’d grant Emelianenko the rematch and would like to see the fight promoted in Russia, where the Brazilian believes not a seat would be left empty.

Richard Wilner, Werdum’s manager, said recent reports that the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt will be sidelined for the rest of 2010 to undergo elbow surgery are incorrect. In an e-mail to Sherdog.com on Friday, Wilner wrote that Werdum will meet with a physician next week to evaluate his elbow and that if he required surgery, it “would certainly be minor.”

“He's back in the gym helping his teammates train for their upcoming fights. He is at the same time still celebrating his victory, enjoying his family, making appearances, teaching, etc.,” wrote Wilner. “Fighting within the year is a possibility if the right opportunity presents itself.”

Strikeforce’s Coker said in the days following the June 26 event that he might be inclined to match Emelianenko against heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem, who has campaigned heavily for the fight for the last year. That field has evidently expanded.

“It doesn’t have to be Overeem,” said Coker this week. “It could be (Antonio) ‘Big Foot’ Silva or maybe (Sergei) Kharitonov.”

The 6-foot-4, 265-pound Silva outboxed former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski to a unanimous decision victory at Strikeforce “Heavy Artillery” on May 15 in St. Louis. Kharitonov, the promotion’s most recent heavyweight acquisition, was an active fixture of Japan’s Pride Fighting Championships and dropped a first-round submission loss to Jeff Monson at Dream 8 in April 2009.

Of all the possibilities, Coker was certain who Emelianenko wouldn’t meet next, though.

“It’s not Fabricio Werdum,” he said. “He already beat (Fedor). To me, it’s only been a month (since the first fight). We saw the Werdum fight already. I think when they eventually hook up and fight again, it will be an amazing fight and event.”

Coker knocked rumors that a proposed Overeem-Emelianenko match served to lock the Russian into a “champion’s clause,” a component of standard contracts that makes it difficult for a fighter to exit a promotion once he wins a title.

“That’s not it at all,” said Coker. “Depending on if there’s any future fights, if he fights Overeem, it might not be a title fight. It doesn’t have to be (for the title). If Fedor is on his last fight with us, we wouldn’t make it a title fight with Alistair. But why shouldn’t that fight happen regardless?”

When asked what might transpire if M-1 Global is adamant that their client only face Werdum next, Coker had a stern reply.

“I just don’t think they’ll have a choice,” he said.

If the two promotions can’t come to terms on a contract extension or new agreement, Coker said Strikeforce has “first rights to negotiate” should M-1 Global and Emelianenko seek out another offer.

Strikeforce Needs to Answer, 'What's Next?'

7/18/2010 10:34 AM ET By Michael David Smith

On July 3, Brock Lesnar beat Shane Carwin in the UFC's biggest heavyweight fight of the year. Cain Velasquez was sitting cageside and had already been declared next in line, and the UFC soon said Lesnar would fight Velasquez in October at UFC 121. Fans are already getting excited about that fight, and the UFC's heavyweight division hasn't lost any of the momentum the Lesnar-Carwin fight built.

A week before Lesnar beat Carwin, Fabricio Werdum beat Fedor Emelianenko in Strikeforce's biggest heavyweight fight of the year. Alistair Overeem was sitting cageside and was expected to be next in line, but the three weeks since that fight have provided nothing but confusion about what's next for those three heavyweights.

Strikeforce puts on plenty of good fights, but its biggest problem as a promotion is an inability to do what the UFC did when it announced Velasquez vs. Lesnar: Strikeforce never has a good answer when fans want to know, "What's next?"

So what is next? Fedor's promoters, M-1 Global, say Fedor vs. Werdum 2 is next. But Strikeforce says no, that's not going to happen. Werdum says he needs elbow surgery, but then again his manager says the surgery will be minor and it's possible that Werdum could return to the cage this year. Overeem was focused completely on fighting Fedor next and now has no idea what he'll do, and one source who knows Overeem told MMAFighting.com that Overeem may turn his attention back to kickboxing for the rest of the year and try to win the K-1 World Grand Prix Final.

Of course, if Overeem turns his attention to kickboxing, that would be a problem with Strikeforce because he's their heavyweight champion, and he needs to defend his belt, right? Wrong. Actually, Strikeforce is fine with its heavyweight champion not defending his belt. Overeem won the title in 2007 and then didn't fight for the promotion again until this year, and now Strikeforce is saying that if Overeem fights Fedor next, they'd make it a non-title fight. Apparently one heavyweight title fight every three years is enough.

Then again, whether Overeem vs. Fedor would be for the title or not is probably immaterial because all indications are that M-1 Global will never sign on to having Fedor fight Overeem. Strikeforce seems to know that, because they're already talking about other potential opponents for Fedor if the Overeem fight doesn't materialize. One of those is Sergei Kharitonov, who has some impressive victories in his MMA career (in fact, he beat both Overem and Werdum) but who hasn't won a fight in two years and who has zero name value in the United States. The other is Antonio Silva, who's coming off a solid victory over Andrei Arlovski but who lost to Werdum on CBS in his previous fight.

Meanwhile, the heavyweight who would probably give Strikeforce the best chance of drawing decent ratings when and if it returns to CBS is a 48-year-old former football player, Herschel Walker. Walker got Strikeforce a good deal of mainstream media attention when he fought for the promotion six months ago, and Strikeforce says it wants Walker back, but there's still no word on the date, location or opponent for his next fight.

Oh, and the fight that Strikeforce is really talking up as its next big heavyweight battle, one that the promotion says it would sell on pay-per-view, is a bout between a couple of professional wrestlers, Bobby Lashley and Dave Batista, a fight that might not even get approved by any state athletic commission because Batista is a 41-year-old with no combat sports experience. Strikeforce has already had a commission turn down a Lashley fight once this year when Florida nixed the promotion's plans to put Lashley in the cage with a 2-1 MMA fighter and former pro boxer named Yohan Banks. If Florida thinks Banks is a non-competitive opponent for Lashley, which state will think Batista vs. Lashley is a fair fight? Answering the "what's next" question regarding Lashley has been particularly challenging for Strikeforce because Lashley wants to fight either guys he knows he can beat (like Banks or the opponent they eventually got to fill in for him, Wes Sims) or guys he has no business in the cage with (Fedor and Overeem).

The "what's next" problem extends beyond Strikeforce's heavyweight division. At light heavyweight, Babalu Sobral beat Robbie Lawler last month in a fight that was supposed to make Babalu the No. 1 contender to face champion King Mo Lawal. Except that Strikeforce didn't bother to check with Babalu, and he said he didn't want to face King Mo.

At middleweight, Strikeforce lost its champion, Jake Shields, and then told fans to expect a tournament featuring Strikeforce's best 185-pound fighters to determine the next champion. Instead, it was announced that Tim Kennedy vs. Jacare Souza will determine the middleweight champion. That middleweight tournament, we're assured, is coming. Why would anyone doubt that?

At welterweight, it's a good thing champion Nick Diaz is getting a Tennessee State Athletic Commission-mandated timeout, because Strikeforce has no plans for him -- except maybe to put his welterweight belt on hold while he moves up to fight in that middleweight tournament we're all so excited about.

At lightweight, there's actually a great fight right there for the taking, as Bellator Fighting Championships is offering up its champion, Eddie Alvarez, to face Strikeforce lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez. It was nice of Bellator to do half of Strikeforce's matchmaking for them, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Strikeforce to do the other half and actually book the fight.

What's next for Strikeforce's best female fighter, Cris Cyborg, after she whipped the overmatched Jan Finney? Who knows? Strikeforce says it will be Erin Toughill, but then again Strikeforce said that after Cyborg beat Marloes Coenen in January, and instead we got Cyborg-Finney. (We also never got the 145-pound women's tournament we were promised.) Toughill hasn't fought in more than a year, so she's expected to get a tune-up fight against the always-formidable TBA prior to fighting Cyborg. That means Cyborg will be on the shelf for a while, and if Toughill loses that tune-up fight, all bets are off.

And finally, there's Strikeforce's biggest 2010 acquisition, Dan Henderson. Instead of booking the fight most fans wanted at the time, Henderson vs. Gegard Mousasi, Strikeforce booked Henderson vs. Shields, thinking that was a fight more likely to get Henderson a Strikeforce belt. It didn't work out that way, and three months after Shields beat Henderson, there's no word on when we'll see Henderson in the cage again. Apparently Strikeforce thinks a soon-to-be 40-year-old legend of the sport needs to be brought along slowly.

Through it all, Strikeforce consistently puts on good fight cards. They've done eight shows so far this year and have three more scheduled in the next five weeks, and the fights themselves are almost always entertaining. When the cage door closes, the fighters do their jobs. The promoters need to get better at theirs.