Strikeforce Preview - Carano v. Cyborg

This weekend's Strikeforce - Carano v. Cyborg show will take place at the HP Pavillion in San Jose, California. The action will be shown live on Showtime. The event will feature three title fights, with the welterweight belt postponed after a missed drug test by Nick Diaz.

(Gina Carano throwing a kick in practice)

The card is littered with stars such as Dream superstar Gegard Mousasi, Affliction/IFL/UFC vet Jay Hieron and UFC vets Jesse Taylor, Babalu Sobral and Fabricio Werdum. The Carano v. Cyborg fight is one of the biggest women's MMA bouts of all-time.

Gina Carano vs. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos- This fight is for the first ever Strikeforce Women's 145 pound title. Expect each fighter to keep the fight standing and work powerful combinations. Santos (7-1) will likely look for big shots, while Carano (8-0) looks to work combinations.

(Cris Cyborg pictured)

Champ Renato Sobral vs. Gegard Mousasi- LHW Title Fight- Babalu (35-8), the current Strikeforce LHW Champ has looked sharp since his departure from the UFC winning 5 straight including wins over Mike Whitehead, Bobby Southworth and Sokoudjou. The submission ace will look to get the fight to the ground.

(Babalu pictured)

Gegard Mousasi (25-2) has been on fire as of late, winning the Dream Middleweight Grad Prix and Title. He also has won a K-1 rules match against Musashi. His latest string of 12 victories has included wins over Mark Hunt in the Dream Super Hulk tournament; Jacare, Melvin Manhoef, Denis Kang and Dong Sik Yoon in Dream's MW Tournament; Hector Lombard in Pride and Cyborg Santos in HCF. I expect Mousasi to keep the fight standing and look for a KO.

(Gegard Mousasi pictured)

Champ Gilbert Melendez vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida- LW Title Fight
Jay Hieron vs. Jesse Taylor

UNDERCARD

Mike Kyle vs. Fabricio Werdum
Mike Cook vs. Scott Lighty
David "Tarzan" Douglas vs. Justin Wilcox
Zak Bucia vs. James Terry
Isaiah Hill vs. Alex Trevino

Dream Results - Rd 1

The first round of the lightweight Grand Prix went down on Saturday night, and there are now even more questions surrounding the event. The potential blockbuster fight between Shinya Aoki and JZ Calvancante faded into an oblivion after JZ threw at least one illegal elbow. The elbow struck Aoki in the neck. After the event, he explained that he would have returned and fought but he was unable to move his right arm.

I have seen most of the fights on Daily Motion and Ultimate MMA Videos. Eddie Alvarez looks to be the dark horse of the tournament. Here are the results.

Non-Tournament Bouts:

Hayato "Mach" Sakurai def. Hidetaka Monma via TKO (strikes) - R1 4:12
Ikuhisa Minowa def. Bum Chan Kang via sub (kneebar) - R1 1:25
Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic def. Tatsuya Mizuno via TKO (strikes) - R1 0:56

Tournament Bouts:

JZ Calvancante v. Shinya Aoki no contest (illegal elbow) - R1 3:46
Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Kultar Gill via unanimous decision
Eddie Alvarez def. Andre Amade via TKO - R1 6:47
Mitsuhiro Ishida def. Bu Kyung Jung via unanimous decision
Katsuhiko Nagata def. Artur Oumakhanov via unanimous decision
Luiz Firmino def. Kazuyuki Miyata via sub (rear-naked choke) - R1 7:37
Joachim Hansen def. Kotetsu Boku via unanimous decision

*There are 6 fighters who have advanced, if it is a 16 man tourney you would need 8 for the second round. It will be interesting to see what they do with Aoki and Calvancante, technically, they could pass both to the next round.