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Preview of Strikeforce in St. Louis: Is Alistair Overeem getting the Barry Bonds treatment?
By Zach Arnold | May 12, 2010
Here’s how the card line-up for Saturday’s event looks:
- SF Heavyweight Title match: Alistair Overeem vs. Brett Rogers
- Heavyweights: Andrei Arlovski vs. Antonio “Big Foot” Silva
- Middleweights: Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza vs. Joey Villasenor
- Light Heavyweights: Roger Gracie vs. Kevin Randleman
- Light Heavyweights: Antwain Britt vs. Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante
- Lightweights: Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro vs. Lyle “Fancy Pants” Beerbohm
Something interesting about the show is that listed on the promotional flyers for the show, the event has “Shamrock Promotions” as a partner on the card.
Josh Gross, on his Sports Illustrated radio show this week, made some interesting comments about the Alistair Overeem vs. Brett Rogers fight.
“I hoped to have Alistair on today but he declined. Well, he didn’t decline, he didn’t want to talk about steroids, so I declined I guess. I don’t really agree to stipulations and that’s the story of this fight, I mean you’re talking about a guy who has had tons of speculation, he’s ballooned up in size, has not fought in the US in many years. Will he pass a steroid test? I mean we’ll figure it out, I’m not sure how stringent Missouri is going to be. But it’s an interesting storyline heading into a fight against Brett Rogers, who’s dangerous, we saw that against Fedor last November. I don’t think there’s any doubt that Rogers can hang in there with the fighter the caliber of Overeem, he can land a punch and put Overeem down, we’ve seen Overeem knocked out in K-1, but I just think Overeem is at a different level, is at a different level than Rogers both standing and on the floor, he’s been doing it much longer than Brett Rogers. I’m curious, I’m really curious to see if Rogers can make an extended fight out of it, I don’t think so. I doubt this guy gets out of the first round to be honest, but I expect it to be fireworks while they’re in there. If I’m going to pick one way, I think that Overeem sort of toys with him, kicks the legs, goes to the body, hurts Rogers to the body maybe, goes to the head, I think he can definitely kickbox anyway which way he wants with him and if it goes to the ground, unless Rogers is inside Overeem’s guard and even then there’s dangers of being submitted with the guillotine and a kimura. I just don’t see it.”
It should be well-noted that Jonathan Snowden published a report yesterday questioning whether or not Overeem would get tested in the state of Missouri. The head of the Missouri state commission is Tim Lueckenhoff. Tim is also a head honcho for the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC), which happens to be an entity that UFC regulatory czar Marc Ratner is interested in seeing play an active role in recruiting MMA judges and referees.
I made the comparison between Overeem and Barry Bonds because I find it fascinating that Overeem, in a sport with a lot of drug cheaters (ranging from growth hormone to steroids to EPO), has sort of become the “poster boy” of steroids questions from the MMA media unlike many other fighters in the business. We already know about Antonio Silva’s history of failing a drug test.
Yes, Overeem does find himself as a face of Strikeforce given that he’s their Heavyweight champion, but the amount of heat he’s been drawing reminds me a lot of the Bonds situation because both men were largely viewed as heels and “bad guys” in general.
Here are some quotes from a recent interview I did with Bas Boon, who takes care of business affairs for Alistair Overeem.
ZACH ARNOLD: How does Alistair feel that his K-1 stand-up skills will transition into the cage against a boxer like Brett Rogers?
BAS BOON: Alistair has improved a lot, but he does not underestimate anyone including Brett Rogers. Alistair has faced (Peter) Aerts, Badr (Hari), Remy (Bonjasky), and the top competition in kickboxing so he has very much improved his stand-up skills.
ZACH ARNOLD: How strong does Alistair feel that his chin is able to withstand a heavy punch, the kind that someone like Rogers can deliver and delivered in his fight against Fedor?
BAS BOON: I do not think it was really a heavy punch that Rogers delivered against Fedor but a well-time one. Alistair can handle punches well. Training at the famous Golden Glory gym in Breda, sparring with fighters like (Gokhan) Saki, Errol (Zimmerman), (Sergey) Kharitonov, (Stefan) Leko, Chalid (die Faust)… he is ready for everything.
ZACH ARNOLD: Does Alistair have any plans to fight on the DREAM 5/29 Saitama Super Arena event if he is successful in his Missouri fight?
BAS BOON: Maybe, but not in a main event (fight). Alistair wants to be prepared for a main event and not fly half-way around the world. Maybe Semmy Schilt will participate.
Now, onto previewing the rest of the card…
We’re going to quote what Josh Gross had to say about each fight.
Heavyweights: Andrei Arlovski vs. Bigfoot Silva
“Andrei Arlovski against Antonio Silva, another big heavyweight bout. Arlovski, we know what he does, speed, he’s got the power, the boxing, the movement. Antonio Silva just a giant and it’s a pretty lazy way to describe him but that’s what he is. I’ve never seen somebody with feet and hands like his. His feet, he’s actually like his toes are almost off the ground, he’s got like extra padding on the bottom of his feet and it’s very strange, some thing of evolution almost, I’m not sure what that is and then his hands as you would imagine, I mean, I don’t have tiny hands, I think I have average hands, it just engulfs basically up to my forearm. When you shake Antonio Silva’s hand, that’s what you’re dealing with, so you don’t want to get hit by that. I think Silva has an edge in grappling. He’s been taking people down, working ground ‘n pound, that’s where he’s at his best, I think that’s where he’s at his most dangerous and if you want to beat Arlovski that would be the smartest way to approach it. Arlovski needs to keep his distance, use his footwork, use his speed and connect on Silva’s chin which is a huge target so that’s a possibility as well. I don’t know. I think for Arlovski, who is now gone to different camps and changing up the way he trains and I think he’s just searching for answers, I don’t know if he’s going to find one against Silva who like I said if he fights smart, if he fights with grappling first in mind I think he can win, I think he will win. So, it may be a bit of an upset here, I don’t know what the line is. I like Antonio Silva to beat Andrei Arlovski.”
Light Heavyweights: Roger Gracie vs. Kevin Randleman
“Roger Gracie, we mentioned earlier in terms of the ADCC champions, I’m really excited to see his return to Mixed Martial Arts. This guy is, when you talk about, you hear all the time listening to broadcasters ‘world class jiu-jitsu.’ Well, they don’t get any more world class than Roger Gracie, I mean he is unbelievable in terms of being able to find submissions, being able to control people on the mat, use jiu-jitsu the way it’s supposed to be used. He’s brilliant. He will submit Kevin Randleman. I think you know he has quite a few advantages in that department. We’ve seen Randleman susceptible to you know to getting caught, I don’t think there’s any surprise there. Randleman almost didn’t make this fight because of a health concern, but he’s in there in St. Louis and I expect Gracie to have his way with him.”
Middleweights: Jacare Souza vs. Joey Villasenor
“An interesting fight, grappler maybe along the lines of Roger Gracie, Jacare, fighting Joey Villasenor. We haven’t seen Joey in a while. Clearly a tough guy, good striker, he is not the kind of fighter who will feel out of place anywhere in the fight, he can grapple, he can strike, he can do submission. Very tough, very hard-nosed, very strong-minded. I like this fight a lot. It’s a Middleweight bout. I think Jacare, though, does have advantages if he puts Joey on the ground which I think he can, he can find a submission. Jacare is very good. You know what? I would have loved to have seen Jacare fight Jake Shields. I think that’s a much more interesting style of fight than you know we’ve seen Shields before as he’s defending his Middleweight title in Strikeforce and I think that’s a fight that could have been made if Shields probably is not headed off to the UFC, but you know I think this fight will in a lot of ways determine how the direction of the Strikeforce Middleweight division plays out, especially if Shields leaves. I think that, you know, something to pay attention to here.”
Light Heavyweights: Antwain Britt vs. Feijao
“Antwain Britt fighting Feijao Cavalcante. You know, Feijao was the guy that people were tabbing as the next, well, Shogun or the next Machida, he’s managed by Ed Soares in Black House and trains with those guys but I don’t think so, I don’t think so, I’ve seen him fight several times now. He strikes me as talented but maybe a bit lazy and I don’t see him in the same light as those other fighters. I actually like Antwain Britt to win here. I think if Feijao stands up with him, which he probably will, you don’t want to take a shot from Britt. He knocks people out and he hurts people. I think maybe this is another upset, again I don’t look at the lines. I would say Britt’s got a pretty good chance to win, I’m going to pick him to win. Hopefully this fight makes the Showtime televised portion. I’m not sure if it will.”
Lightweights: Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro vs. Lyle “Fancy Pants” Beerbohm
“Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro versus Lyle Beerbohm. Really interesting fight at Lightweight. Shaolin is someone that Strikeforce had signed many months ago, he was one of the many fighters also that had been complaining about getting a bout in Strikeforce and how long it had been talking. Beerbohm had his own issues last week, very public about his displeasure with Strikeforce wanting a lawyer, wanting to get out of his deal, very dramatic stuff. I’m not sure where it all came from. Beerbohm, if you’ve never heard his story or seen his story or read it anywhere, I’ll tell you a little bit about it but go search it on the Internet for him because I think there’s a documentary coming out about him. He’s had an amazing life, very, very unconventional in a lot of ways. Drugs, meth, jail, prison, all sorts of stuff that you probably wouldn’t want to confront as you’re moving forward in your life. It seems like he’s turned the page and very hard-nosed, undefeated, so I think this is a guy with a lot to fight for, very good aggressive grappler, good wrestler, I think he’ll probably want to take it to the ground but you know you do that against Shaolin, you run into some dangers there. Shaolin, a very good submission fighter out of Brazil.”
Josh’s overall thoughts on Saturday’s fight card:
“Clearly, to me this is the most fun Strikeforce card we’ve seen in a while. I was looking forward quite a bit to the card on CBS last month, but in terms of match-ups I think this one is much more interesting and portends much more exciting fights than the three that we saw on CBS.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 39 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Good old Bas Boon, always the promoter. Anytime I talk to him, even if just casual, he slips in something about one of his guys. This time its like, “Well, maybe Sem Schilt will fight!” You clearly don’t care about Sem Schilt, but boom, there it is.
I’ve had some exchanges with Alistair, he is just sick of steroid questions. He feels insulted and barraged by the US press because that is all they will talk about with him. I mean, if he fails a drug test that is a different story, but he has accomplished a lot in the past few years and all people care about is his size.
Frank Mir put on how much weight since the Lesnar fight? Some people are just more natural athletes.
The continuing demonization of Overeem while people blindly bury their head in the sand regarding Mir is mind numbing.
Somehow it’s unbelievable that a guy who cut 30lbs to make 205 could switch to heavyweight and therefore doesn’t have to worry about cutting, not lifting weights to keep muscle mass down and can actively try to pack on muscle can weight 255lbs. But a guy that’s always been a beefy 245lb fighter can somehow markedly decrease his body fat mass and drastically increase his muscle mass AT THE SAME TIME over a far shorter time frame, “just changed his diet and started working with really good powerlifting coaches”.
Most likely case is that they have both supplemented their training at some point. But to actively get out your torches for one guy, while being positively ignorant and naive with respect to the other is insane.
Mir is tested basically everytime out. They don’t test in Japan.
While a valid point, absolutely nobody is asking about Mir. The truth is, Mir could be taking something that a simple pee test can’t turn up.
So what? Yes, some testing is better than no testing at all – that much is for sure.
But the idea that passing what basically amounts to an IQ test is bulletproof evidence of not using steroids is laughable at best. Athletes themselves, as well as every other informed experts or individuals admit that current testing is a complete joke that can be gamed by anyone.
What Mir has done – dropping probably 10-15lbs of fat mass (which would take him from 250ish down to 235-245 range) and then adding 20-25lbs of muscle mass, pretty much simultaneously – is next to impossible from a physiological perspective…especially given the timeframes.
It’s all about perception. If you pass a drug test (no matter what kind) and don’t have your name linked to a doctor who deals steroids….. Then those talks will never surface.
If you don’t drug test…. And look the part…. It’s open game.
I’m not justifying it… But that’s how it’s been in basically every sport.
I wouldn’t say that nobody is asking about Mir:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Mir-answers-steroids-rumors?urn=mma,210748
I actually did a little thread on sherdog back right after Mir’s fight with Kongo on the same situation. THe thing is the Mir has passed to straight tests. They are obviously not blood tests, but he has still passed him. He could definately still be taking HGH or something you can’t find in urine screenings. That is a factor that will be in discussion until Blood testing is adopted of the technology for more expansive urine testing is reached.
Mir weighed in against Brock at 245, (he hasn’t been 235 since his fight with Traven at 18 or 19 years old). He was very lean, and I believe that spoke to his added stand up and cardio work. When he fought Kongo he was a lot bigger, but he lost some of that shape. Mir was always a bigger guy, and when he was still out of shape against Christison he weighed 262. His bigger neck now is the only thing that i believe raises some questions where PEDs are concerned.
Overeem only weighed in ranging from 225 to 233 for fights with Werdum, Kharitonov, and Buentello. He is now pushing 265 while looking even more cut. His chin has looked to have grown, his neck is bigger, and there is some “Bacne” present in his dream fights. These things along with the fact that he hasn’t fought under testing guidelines I believe gives a lot more speculation to where Overeem is concerned with PEDs.
Mir put on 19 lbs between the lesnar and the congo fight-245 vs congo, his lightest ever, to 264 vs brock, do the math. mir has always been a good sized hw. he weighed 253 when he 1rst won the title from tim sylvia at age 25 and was pretty buff. he’s always been a good sized hw and has never fought at and been a mid-tier lhw and has always fought qhere there is some from of testing.
the mir/overem comparison has never made any sense to me except overeem fans trying to make a bad example.
(a) I’m far from a fan of Overeem.
(b) Your problem is that you equate Mir being 15lbs heavier to Mir only gaining 15lbs of muscle. Not only has he bulked up muscularly, he has trimmed down noticably and looking very cut…which means he’s shed fat mass as well. So he’s probably closer to gainin 20-25lbs of muscle.
(c) You can’t lose that much fat and gain that much muscle in that small of time period. You’re undergoing two different physiological processes. One requiring caloric deficits and one requiring large caloric surplus.
Your still equating the trim/lean/cut Mir to the bulked up Mir against Kongo.
The fact is that Lesnar fight effected him something fierce, and he was a man on a mission to gain muscle after that. He probably cut back a lot on the cardio while puting on muscle.
He did not look that cut versus Kongo, or Carwin.
I can’t stand Frank Mir, and it pains me to defend him, but it’s far more believable that since he weighed 250 naturally at one point that he could weigh 264 naturally than Overeem could be your typical 200 pound fighter for nearly a decade and then suddenly look like Brock Lesnar out of nowhere.
As for losing weight while bulking up, that isn’t impossible by any means. Mir’s fat could have been from a bad diet (which obviously it was in his 2006 doughboy days) so people can cut down on carbs or heavy sugar and fat diets and replace it with heavy protein and tough work out routines to do it. It’s difficult but possible without steroids. I’m not saying I’m 100% he’s clean, but I’m not 100% he has used PEDs either.
Fancy Pants is an absolute fool if he takes Shaolin to the ground. Vitor is a world class guy on the mat and completely useless on his feet. Dude got outstruck by Shinya Aoki for Christ sakes.
Sprawl & brawl Lyle. Sprawl & brawl.
Vitor is great on the ground. I thought this was pretty understated and mild praise of him:
“I think he’ll probably want to take it to the ground but you know you do that against Shaolin, you run into some dangers there. Shaolin, a very good submission fighter out of Brazil”
Last year when I was working out at Pedro sauer’s gym Vitor had an exhibition/instructional around the area. Pedro had very high remarks ov Vitor and his Jiujitsu. This (IMO) points to how exceptional the man really is on the ground.
Talk about knowing what an audience wants – UFC is going to counterprogram the Strikeforce card this weekend with a pretty solid line-up of fights:
•Shane Carwin vs. Frank Mir -UFC 111
•Leonard Garcia vs. “The Korean Zombie”, Chan Sung Jung
•Mark Munoz vs. Kendall Grove – UFC 112
•Terry Etim vs. Rafael Dos Anjos – UFC 112
•Matt Serra vs Frank Trigg – UFC 109
•Nate Diaz vs Rory Markham – UFC 111
•Paulo Thiago vs Mike Swick – UFC 109
Basically a “hey maybe these fights have happened and/or you’ve already seen them, but…”.
Well played.
1) There is talk about Strikeforce potentially putting on kickboxing matches on their cards. Let me be the first to say: NO!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, this stuff doesn’t work with MMA/Boxing. It doesn’t work for MMA/Kickboxing. Each has their own fanbase. It’s distracting to watch a card that has multiple sets of rules.
2) Sarah Kaufmann, it is rumored, doesn’t have a contract with Strikeforce right now. They really are clueless. 2 of their 7 champions are without contract.
Yeah…Shockwave 2002 was one of the most boring and uninteresting cards of all time.
And what works in Japan totally works in North America….
I can’t recall any large scale MMA/kickboxing shows in the US. Care to enlighten me? So when you were saying that they don’t work, you were only talking about in America, not worldwide?
Other than the K-1/Heros/Romanex NYE shows which are always entertaining, they do them in Europe sometimes. I watched a recent one where Bas was the MC which was pretty entertaining. I think its where Allistair beat Tony Sylvester.
Kickboxing is a huge sport in Japan and is much more popular than MMA. In the USA, it is a total nonentity and much less popular than MMA. Doing mixed shows in America would be a total flop.
However, that is not what Strikeforce is talking about doing. They are talking about partnering with “It’s Showtime” to do mixed shows in Europe, where kickboxing is much more accepted than in the USA. That could work quite well, especially in countries where MMA is demonized but kickboxing is accepted.
Why are we not talking about Josh Gross equating HAND SIZE to PUNCHING POWER?
Did he or did he just say you didn’t want to get hit by Bigfoots king sized fist? Many people have talked about the size of Brock & Carwin’s hands.
“MANILA (AP) — Boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, who is awaiting formal proclamation as a newly elected congressman in the Philippines, will enter the ring again in November, his aide told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Michael Koncz, Pacquiao’s chief financial adviser, said that no opponent has been selected yet, amid speculation it could be Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Antonio Margarito.
He said that two dates — Nov. 6 and Nov. 13 — have been set aside for the fight at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The Cowboys are on the road on Nov. 7 and Nov. 14.
“There is no named opponent yet, but that is certainly when we will fight,” Koncz said.”
According to the Youngstown Vindicator Kelly Pavlik just declined his rematch with Sergio.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Bute-Pavlik now. Eventhough Bute is a stronger/bigger/better version of Martinez. Hopefully Pavlik can carry his power better than he did against Hopkins or his second Taylor fight.
Pavlik has been such a disappointment. The guy used to be a tough, stone cold killer but then he got famous and everyone was calling him the next big thing and it all just went to his head.
Now he’s avoiding guys, cancelling multiple fights and just plain looking like he’s not giving 100%. Too bad.
“Tim is also a head honcho for the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC), which happens to be an entity that UFC regulatory czar Marc Ratner is interested in seeing play an active role in recruiting MMA judges and referees. ”
I’m not sure that sentence makes any sense. But it sounds like your trying to infer that UFC will be responsible for overeem either not getting tested(?), or futzing his test?
I dont know, that kinda rubbery proof and argument sounds questionable to me.
BTW: Did you really say czar?
This card, to me, highlights Strikeforce’s matchmaking problems. Rogers-Silva should be the fight here. I don’t see the logic in feeding a potential star in Rogers a bad matchup in Overeem. Feed Overeem somebody else if you’re trying to build up a Fedor-Overeem fight. Hell, give him Fabricio Werdum and give Fedor somebody he can knock out. Nobody cares who’s technically the top contender, or even who’s the champ. It’s about putting on exciting fights that will draw in casual eyeballs, and cultivating unique stars who have an outsider’s aura.
Honestly, I never took overeem and his alleged steroids seriously.
Its just fun to make fun of him for it whether he did it or not.
I dont know, and was never really concerned with whether he did or didn’t.
Test him.
If you want to know.
If he passes, its still funny.
😉
And would have no up or down regarding his middling victories IMO.
My biggest concern with overeem is that he really isn’t that good!
That he’s been getting WAY too much credit for minor accomplishments, probably because he’s an ex pride dude.
Which is an outdated and annoying phenomena.
Oh gee, what do you know … Arnold gets access to Overeem’s manager, and he does a totally pro-Overeem fanboi article. Funny how quick Arnold is to accuse media members of being corrupted by access but whenever he gets access, he immediately drops to his knees and gives his subject a written blowjob.
Bas Boon is a great guy, you drop him a note and he’ll get back to you no matter how crazy of a question you drop on him.
What needs to be said at this point? Hell, I’ve flat out asked Boon if Overeem or any of his guys use PEDs in the past and he is more than happy to talk about it.
Bas Boon has been around for many years. He’s everywhere.
I’ve had access to him for over a decade, if not longer. Anyone worth their salt in the media that covered a Japanese event can contact him or any of his fighters for an interview. The same can be said when Motoko Uchida was managing BTT fighters and Miro Mijatovic had his stable of fighters as well. I never had a relationship with Koichi Kawasaki, but plenty in the Brazilian media did. So it’s not like you have to do any favors for anyone to get an interview. Sorry to burst your bubble.
I’ve never taken a stance on Alistair positive or negative. The only observation I’ve made is that because he’s viewed by so many people as a bad guy that he’s getting the Bonds treatment, which is an accurate analogy, and a completely ironic one given that on his Strikeforce card we have some fighters who had issues in the past with PEDs.
The irony on Overeem getting asked mostly questions about steroids is not lost on me when you consider that you have a fight next week with Tim Sylvia (busted for steroids) vs. Mariusz Pudzianowski (who failed a drug test for World’s Strongest Man in 2004). It’s funny that of all the guys in the business who are cheating, it’s Overeem who has become the big magnet and the big poster boy for it. He’s gotten that unfavorable attention because of his persona and character.
But obviously Zach, Overeem is the only one of he, Randleman and Bigfoot Silva who underwent a pronounced body change right in front of our eyes, and who has gone from being an above average fighter to a top of the division guy because of it. Randleman has obviously always been the caricature of a muscle-bound steroid guy, but it has been a long time since he was a relevant fighter, and Silva has his gigantism issues that obscures things a bit. And again, neither Randleman or Silva went through a sudden body transformation that changed them from mid-level contender to championship-level guy.
Take note that I don’t question the validity of the steroid questions. What I question is why they are so voluminous towards one athlete (Overeem) when you have other fighters on the card who have been busted before and you have other MMA promotions with cards featuring cheats as well.
That’s why I made the comparison between Overeem and Bonds. They got all the heat from the writers and the hardcores because they were on top and they were heels. If they were faces, the first question out of a lot of people’s mouths wouldn’t be about steroids. It’s just a commentary on how the media picks favorites and picks on which certain athletes get the heat while others with dirtier reputations go largely unnoticed.
I suspect that the fun of overeem abuse is related more to his refusal to defend that belt than the unproven steroids issue.
As you pointed out, fighters who have been caught and admitted it have been forgiven by fans.
If Overeem is the subject of steroid allegations, then why isn’t Frank Mir being questioned? He too put on 20lbs of muscle in a short period of time. Not to be naive, but MMA writers forget that Overeem is a professional athlete, he trains for a living.
Mir HAS been questioned in forums plenty.
And not for a good reason IMO since Mir has always been just a huge dude.
He was huge before he got wrecked up, then he got fat, and then he got huge again.
He may have gotten huge somewhat quickly, which might indicate a little more than old fashioned hard work, but his body hasn’t been altered from the one he always had.
I’d even go so far as to call the Mir allegations an offshot or related to overeems public relations debacle.
From Sherdog’s article on this situation (http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Drug-Testing-Becomes-Focus-in-Overeem-Rogers-Bout-24445):
“Tim Lueckenoff, commissioner for the Missouri Office of Athletics, said the regulatory body will test for “all illegal and unprescribed drugs.”
Yeesh, this guy is starting to sound like Jerry McDevitt. “All illegal and unprescribed drugs” could be a fancy way of saying, “He can take all the steroids he wants as long as he’s able to produce a prescription for it from a (mark) doctor.”
Whether that’s the way Lueckenoff meant it or not, “Illegal and unprescribed drugs” is the kind of language that WWE routinely uses to defend their joke of a drug policy.
[…] when I posted an article previewing Strikeforce’s Saturday night event in St. Louis on Showtime, I noted that one of the big questions heading into the event dealt with the constant media […]