Odds and Sods

Strikeforce ran their first major show since their acquisition by Zuffa a few months ago. In the main event, Nick Diaz and Paul Daley had a pretty exciting fight that ended with a Diaz TKO victory. After this, there really is no one left for Strikeforce to match their welterweight champ Diaz up against. I think its time to bring him back into the UFC and unify the two titles by matching him up with Georges St. Pierre. This especially makes sense considering that it doesn’t appear as if the GSP-Silva superfight will happen. Of course, this is all contingent on GSP beating Jake Shields this month. If Shields wins, the odds are against him fighting close friend and training partner Diaz.

The NBA regular season is drawing to a close and there is a rather contentious debate over who the MVP should be. Derrick Rose is considered the frontrunner, but stat hounds act like anything other than a victory for LeBron James or Dwight Howard would be an egregious wrong. I’ll get into this more later when I do my awards picks, but anything other than a D Rose victory is a bit absurd. He led the team to the best record in the East (and 2nd best in the NBA), doesn’t have a superstar like D Wade playing next to him and isn’t a liability in the clutch or getting suspended all the time like Howard. I know I’m partial because I would be willing to take a bullet if it meant the Bulls would win the title, but Rose deserves the award. Have you seen the Bulls try to score without Rose on the floor, or even try to dribble the ball? It isn’t pretty.

According to his mentor and trainer Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Anderson Silva will be defending his middleweight title in August at the UFC show in Brazil against Yushin Okami. Okami was the last man to beat Silva, back in 2006 via a controversial disqualification. This would seem to point to a fight with GSP not happening at all, especially when combined with this other tidbit from Big Nog: After the Okami fight, Anderson will be moving up to 205 lbs. permanently. This would presumably set up a match between Anderson and the winner of the match between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans for early next year. That means Anderson will be doing battle with Bones Jones early next year. As a fight fan, this excites me. As a Silva fan, this terrifies me. Both men legitimately have what it takes to decisively beat the other, and with Silva being considerably older and Jones having a massive size advantage, this fight could mean either the end of Anderson’s undefeated streak or another notch in his resume as the greatest fighter of all time.

And in the occasional pro wrestling story, my brother tells me that WWE Superstar Edge has announced his retirement due to a reaggravation of the neck injury he suffered back in 2003. The internet sites are reporting that this is a legitimate retirement and not a work. If this is true, it marks the end of another Attitude era star and one of the few established names remaining on their talent roster. He had a nice run near the top of the company over the past six years as a heel. One of my favorite moments in WWE history came from Edge. In 2005, my roommate and I went to the live taping of the pay per view New Year’s Revolution. At the end of the show, after John Cena had retained the WWE title to the chagrin of the Albany fans, Edge cashed in his Money in the Bank title shot and beat John Cena for his first world title victory. The fans went nuts, Edge went nuts, my roommate and I went nuts. It was pretty wild, and preserved on DVD forever if you don’t believe me about my celebration.

In the final bit of news, it appears Strikeforce is going to air a live pay per view event this summer and its main event will apparently be Dan Henderson vs Fedor Emelianenko. Originally, the talk was that this was going to be for Henderson’s light heavyweight title, but it is looking more like it will be fought at a 220 lb. catchweight. If this is so, this fight puts Hendo at a major disadvantage. He is small for 205, as evidenced by the fact that he is also capable of fighting at 185. Fedor is a small heavyweight, coming in around 225-230 lbs and he is doughy at that weight. Only having to cut ten pounds while Hendo has to try to gain near fifteen is unfair. I think a 215 catchweight makes more sense for both men. Fedor still would have a size advantage, but I don’t think it would be as glaring at that weight, plus it better situates him for a run at light heavyweight if he wins this fight. For Henderson, he wouldn’t have to bulk up as much so he wouldn’t be in the same position as his fight against Big Nog in Pride where he gave up around thirty pounds and lost.

That does it for this installment of Odds and Sods. Check back for posts previewing the NBA Playoffs and Awards, the tribute to Pride, and predictions for this month’s UFC pay per view.