After last weekend’s Strikeforce Houston event, Strikeforce and Showtime announced a couple of matches for their October 9th event in San Jose. Marloes Coenen versus Sarah Kaufman (Women’s 135 lbs title) and Matt Lindland vs Luke Rockhold.
They also stated that Nick Diaz would be the headliner, but were not able to announce his opponent on Showtime. A few days later, Strikeforce sent out an announcement declaring KJ Noons to challenge Diaz for his WW title. Here are some of the promo material released within the past week:
Event Posters:
Strikeforce San Jose (Oct. 9th) Poster:
Strikeforce Diaz vs Noons II Banner:
Showtime Diaz vs Noons II – The Rematch Promo Video:
MMAPayout Perspective:
One criticism Strikeforce often receives is the lack of time they give themselves to promote upcoming cards, so it’s a good sign they have already started promoting this Oct. 9th bout as of last week. In fact it was a hot topic taking into account it was fight week for one of UFC’s big cards which included James Toney, Randy Couture, BJ Penn, and Frankie Edgar.
The promotional video was released by Showtime and Strikeforce on Friday. It’s purpose was to remind MMA fans how much genuine dislike exists between the two fighters. As a promotional video, it did it’s job though I would expect the promo material to get better as we get closer to fight night. This is one of those can’t-miss fights that Strikeforce has access to, so they must do their best to present it as such. Interesting to point out that this video includes snippets of the original EliteXC brawl, before Strikeforce Nashville took place, between KJ Noons (and Jack Shields) and the Cesar Gracie team.
Expect more promos and buzz to build up for this fight in the coming weeks, as this event will be used to promote the EA Sports MMA video game, their Strikeforce MMA DVD release, and new branding strategy which will be in full display in the fall. Banners for the event are already up on Sherdog and other MMA related websites.
Wow those are horrible event posters. diaz dont give them much to work with but im sure they could have found better pics. He looks like a Moai statue from Easter Island. On the second, i guess the combo of Diaz and Lindland was just to much ugly to pass up.
Lol Brain Smasher. Diaz is a pretty ugly looking guy, I’ve met him a few times at the ARCO Arena (he likes to attend WEC fights, was at Faber Brown II literally the day after he fought Scott Smith in St. Louis, kind of cool if you think about it dude is obviously a die hard fan), I won’t say “hopefully he never sees this” because I doubt seriously doubt he cares what he looks like.
This is textbook Strikeforce matchmaking right here… Sure KJ Noons has NEVER fought at welterweight, we’ll just give him a title shot because he just fought on Showtime on a “major” Strikeforce card and has a history with Nick Diaz at lightweight (well, EliteXC’s version of lightweight (160 lbs)). I’m really not criticizing the matchup as it should be a great fight, but it does fall in line with the way they treat their titles. On the other hand, this is far less silly then Fedor possibly getting a title shot against Overeem, coming off a loss like Brett Rogers before him. It’s really just a crapshoot with Strikeforce these days: sometimes there are compelling matchups for titles and contention, sometimes there are showcase (sideshow?) fights that are merely two names that will draw, but have little to offer each other’s careers.
I still look forward to most of their events so they must be doing some things right.
Actually kind of cool if you think about it: they leapfrog matchmaking and tiered ranking to put on interesting fights, something the UFC is to serious about the sport to do (wait a minute… *cough Brock Lesnar title shot cough*)
Machiel:
Strikeforce has made it pretty clear that they won’t let belts and rankings get in the way of putting on fights that they believe MMA fans want to see. Here is the thing about this fight:
1) KJ struggled and didn’t make the 155 lbs weight (fought at 160 in EliteXC) when he fought Gurgel. He has made it clear that he will most likely be going to WW anyways.
2) This fight needs to happen now. This is actually the biggest fight they can put on at WW right now. Diaz last loss was against Noons a few years ago, so either Diaz will get his revenge (can always set up the rubber match), or KJ Noons will be the new Strikeforce WW champ and the WW division will get very interesting. Yes Noons vs Melendez would be a great fight, but I believe they have enough talent at LW to spare a fighter like KJ to go up to WW. Fights with Zaromskis and Cyborg would be great and might convince Noons to jump back to LW if possible.
Jose,
Like I said, I get it and I’m not really knocking the matchup, just making an observation that this move is in line with their usual matchmaking. I mean, it is a little silly to have a fighter who has never fought at welterweight to fight for a welterweight world title, but I agree it is the right move for Strikeforce. The only other fighter to give Diaz right now would be Evangelista Santos, and that’s far less marketable fight than a Diaz vs Noons II grudge match, and has only fought once at welterweight, beating a fighter Diaz beat even worse in Marius Zaromskis, whereas Noons holds a victory over Diaz himself.
Forgot about KJ missing the weight and didn’t know he had already called for a move up, BUT he also criticized EliteXC for setting the weight limit at 160 lbs for their lightweight class when he fought Diaz, claiming they set up that weight in order for Diaz to win and be a marketable champion (Diaz couldn’t make 155 and barely made 160, Noons claimed they “manufactured” a weight class for him). Noons has made 155 many times before the Gurgel fight.
It’s funny that KJ wants this re-match so badly. When they tried to make a re-match in EliteXC KJ wasn’t interested. How things have changed.
I am also pleased to see them starting the marketing push now. Ideally, they should have announced some match-ups at the last card, but this is still much better than in the past.