Back in March, Strikeforce officially announced that the "New York Badass" Phil Baroni and Joe "Diesel" Riggs would battle it out in the cage in a Welterweight contest that would take place this Saturday. There wasn't a large amount of buzz regarding the bout due to the big problems both fighters have had over the course of their careers. Most notably, Phil Baroni's gas tank has been less than... well.. average and Riggs' back, hands, (insert body part here) have been unreliable in allowing Riggs to fight regularly. It was a safe assumption that either Riggs would back out due to injury or the fight could potentially turn into a Shogun vs. Coleman debacle in which two gassed fighters hugged each other.

What changed? The hype train began to move and Phil Baroni and Joe Riggs know exactly how to create a little buzz with some good ol' fashioned smack talk:

Phil Baroni on Joe Riggs:

"Really, there’s not much to say. Joe’s 25 years old and he’ll have his day. On June 6, I’m knocking him the (expletive) out. I’m going to (expletive) him up bad. I’m going to bust him up the whole (expletive) fight. It’s up to him how long he wants to last. Whether he wants to last one round or he wants to last three – I’m going to (expletive) him up.

Joe Riggs on Phil Baroni's physique:

"He always shows up in shape, looking shredded and puffed up, but I think he’ll be pharmaceutically enhanced, too. Just because he doesn’t test positive for steroids doesn’t mean he’s not on them right now."

Phil Baroni on Joe Riggs missing a conference call:

"The guy no-shows to the conference call. I have been saying from day one: Get me a back-up opponent. I don’t think he is going to show up for his fight. His mouth is writing checks his ass can’t cash. He had big a problem on June 6. Then he opened his mouth, things have gotten personal; and he’s got a really big problem now. We’re all training, we’re all busy, no one wants to do this right now but we all did it because we’re professionals except that asshole. I just hope somebody else winds up in his spot. Put Gina Carano in there; I’ll fight her instead."

I think you've got the idea, and there are plenty of jabs between the two regarding the steroids issue and just general smack talk. Are you a bit more intrigued? Maybe you haven't been completely sold on this fight yet, and it really has no relevance in the worldwide Welterweight rankings. What does this fight have? It'll feature two guys who absolutely want to kill each other, and they don't hide the fact that they will come out throwing leather at a ferocious pace.

This fight isn't going the distance. In fact, this fight is a great move by Strikeforce because it not only should appeal to the casual fan base, but it'll provide ample amounts of entertainment as a true slug fest. Baroni has shown some better outings at welterweight, but he is far from a spectacular fighter. His gas tank is always an issue and Baroni always comes out at a quick pace, which doesn't help the fact that his gas tank is terrible.

Riggs is one of the most injury-prone fighters in MMA. If he doesn't manage to break his hand in the opening minutes or hurt himself in some debilitating manner, he has better stand-up skills and crushing ground and pound to defeat Baroni. This should be a great fight for the casual fans and provide us with some great action to get the night going before the matchups higher up on the main card.

Check out the rest of our Strikeforce: Lawler vs. Shields coverage.