Bobby Lashley vs. Ron Sparks and Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos vs. Jan Finney Set for Strikeforce in June
by Nick Thomas on May 16, 2010 5:30 PM EDT
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June 16 - From a Strikeforce press release:
Former WWE superstar Bobby Lashley (5-0) will square off with fellow undefeated Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) heavyweight Ron "The Monster" Sparks (5-0) when STRIKEFORCE hits Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE on Wednesday, June 16.
"I'm excited about fighting again,'' Bobby Lashley said. "I've been working very hard and I am continuing to learn. The guy I am fighting is huge. This will be a great fight.''
"I like to get in and get the job done,'' said the hard-hitting Ron Sparks. "My last fight went all four rounds, but there is nothing I enjoy more than knocking a person out.''
"Trust me, we're going to go down swinging,'' Sparks said. "There will be no tap-outs. I am grateful of the opportunity STRIKEFORCE is giving me and I am very confident of a victory.''
June 26 - According to mmajunkie.com:
Promotional newcomer Jan "Cuddles" Finney (8-7 MMA) will be the next challenger hoping to dethrone Strikeforce women's middleweight champion Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (9-1 MMA).
Finney recently has resurrected a once-pedestrian career with four consecutive victories. Even with the lackluster 4-7 start, Finney gained some vital big-stage experience while facing notables such as Julie Kedzie, Shayna Baszler, Miesha Tate and Erin Toughill early in her career.
In her most recent bout, Finney picked up arguably the biggest win of her carer when she edged Adrienna Jenkins (17-2 at the time) via split decision at a March Freestyle Cage Fighting event.
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Another one of them “Tattoo your own name on yourself” types eh. I always imagine that these guys have their names magic marker’d onto their all of their underpants too.
Hello. I take stuff too seriously.
by The Flying Gentleman on May 16, 2010 5:29 PM EDT reply actions
Wait, so Cyborg is going to face an 8-7 fighter with the nickname “Cuddles?” I hope there’s an ambulance nearby. You would hope Strikeforce could at least promote a freakshow fight for Cyborg if they can’t find any credible opponents for her.
by Trust Doesn't Rust on May 16, 2010 5:30 PM EDT reply actions
UNREAL
What a joke of a fight. Is Lashley ever ever going to take a step up and stop fighting down right cans and sub par competition ? And Before any one says this is a a step up in competition his opponent is 5-0 with 4 KO’s/TKO’s on his record well looks at the fighters he beat the first 4 it was there MMA debut fight and all 4 still have a record of 0-1 and the decision fight was agasint Johnathan Ivey, enuff said. What a joke Lashley is becoming.
not a strong strength of record but hey he KOd all those guys in a total of less than one round. can’t say he’s not dangerous
by phantasma475 on May 16, 2010 6:39 PM EDT up reply actions
This matchup proves Dana’s point about the depth of women’s mma
by Mat Parker 116 on May 16, 2010 6:41 PM EDT up reply actions
That is a pretty sweet un-intentional(?) sick burn. That the Lashley v. Sparks fight proves a point about women’s MMA.
"Hit me up on Twitter @ IDontHaveATwitterBecauseIhaveAFuckingLifeAndDontCareWhatEveryoneElseIsDoingOrThinkingEverySecondOfEveryFuckingDaySeriouslyKnockItOff
by Earl Montclair on May 16, 2010 6:43 PM EDT up reply actions
Well, Lashley does have the largest bra size of all 4 fighters....
Walking the line between intelligence and ignorance since 1985
@deowade
Note to self: Don’t reply to comment’s after a large amount of Jack Daniels
by Mat Parker 116 on May 16, 2010 7:03 PM EDT up reply actions
not a strong strength of record but hey he KOd all those guys in a total of less than one round. can’t say he’s not dangerous
He KO’d those guys in 2006 and has only fought twice in the last 4 years, how dangerous can he be?
Look closer at Sparks record, he fought three times in 2006 and twice in 2009. Most of this guys very limited experience was four years ago. This isn’t any better of a booking than Yohan Banks was, they better hope that CSAC doesn’t do what Florida did. It’s seriously like they aren’t happy with new guys or nobody’s, they are actively searching out guys who don’t even fight full time on a regular basis for Lashley to face, it’s really pathetic.
This isn’t any better of a booking than Yohan Banks
I disagree.
Sparks was active in MMA over the last 12 months … Banks had not. Sparks has more experience than Banks and a similar record to Lashley. Banks did not.
Banks had fought twice in 2008, Sparks fought twice in 2009, yea it makes a some difference but not that much, especially considering that Sparks other fights were in 2006. Yohan Banks only had 3 fights compared to Sparks 5 but Yohan Banks had faced much better competition in those three fights(according to Sherdog for four of the five guys Sparks has fought he was their only fight ever). Ron Sparks 5-0 record is pretty worthless when you look at the competition he has faced and that’s even before you take into account that most of his fights were in 2006. They had to really dig to find this guy and are hoping that no one looks at him closer than seeing the 5-0 record.
I vote for putting Del Rosario on the card and then there are 2 options.
a) Gillooly Lashley’s opponent 2 days out and tell him the only HW that will take the fight on short notice is Shane.
b) after Lashley’s fight, make sure there are no steel chairs in the cage, then send Shane into the cage to cause some mayhem.
lashley doesnt wanna fight anyone its that simple
hes also on the wrong side of 30 and simply not that good he doesnt count as news as far as im concerned
We have a saying back home that if your coming on, COME ON!!!!
I blame Erin
Cyborg/Toughill was the only fight SF could put on without taking heat for it.
Obviously, Erin bitched out of it.
Dandois has a fight lined up
I don’t have too much problems with that fight
Agreed
There is really only worthwhile fight out there for Cyborg, and Toughill is a flake. There is not much else they can do until Erin gets her shit together.
whatever happened to Tara Larossa? I know that she’s lighter, but wasn’t she the best female fighter in the world before Cyborg showed up?
by steak_knife on May 17, 2010 12:36 AM EDT up reply actions
Fighting Roxanne Modaferri at Moosin
Walking the line between intelligence and ignorance since 1985
@deowade
Why oh why did Lashley join Strikeforce if he wanted to slowly develop in his MMA career? Strikeforce, which is essentially the 2nd biggest promotion in the USA, is not the place to do that.
The Wes Sims fight begs to differ.
"Hit me up on Twitter @ IDontHaveATwitterBecauseIhaveAFuckingLifeAndDontCareWhatEveryoneElseIsDoingOrThinkingEverySecondOfEveryFuckingDaySeriouslyKnockItOff
by Earl Montclair on May 16, 2010 6:22 PM EDT up reply actions
The guy hasn’t developed his “career” at all and clearly has no interest in doing so. He ducks anyone who would provide a challenge and Strikeforce are content to put him on their main cards against guys who would never ever be there if they weren’t fighting Lashley. Not trying to dis Sparks, but would he be on the main card if he was fighting Lolohea Mahe?
"Ten more seconds is all I ever ask. That's the good thing I learned about being KO'd twice. You don't see it coming -it's like death- you don't plan for it so don't wait for it. So many people are afraid of getting Ko'd that their hands stay home, but not me. I got to go out there and shoot the lights out and fall down" Jens Pulver
Cyborg might actually pull off some Video Game-Esque stuff this time
She’s 8-7, but 3 of her last four opponents were making their MMA debuts or were mediocre competition. Bah, this makes me sad.
Walking the line between intelligence and ignorance since 1985
@deowade
by Damon O. on May 16, 2010 6:22 PM EDT reply actions 5 recs
These are underwhelming fights.
Matchmaker for strikeforce has got to be a nightmare job!!! Lashley won’t fight this Rosario, Fedor won’t fight unless m-1 get more promotional credit, Overeem wants to fight k-1, Nick Diaz and mayhem might get suspended, Shields might leave. Add all that to their big signings in mousasi and henderson losing, and I really feel for coker and company. Can’t be easy.
by havomaster on May 16, 2010 6:25 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
I dont believe Bobby for 1 sec
When he says “This will be a great fight”
I am predicting a gas-fest here.
Probly somewhere around the quality of the tuf heavyweight bouts.
Bad
More softball matchmaking on the maincard for Strikeforce.
This kind of stuff frustrates me immensely. If you can’t make a compelling fight than bury it on the undercard, stick it on the Challengers series, whatever. But don’t stick on the maincard of a feature show and tell me it some of the best MMA in the world.
It’s bush league when matches like this are featured yet Ribero/Beerbohm have to toil away on the undercard.
by Worldisart on May 16, 2010 7:18 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
Ugh
Cyborg gets another face to smash who will offer her no challenge whatsoever. I couldn’t be any less excited. It’s just a squash match. Meanwhile Toughill and Strikeforce do….whatever they’re doing.
And Lashley? Don’t get me started. For whatever reason, I have almost zero interest in seeing him fight these days. He’s a decent wrestler, with little else other than ridiculous WWE hype.
I was more interested when Sparks was going to fight Mercer at KOTC. At least that would’ve been funny.
"I'd like to have an honest fight with an alien. If it had six arms, it would be difficult to strike with them, but if it has legs like a human, I could submit it with leg-locks."
-Ikuhisa Minowa
Mauricio "Shogun" Rua: The True UFC Light Heavyweight Champion
To be fair, Sparks is probably the strongest opponent Lashley has had to date, so I don’t think it’s an entirely inappropriate match-up. He’s not a joke, even if he’s the definite underdog.
Jan Finney though, four-fight win streak or not, is a ridiculous opponent for Cyborg. Considering she just beat Adrienna Jenkins (17-3), I would say she’s better than her record would indicate, but she’s not even a top-10 fighter at 135 and will be going up in weight here. Just awful matchmaking.
Please describe what about Sparks makes him legitimate. People see a record and some tattoos and they go “Yeah, d00d is ready to party”.
Blackout612- "Wuts teh UFC?"
Ubernoober- "It like two guy who just stand and swing for fence and try to knock each other shit out it awesome"
I dont think anyone here is saying that.
R.I.P Ronnie James Dio
by Earl Montclair on May 16, 2010 9:16 PM EDT up reply actions
I don’t know nearly as much about Strikeforce as I do UFC… in fact… I Just started watching it so forgive me if this seems ignorant… but there is no way Lashley is that big naturally…
by SkeezinSteevin on May 16, 2010 10:07 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
I was going to say that Lashley has become the new Kimbo
but that would be unfair to Kimbo. Kimbo’s last three opponents (Seth, Houston, Matt) are better than anyone Lashley has faced. In fact, since Jason Guida (a perfect second opponent) Lashley’s level of competition has gotten progressively worse. Let’s hope Strikeforce signs Kimbo and arranges a bout with Bobby so he can take a step up in competition.
I’m not going to harp on Lashley for not facing Shane Del Rosario if he and his camp don’t think he’s ready for him, But aren’t they the least bit embarrassed that Dan Cormier is facing John Devine on his second fight while they are scouring the mma world to find an inflated 5-0 fighter to make him look good?
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