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As with every major show, BloodyElbow.com will be here to bring you live results and commentary for Strikeforce Challengers: Tim Kennedy vs. Zak Cummings.  The live blog will start with the beginning of the Showtime broadcast at 11pm Eastern so make sure to make Bloody Elbow your home for this event.

As always we have our one rule: NO SPOILERS! In the interest of not ruining anything from the undercard that may make the broadcast we ask that you do not discuss the results of the undercard in the comments until either the broadcast ends or the fight makes the air.

So again, join us for the show and share your thoughts as the event unfolds.

It's 11:00pm and the broadcast has started!

Daniel Cormier vs. Gary Frazier - Round 1 -Cormier pushing forward and Frazier looking to stay outside.  Jab lands for Frazier.  Cormier lands a punch and Frazier fails on a takedown adn eats a knee.  Daniel throwing  some big shots.  Frazier kind of runs away and then tries to shoot for a takedown.  It's clear that this is his first pro fight.  Frazier is turtled up and Cormier is riding him landing punches.  Frazier tries to explode up and trips ending up on his back.  Cormier ends up in side control taking crucifix position.  He lands a lot of punishment but Frazier is able to stand up.  He runs away, turns and then lands a punch.  They're back to standing.  Frazier is just loading up on his right hand and isn't landing.  The round ends and I had it 10-9 Cormier.  Round 2 - Jab for Frazier lands.  Right hand for Cormier and he charges in for a takedown.  Single leg attempt by Cormier and Frazier uses the cage to avoid and just gets a warning.  Now Frazier SPRINTS away.  This is an embarrassing fight.  Cormier looks for the takedown and he can't get it.  Frazier goes down after tring a knee and now Cormier is on top in the half guard landing big hammer fists.  Full mount now for Cormier.  Cormier isn't throwing much of anything as far as strikes, now Frazier gives up his back and Cormier throws some punches forcing the ref to stop it.  Not exactly..um...a...good fight.  Daniel Cormier wins by TKO (strikes), round 2.

Thomas Longacre vs. Travis Calanoc - Round 1- Calanoc tring to get in and out while Longacre takes the center and is stalking.  Longacre throws a flurry and knocks him back into the fence.  Calanoc tries to close distance and eats a flurry and then a low kick.  Longacre is just blitzing him whenever he wants.  Superman punch by Calanoc is countered.  Calanoc catches him hard!  Longacre is hurt!  Calanoc is connecting again with the knee and Longacre is hurt badly.  Longacre looks like he is back on steady legs now.  Longacre throws a low kick and Calanoc sweeps him but ends up on bottom.  No real damage landed and they're back to standing.  I think Calanoc stole the round by rocking him twice.  10-9 round Travis.  Round 2- Longacre comes out strong pushing forward. Right hand lands hard for Longacre and a great leg  kick.  Knee lands for Calanoc.  Three punch combo and a head kick by Longacre.  This round has been mostly Longacre doing whatever he wants as Calanoc stopped throwing full speed and he is getting punished by Longacre's aggressive strikes.  Calanog almost has a guillotine but he doesn't manage to get full guard which makes the escape easy for Longacre.  10-9 Longacre to tie it on my card.  Round 3- More of the same with Longacre dominating and Calanoc having a half-way in guillotine attempt.  Two spinning back fists miss by Calanoc. There really isn't much to write about here, Longacre is aggressive and landing a lot of leg kicks while Calanoc keeps trying for guillotines that aren't anywhere near close to sunk in.  Another guillotine attempt fails.  The round ends with both guys flurrying and it was not anywhere near as fun as the announcers want to make it sound (Pat just said it's as exciting a fight as you're ever going to see).  10-9 Longacre gives him the fight 29-28.  Official Scorecards:  30-27 across the board.  Thomas Longacre wins by unanimous decision.

Tyron Woodley vs. Zach Light - Round 1 -Light is bouncing around as Woodly whips strikes at him.  Widest punch in the world by Light.  Nice leg kick by Light.  Slam by Woodley.  He is in Light's half guard landing small strikes and now pushes him up against the cage.  Woodley going for arm triangle and he doesn't spin his body out to finish, instead moving back to mount and landing strikes.  The round ends and I'm honestly a little disappointed that Woodley didn't finish that round.  10-9 Woodley.  Round 2- Woodley with a right hand and Light now gets cranked by a knee/punch combo.  Now Woodley drops him with a double leg.  Another attempt at the arm triangle is survived by light.  And now another.  Woodley REALLY needs to finish Light here.  They're back to standing and again Woodley with the big takedown and passes to mount.  This time Light gives up the arm and Woodley takes it home with him.  Tyron Woodley wins by submission (armbar), round 2.

Ray Sefo vs. Kevin Jordan - Round 1 - Heavy leg kicks by Sefo and Jordan charges in with a takedown attempt but Sefo rolls him and ends up on top.  Jordan gains guard.  Sefo gets rolled now and Jordan gets side control.  Some punches landing for Jordan and now he goes for an armlock and can't finish it.  Jordan moves to mount now and is landing some good punches but Sefo is surviving.  This is the third fight on the broadcast where a guy had mount for a prolonged period of time and couldn't finish.  Weird.  10-8 Jordan on my card.  Round 2 - Jordan with a desperate takedown attempt and it looks like he hurt his knee.  Sefo dives in to throw punches and stands up.  Jordan tries to stand up and falls back down but for some reason the ref doesn't stop the fight and Sefo lands another punch before the fight is finally stopped.  Ray Sefo wins by TKO (injury), round 2.

Tim Kennedy vs. Zak Cummings - Round 1 - Kennedy with the early takedown and is in half guard.  Kennedy to mount and Cummings gives up his back.  Now turns back into the mount.  Kennedy is just pounding on him.  This is brutal.  More big shots and Cummings turns and regains half guard.  Again Kennedy passes to full mount and lands a couple bombs.  More big shots and the round ends.  10-8 Kennedy easy.  Round 2- Kennedy landing punches as they're standing up and Cummings is just kind of flailing around.  Cummings actually landing a couple shots now.  Kennedy landing a kick now and going for a standing choke and he can't finish.  They clinch agaiainst the cage and Kennedy lands some shots.  Kennedy again with a choke attempt.  They go to the ground and Kennedy finishes him with the north-south choke.  Tim Kennedy wins by submission (north-south choke), round 2.

Your MMA options this weekend are pretty slim, but Strikeforce will hold their third Challengers event tomorrow night at 11 PM EST on Showtime. The event takes place at the SpiritBank Event Center in Bixby, Oklahoma, and it will feature a main event bout between United States Army veteran and former IFL fighter Tim Kennedy (11-2) taking on the undefeated Zak Cummings (10-0). Also on the card, K-1 veteran Ray Sefo will battle former UFC fighter Kevin Jordan as well as appearances by Strikeforce standout and two-time All-American wrestler Tyron Woodley and 2004 U.S. Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier. Although the match-ups aren't the most competitive, many of these fights will showcase Strikeforce's depth and give some of these guys a chance to make a name for themselves on a major card.

While the main event isn't the biggest test for Kennedy, it should, at the very least, be a nice tune-up fight for him to make the bigger shows. Kennedy absolutely dominated a veteran in Nick Thompson on the second Strikeforce Challengers card back in June, and it was a question as to how good Kennedy would be against a solid competitor. After all, he was narrowly defeated by Jason "Mayhem" Miller in a rematch at HDNet Fights back in 2007, and he was on a long layoff as he was put back on active duty with the U.S. Army.

His opponent, Zak Cummings, will get the opportunity to prove he belongs in a major organization, but it'll be a huge test for him as Kennedy is truly coming into his own as a top middleweight fighter. Cummings' experience isn't great, but he did manage to take a split decision againsnt former UFC fighter Terry Martin back in February. The problem is that Martin's chin and record have dropped off the side of a mountain at this point in his career, and the bout really doesn't hold a lot of meaning.

Kennedy has the edge in a stronger strength of record while also boasting a solid skill-set. The guy is also a Green Beret and a sniper, and he won a bronze star for valor under fire... meaning he's as tough as they come. Cummings' record is bloated with some subpar wins, and it should make this a fairly easy night for Tim Kennedy to impress. Check out Heavy.com's interview with Tim Kennedy regarding his military/MMA life as well, solid read on the backstory behind Tim Kennedy.

In heavyweight action, K-1 legend Ray Sefo (1-0) will make his sophomore debut in MMA in a bout with former UFC fighter Kevin Jordan (11-7). Sefo hasn't fought a MMA rules bout since K-1 HERO's in 2005 in which he won via head kick against Min Soo Kim, probably most famous for introducing Brock Lesnar to MMA. Sefo's K-1 career has gone downhill as he is 38 years of age, losing 6 out of his last seven fights to top-notch competition.

This is definitely an interesting bout since a lot of fans believe the K-1 veteran will roll through a washed up Kevin Jordan. Sefo has been training at Xtreme Couture with Shawn Tompkins and the great Randy Couture. He'll likely have gained a few tricks such as some takedown defense and wrestling capabilties, but Jordan could give Sefo some trouble if he managed to get him into top control. Jordan managed to defeat UFC veteran Patrick Smith at American Steel Cage Fighting on August 1st, but that was his first win in three fights.

Bottom line is that Jordan isn't the easiest fight for Sefo, but I imagine Sefo's training is going to play a huge part into whether he wins in impressive fashion. Jordan has the ability to withstand punishment, but he's shown some bad conditioning in some of his more recent fights. Sefo's stand-up will be on another level in comparison to Jordan, so a steady diet of leg kicks and takedown defense may open up the striking game for Sefo. He should come out the victor in this one.

Check out the rest of our Strikeforce Challengers: Kennedy vs. Cummings coverage

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Make sure to join us at Bloodyelbow.com tonight for Strikeforce Challengers 3 live on Showtime - Fri. Sep. 25 at 11:00 PM EST:

MW: Tim Kennedy (11-2) 186 vs. Zak Cummings (10-0) 186
HW: Ray Sefo (1-0) 240.8 vs. Kevin Jordan (11-7) 236.6
WW: Tyron Woodley (3-0) 171 vs. Zach Light (6-8) 170.4
BW: Thomas Longacre (4-0) 148 vs. Travis Calonoc (4-0) 146.6
HW: Daniel Cormier (0-0) 250.2 vs. Gary Frazier (0-0) 245.2

HT: Sherdog.com

Tim Kennedy has been battling tough opponents outside the cage.

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Adam Morgan has an interview with Kennedy:

Tim Kennedy: Yes. Both in skill in technique and physically. Having been a full time soldier for the past six years, deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq and other places, the mixed martial arts game, certain aspects of it have evolved and I wasn’t part of that evolution. So I might be behind the curve on a lot of the stuff and I’m playing catch up. I think the learning curve is gonna be very steep and I’m getting up it fast, but truth be told, I’m behind it right now.

Heavy.com: What do you feel is the biggest evolution that you’ve kind of missed the boat on?

Tim Kennedy: I think the guys like Georges St. Pierre that are amazing athletes in the first place and have been able to train with the best in all of the different realms of mixed martial arts: boxing, kickboxing, jiujitsu, wrestling, and really take a certain skill set and perfect it. You can take guys like Anderson Silva and throw them in a professional boxing ring and he’s gonna do really, really well. Or a professional muay thai fight. Or you can send him to NAGA or Grappler’s Quest or Abu Dhabi and watch him crush people in jiujitsu. I know what I’m really good at and fortunately I’m able to use my experience to put that onto my opponents. Sure, there are still aspects of my game that need to be refined. You know, one of them has been my muay thai kickboxing.

I just spent some time up in Boston with Matt Phinney and Mark Della Grotte at Sityodtong just working on my finesse kickboxing. Working on elbows, knees, footwork, sweeps, you know, all that stuff that I’ve really been neglecting because I was just that powerhouse boxer, wrestler, Pit style kickboxer. I think I’m behind on some of the niche tricks of the trade that you’re able to integrate into an MMA fight.

He also talks about why he is with Strikeforce:

Heavy.com: Switching gears a little bit I know that a lot of people were vying for your services when you were a free agent including the UFC. What made you choose Strikeforce over any other organization?

Tim Kennedy: Strikeforcewas very accommodating with the fact that I’m still going to be part of the military, being able to continue to wear the uniform. My fight’s on the 25^th. The 26^thand 27^th I’m coming home, packing my bags, grabbing my uniform and flying to the Soldier of the Year competition to help the troops there. These are things that they’re very understanding of. They’re very flexible with recognizing that I still have responsibilities as a soldier to take care of those things.

It’s difficult. Imagine you being a promotion owner and you wanting me to fight for you. You would have a difficult time saying “Well, I actually don’t own you, I can’t tell you where to go because the military still owns you.” Certain promotion owners don’t want to give that away. As it is right now, Scott (Coker) is just being a very accommodating boss, very flexible, and very understanding of my obligations which are all over the place.

Strikeforce Challengers: Kennedy vs. Cummings coverage

Make sure to join us at Bloodyelbow.com tomorrow night for Strikeforce Challengers 3 live on Showtime - Fri. Sep. 25 at 11:00 PM EST: 
 
Main Card:
MW: Tim Kennedy (11-2) vs. Zak Cummings (10-0)

HW: Ray Sefo (1-0) vs. Kevin Jordan (11-7)

WW: Tyron Woodley (3-0) vs. Zach Light (6-8)

BW: Thomas Longacre (4-0) vs. Travis Calonoc (4-0)

HW: Daniel Cormier (0-0) vs. Gary Frazier (0-0)


Click here for the undercard.  Videos after the jump.

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