Strikeforce will have their last show of the year in San Jose tomorrow night at the HP Pavilion. The main event is a five round fight for the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight title between champion, Bobby Southworth, and challenger, Renato "Babalu' Sobral.
Besides the main event, there will be 12 other fights on the card. The main card is filled with former UFC fighters such as Scott Smith, Yves Edwards, and Terry Martin.
It is probably in Strikeforce's best interest to have Babalu defeat Southworth. His fights have left fans bored and chants of "Boring" have echoed throughout the arena during his fights.
Babalu will want to take this fight to the mat while Southworth will try to keep the fight standing. Many fans expect Babalu to beat Southworth and take the gold.
Josh Thomson was supposed to defend his title against Edwards on Friday,but Thomson broke a toe while training, and was forced to pull out of the fight. Thomson was really looking forward to the fight because he wanted to avenge a previous loss to Edwards a few years ago when they were both fighting for the UFC.
If Edwards loses, he probably won't get a title shot against Thomson next year, but even if he wins, there is no guarantee he would be the next in line to fight Thomson. Strikeforce could find a more worthy opponent or bigger name for Thomson and give that fighter the next shot at Thomson's title.
Duane "Bang" Ludwig has stepped in to fight Edwards at a catch weight of 164 pounds.
The Ludwig vs. Edwards fight should be very entertaining and it probably will be just as good or better than the previously scheduled Thomson vs. Edwards fight. Thomson was a heavy favorite to beat Edwards and the Ludwig vs. Edwards bout should be more competitive.
Terry Martin will be fighting Scott Smith in a middleweight fight. This should be a great stand-up war as both fighters love to brawl.
Randy Couture's wife, Kim, will be making her Strikeforce debut against Lina Kvokov. Both fighters are 0-1 so one of these women will get her first MMA win on Friday.
In another fight on the main card, Joe "Diesel" Riggs will be taking on Luke Stewart in a welterweight match. Riggs is moving down one weight class for this fight, and it will be interesting to see what kind of shape he is in. Riggs might want to keep this fight standing because Stewart is a jiu-jitsu specialist, and very dangerous on the ground.
The prelim card is filled with local fighters from the Bay Area such as Kurt Osiander, Zakary Bucia, Eric Lawson, Jose Palacios, and Darren Uyenoyama.
There are plenty of good seats left for this event and if you can't make it out to San Jose, you can watch the main card live on HDNet beginning at 7:30pm PT.
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