With Affliction Gone, Strikeforce Picks Up Some Slack

With the demise of Affliction and the cancellation of their Trilogy event, which was supposed to host some of the most promising matchups of the year, dominating the news and creating a great deal of animosity, not all of those matchups have been lost.

While it looked to many that Gegard Mousasi (25-2-1 MMA, #8 IWMMAR) would have to put off his debut at lightheavyweight until after his DREAM superheavyweight bout later in October, upon the cancellation of the Affliction fight, Strikeforce picked up the event for their August 15th show. Renato “Babalu” Sobral (35-7 MMA, 6-4 UFC, #9 IWMMAR) has long been Strikeforce’s lightheavyweight championship, and after he pulled out of a fight with Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante (7-2 MMA) in what would have been his first defense since winning the title in November of last year.

Strikeforce, ever the resourceful organization, decided to turn the fight into a bout for their lightheavyweight title, giving Mousasi the chance to debut at 205 pounds and, simultaniously, offering another title fight to the fans, as well as the first defense of the Strikeforce lightheavyweight strap.

It’s a great move, and not to be understated. Mousasi’s skills and gameplanning have led many to believe that he’s the future of mixed martial arts, and after going 6-0 in 2008, with wins over Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos (16-13 MMA) , Denis Kang (32-11-1-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) , Melvin Manhoef (23-6-1 MMA) and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (10-2-0-1 MMA) , Mousasi has been one of the fastest rising stars in mixed martial arts, and came up to lightheavyweight after those prolific middleweight wins, acknowledging that he could no longer make the cut to 185.

He displayed some phenomenal gameplanning to set those wins up, submitting Kang and Manhoef, both with triangle chokes, and knocking out Jacare off of his back. In moving up to fight in the DREAM Super Hulk tournament, Mousasi made his way through the first round, using that gameplanning ability to get K-1 warrior Mark Hunt (5-6 MMA) , in what was Hunt’s third straight loss to a Dutch fighter and the fifth time he had been submitted.

Mousasi is young, only 23 years old (he will turn 24 on the day Affliction: Trilogy would have been held), and on a twelve fight win streak, but Babalu will be the toughest fighter he’s ever stepped in against, and a veteran of many high profile events. Whether Mousasi will be able to deal with Babalu’s experience remains to be seen, but it will be an exciting fight between two high profile, extremely talented fighters.

The above photo was taken by Joshua Stein at Affliction: Day of Reckoning.