With “King” Mo main eventing this Saturday’s Strikeforce card, McNeil wrote a feature piece on the promotion’s light heavyweight champion. This isn’t the first time McNeil’s stumbled and bumbled when it comes to Mo. Last July, Franklin told us to be patient about Mo fighting “Rampage” Jackson, since he had never fought above middleweight before. Unfortunately, Mo debuted at heavyweight against Travis Wiuff and had three light heavyweight bouts up to that point. I guess we can’t blame McNeil for not watching fights that air at 2 a.m. Oh, wait, yes we can because this stuff is on Youtube.

Anyway, McNeil tried his hand again with “King” Mo. Here’s a couple of highlights. Go check out the full piece if you want to feel good about a guy playing journalist with a fifth grade writing level.

With only seven professional fights under his belt, Muhammed Lawal has become the most difficult mixed martial artist to figure out. There is no way to predict what strategy he will employ at any time inside the cage.

Worst lede paragraph in history? Worst lede paragraph in history.

If Lawal has absorbed half as much information about Cavalcante as he claims, his head must be ready to explode.

Does this mean that if Mo absorbed all the information he claimed, his head has exploded?

Waking up thinking that somehow Roddy Piper had a hand in Fedor’s loss, or that maybe Werdum had a magic pair of sunglasses — it don’t make the world work.

There were more, but I think this is a large enough sample to display the greatness that is Strikeforce’s marketing department.  I will never doubt again, especially since they correctly pegged me as a ROCKY fan who likes to reminisce about the time that Ted DiBiase’s son choked me out.

Save me, Babalu.  For on this day you, Renato Sobral, my favorite fighter, have the opportunity to take this collection of 24 hours in a completely different direction from that of my favorite overall MMA personality du jour, Chael Sonnen.

Sonnen, citing legal issues, has removed himself from contention in the Oregon State House of Representatives election.  Granted, from what I have been told, his chances of victory as someone in his right mind a Republican in that district were about as thin as Kate Moss after a couple trips to the bathroom.  Still, this is a huge blow to me, with Sonnen being the only MMA fighter from which I have received an e-mail (any correspondences from my good friend John Lambert, amateur fighter, notwithstanding).

On the other hand, Sobral will be facing Robbie Lawler tonight on a card run by some half-pint promotion out of California.  The fight, taking place at a catchweight of 195 pounds (affectionately known as ‘Franklinweight’), will determine the #1 contender for either their middleweight (if Lawler wins) or light heavyweight (if Babalu wins) title.  Side note: after August 7, they are changing the name of their middleweight title to the 185-Pound, Non-Chael Sonnen Division Champion.

So do it, Babalu.  Please.  Go out there and annihilate this guy.  Never mind that I like Robbie Lawler too.  I know that since Strikeforce does not allow elbows on the ground that you cannot replicate the aggravated assault (not that that never happens in the Strikeforce cage after the fight) that you laid on David Heath in a perversely entertaining manner, but do something similar.  Put him out, put him to sleep, salvage this day.

Save me, Babalu.

Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem delivers one of many punches in a frighteningly one-sided affair.

And if a picture is worth a thousand words, here is part two of my 2,000 word essay on how Alistair Overeem dominated Brett Rogers in the nastiest beating delivered to a Midwesterner since SMG founder Mike Fagan’s first day in jiu-jitsu class:

It is amazing how hard it is to make a joke about something that is already blatantly ridiculous.

In other news from Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery, fighters with the name Gracie still possess an uncanny ability to underwhelm (Roger Gracie in this instance), Andrei Arlovski still loses fights, and Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza still has trouble when he does not win by “foregone conclusion” submission.

My love for Renato Sobral, affectionately known as ‘Babalu,‘ rivals that of my feelings for Chael Sonnen.

The Predators won, but by the time I saw this, that was irrelevant.

Thank goodness the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN has been notified that they are hosting a Strikeforce event.

Someone here at Sack Mike Goldberg lives in the Nashville area.  The rush for tickets begins now.  My favorite fighter may be Seraldo Babalu, but Strikeforce mainstay To “Be” Announced is right up there.  Plus a small (read: large) part of me would take extreme delight in seeing favorite of Jafanboys all across the world, Shinya Aoki, get stomped by a legitimate, but borderline top-10, Gilbert Melendez.

I attended the UFC Fight Night headlined by Martin Kampmann and Carlos Condit last year at the previously named Sommet Center, but a CBS Strikeforce card with three “fights involving a belt” (words like title and champion seem strange to use regarding Strikeforce to me) would probably be a bigger deal than that.  Last year I ran into Mark Coleman at the concession stands at the Fight Night card; perchance I could find someone else to encounter there this time.

It’s been a week since Strikeforce’s “Carano vs. Cyborg” card.  I put off critiquing it because, frankly, I thought it was a disaster.

Most pressing (and disappointingly) is that I’ve lost faith in Gus Johnson’s ability to become a legitimate MMA broadcaster.  His ability to shriek at dramatic moments works well for basketball where those situations are few and far between.  MMA provides for many opportunities for Gus to unleash his inner banshee, and he shows little ability to differentiate between appropriate moments to go nuts and a fairly routine stoppage or bit of action.

I don’t remember too much of Mauro Ranallo and Frank Shamrock’s performances, though the “keys to victory” segment made Frank look like an idiot.  Showtimes needs to revamp or just plain scrap that turd.  The skinless wonders really highlight the fact that you aren’t watching the UFC.  It looks second rate, the explanation sounds second rate, and the “keys” are certainly second rate.

It’s disappointing that Strikeforce built up so much momentum with the historic main event and the Fedor signing, but the broadcast continues to make the promotion look like the minor leagues that they are.  They really aren’t that far off which is what makes it especially frustrating.

Photo by the fantastic Esther Lin.

The rise in women’s MMA brings about an opportunity for writers to recycle their 1996 “human cockfighting” articles.  Just update a few names, add in some bullshit about the precious nature of two X chromosomes, and you’re ready to go.

I expect to see this sort of drivel from the Boston Globe or the Po-Dunk Times-Herald.  I do not expec to see it from MMA Fanhouse.  Traitors!

The ancient Greeks who started the Olympics treated women like property. Now we’re letting women treat themselves like animals.

If female combat is going to ever make it big, it will need competitors who look like strippers and fight like bouncers.

From all accounts, the crowd loved it. Of course, some people like snuff films and Michael Vick’s ex-hobby. And our ancestors had season tickets to the Christians vs. the Lions.

That sounds frighteningly familiar doesn’t it?

Such thinking only goes so far. If dog fighting were to be sanctioned and televised, there would undoubtedly be a sizeable audience, consisting of the eager, the curious, and even the repulsed. Presumably that would lead to expensive ring-side seats, video games, and a beer sponsorship. But lawmakers, media, and business people would never condone it. Why they are willing to view “human dog-fighting’’ differently is something the culture of Dr. Phils ought to consider.

David Whitley, I can understand not getting off on women’s MMA.  It’s not easy to deconstruct the smothering teachings of society.

To turn around and blast women’s MMA with the same garbage we’ve heard about the sport at large speaks volumes to me.  If you’re going to label female fighters as “animals” and compare the women’s MMA to dogfighting and Roman bloodsport, why don’t you carry those arguments to the sport as a whole?  How do you separate the two?