King Mo

Mousasi- Either way he would have been off to DREAM for the LHW GP. He will go there and most likely do well in the tournament.

Gilbert Melendez- This is the problem with Strikeforce.  Once one challenger is gone there isn’t really an automatic “Ok it will be either fighter A,B,C in your next fight“.  They did pick up KJ Noons.  Give him a challengers fight and then you could have him fight Melendez. There has also been the rumor going around that Strikeforce will be getting “Crusher“ Kawajiri next, that could be interesting an interesting match up for Melendez as well.

Aoki-  Some fight in Dream is what`s best for him now.  Maybe he could go and move up or down a weight class for a one time only fight.

Jake Shields- He is now a free agent so he could go to the UFC. If he goes to UFC then there would be tons of possible fights for him, far too many to list in this. If he stays in Strikeforce there is really only a couple compelling fights.  Ronaldo “Jacare“ Souza would be interesting since both are primarily grapplers, providing us with a heavily grappling oriented fight. The winner of  Lawler vs. Mayhem maybe could work but those are two people Shields has already beaten within the past year. Now with Mayhem’s antics from Saturday night they could go for the cheap cash grab and make the rematch. They should not make it though as what happened was wrong and he should not be rewarded with a title shot for such antics. Another possible contender would be Karl Amoussou once he gains a few wins to his name under the Strikeforce banner.

Dan Henderson- He needs to go back up to LHW now. He is nearly 40 and they claimed that he had to cut about 10-15 pounds before the weigh-ins to make weight. That can’t be easy or healthy for someone that age. Strikeforce could also use people up at the 205 div. They could re-debut him against Mo but if Hendo has the same wrestling from his fight against Shields than Mo will just be able to take him down at will.

Jason “MAYHEM” Miller: He shouldn’t get Shields. He does not deserve Shields. Have him go fight Lawler and then MAYBE if they have nothing else to do, you make Mayhem vs. Shields 2.  But until then he should not be rewarded for his actions following the post-fight brawl that occurred Saturday night

They opened the show with a well done video package showing the fighters on the main card being broken up and put together like they were rock. The first fight was King Mo vs. Mousasi which was a good choice since it did seemmost likely to end quick. This did not happen. Mousasi looked like he took Mo to lightly in the end he paid for it. Mo was able to take him down seemingly at will and Mousasi couldn’t figure out what to do. In the second round he was able to win the round by being more active off his back, keeping Mo at a distance and hitting him with some short slapping hammer fist punches as well as taking Mo’s back in the final seconds of the round. After that round though both fighters seemed to have gassed. In the 4th and 5th rounds Mo was able to use his wrestling to take Gegard down and control him from the top.  This all added up to King Mo becoming the new Strikeforce Light Heavy Weight Champion. Now 7-0 the wrestling standout has a title to his name. Who is going to challenge him though? After Mousasi there isn’t really anyone else.

The second fight which started at around 10 pm in the east was Aoki vs. Melendez. This was the fight I was most looking forward to. With BJ losing to Frankie Edgar this now added more importance when it comes to the scared art of MMA rankings. Melendez came in with the right game plan to beat Aoki. He was able to take Aoki down and push him in to the cage and for the most part stay away from Aoki’s jiu jitsu abilities. Aoki just couldn’t really do anything about it, if it was down in the ground he was up against the fence getting feed some GnP and if it was standing he was easily out struck. This led to Melendez getting a decision win over Aoki and hopefully in his eyes he gets the respect he deserves now.

Shields Henderson was the fight of the night. The first round was huge with Shields getting dropped twice by Henderson’s monstrous right hand the first time though he was still lucid enough to grab a leg and try for a leg lock. In the second round Henderson looked spent and Shields was able to take him down, something many did not expect given Henderson’s wrestling credentials.  Once the fight got to the ground Shields was able to get into mount and stay in mount for the remainder of the round. He was hitting Henderson with good, short punches but they did not look like they were doing enough to win him the round handily.  The other rounds were all like round two with Shields taking Henderson down and Henderson not really having a answerer. This was a huge upset since many fans (myself included) figured that Henderson would be able to keep it standing and pick Shields apart.  Shields proved everyone wrong and showed his heart and beat Dan Henderson to retain the Strikeforce Middleweight Championship.

Then during the post fight interview Jason “Mayhem” Miller randomly got in the cage. What ensued was a brawl on national television and Gus Johnson saying “Well these things happen sometimes in MMA”. Way to bury our sport even more Gus! This was not good for Strikeforce or MMA in general. Hopefully this won’t be picked up by the bigger media outlets. The odds that this Strikeforce debacle will slide by with less media coverage than expected (for the most part) is very likely considering that the NBA and NHL playoffs are getting underway at this time. Most mainstream outlets will have something covering the incident, ESPN and SI showed that they had a article up but you had to do some searching to even find it.  Sadly like UFC 112 something that happened at the end of the show is over shadowing the bigger surprises and more importantly stuff that we all should be talking about.

You can follow Mike MaZZacane on Twitter @MaZZacreMMA

Shinya Aoki is the current DREAM Lightweight Champion and is an MMA sensation in Japan.  He is seen as one of the greatest grapplers in MMA today and with good reason as 14 of his 23 wins have come by way of submission.  Widely seen as the #2 Lightweight fighter in the world, Shinya most recently fought on New Years Eve on the Dynamite!! 2009 card, which featured DREAM fighters taking on the fighters of the Sengoku organization.  Shinya would face off against the Sengoku Lightweight Champion, Mizuto Hirota, and defeat him in impressive fashion.  But controversy would surround him following his post-match antics.  Shinya would break the arm of Hirota with a Hammerlock-like submission for the technical submission victory but following breaking Hirota’s arm, Aoki leapt up to the canvas and instantly threw the middle finger into Hirota’s face as well as at Hirota’s corner.  The backlash from his actions would be heard through out the MMA community for his lack of sportsmanship.  Now Aoki looks to make the jump into Strikeforce and become more widely known amongst North American fans of the sport.  With a victory over Melendez, Aoki could easily make a claim as the #1 Lightweight fighter in the world.

Strikeforce: Nashville is set to take place at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee and will feature 3 title fights.  The event will be the second time Strikeforce has broadcast on the CBS channel.