Never too old to fight...
Herschel Walker

Herschel Walker proved this past week that age has nothing to do with it when you are way too talented and have the work ethic of a Heisman Trophy winner on your side. People can point to a million things against Walker’s victory, the guy he fought was a nobody.

Walker could not finish the fight against an opponent that didn’t want to be in there with him, or how he is in MMA for the challenge. I say none of those things are his fault and he is a guy with so much athletic ability that he’s probably spent his life looking for a challenge. I’m sure MMA will give him that challenge.

Melvin Manhoef is one of my favorite MMA fighters, no ground game to save his life, (look at his loses,) but still one of my favorites due to his intensity of throwing bombs. I just start to wonder if that KO button on his chin is getting bigger and bigger or if his defense is so bad that if he doesn’t see a punch he’s going to get knocked out by it.

I know Robbie Lawler is known for throwing bombs but Manhoef was technically knocked out before finally being officially knocked out by Lawler. Just looking at his K1 record ; 5 of his 8 losses have come by knockout, just less than a year ago he was one punch KO’d by Keijiro Maeda in a K1 tournament, a fighter he was supposed to dominate, by a punch he never saw coming.

To his defense he’s been in some wars and hit by some bombs. Check out the war between him and Cyborg on YouTube.

Is Strikeforce headed down the same troubled path as Elite XC? I hope not because they have good fight cards but because they choose to promote celebrity fights [like Herschel Walkers] instead of up and coming talent or their current roster of fighters. What brings me to this is KJ Noons vs Nick Diaz part 2. This is a fight Elite wanted badly but Noons didn’t, he didn’t want it to the point  that he quit MMA all together and it’s sad because everyone knows you make your money on the sequel. Bigger budget, better hype, throw in Sr. Noons and Nate Diaz for that extra flavor of trash talking and you got two MMA superstars who really don’t like each other  . . . going to war.

I hope Strikeforce puts this together, not just throws it together. I hope they promote the hell out of it as this would make a perfect CBS primetime fight. They have two fighters with records that can promote strong credibility in their fight as well as show the world why they deserve to be fighting as a headliner.

No matter how many first time MMA watchers you have, you need fighters that will keep them coming back; not fights like Kimbo vs. Seth Petruzelli or Kimbo vs. Ken Shamrock. You need to flood the minds of those first time watchers with curiosity about the fighters.

The UFC does a great job with that because you see constant advertisements of their upcoming bouts and some sort of storyline for that bout. Thanks to The Ultimate Fighter even casual fans know that Rashad and Rampage hate one another and so they can’t wait to see those two fight. Strikeforce needs to take that same approach with Noons vs. Diaz. The fight may not make them millions but if Diaz wins it can set the tone for a rubber match that new and old fans alike will set their DVR’s for.