Greg Savage and Jeff Sherwood took to The Sherdog Radio Network Friday with a special edition of "The Savage Dog Show." For three hours the guys broadcast live from The Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino in Lemoore, California.
Hometown attraction Joe Riggs will face off against Louis Taylor in a 182-pound catch-weight bout at Strikeforce Challengers 10 on Aug. 13 at the Dodge Theater in Phoenix, Ariz., the promotion announced on Thursday.
The Showtime-televised event will also feature a four-women 135-pound single-elimination tournament over one night; the participants have yet to be announced. The winner will earn a title shot against the promotion’s 135-pound champion. Champion Sarah Kaufman will defend her crown against Roxanne Modafferi at Strikeforce Challengers 9 on July 23 in Kent, Wash.
One-time heavyweight Riggs, a heavy-handed striker who fought at both 170 and 185 pounds in the UFC, holds wins over Phil Baroni, Luke Stewart, and Eugene Jackson in the San Jose-based promotion and notable victories over Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz, Chris Lytle and Joe Doerksen outside of it. The 27-year-old fighter dropped a unanimous decision to Jay Hieron at Strikeforce “Miami” last January.
Chicago’s Taylor knocked Ryan Sturdy out with a head kick at Bellator Fighting Championships 14 last April. Taylor’s sole career defeat came against Nate Moore via a second-round TKO at Strikeforce/M-1 Global “Fedor vs. Rogers” last November in Hoffman Estates, Ill. Taylor has notched back-to-back wins, including the win against Sturdy, since November.
Strikeforce Challengers 10 will air live on Showtime.
Friday, July 9 10:50 am PT: Makes sense: according to Tatame, Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira are set for a rematch of their December 2008 bout at UFC 119 Sept. 25 in Indiana. Rodrigo’s light-heavyweight twin, Rogerio, will fight Ryan Bader the same night.
Rogerio is a good, definitive fight for Bader, who’s flirting with top-ten entry if he can put together more performances as impressive as the win over Keith Jardine last winter. He’s looking at the best boxer of his career, as well as someone who could make him think twice while he’s on the ground.
But is Mir/Nogueira II really in danger of ending any differently than the first time? Mir has only turned into a better stand-up striker, while Nogueira was flattened against Cain Velasquez in Sydney. His chin is disappearing, and for a career defined by an ability to take punishment until an opening comes up, that’s as bad as a broken arm.
Anderson Silva speaks very little English. While this would normally be a promotional headache, the UFC is fortunate in that Chael Sonnen does enough talking for the both of them.
Sonnen has worked his way into a title shot against Silva a little less than a month from now, and he’s going for the hard sell. There were the barbs against Silva (“a fraud”), against Silva’s Black House gym credentials (“a Crackerjack award”), and against Silva’s manager, Ed Soares (“world’s most famous interpreter”). Antonio Rogerio Nogueira responded, complaining that Sonnen is “not even a real challenger” for the belt. Sonnen read this. He didn’t like it.
Regarding Nogueira, he wrote to Sherdog.com July 7, “You [Nogueira] are one sharp dude.... about as sharp as a bag of wet mice. Do yourself a favor, won't you? Have your mouthpiece permanently installed in your mouth so you can't speak at all. Have them feed you with a tube like a coma patient. You're not doing Anderson any good, and you're sinking your own ship, too. You say I'm not qualified to fight Anderson...which means that the UFC brain trust, that thinks I am, and who also are your bosses, are idiots. And that Ed Soares, Anderson's manager, and your manager too, doesn't know what he's doing. Smooth, guy. Very smooth…If you lose a few (you looked like Roy Nelson in a Frankenstein mask for that Brilz fight, which you lost, buddyboy), we can scrap in the fall.”
It’s hard to detect sincerity in Sonnen or any other athlete who understands that the best promotional push is the one they give themselves. Maybe it’s all a put-on, or maybe he believes enough of it to keep chipping away. At this point, I’d put the odds of him getting a hug after the fight about on par with getting a free trip to Brazil. But if this guy’s pension plan doesn’t involve a talk show, it should.
Dream 15:Shinya Aoki will do battle with Tatsuya Kawajiri to headline a stacked card. Airs live from Japan on HDNet at 3 a.m. ET Saturday morning.
Impact FC:Josh Barnett, Karo Parisyan and Carlos Newton will return to the ring in Brisbane, Australia. The bad news? It won’t be televised in North America. However, Jordan Breen will host a live play-by-play and chat from cageside starting at 5 a.m. ET. Watch Dream 15 on HDNet and rock with Breen as he is joined in the chat by Tony Loiseleur, who will report live from Tokyo on location at Dream. It will be gonzo mixed martial arts at its finest.
“UFC Unleashed” Spike TV will kickoff its “UFC Unleashed” mini-marathon at 6 p.m. ET.
Sunday
“Best of Pride”: The “Best of Pride” will show at 12 a.m. ET on Spike TV.
