Strikeforce offers a card headlined by UFC vets and light-heavyweight notables Dan Henderson and Renato “Babalu” Sobral. The event airs 10 p.m. on Showtime from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
For the UFC, the TUF 12 Finale is a rather small event with minimal expectations. Anything north of 2 million viewers would be a success.
For Strikeforce, though, the show is one of the year’s biggest. But in the past week, former NFL great/MMA rookie Herschel Walker suffered a facial cut and pulled out of the fight, an elbow injury forced fellow main-card fighter Valentijn Overeem off the card, and popular St. Louis fighter Jesse Finney gave up a preliminary-card fight due to an eye injury. Officials are scrambling to fill the spots.
Franklin vies for World MMA Award
Former UFC middleweight champion and West Chester Twp. resident Rich Franklin vies for “Knockout of the Year” honors at Wednesday’s 2010 World MMA Awards ceremony, the industry’s leading awards program.
The black-tie event takes place in Las Vegas and streams live on Versus.com (and then airs via delay on Versus on Dec. 9).
Franklin received his nomination, which was determined by a fan vote, due to his KO of UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell at UFC 115 in June. Franklin broke his arm early in the fight but scored the knockout a few minutes later. He faces opposition from Anthony Njokuani, Cain Velasquez, Mike Russow and Maurio “Shogun” Rua.
Xenia’s Brown survives UFC cut
Following a UFC 123 loss to Brian Foster, Matt Brown’s future in the organization appeared uncertain. Despite his three-fight losing skid and the UFC’s roster purge due to the WEC merger, officials said after the show they weren’t sure Brown would be terminated.
This week they decided to give the Xenia native another shot.
Prior to the latest loss, Brown (11-10) appeared on “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series and won four of his first five UFC fights.
Dann Stupp is editor-in-chief of MMAjunkie.com, voted best media outlet in the 2008 and 2009 World MMA Awards. For the latest mixed martial arts news, go to MMAjunkie.com.
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