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Filed under: Strikeforce, News

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Three championships will be on the line at Saturday's Strikeforce: Nashville event, but first, the six fighters involved have to go through the business of making weight.

Weigh-ins for the middleweight title bout between Jake Shields and Dan Henderson, the light-heavyweight title bout between Gegard Mousasi and Muhammed Lawal, and the lightweight bout between Shinya Aoki and Gilbert Melendez, along with the undercard fights, take place at 5 pm ET, 4 pm CT outside the Bridgestone Arena.

MMA Fighting is on scene to bring you the details, and the results begin below.

News dan henderson, Gegard Mousasi, Gilbert Melendez, Jake Shields, Muhammed Lawal, Shinya Aoki, Strikeforce: Nashville

Filed under: Strikeforce, FanHouse Exclusive, News

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- On the surface, he's all flash. He wears a robe and a crown, movie star sunglasses, and meticulously plans his pre-fight cage entrance and post-fight celebration. But behind the swagger of "King Mo" is Muhammed Lawal, a thoughtful and bright man with a perpetual underdog mentality and a burning drive to succeed. How else can you explain what he's accomplished in life?

Lawal, after all, didn't start wrestling until he was 16 years old, in the second semester of his sophomore year in high school. Yet two years later, he won a Texas state championship. Then, he earned a college scholarship, became a collegiate All-American and national champion before he moved on to the U.S. national team, became world-ranked, and eventually transitioned into MMA, where he's a perfect 6-0.

In the rough-and-tumble worlds the Strikeforce light-heavyweight No. 1 contender has inhabited, those successes did not come through flash, but grit.

News Gegard Mousasi, Muhammed Lawal, Strikeforce: Nashville

Filed under: MMA Videos, Strikeforce, FanHouse Exclusive, Videos

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- MMA Fighting spoke to "King" Muhammed Lawal moments after his light heavyweight title victory over Gegard Mousasi at Strikeforce: Nashville.

Lawal, who won the title in just his seventh professional fight, was visibly emotional as he reflected on the historic win.

Check out the video below.

News Gegard Mousasi, Muhammed Lawal, Strikeforce: Nashville

Filed under: Strikeforce, News

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The King got his crown, Japanese MMA suffered a national blow, and an underappreciated champion beat a legend, but in the end, it was a night of Mayhem.

Strikeforce: Nashville offered up three championship bouts, but it was a fourth, unscheduled match that unfortunately left with the buzz. At the conclusion of Jake Shields' five-round decision over Dan Henderson, a brawl broke out after Jason "Mayhem" Miller party-crashed the cage to challenge Shields to a championship rematch.

Miller, as he is one to do, found a way to steal the spotlight with his unnecessary intrusion on Shields' airtime, but what it led to was worse, as the images of the Diaz brothers beating on a downed Miller won't reflect well on a sport still fighting for mainstream acceptance.

News dan henderson, Gegard Mousasi, Gilbert Melendez, Jake Shields, jason mayhem miller, Muhammed Lawal, Shinya Aoki, Strikeforce: Nashville, tim stout

Filed under: Strikeforce, News

Strikeforce has officially announced a June 16 show at the Los Angeles Nokia Theatre, featuring a main event of Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs. Robbie Lawler.

The event, first reported by MMA Fighting in early April, will be the organization's first mid-week card, taking place on a Wednesday to coincide with the massive E3 entertainment expo.

News Bobby Lashley, Gegard Mousasi, Jake Shields, jason mayhem miller, KJ Noons, Melvin Manhoef, Renato Sobral, Robbie Lawler

Filed under: DREAM, News, Japan

Gegard Mousasi, who will likely fight at DREAM.15 in the light heavyweight tournament, expressed an interest in a rematch with Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal during a DREAM press conference Thursday.

"I don't have a specific opponent that I want to fight," Mousasi said. "I don't know who is going to participate in the tournament but I would love to fight King Mo again. I hope on New Year's Eve I will get my shot at him."

News Gegard Mousasi

Filed under: DREAM, News, Japan

Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Alistair Overeem, Katsunori Kikuno, Gegard Mousasi and Melvin Manhoef are all confirmed participants for DREAM.15 on July 10 at the Saitama Super Arena, DREAM Event Producer Keiichi Sasahara and FEG President Sadaharu Tanikawa announced Thursday.

While no match ups were announced, a lightweight title match between Shinya Aoki and Tatsuya Kawajiri seems likely given the event title of "A Fated Rivalry Bout, Realized."

News Alistair Overeem, Gegard Mousasi, Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri

Filed under: Strikeforce, FanHouse Exclusive, M-1 Global, News

In February, then-Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi announced that he had split with M-1 Global. Mousasi even categorized the break-up as "bitter." This led to speculation that Mousasi was setting himself up for a departure to the UFC.

Four months later, Mousasi is no longer the 205-pound champion and, according to Evgeni Kogan, M-1 Global's director of operations, "The Dreamcatcher" appears to be on his way back to M-1.

News Evgeni Kogan, Evgeni+Kogan, Gegard Mousasi

Filed under: DREAM, Strikeforce, News, Japan

Two of the fighters who lost lopsided decisions on April's Strikeforce card on CBS bounced back with impressive victories Saturday at Dream 15 in Saitama, Japan.

In the main event, Dream lightweight champion Shinya Aoki submitted Tatsuya Kawajiri to retain his title, looking as good as he ever has three months after looking as bad as he ever had in a loss to Gilbert Melendez.

Aoki, wearing board shorts rather than his trademark spandex grappling pants, immediately took the fight to the ground and went for one of his signature foot lock submissions, twisting and turning Kawajiri's leg for a full minute on the ground before Kawajiri finally had to tap out. There was nothing more to it than that, as Aoki -- Japan's biggest MMA star -- did exactly what he wanted to do.

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News dream.15, Gegard Mousasi, Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri

Filed under: DREAM, Japan

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News dream.15, Gegard Mousasi, Jake OBrien

There may not have been a UFC or Strikeforce event this weekend, but that doesn't mean that there weren't still plenty of people punching, kicking, and choking each other all around the world.

Some of them might have required you to set the DVR or wake up at odd hours, and others might not be available on video at all just yet, but the point is some stuff happened. In order to give that stuff its due respect, we now take a look back at the weekend's action to examine who the big winners and losers are this Monday afternoon.

News Gegard Mousasi, Jeremy Horn, Jose Canseco, Josh Barnett, Marianna+Kheyfets, Melvin Manhoef, Shinya Aoki, War Machine

Filed under: DREAM, Japan

It's a little more than eight months since MMA veteran Gary Goodridge fought Gegard Mousasi at FEG's Dynamite!! 2009 New Year's Eve show in Japan. Eight months, and still he hasn't seen a single penny of the money he's owed for that bout, Goodridge told MMA Fighting earlier Wednesday.

"I'm pissed off. I'm fed up. I want my money," said the 44-year-old Goodridge. "Of course, you're like any other fighter at first, you stay quiet. You think, I stake my reputation and my whole career with these people. Of course they're gonna pay. Of course they're gonna pay, since my whole livelihood came from them in the last 13 years. Now it's eight months and it's quite obvious I'm not getting paid. So I'm going to open my mouth now."

News Gary Goodridge, Gegard Mousasi

Filed under: DREAM, News

Gegard Mousasi says winning the Dream light heavyweight belt this Saturday would push him closer towards a shot at reclaiming the Strikeforce 205-pound belt.

"I feel like if I win this belt," Mousasi told reporters Thursday. "It will give me the right to also fight for the Strikeforce belt and winning both belts; I think in Japan and U.S. is an accomplishment that I've always wanted."

Besides the rare feat of holding titles in separate major promotions, the 25-year-old Dutch-Armenian would fully establish himself as an important figure in the historical sense down the line for the Dream organization.

Already staking a claim to being the first DREAM middleweight titleholder, he'd be the first-ever DREAM light heavyweight champion as well if he's successful at Dream.16 against Tatsuya Mizuno.

News DREAM 16, Gegard Mousasi, Tatsuya Mizuno

Filed under: Strikeforce

Strikeforce's light heavyweight title has been held by three different fighters this year, and two more fighters will vie for the right to fight for the belt in the main event of the promotion's December 4 show. Although the Strikeforce light heavyweight division doesn't have the depth of the UFC, it does have several good fighters and the potential for a bunch of exciting fights over the next year.

So can Strikeforce make those fights happen? If they can, which fights should they book first? And who will be the Strikeforce light heavyweight champion in a year's time? We answer those questions in our state of the Strikeforce light heavyweight division, below.

News Babalu Sobral, dan henderson, Gegard Mousasi, Mike Kyle, Muhammed King Mo Lawal, Ovince St. Preux, Rafael Feijao Cavalcante, Roger Gracie

Filed under: DREAM, K1

Two mixed martial artists had very different results when they took on kickboxers at the New Year's Eve Dynamite!! event in Japan, as Gegard Mousasi put on a striking clinic in beating K-1 heavyweight champion Kyotaro, while Shinya Aoki was knocked out by Yuichiro Nagashima.

Mousasi is first and foremost an MMA fighter, but he showed once again that he has K-1-level striking. Mousasi was nothing short of sensational in beating Kyotaro, knocking down the Japanese champ in the second round with a beautiful combination of punches. It was the second time Mousasi has beaten an experienced K-1 veteran under K-1 rules on a New Year's Eve card in Japan; Mousasi also beat the Japanese kickboxer Musashi two years ago.

News Gegard Mousasi, Shinya Aoki