ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix wasn’t supposed to end with an undersized, inexperienced alternate as the last man standing.

Daniel Cormier apparently writes his own script.

Cormier (10-0) dominated veteran Josh Barnett over the course of five rounds Saturday, claiming the belt from a tournament he didn’t even have a spot in when it was announced in 2010.

Strikeforce is a difficult realm in the current landscape of mixed martial arts in which to make noise, but Cormier has been the exception to that rule. No heavyweight’s stock has risen more in the past two years than that of the former Olympic wrestler.

“If you look at the heavyweight group that fought in this tournament, I think it’s something Daniel should be very proud of,” Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told ESPN.com.

“It’s an amazing feat. I mean, Fedor [Emelianenko], Alistair [Overeem], [Antonio] Silva, Josh Barnett -- he didn’t have it easy.”

The improbable road through the Grand Prix started with a unanimous decision win over Jeff Monson in June. Cormier then went on to knock out Antonio Silva before handling Barnett.

Silva is currently the No. 10-ranked heavyweight on ESPN.com. Barnett was ranked No. 5 heading into the finale.

As is often the case in this sport, it wasn’t just the names of the competitors Cormier defeated. The most impressive moments hide in the details.

At the postfight news conference, Cormier admitted he had reinjured his right hand in the first round -- the same hand that caused a delay in the Grand Prix finals since September.

He hid it amazingly well the rest of the way and later speculated he’d undergo surgery now that the tournament is finished.

“I followed our game plan,” Cormier said. “Josh did great. He fought hard in there. He was in my face. I couldn’t believe some of the shots I landed on him and he was able to stay up. I think I broke my hand in the first round.”

His cardio held up well over the course of his first five-round fight, and he showed a terrific ability to slow down the pace during the only time he was really in trouble. After eating a straight right, then a knee from Barnett while regaining his balance from a body kick attempt, Cormier locked up his bigger opponent and survived.

As was the case when he fought Monson, the evolution of his standup was what stuck out most. He landed strikes on the inside and out, and seemed to have Barnett in trouble during the third round with knees from the Thai clinch.

“The thing I’m impressed with is that he comes from Olympic wrestling,” Coker said. “If you saw his fight against Jeff Monson, you said, ‘Who is this guy?’ He was a kickboxer in that fight, and today he was a complete martial arts fighter.”

Cormier will fulfill one more obligation with Strikeforce, a title defense of his Grand Prix belt against an unnamed opponent, possibly this year.

All that could wait Saturday night, however, as the 33-year-old Cormier simply wanted to enjoy the moment. For a man who suffered the loss of his father when he was young and a daughter to a car accident a few years ago, and who has experienced many wins in his career but perhaps never the big one -- it’s an understandable request.

“All the negative things that have happened in my life prepared me for this,” Cormier said. “Everything has kind of turned around.

“Not only is my career going well, but I’ve got two young kids and a great girlfriend. My family life is perfect. Everything is on the up and up.”

It took 15 months and some monumental forks in the road to arrive at the end point of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix. No, it didn’t go the way people thought it would, nor the way many hoped. There isn’t going to be Fedor Emelianenko versus Josh Barnett. That fight, for its entire luster, never could come to terms with fate. Not in Pride, not in Affliction, not in Strikeforce.

However, of the eight-man field that was rolled out in January 2011 as the greatest stock of heavyweights ever assembled, Barnett was the steady. He was supposed to be in the final, and he is. He got there by competing in the quarterfinal (a submission of Brett Rogers) and the semis (a submission of Sergei Kharitonov). Isn’t it strange that the man with the most asterisks coming into the tournament was in the end the only one who could stick to the script?

On the other hand, Daniel Cormier’s course was improbable. He was an alternate to this tournament. A deep alternate. He was the 11th man in an eight-man field. Yet he worked over Jeff Monson on the same night Barnett clubbed Rogers in something called a “reserve bout.” Then Cormier found his entry when Alistair Overeem was unceremoniously removed. What did Cormier do? He obliterated heavy favorite Antonio Silva on the feet with speed and power.

And that’s how we arrive at the moment. The old “War Master” Barnett, against the opportunistic, understudy-turned-contender Cormier. The 1-seed versus the 11. Just how crazy has the 15-month journey been to San Jose? Crazy enough that sports books have these guys at even money heading into Saturday night.

Here are five things to watch for at Strikeforce this weekend.

Cormier’s lack of experience

Daniel Cormier is a nerves-of-steel guy. He is always relaxed. Right before his fight with Bigfoot Silva, he wore and expression that said, “I wouldn’t mind a nap” more than “I’m about to lay waste to somebody.” Needless to say, Cormier keeps himself cool under pressure.

This can be attributed to his wrestling days at Oklahoma State and later as a part of the 2004 U.S. Olympic wrestling team. Cormier has competed his whole life. You really believe that fighting -- for all its literal brutality -- is just another competition for him. He believes in his ability and knows he has deceptive explosiveness and speed. In short, his confidence shows in that calm expression.

Yet with only nine professional MMA bouts, and realistically only one of those against a top-10 opponent, how will he handle a submission specialist like Barnett? Even when training with the likes of Mike Kyle and Cain Velasquez, it’s hard to duplicate the strength and slickness of Barnett, who has been at this a long, long time (since he was 19 years old, to be exact). Cormier will very likely find himself in fixes he hasn’t been in before in the cage. How will he handle himself?

Barnett’s comfort zone

Everybody knows what Barnett likes to do. He likes to muscle you to the ground, straighten you out, and work for submissions from that top position. He’s not afraid to punch a hole in your head, either. Just ask Pedro Rizzo and Gilbert Yvel. But Barnett's most effective way of finishing a guy is to put him on his back and then fish for limbs to manipulate.

Dating back to 2006, Barnett has finished foes via toeholds, heel hooks, kimuras and arm triangle chokes. He does these things more with brute force than textbook jiu-jitsu. In Cormier, Barnett gets a guy who has never been made to fight off his back and has never had his shoulder joint pressured into a panic situation.

But the bigger questions are these: Can Barnett get Cormier to the ground? And if so, can he keep him there?

Melendez’s motivation
Trilogies are usually pretty personal grudge matches. In the case of Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson, it feels more like a necessary evil. At least to Melendez, who will be asked to duplicate what he did in 2009 when he smoked Thomson in the rematch to unify the interim and meaningful belts. That fight was so definitive that most thought he was done with Thomson for good.

Well, circumstance has made that impossible. Thomson gets a chance to strip Melendez of his belt a second time because the “Punk” was the best option available on Strikeforce’s depleted roster. It’s a rubber match that benefits Thomson a thousand times more than Melendez, because third chances rarely come along.

Which begs the same question that has fallen to Melendez for the past year: How motivated will he be to again prove himself against Thomson? Knowing the work ethic of “El Nino,” it’s easy to expect to see him in vintage form. But complacency is a hard-to-detect virus that usually gets discovered after it’s too late. Will Melendez suffer from this?

(Probably not, but you never know ...)

Thomson’s attitude

The first time Thomson fought Melendez in 2008, it was as if Thomson was showing up for a day of capers and fun. He was smiling the whole time. He was loose. There were moments when it almost felt like he was messing with his younger brother, just fooling around. Every so often he would do something to remind Melendez that, when serious, he could dictate things how he wanted.

But the key to that fight was that Thomson was first. He was quick with the leg kicks. He was effective with his combinations. He would shoot now and again for a takedown and keep Melendez off balance. Thomson thwarted Melendez’s wrestling. And by being the aggressor, he disrupted Melendez’s timing and flow. Can he do that again?

Remember, Thomson had broken (and rebroken) his fibula before that rematch with Melendez in 2009, and he was carrying some ring rust after 15 months on the shelf. Chances are we'll see a combination of those two fights with one similarity: that it goes the full five rounds.

Feijao returns

Though it’s getting very little fanfare, former 205-pound champion Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante returns to the cage on Saturday night against Mike Kyle. Remember, Cavalcante is the guy who beat Muhammad Lawal to win the Strikeforce belt not all that long ago. And, in his title defense against Dan Henderson, there was a moment where it looked like Cavalcante had Hendo in trouble.

It’s been eight months since Feijao beat Cuban freestyle wrestler Yoel Romero, a fight that Cavalcante finished even with a broken arm. He’s still one of the best 205ers in the world, and a win over a tough Kyle might make Feijao a tempting property for the UFC to bring over and fortify its own light heavyweight division. After all, the list of contenders for Jon Jones has shrunk down to Henderson and change.

Gilbert Melendez concedes he will not be making a switch to the UFC anytime soon because he plans to see out his contract with Strikeforce. More »

Leading up to the Strikeforce World Grand Prix final on May 19 in San Jose, it would be easy for heavyweight Daniel Cormier to scoff at Josh Barnett’s wrestling background.

Really, Cormier could scoff at just about anybody’s experience level when it comes to the wrestling mat. Twice, he was a member of the U.S. Olympic team and in 2001 he placed second at the NCAA Championships.

In contrast, Barnett opted to leave the amateur circuit for the professional wrestling scene. He’s competed in "worked" wrestling matches off and on for the better part of his career.

When asked to describe how they’re backgrounds in the sport of wrestling compare, Barnett joked, as he often does, “I cut better promos and I’m more adept at jumping off the top of a cage.”

Cormier, though, quickly interrupted on a more serious note.

“I think when you guys call him a professional wrestler, some of his opponents have listened to that,” Cormier said. “In order to do all that stuff he does on the ground, he has to get you down. This dude’s a wrestler first.

“I think that’s what people misunderstand. People say, ‘Oh, you’re fighting a professional wrestler.’ No, I know better than that.”

The wrestling community has a reputation of being close-knit, a generalization that certainly applies when watching Barnett and Cormier interact.

“One thing wrestlers have over mixed martial arts guys is they know their history,” Barnett said. “Even the guys that are jerks, everybody comes up to you, shakes your hand and tells you who they are. You know your lineage.

“In MMA, there are a lot of kids who run out and don’t know nothing. They couldn’t tell you what Pancrase is. It’s not as if you should worship [past generations], but you should know your past.”

Of course, that means Barnett is well-aware of everything Cormier has accomplished. With 19 submission wins in his MMA career, Barnett has every right to be confident in his grappling skills when the two meet this month, but his first love was still amateur wrestling and he recognizes Cormier as one of the very best.

“I’ll tell you, there’s a part of me that’s envious,” Barnett said. “The experiences he had wrestling in college and the Olympics, I think it’s awesome. I think it’s absolutely fantastic. Amateur wrestling, bar none is the best sport out there.”

It's interesting the two understand wrestling so well, as it's in many ways the sole equalizer in determining the champion of this Grand Prix.

Barnett has competed in MMA since 1997. He’s held title belts in multiple organizations and competed against the who’s who of the heavyweight division for years. Having him fight a 9-0 Cormier is, on paper, a colossal mismatch.

The difference for Cormier has been and may continue to be his wrestling excellence. While it’s not in him to dismiss Barnett’s participation in pro wrestling, he believes his path through the amateurs ultimately outweighs everything.

“My coaches told me the other day it’s kind of weird I’m so calm with my level of experience,” Cormier said.

“When I’m in a fight, I’m confident that the skill I spent a lifetime gathering, which has been shown to be the most dominant skill in MMA, I can do better than anyone else. That, more than anything, makes me calm and confident.”

B.J. Penn has explained why he chose not to fight Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez, revealing he thought it would be a step down to fight outside the UFC. More »

We’ve come to expect, even look forward to the passionate postfight ramblings of the Diaz brothers.

It wouldn’t really feel like a Diaz victory, after all, without copious shout-outs to the homies. It wouldn’t feel right without some chest-thumping on behalf of the 209, or Stockton, or NorCal, or just California in general (it seems the place the Diazes call home gets bigger the farther away they get). The evening just wouldn’t be complete without the now obligatory praise for a newly vanquished opponent and at least one out-of-the-blue announcement to make us all narrow our eyes at the TV a little bit and go: “Huh?”

On Saturday night in New Jersey, it was Nate Diaz’s turn.

Diaz had just defeated Jim Miller at UFC on Fox 3 to solidify his position as top contender for the organization’s lightweight title. In an absolutely appropriate summation by UFC color commentator Joe Rogan, Diaz had “completely handled” Miller en route to dealing him the first stoppage loss of his MMA career via funky second-round guillotine choke. It was Diaz’s third win in a row since dropping back down from welterweight last year. He seems to have suddenly come into his own inside the Octagon and is now set to take on the winner of the Aug. 11 do-over between champion Ben Henderson and ex-champ Frankie Edgar.

When asked by Rogan how he views his own standing in the sport’s most competitive division, Diaz first stumbled through the typical clichés about wanting to be top dog, but then tacked on an addendum that -- while not exactly surprising -- speaks to the unique landscape of the 155-pound division right now.

“I’m trying to be the No. 1 in this world,” Diaz said. “There’s only one person above all of us and that’s Gilbert "El Nino" Melendez, the true world champion lightweight.”

Diaz, of course, is terribly biased. He and Melendez are longtime teammates on the Cesar Gracie fight team, so it’s in no way shocking that he would use a live mic on national television to give the Strikeforce champion his propers. However, it is somewhat surprising that anyone on the doorstep of a UFC title shot would so readily and publicly admit he thinks the best fighter in his weight class competes elsewhere.

Also, even if Diaz didn’t know it, he had a point. His words actually did much to underscore the fractured state of the lightweight ranks right now.

For perhaps the first time in the modern history of the sport -- or, at least, in recent memory -- there are no fewer than five fighters who can lay somewhat serious claim to being the No.1 lightweight in the world. Sure, maybe not all of them could make overwhelming cases for themselves, but you wouldn’t immediately laugh any of them out of the room, either.

Since, as Diaz sort of pointed out, several of said guys don’t fight in the UFC, it makes the question of who is truly the best in the world more difficult to answer than ever. It also obviously makes the 155 pound class one of the most interesting in the sport.

Considering that what we typically do when we fill out MMA top 10 lists is just insert “Whoever has UFC Title” at No. 1, Henderson is the conventional pick as top lightweight of the moment. In the former WEC titlist’s case, however, his meteoric rise is undermined a tad by the razor-close decision in his championship victory over Edgar at UFC 144.

At least some observers think Edgar rightly should have gotten the nod in that bout and people who subscribe to the old adage that it's necessary to “take” the title off a standing champion might be able to make a convincing case that Edgar is still the best lightweight on the planet. That matchmakers granted him an immediate rematch against Henderson at UFC 150 only adds fuel to that argument.

Michael Chandler is the undefeated 155-pound champion of Bellator and the 26-year-old Xtreme Couture product has spent the last couple of years laying waste to most of the competition in MMA’s highest profile mid-major organization. His title victory over Eddie Alvarez was a fight of the year candidate for 2011, but the back-and-forth nature of that affair’s three-plus rounds might lead some to wonder if Chandler is truly even the best lightweight in his own promotion right now. As long as Bellator doesn’t move to set up a Chandler-Alvarez rematch, instead appearing content to book its champ in quizzical, non-title fights against guys like Akihiro Gono, we might never know how good Chandler actually is.

Since that loss in November, Alvarez might have the least compelling case as a legitimate world No. 1, but nonetheless still deserves to be in the discussion. Prior to that defeat, he’d won seven fights in a row dating back to 2008 and last month followed up the loss of his Bellator title by dispatching erstwhile top-10 lightweight Shinya Aoki (also the last guy to beat Alvarez prior to Chandler) in just two minutes, 14 seconds. Alvarez is just barely hanging onto his own top 10 spot in the latest ESPN.com rankings, but remains the sort of guy who could beat any other lightweight on the list on any given night.

You can’t have a conversation about who's the best without at least mentioning his name.

Then there’s Melendez, who can likely make the best case for the top spot of any non-UFC fighter. At 20-2, he too is undefeated since 2008 and has avenged both his career losses during that current stretch. In his last four fights, Melendez has looked every bit the part of the world’s best lightweight but, similar to Chandler in Bellator, Strikeforce just doesn’t have the clout to offer him many new an interesting tests, especially with Zuffa still opting not to lessen its own glut of lightweights by sending them Melendez’s way.

At this point, it seems the most Strikeforce can do is book him into an endless series of rematches against Josh Tompson. They’ll fight for a third time on May 19 and if Melendez wins, his tenure in Strikeforce will seem more pointless and maddening than ever.

Should Melendez lose? Well, that seems like an even worse outcome.

Lightweight remains the most vibrant and hotly-contested weight class in our sport, but it’s also the most maddening, considering the wealth of high-level talent spread out over numerous promotions. There are enough contenders jockeying for position in the UFC alone to keep us busy for the next few months, but the question of who can lay legitimate claim to the 155-pound throne will be too-close-to-call until all the top fighters congregate under the same banner.

Until then, at least we know who has Nate Diaz’s vote.

Is there a place in mixed martial arts for an all-female promotion? A "league of their own," as it were?

Shannon Knapp and Janet Martin believe the answer is "yes," and their quest begins Saturday in Kansas City, Kan., with the debut of Invicta Fighting Championships.

"For us, it's just about creating opportunities, because that's the one thing that is lacking [for women fighters]," Knapp said. "There is more than Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate among the girls signed in Strikeforce. There are a ton of girls out there. [Strikeforce] is only hitting a couple of weight classes. There are lot of girls out there; they just don't have the platform to be seen. I think for us it's all about creating opportunities."

In certain cases it's proven that women can move the needle. As a longtime operator in MMA, Knapp, whose last position as a matchmaker and talent relations manager for Strikeforce ended when Zuffa purchased the company last year, knows firsthand how popular women can be when given the proper push and circumstance.

"I don't know that it's something I've wanted to do,” Knapp said. “I never really sat back and said 'someday, I'll have my own promotion.' I was always content doing and helping and building. But I think you get to the point where you keep building it and it keeps either getting bought out or people make decisions and choices that end your job, and you keep finding yourself at the same crossroads. For me, when Zuffa purchased Strikeforce I was standing at the crossroads again."

Will the individual success of a Gina Carano or the niche's latest star, Rousey, translate to fans taking the time to watch an event comprised entirely of women? If lessons learned over the years working for multiple promotions mean anything, Knapp says "yes," even if that means struggling against a strong headwind.

"I like fighting the fight," she said. "I can understand this fight. I've worked on the business side of this for so many years. You know how many times, because I'm a girl, I got passed up for something? Or the boy took the credit for the work that I did? So I can certainly identify with the struggles that [female fighters] have sometimes."

Saturday's event (invictafc.com, 8 ET), is headlined by former Strikeforce champion Marloes Coenen. The 31-year-old Dutch fighter said she believes so strongly in Knapp that she decided to put her name on a three-fight contract with the promotion.

"Shannon has the know-how and the power now to make this happen," Coenen said. "That's why I'm so happy to do this. I really believe Invicta is the next step, next evolution of the sport."

Having started in MMA at the age of 15, Coenen bristled at the concept of "women's MMA." The sport offers the same challenges, dangers, rules and structure regardless of gender, she said. However she conceded that an all-female organization offers unique marketing opportunities, including the possibility of introducing MMA to a wider world of women sports fans.

The prospect of success for Invicta and women fighting in MMA will be directly tied to this kind of crossover potential.

"I don't think there's a huge difference between marketing the males and females,” Knapp said. "If anything, I've learned in this business to tell the story. That's it; tell the story. Put on good fights, but dive deeper.”

Selling a story gives the viewer additional incentive to watch, there’s no question about that. But Invicta can’t rely on highly polished production pieces. As with any fight promotion, the key lies with the talent it holds. Coenen (19-5) is a terrific fighter; however, in her last bout she lost by submission to Tate, who subsequently tapped to Rousey. At best Coenen, who fights France’s Romy Ruyssen (5-1), represents the present state of women in MMA. Invicta must cultivate the stars of tomorrow if it hopes to find staying power.

Twenty-eight-year-old Randi Miller, for example, makes her fighting debut on the card. The 2008 Olympic bronze medalist wrestler at 63-kilograms said Invicta has opened the door for athletes like herself to “transition well into MMA" and she is excited to play a part.

"It was something I was interested in but when my career ended as a wrestler I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do,” said Miller, who fights 1-0 Mollie Estes. “If I wanted to coach, compete in MMA, get a job. I really didn't know what I wanted to do for a while. Eventually I decided I wanted to compete because I felt like I was still young enough. As you know in sports your time is very limited so as long as you feel you can, you should because you won't always be able to."

Miller has a point. Timing is everything.

Ten years after HooknShoot “Revolution,” a lauded all-women card in Evansville, Ind., is this the right moment for a venture like Invicta?

"I hope it grows as much as the men's side,” Miller said. “I hope people like what Invicta is doing and like watching me fight."

Alistair Overeem hasn't spoken publicly since news broke Wednesday that he tested positive for an increased testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio. He probably doesn't have to for Josh Barnett to understand what the 31-year-old Dutch heavyweight is feeling right now.

Barnett, of course, paid a heavy price when he failed a prefight drug test in California almost three years ago. Lost was a huge payday against Fedor Emelianenko, then ranked No. 1 in the division and widely considered among the best competitors in mixed martial arts. The loss of the fight was also the impetus for Affliction Entertainment going under, a situation that rattled the business, fostered the growth and subsequent decline of Strikeforce, and eventually led to Zuffa's move to consolidate the industry.

It's unclear what penalties Overeem will suffer, but similar to Barnett (32-5) he could easily surrender a huge payday as well as the most important fight of his career -- a UFC title tilt against Junior dos Santos. Hey, at least he doesn't have to worry about bringing down a promotion, though he might not be around to partake in UFC's continuing prosperity.

Still, with dark clouds currently hanging over his head, Overeem should take solace in the notion of Barnett's return the UFC for the first time in a decade -- the message being: No matter how badly someone messes up, Zuffa is prone to forgive under the right circumstances.

Barnett's new lease on a UFC life is incumbent on defeating Daniel Cormier on May 19 to cap off the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix tournament. If that happens, UFC president Dana White has suggested that the 34-year-old American could enter the Octagon for the first time since stopping Randy Couture in 2002 to claim the promotional title.

How would he fare against the men ranked above him (which for the time being continues to include Overeem)?

Frank Mir

At stake would be the title of best submission grappler in the heavyweight division. Mir, 32, may have usurped that title by breaking off a piece of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and you know Barnett would love the opportunity to make a point against the former UFC heavyweight champion.

On the floor it's essentially an even fight, though Barnett is much better when he fights from the top. Mir's strength comes in attacking arms. Barnett can do that too; he just prefers the leg techniques born out of catch-wrestling. I can't help but think a grappling-heavy fight between the two would be incredibly appealing.

Both have shown the ability to hurt opponents while standing, but Mir (16-5) owns a slight edge here based on recent results.

If they fought 10 times ... they'd split.

Cain Velasquez

Barnett would carry a significant experience advantage over Velasquez (9-1) and he wouldn't get pushed around by a mid-sized heavyweight.

Barnett utilizes his size and athleticism to squash other grapplers, and if Velasquez winds up on his back he may not stand up or get a reversal. You do not want to face a situation where Barnett establishes top control. He is much more dangerous from the top than Brock Lesnar ever was because he'll string together submissions, is very adept at guard-passing, and is happy to grind away at someone's facial features with his elbows.

Barnett cedes ground in this matchup when it comes to speed, striking technique, and pure wrestling. Velasquez, 29, would have to keep moving against Barnett, never let the bigger man tie him up in the clinch, especially along the fence, and stay off bottom. That's obviously the key.

If they fought 10 times ... Velasquez wins 6 of 10.

Alistair Overeem

Filling a column full of "ifs," Overeem's status remains the largest. So in this scenario, the reprieve Barnett could receive from Dana White extends to Overeem.

Now to the matchup. Overeem is a different class of striker, and while Barnett might be tempted to engage the Dutch fighter's strength it would be a mistake. Getting Overeem (36-11) to the floor isn't easy. Toying around in the clinch, which Barnett does not mind doing, might result in a rocket of a knee puncturing his midsection. Barnett does not react well to body shots, as proven by Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, so that could be a major factor.

Barnett has to put the fight on the floor and push the pace against Overeem, whose stamina can be a question mark.

This is a violent matchup, one that surely wouldn't last the distance.

If they fought 10 times ... Barnett wins 6 of 10.

Junior dos Santos

The current UFC heavyweight champion is all about speed, movement and anvil-like punches. He's as tall as Barnett with about 25 less pounds to move around.

Barnett would lose if he stood with dos Santos, simple as that. The question is, can he take the 27-year-old Brazilian champion down without absorbing too much damage?

Barnett would be best served by roughing up dos Santos (14-1) against the fence, fighting for takedowns (just not from the outside so dos Santos can counter with knees or sprawl on the American's head), and establishing top control. Presuming he can do those things, he can win. Otherwise chances are good he'd be rendered unconscious.

If they fought 10 times ... dos Santos wins 7 of 10.

For what it’s worth, Gilbert Melendez/Josh Thomson III isn’t a bad fight. It’s just not the fight people wanted. It just feels obvious and limited and, you know, uninspired.

There was a time not that long ago when Dana White assured everybody that Melendez -- a top three lightweight who happens to be in his prime -- would not be left pining for challenges in Strikeforce. This was before his Dec. 17 Strikeforce bout with Jorge Masvidal. This was after reconciliation between White and Showtime. This was right around the time when everybody fell into reverie as to whom, and began envisioning expensive imports (maybe Benson Henderson? Clay Guida? Gray Maynard?).

Even Melendez’s camp couldn’t help but imagine the possibilities.

Things have obviously changed.

Melendez has been made into a window shopper. All those elite UFC lightweights that sit on the showroom floor? He’s left to browse and wonder with his nose smudged on the glass. Despite those early fits of optimism, Zuffa isn’t going out of its way to find Melendez challenges -- it is recycling whatever it can find in the cupboards. Somewhere along the way, things soured (again) between Showtime and White. Melendez is the biggest casualty.

Yesterday Strikeforce announced that Melendez would defend his title against ex-champ Thomson on May 19 in San Jose, Calif.; a rubber match that has an ounce of good drama. Problem is, the fight is a buzzkill for those who are interested in Melendez’s upward trajectory. Yes, they’ve split the previous two matches, but Melendez avenged the first loss easily and has won six in a row all told. Thomson has won exactly one in a row, a unanimous decision over K.J. Noons that he said afterward “was s---.” Before that, he lost to Tatsuya Kawajiri. These aren’t the kinds of credentials that earn title fights, even if there are scores to settle.

That’s one of the reasons this trilogy fight will require rose-colored glasses to appreciate. Even if the situation is deeper, it feels like "who cares" matchmaking at its laziest. That is, if you’re Gilbert Melendez. If you’re Josh Thomson, it’s an overly generous chance to reclaim the lightweight belt. And if he does, this will turn the sports world aloof. What could we look forward to then -- Thomson/Healy II? That is true tundra. Keith Wisniewski versus Chris Clements has greater import. Or we could play back Thomson/Melendez IV, and put the thing on a perpetual loop. Strikeforce might have to, because the promotion's lightweight pool is ankle-deep.

If Melendez does lose to Thomson, you’d be left wondering if something like ennui played as big a role as the “Punk” himself. That’s why it’s hard to swallow. Why should all the favors go to Thomson, the sorta-deserving challenger? Why shouldn’t Melendez, the flagship champion of Strikeforce, be better attended? Fans of MMA don’t have interest in behind the scenes politics as much as they do in watching two heads of momentum collide.

But chances are Melendez will win, live up to expectations, and then disappear into waiting for the next thing to materialize. That’s not the kind of immediate future that lights fires in competitors. Yet that’s where Melendez is in 2012 at as Strikeforce lightweight strap holder. A sort of hostage to his throne.

And if he wants to remain the most persecuted champion in MMA, at least for the rest of this year, he’ll need to stay hungry for it. Maybe that’s what White meant about finding Melendez challenges. Maybe Melendez’s biggest challenge in 2012 will be fighting through the set of circumstances, rather than whoever they stick in front of him in the cage.

The unknown persons responsible for encouraging Cristiane Santos to take steroids have been eliminated.

That’s her word: "eliminated."

This according to the former Strikeforce women’s featherweight champion herself in a video statement released this week, roughly 10 days before she’ll appeal a one-year suspension for a positive drug test after her Dec. 17 win over Hiroko Yamanaka at an event in San Diego.

As mea culpa videos go, this one is actually pretty good. A genuinely remorseful-sounding Cyborg acknowledges her mistake, says she knows it is her responsibility to monitor the supplements she takes during training and references the hit to her reputation in the wake of the positive test.

Her words are obviously scripted, but don’t come off overly rehearsed. She doesn’t read from a prepared statement; at least, not one we can see. In any case, she speaks for a little less than three minutes and since it’s all in Portuguese with English subtitles, it ultimately might be difficult for non-speakers of that language to gauge her sincerity.

Even if the video itself is well done though, the content essentially falls back on the same familiar and well-worn tropes we’ve been hearing since Major League Baseball’s steroid scandal put performance enhancing drugs front and center more than a half decade ago.

Santos says she has never knowingly used steroids and points to her track record of passing commission administered drug tests as proof.

Sounds familiar, right?

She blames an unidentified member of her camp for supplying her with a substance “that was supposed to help [her] lose weight” and appears as surprised as everyone else that she came back positive for “steroid metabolites” consistent with stanozolol, a drug linked to some of professional sports’ highest profile PED scandals.

“I have eliminated certain people from my training camp,” Santos says. “I am taking monthly drug tests at the same laboratory that the [California State Athletic Commission] uses to show that I do not take steroids.”

As explanations like this so often do, things take on an unmistakable cloak and dagger vibe. Hard not to, with verbiage like that.

Is Santos being honest? In 2012 it doesn't really matter, as very few people will believe her, no matter what.

The unnamed traitor in Cyborg’s camp now joins Alex Rodriguez’s conniving cousin, Manny Ramirez’s prescription-happy doctor and Barry Bonds’ “flaxseed oil” peddling trainer, Greg Anderson, on the list of people who have allegedly tricked unsuspecting pro athletes into taking performance enhancing drugs.

For years, in fact, we’ve heard wild tales of shadowy, mostly anonymous third parties scoring totally unknown and unrequested “supplements” for their talented friends and family members. Whether consciously or not, the athletes in these situations paint themselves as naive and trusting patsies who simply wash down or inject whatever they’re given without ever thinking to ask what it is or to wonder if there might later be a problem.

Of course, this line of defense leaves only two options: Either the athlete is lying or the athlete is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Just in case it’s the latter -- just in case Santos is telling the truth -- here is a training tip for all you professional athletes out there, from a guy who earns his living pushing keys and making phone calls and who, just a week shy of turning 34, feels like he could really use a Manny Ramirez-style doctor's note right about now: If someone you’re later not willing to name provides you with a mysterious substance they claim will magically cure what ails you, don’t take it.

And if you do take it, don’t bother trying to explain -- or appealing your steroid suspension.

Alright, so Gilbert Melendez will fight on May 19 in San Jose, only five months and two days after beating Jorge Masvidal to retain his title.

Though this isn’t major news in itself, it’s a turnaround that beats nine months of involuntary limbo. Action is good. If nothing else, we can cling to silver linings.

Now the question becomes "against whom?", and Strikeforce is spinning the mystery wheel right now to determine that. Will it be Josh Thomson, who went to Columbus under the presumption that if he beat K.J. Noons (which he did), the title shot would be his? Will it be a darker horse like journeyman Pat Healy, who put in a yeomen’s effort against Caros Fodor to make it four wins in a row? Or will it be ... wait, nope ... the other slots on the mystery wheel are all whammies.

It’s Thomson or Healy.

Or, something far bolder if Zuffa is feeling charitable. Is it possible that the UFC will lend out one of its top 10 fighters to challenge Melendez in the hexagon? It’s a sister promotion, after all, and there are starving contenders. The UFC’s lightweight title picture has had only four people in it for the last two years -- Frankie Edgar, B.J. Penn, Gray Maynard and now Benson Henderson. For anybody else, the summit has been closed off. You can see how the temptation might be there to open up an alternative pass to its second peak.

And why not? A cross-promotion fight that falls within the same company is all that makes sense for Melendez (who’s been promised big challenges) and fans (who’ve grown suspicious of that promise). Currently, there are some top-selling lightweights available for a Melendez clash.

If you follow Melendez’s manager Cesar Gracie’s Twitter feed, you know he’s dropping a couple of names right off the bat -- Anthony Pettis and B.J. Penn. Both of these look compelling (read: available) for “El Nino.” One just had a title shot snatched from his purview, and the other is semi-retired and in the process of self-discovery. Either would make for a fascinating challenge against Melendez, the only pound-for-pound top 10 fighter that spends so much time in quarantine.

In the special case of the former lightweight champion Penn, it might take a dangling carrot to motivate him -- here would be a chance to add to his collection of UFC belts with a gravy Strikeforce strap. Who knows what happens if he wins, but in some ways, who cares? He will either defend that belt in Strikeforce or expedite himself back into the UFC lightweight picture with a case of unification. Seems like a win/win, should he win. And should he lose, he’s in no worse a situation than he is now.

Pettis’s case is interesting, too (though his manager Mike Roberts says they haven't been approached). He’s 25 years old and not overly concerned with the long haul. Twice since coming over as the reigning WEC champion he’s been right there for a title shot, and twice he’s been thwarted. I have sort of campaigned that he should do what Edgar was being asked to do, that of dropping down to 145 pounds to challenge Jose Aldo for the featherweight belt. Maybe he will. That fight would be a crazy indulgence of some of the game's most dynamic strikers. It would be big business for the feathers.

And of course, Gray Maynard and Clay Guida are also out there. If they aren’t turned on each other, either could be a candidate for Melendez.

But there is one more option out there that that might not be as far-fetched as it seems. What if Aldo came up to challenge Melendez in Strikeforce while the featherweight picture sorts out? He has been tempted to dip his toe at 155 pounds anyway, ever since the weight cut nearly ruined him when fighting Mark Hominick. With Hatsu Hioki not quite ready enough (or marketable enough) for a title shot, and Chan Sung Jung/Dustin Poirier slated for a May fight of their own, can you imagine the potential for fun there? Would that not make for creative matchmaking?

Either way, whoever Zuffa is thinking of putting against Melendez, you have to wonder if there’s a trick tucked away up their sleeve. Because right about now there are so many good fights for Melendez that a marquee of “Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thompson III” in San Jose can’t help but feel a little cheap by comparison.

The biggest heavyweight fight in UFC history between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez lasted a minute and four seconds. It was so brief that the coveted casual fan that tuned in to FOX that night was left with these four lonely words -- wait, so that’s it?

On the other hand, the biggest heavyweight grand prix in history has stretched on for 15 long, meandering months. When it started, Strikeforce was still a rival of the UFC’s. Fedor Emelianenko was still formidable. Antonio Silva was constructed from body parts unknown. Fabricio Werdum was still a castoff, and Brett Rogers was free of legal isues. Josh Barnett had single handedly shut down Affliction, and Andrei Arlovski was still believable in fangs. You might remember that The Reem wasn’t yet viral, and Sergei Kharitonov was still unspellable.

It was a different era when the tournament started. In fact, Daniel Cormier, who is in the grand prix final against Barnett, was the eleventh man in the field of eight. How, exactly, did we get here?

Just about all the elite Zuffa heavyweights (and Roy Nelson) will be making appearances in a seven-day span in May. The roads to spring 2012 have been very different, but between May 19-26, everybody will finally get on the same page. Schedules will sync up for matchmaking, guys who have been cordoned off from each other will be at liberty to poke their fingers in whoever’s chest they please, and the division will become one massive melting pot.

It starts with Strikeforce’s heavyweight swan song in San Jose, Calif.; and ends with the UFC’s big man extravaganza in Las Vegas. On May 19, Cormier-Barnett goes down at long, long last, before one or both head to the UFC. On May 26, Frank Mir against Velasquez, Nelson versus Antonio Silva, Alistair Overeem in a title fight with Junior dos Santos. Seven of those names belong in ESPN.com’s top 10 Power Rankings.

That’s a lot of firepower. Forget about the biggest fight or biggest grand prix in heavyweight history -- this will be the biggest single week of consolidating big men we’ve ever seen. And a week after that, we’ll be in a state of musical opponents, matching up winners with winners and losers with losers, and pitting re-emerging bodies like Shane Carwin and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira with each other.

What does it really mean, though? That we’ll finally have a division that captivates the imagination like the others, with a little more matchmaking wiggle room and a lot more overall possibility. It’s a relaunch of something, only this time something whole. Now the best heavyweights in the world are gathering under one roof. And as everybody knows, heavyweights have always carried a little extra clout in the minds of fight fans. The bigger the man, the more likely people are to stop what they’re doing to watch. It’s what happens when guys like Alistair Overeem walk around weighing two Ian McCall’s.

And Zuffa is smart to roll out this broadened division en masse like this.

If you’re going to reimagine something, do it big.

For a time, we assumed Gina Carano would be the fighter to lead women’s MMA into its own. Then, for an even shorter while, we thought it might be Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos.

These days we know better.

With all the benefits of hindsight, it’s clear that both Carano and Santos were always too limited to truly be the transformative figures the sport needed them to be. Now, their failures -- if you want to call them that -- have given way to a new torchbearer, one that so far seems better equipped to wear the crown than either of her predecessors.

Women's MMA's new "it" fighter, of course, is Ronda Rousey. She seized that mantel with her 135-pound title win over Miesha Tate on Saturday, giving fans plenty of reasons to hope that female fighting is finally about to find its stride.

Carano may have had good looks and skills enough to advance to a 7-0 record in Stikeforce and EliteXC, but for her, there was always something missing. Looking back, her moniker as “the face of women’s MMA” maybe should have been instructive that her heart wasn't really in it. Carano appealed to the sport’s male-dominated fanbase, but she repeatedly had trouble making weight, fought only sparingly between 2007-09 and by the time Hollywood came calling with movie offers she already had one foot out the door after her August 2009 loss to "Cyborg."

In nearly every way, Santos seemed like the anti-Carano. For her, heart and motivation were never at issue and her three-year run through the sport’s upper echelon can most accurately be described as a reign of terror. “Cyborg’s” sheer ferocity -- which frankly may never be equaled -- made her a marketable star, but it wasn't as if the audience (either male or female) could ever relate to her. She was dominant almost to a fault and for the most part, people tuned in to her fights just to see what hapless challenger would be fed to her next.

When Santos proved unworthy by testing positive for steroids in the wake of her 16 second brutalization of Hiroko Yamanaka in December, well, let’s just say nobody was shocked.

Now comes Rousey, who arrived seemingly out of nowhere during the last year to become women's MMA’s newest top gun. With the sport still mired in a critical point in its development, her task will be similar to the one previously entrusted to Carano and Santos: Prove that female fighters deserves to share the stage on equal footing with their male counterparts.

So far, it's been an uphill battle. Zuffa bigwigs are holding fast to claims that there isn't enough talent in the women's ranks to include them in the UFC proper, though company president Dana White appeared to be warming ever so slowly to the idea when he admitted he too was pretty excited to see the Tate-Rousey fight.

Indeed, if the task at hand is still to bring women’s MMA into favor with mainstream fight fans, you couldn’t ask for a much better emissary than Rousey.

She combines the innate marketability possessed by Carano with the in-ring tenacity displayed by “Cyborg.” In fact, she goes one better than those two ever could, tying it all together with her amateur background as an Olympic medalist in Judo.

Perhaps most importantly, Rousey seems to understand the concept of selling a fight better than any female fighter before her. She essentially talked her way into her title match with Tate, using a torrent of trash talk the likes of which we've never seen in women's MMA to leapfrog former champion Sarah Kaufman on the contender list. Once there, she showed she was indeed ready, catching Tate in a grisly arm bar during the final minute of the first round.

It's highly possible that when we look back, we'll remember Rousey's championship victory as the moment female MMA really turned a corner, finally found the proper star that could push it to new heights. Either that, or we'll learn Rousey is flawed in some way and, like Carano and Santos before her, she'll prove incapable of carrying the weight of an entire division. So far though, she seems up to the challenge.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the new 135-pound champion and women's MMA's previous stars is this: In retrospect, both Carano and Santos feel like attractions. Rousey feels like a fighter.

Somehow, that's seems like an important distinction.

COLUMBUS -- Heading into the fight, Strikeforce’s women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate said that wrestling trumps judo nine out of 10 times. She was speaking from experience, and experience also happened to be an x-factor against an opponent with only two minutes, 18 seconds of cage time. Experience was also supposed to trump a green challenger.

Funny how the fight game works.

By the time it was over, Ronda Rousey proved more than ready to bust theories, and if need be, the more experienced fighter’s arm. In what was being hailed as the biggest women’s MMA event since Gina Carano versus Cristiane Santos, Rousey emerged as a star in just her fifth fight, while proving that she could back up the audacity of her prefight talk.

Rousey submitted Tate the same way she did her previous four opponents -- via a first-round armbar. And, though she more than doubled her total time in the cage this time out, it was again the judo that delivered her to the moment. Rousey used a brilliant hip toss to get Tate down, transitioned to mount, and then punched away until she could pry the arm away to set up her signature submission. The crowd at Nationwide Arena cringed as she hyper-extended the limb into an unnatural position, torquing it for the tap. It finally came at the 4:36 mark of the first round.

And even though you’d have trouble finding a list of big viable challenges for Rousey right this second, she became the future of women’s MMA with a clear-cut challenge ahead in Sarah Kaufman, who won an equally memorable back-and-forth war with Alexis Davis. With Santos’ suspension, the retirement of Carano and the state of women’s MMA in flux, this played out as the best-case scenario for Strikeforce.

Or as a case of perseverance, to hear Strikeforce president Scott Coker tell it.

“Strikeforce has been supportive of female mixed martial arts since 2006 when we started,” he said during the postfight news conference. “Gina Carano versus Elaina Maxwell in December of ’06 was the first [female MMA] fight that was licensed in the state of California. We’ve always believed in female martial arts fighting. Before that we were a kickboxing league.

“We had many great fights in the female division and, personally, for myself, I believe these ladies that grew up in a martial arts school, or in a wrestling program, they should always be allowed to compete. And I think tonight justifies those feelings of the past. And we talk about fighting at the highest level, I think tonight we saw it. We had four amazing athletes fighting in the female division at the highest level. And we’re going to continue moving forward. I think a star was born tonight, and it’s onward and forward for the female division.”

Afterward, Rousey dedicated her new 135-pound title to her late father. Yet when asked if she could quash her beef with Tate, which reached a crescendo at the weigh-ins when Rousey headbutted Tate, she chose not to. In regard to the armbar that looked like it did some serious damage, she said, “I don’t feel bad about it,” which sent the crowd into raptures. Part of the reason Rousey got a title shot in the first place was by telling it like it is and causing waves in the media. She wasn’t about to back down after achieving her goal as being a champion at 25 years old.

And it looked like she might end the fight as early with an initial armbar attempt.

“I didn’t feel like I really had it,” she said. “The second [armbar attempt], I knew for sure I could get it, and that’s why I abandoned the dominant position. The first one I just kind of fell into it; it didn’t feel that secure.”

Now the new champion can set her sights on former champion Kaufman, who has contended all along that it’s still her belt. Just as you’d expect, she already thinks she spots a weakness in Rousey’s game.

“I thought overall that Ronda looked good,” Kaufman said. “There’s definitely something’s that she doesn’t like that I do really well. It’s going to present a really interesting fight and a really good fight for the fans and for myself as well.”

Asked to elaborate, she added, “clearly I like to strike ... and based on my face, I also like to get hit. But Ronda hasn’t been challenged by somebody who can strike like I am able to strike.”

It was a good night for women’s MMA, and everybody involved knew it. The women stole the show in Columbus, and a star was born in Ronda Rousey.

COLUMBUS -- Ronda Rousey has rapidly become the voice and weathervane of women’s MMA. She’s a mean judoka who has Olympic bronze on her résumé. She’s a pistol, she’s a mystery, and she’s headlining a fight card in which the direction of women’s MMA is quite literally in her hands.

Not bad for somebody with two minutes, 18 seconds of professional fighting experience.

Rousey will challenge Miesha Tate for the bantamweight title on Saturday (Showtime, 10 p.m. ET). There’s a storminess between the two, which gives the whole thing the kind of hypeable dimensions that Gina Carano and Cristiane Santos had back in 2009. But there’s also a “let it all hang out” feel to this fight because, after Tate/Rousey sort things out, what's left?

With her suspension for using anabolic steroids, featherweight champ Cyborg Santos isn’t looming, and Carano is done with the racket. Which leaves Alexis Davis and Sarah Kaufman -- who are facing off on Saturday night as well -- and then an otherwise pretty empty field.

And that’s where things stand with the women’s roster on Strikeforce. In short, pretty much business as usual. Only this feature attraction has some nice friction going, and the murky future happily gives way to the here and now.

Tate is tired of hearing about the arm collection that Rousey has going, and Rousey is warning that what few reels we’ve seen of her are either pretty accurate or entirely misleading.

“The less that everybody knows, the better for me,” she said at the prefight news conference. “I feel very fortunate that they have very little footage of me and very little knowledge of everything that’s in my arsenal.”

Tate, a seasoned grappler with a tenacious ability to dictate a fight, will be up against a larger opponent than she’s used to. And so far, an immovable one. Rousey has finished all four of her pro fights via first round armbars, and she did it all in 2011. Since we know of her strength on the ground, this means we’re left to speculate about potential holes in her stand-up game. Tate will have to find out if that’s where Rousey has a weakness.

But that’s only part of the curiosity with this fight. With Rousey’s longest cage adventure lasting just 49 seconds against Charmaine Tweet, deep water may come in the form of something as simple as a second round. It may come in the form of frustration of finding herself in a fight. The bottom line is, she hasn’t been challenged yet. How does she respond to somebody who thwarts her game plan? How does she adapt as a fight goes on?

“I think the thing about Ronda is she’s a very kind of self-righteous person,” Tate said. “She cares more about herself than she does about the sport of women’s MMA and I think what’s she’s done is all about her and marketing herself. She’s talked her way into a title fight in my opinion, and she’s not the No. 1 contender at 135 because she’s never ever fought here. At 4-0, what she’s done is what she’s done. It’s been moderately impressive, but she’s never fought anyone of my caliber, and I think it’s going to be a true test for her.”

The main event, ladies and gentlemen.

Thomson expects best from foe Noons

In what easily is the best-looking match-up of the night on paper, lightweight Josh Thomson will take on K.J. Noons with plenty on the line. As everybody knows, champion Gilbert Melendez is without a fight right now, and there’s a pretty epic back-story to Thomson and “El Nino.” Thomson has been on a little bit of a bumpy ride of late, having split his last four fights. But should he get by Noons, there’s a good chance that Strikeforce will look to book Thomson/Melendez III, since it’s a rubber match.

All that talk, though, is premature for Thomson, who is expecting to get the best version that anybody’s seen of the obstacle in front of him.

“I think what everyone should understand is that I’m going to get the best K.J. you guys have seen,” he said.

“I think you saw a little bit of it in his fight with Billy [Evangelista]. He’s obviously been working on his wrestling, and working on his wrestling defense. He’s also been working on his kickboxing, not being a flat-footed boxer. So to be honest, it means a lot me to know that, nobody else in Strikeforce has fought the K.J. I’m going to fight. And so for me to get a win over him, it’s going to be great. With a good showing, I definitely think it should be a title shot next. But that’s just obviously my opinion.”

Kazuo Misaki appears in U.S. for only third time

Though he’s stood across from some of the fiercest guys in MMA, Japanese fighter Kazuo Misaki has only fought twice before in America -- at Pride 33 against Frank Trigg (a decision loss), and in his last Strikeforce appearance against Joe Riggs in 2009 (a win via TKO). Now he’ll go against welterweight contender Paul Daley in a fight with plenty of intrigue.

“He represents threats from everywhere,” said Daley. “If you look at his record, like [Strikeforce president] Scott [Coker] said, he’s a tough guy. He’s beat a lot of big names, and I consider him an all-arounder. His stand-up is kind of crazy and a little bit unpredictable. I’m taking this fight very seriously, and he’s a dangerous guy.”