MMA You Want To Watch This Week 10/4 - 10/10

Last week was pretty crazy, between Bellator and the WEC shows, and the much-complained about UFC 119.  Then there was tons of K-1 this past weekend.  Lots of action!  Maybe it's just as well that we're heading into a slower week, we'll have time to recover before the rest of the month gets nuts again. 

Our sole offering this week featuring live action comes from Strikeforce.  Now, don't let that fool you, there are some good fights coming up on that card.  :)

Strikeforce: San Jose - Diaz vs. Noons 2

San Jose, CA

Saturday, October 9th, 10pm, Showtime

Well, it's not the Diaz fight most of us were hoping for.  But Nick Diaz vs. K.J. Noons will happen Saturday night.  This is the 2nd time they've fought - their first bout was a win for Noons after Diaz was cut and couldn't continue.  That was the only loss Diaz has had since 2006, by the way.   He's coming off a win via submission over Mach Sakurai at DREAM.14, and honestly, I think most of us were hoping to see him face Jason Miller instead of Noons.  But it doesn't really matter, and I need to stop wandering around and instead focus on the event.  :)

The fight I'm honestly looking forward to most on this card is Sarah Kaufman vs. Marloes Coenen.  We all saw Kaufman slam Roxanne Modaferri into dreamland this past July, defending her women's welterweight title in the process.  Coenen, ranked #7 in the women's pound for pound MMA rankings at MMARising.com,  most recently made a losing bid for Cristiane Santos' belt last January.  This fight is going to be interesting for several reasons.  First of all, Kaufman will be defending her belt once again, this time NOT on a Challenger's card (choke on that, Joe Riggs!).   But what I'm looking at is that Coenen is set to fight at Golden Glory's Ultimate Glory 12 event on Oct. 16 - a scant week after this bout.  So, will she come into this fight playing it safe, trying to avoid a serious injury?  Or will she come out super aggressive, hoping for a quick win?  There's no way to know until the fight starts, but her having another fight scheduled that soon could make this one either exceedingly boring or very exciting. 

 Josh Thompson vs. Gesias Cavalcante  will also happen on this card.  'JZ' Cavalcante is coming off a win against Katsunori Kikuno at DREAM.15 this summer, while Thompson, a former Strikeforce lightweight champ, most recently fought Pat Healy back in June - Healy broke two of Thompson's ribs on a takedown early on, but Thompson hung in there to get a submission win just before the bell to end the fight. 

So, some good fights to look forward to, but just having one event coming up means I can get to bed early Thursday night for a change.  Friday night, as usual, HDNet has some good stuff, like Fighting Words with Mike Straka talking to Clay Guida, and Inside MMA will be live and have Vitor Belfort and Gray Maynard as guests.  Ought to be good times!