Shinya Aoki Finally Has Opponent

The DREAM Lightweight champion Shinya Aoki has finally found an opponent for DREAM 17, and it's going to be wrestling standout and former Maximum Fighting Championship Lightweight Champion, Antonio Mckee.

'Fancy Pants' Not Worried About Aoki

Aoki is still well known and widely respected among MMA fans for his years of dominance on the Japanese scene. If a chance to make his name off the grappling phenom is the penance for his own defeat, then Beerbohm will gladly take it, whatever the motivating force behind it may be.

"They called me and asked if I wanted to fight Aoki, and I didn't ask a whole lot of questions," he said. "I said sure. That's a good fight for me."

Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez beat Aoki by avoiding takedowns and using the cage to his advantage. That's one way to do it, Beerbohm said. But after an honest assessment of his own skills, he's decided he needs to find another route.

"I don't think my sprawl-and-brawl is up to par," said Beerbohm. "In MMA, if someone really wants a takedown and they commit to it, I think they usually get it. Unless, I guess, you have some super good sprawl-and-brawl, like Gilbert Melendez did. He really shut him down. But I'm not that type of fighter. I definitely have to be aware of his tricky submissions, but I have to kind of fight him a little bit different. I don't want to be on my back with him, so I have to push the pace and either get on top of him or beat him up against the cage."


Source & Article: MMA Fighting

Paul Daley Signs on Dotted Line

Since the recent acquisition of Strikeforce underneath the Zuffa banner, the Nick Diaz, Paul Daley fight got interesting. Paul Dley was released by the UFC back in 2010 following his post-fight punch directed towards Josh Koscheck. Dana White went on record stating that Paul Daley would never fight in the UFC again. Well, much like Rashad this last weekend in the cage with Jones, "Well, I guess you should never say never."

Paul Daley since hearing of the purchase began to run his mouth on the blogs and internet saying he would back out of the April 9th fight for the Strikeforce Welterweight title because he refused to 'fight for' Dana White and 'make himand Zuffa money'. Rumors began swirling around the underground about who would replace Daley on a few weeks notice. The threat left some wondering if the UFC might put one of their own fighters into the Strikeforce bout if need be.

All was silenced yesterday afternoon when Nick Diaz's trainer and manager, Cesar Gracie confirmed that on Tuesday afternoon, Paul Daley signed the contract to fight. The two will be headlining a stacked card that is still yet to be completed, although four total fights have been signed. The co-main event sees Gilbert Melendez defending his lightweight title against Tatsuya Kawajiri, Gegard Mousasi takes on quickly rising Mike Pyle, and in a battle of the 'fancy pants fighters', Shinya Aoki battle Lyle Beerbohm.