After just two fight’s in Strikeforce, Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos gets a Welterweight title shot against Nick Diaz in what should be an absolutely brutal stand-up brawl.

The Strikeforce betting odds list Diaz as the heavy favorite at -500 while Santos is +300.

Evangelista Santos (18-13-0 MMA, 1-1 Strikeforce) fights like he’s in a frenzy going relentlessly after an opponent while opening himself up to counterstrikes.

He doesn’t have much of a ground game, but we almost never get to see it because he either knocks his opponent out or gets knocked out before the fight can go to the ground. It’s really too bad he has a glass chin, eight of 13 losses have come by knockout, because if he could take a punch he would be a top-level fighter. Out of his 18 victories, 11 have come by knockout.

This will be just Santos’ second fight at welterweight after frustrating losses at middleweight and light-heavyweight convinced him that he wasn’t going to make it in either division.

His lone welterweight fight was a first round knockout victory over Marius Zaromskis in which both fighters connected on a number of punches, but Santos definitely had the advantage and looked very good while inflicting a lot of damage on Zaromskis.

Nick Diaz (23-7-0 MMA, 5-0 Strikeforce) will present a much bigger challenge for the Brazilian. Diaz has a reach advantage and is a technically excellent striker. He may not be quite as much of a knockout threat, but he should be able to keep Santos at a distance punishing his reckless advances.

He may not need it, but Diaz also has the advantage on the ground. Even if Santos is able to close, Diaz could very realistically force a takedown before Santos makes things too ugly and win this fight on the mat.

While Santos has a chance, there are just too many ways for Diaz to win this fight.

Ronaldo Souza defends his Strikeforce middleweight title against Robbie Lawler at Strikeforce San Jose on Saturday, January 29. Lawler normally finishes his opponents early by knockout while Souza is known for quick submissions so don’t expect a long fight.

The champion Souza is the favorite at -260 in Strikeforce Odds while Lawler pays +200.

The strategies for these two fighters should be pretty obvious. Lawler will want to stay on his feet and trade punches while Souza will want to get this fight to the mat as quickly as possible where he should be in control.

The challenge for Robbie Lawler (18-6-0 MMA, 2-2 Strikeforce) is that his wrestling training hasn’t really translated in to wrestling skills. He is still vulnerable to the takedown and is a one dimensional fighter.

Admittedly, he is very good at that one dimension with 15 of 18 wins coming by KO or TKO and he hasn’t lost any power over the years, but Lawler only really has a punchers chance.

While both Lawler and Souza are known as finishers, that is where the similarities end. Ronaldo Souza (13-2-0 MMA, 3-0 Strikeforce) is a balanced fighter who is comfortable trading blows, but specializes in the submission. Ten of his 13 victories have come by submission. While he doesn’t get victories by trading punches, he doesn’t get victimized while waiting for his opportunities.

Expect a cautious start as Lawler looks for holes in Souza’s defenses and Souza waits for an opportunity to get the takedown. Souza should get some good strikes in with Lawler worrying more about takedowns before finally going for the takedown and ending the fight.

Strikeforce Challengers 13 goes tonight with four fights starting at 11:05 PM ET in Nashville, TE. The event will be broadcast live on Showtime for subscribers.

Tyron Woodley talks about his fight with Tarec Saffiedine. He talks about pushing for the Strikeforce belt and about his opponents’ strengths. Strikeforce odds list Woodley as the heavy favorite at -225 while Saffiedine pays +185.

Strikeforce also posted the weigh in for all of the main card fighters from earlier today.

Sarah Kaufman and Marloes Coenen meet with the Strikeforce women’s welterweight championship on the line on Saturday, October 9, 2010.

The Strikeforce odds list Kaufman as the heavy favorite at -300 while Coenen pays +240.

Dutch fighter Marloes Coenen talks about her recent fights, switching weight classes and, of course the fight.

Sarah Kaufman talks about defending her welterweight title, the Strikeforce card and of course her opponent.

The Strikeforce welterweight belt is on the line when Nick Diaz defends his title against KJ Noons at Strikeforce San Jose: Diaz Noons II on Saturday, October 9. The match will be broadcast live on Showtime at 10 PM EST.

The last time these two fighters met, Noons won by doctor’s stoppage after a connecting with a knee strike to Diaz’s facet that opened up a huge gash a left Diaz looking badly messed up.

Diaz is heavily favored in the rematch currently listed at -265 in Diaz-Noons Strikeforce Odds while Noons pays +205.

Nick Diaz‘s (22-7 MMA, 3-0 Strikeforce) ground game has improved significantly since the first fight and he should have the advantage when this fight goes to the ground. Diaz also has a size and reach advantage but he is not the best striker.

KJ Noons (7-2 MMA, 2-0 Strikeforce) may lose out on reach, but he is technically a better striker and Diaz will not be able to stop him that easily. Noons will have problems with Diaz’s size as the bigger fighter shouldn’t have too much trouble taking Noons down when he runs in to trouble standing up.

Nick Diaz gets his rematch against KJ Noons after losing his Strikeforce welterweight title to the previously unknown Noons due to a doctor’s stoppage. This is the first of three videos covering the Diaz-Noons Strikeforce fight on October 9.

Muhammed Lawal and Rafael Cavalcante will square off in a MMA event under the Strikeforce banner. The event will take place on August 21st. This event should be an interesting matchup between these two fighters.

King Mo Lawal is the Strikeforce Odds favorite paying -575 while a bet on Cavalcante pays out at +375.

Muhammed Lawal, or King Mo, is currently the light-heavyweight champion and is the odds on favorite to win the event. He has a 7-0 career record and is considered to be one of the top fighters in the sport since he began fighting. He has all of the talent, but he seems to feel like he should be considered an underdog in the match.

Lawal has tried to put the pressure on Cavalcante by claiming that his experience should make him the favorite to win the fight. This seems like a feeble attempt for Lawal to take some of the pressure off of himself.

Lawal is a great boxer and figures to use those skills in his upcoming fight. He is versatile in his boxing skills and it will be hard to prepare for him because of his tremendous versatility.

Rafael Cavalcante has only lost two fights to this point in his career. He has a 9-2 record and has been impressive in his last two fights. He has a great standup and ground game and will be a tough challenger for whoever he faces.

With two great fighters like these you can expect the fight to be a good one. Each fighter is skilled in multiple ways. It looks like one of those fights where the flat out “tougher” fighter may end up coming out on top.

Strikeforce saw a massive upset as Fabricio Werdum pulled off the unlikely upset over a previously undefeated Fedor Emelianenko  on the weekend.

Fedor made the mistake of going after Werdum while he was in his guard. With the fight on the mat, Werdum was able to work from his guard to a triangle armbar that ended the fight after just 1:09.

The defeat now has most pundits questioning whether he is the top heavyweight fighter in MMA. Betting fans shouldn’t pay too much attention to the rankings. He will get his chance to prove it soon enough as he has just one fight remaining on his Strikeforce contract and now that he is no longer undefeated, he loses bargaining power with the UFC.

Fedor Emelianenko is normally humble in victory, so it’s no surprise that he’s humble in defeat. Not surprisingly, Fedor would love a rematch. He admits that a hesitation when he needed to escape gave Werdum the chance to finish his lock.

Fabricio Werdum on the other hand looks like he has won the lottery. He had better cash in now, because he was able to take advantage of a rare mistake by the Last Emperor.

Fedor Emelianenko answered some questions ahead of his Strikeforce fight against Fabricio Werdum on June 26.

Mostly he stayed away from talking about fight strategy not wanting to give anything away. He is very respectful throughout, but not much of an interview. He answers the vanilla questions with vanilla answers and avoids controversy when asked tough questions.

Among other things, he says he does not go out for revenge against fighters that have previously defeated his brother and he does answer a question about ranking the jiu jitsu skills of a number of fighters, but his answers are very safe.

Fedor is heavily favored listed at -800 in Strikeforce odds while Werdum is +500.

Robbie Lawler speaks after losing in a unanimous decision to Renato Sobral at Strikeforce: Los Angeles.

Lawler lost despite doing more damage than his opponent. Sobral got a few takedowns, but he was never able to get the fight down on the mat where he has the advantage. Lawler did an excellent job of staying on his feet.

In the second round of the fight, Robbie Lawler probably got a little too smart for his own good. He started faking an injury to try to get Babalu to open up a bit and try to finish him. It didn’t work and may have influenced the judges scoring.