Rafael Cavalcante vs. Dan Henderson Title Fight set for March
Posted on January 30, 2011, 03:57 PM by Joey SantosusThe title fight between Light Heavyweight Champion Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante and veteran Dan Henderson has been made official. The match-up will likely serve as headliner for the promotion's Strikeforce: Columbus event, which is scheduled for March 5th at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
While still unofficial, the card is also expected to feature women's Welterweight Champion Marloes Coenen making her first title defense against Meisha Tate, as well as a Lightweight clash between Billy Evangelista and Jorge Masvidal.
Following a disappointing loss to Mike Kyle in his promotional debut, Cavalcante rebounded with three straight wins. After his dramatic first round knockout victory over Antwain Britt, "Feijao" was granted a title shot against Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal, who the Brazilian dispatched of via TKO early in the third round. Cavalcante will look to continue building momentum as he faces his toughest test to date in the former Pride Fighting Champion.
Henderson, who suffered his own debut defeat at the hands of then Middleweight Champion Jake Shields, followed up with an impressive outing at 205 pounds, knocking out fellow veteran Renato "Babalu" Sobral less than two minutes into the opening round. Now committed to what he considers to be a more suitable weight class, Henderson will make his second attempt at obtaining Strikeforce gold.
Source: MMAJunkie.com | Photo: Esther Lin, Strikeforce
Comments
hendo will be the new champ, simple as that
i hope he will.
This is a real interesting fight, it's time to see how tough the strikeforce lhw division really is. Both Feijao and King Mo have tons of potential but have really never faced a proven elite fighter like henderson and even moussasi has been accused of not facing legit competition so if this is a competitive fight, which I think it will be, the strikeforce lhw division is going to look a lot better after this.
Wud love too Hendo wit the belt legend of mma....
RIP Hendo
ur insane man, best chin in mma, the man will retire without bein ko'd, id bet my left thumb on it
Hendo will beat Calalcante then drop down to 185 and get that belt and once again have 2 belts like he did in Pride =D
Too bad that's not too big of a deal, considering you dont have to fight your way up to become a number 1 contender in SF. You just get a title shot for being there.
what are you talking about Hendo got into Srikeforce being the number 1 contender in the UFC at MW , so it just made sense he enter SF fighting for the title.
and now at LW well he did KO babalu in the very first round.
But if you think 1 fight is too early to earn a title fight then just look closely .. the UFC ,Lesnar is getting a 1 fight win to fight for the title for the second time. and the UFC has a big roster while Strikeforce dosent.
Henderson is the man for stepinng up to 205 and he deserves that fight.
GSP, Anderson Silva, Jake Shields, Lesner, Belfort, etc. all got the same treatment in the UFC.
Are you really going to pretend that you believe that this is the same thing?
Anderson Silva and Brock Lesnar did not fight for a title in their very first fight with the UFC. And when they did get a shot at the champ, they proved that they were the right contenders by winning the title on their first attempt.
Jake Shields came into the UFC as a standing Strikeforce champion and again, was not given a title shot in his first fight.
Belfort had to defeat Franklin before he was given a shot, who was the former Middleweight champion. Plus, Belfort is really getting the fight due to process of elimination.
Now, Henderson on the other hand, was given an immediate shot at Shields, was defeated, then beat one guy at 205 and was given another title shot based off that one win. His first win at 205 in quite some time.
I am excited to see the fight and I am glad it was made, but not the same thing.
to be fair, strikeforce doesn't exactly have fighters queueing up for a shot at the lhw belt. mousasi had lost to king mo who just lost to fejao so by process of elimination i guess they give it to hendo who's coming off a convincing win over babalu.
and why complain, it's an awesome matchup so be happy!
No need to pretend. Belfort, GSP, Anderson and Shields all got their shot after one fight. There really is no difference between one fight and two when it comes to a title shot. Lesner had two fights before his shot but one was a loss and the other was to Herring so that is almost worse.
Hendo will go down, imo !!!
You may be right. I really have no idea who to pick in this one. I give Feijao the advantage standing and Hendo the advantage on the ground. Feijao has really good take down defence though so he may have the advantage.
This will be Hendo's 3rd fight in Strikeforce. Of the 3 bouts, 2 are for a title....
You gotta remember that Babulu was the #1 Contender for the belt before he fought Hendo and Hendo knocked him out in the 1st round so why wouldnt he be....
Just another awesome matchup. Henderson is still a beast and he proved it. This fight makes definitely sense.