Strikeforce has moved quickly to capitalize on the death of Affliction: they’ve added Renato Sobral defending the Strikeforce light heavyweight championship against Gegard Mousasi to the Aug. 15 Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg card.
The fight was originally scheduled to take place on the Affliction: Trilogy card, which was canceled after main eventer Josh Barnett failed a steroid test. Mousasi was outspoken after the cancellation, saying that he might just end up signing with the UFC for the stability they can provide.
Rumors have floated around that Affliction may have signed a number of their contracts over to Zuffa as part of the closure agreement, but that isn’t the case. Zuffa wouldn’t want to be saddled with the extravagant contracts Affliction handed out like candy and likely would prefer to negotiate a much lower rate for most of the fighters under Affliction contract.
The Strikeforce card once again features four title matches, including Gina Carano taking on Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos for the Strikeforce women’s championship.
