Trent Williams

Robbie Lawler and Jake Shields are scheduled to battle in the main event of the night which should be sure to entertain. Shields is coming off a win in a less-than-impressive performance in his last fight at EliteXC: Heat. Meanwhile his fellow EliteXC vet, Lawler, is coming in holding 8 wins out of his last 10 fights, including knocking out Scott Smith in his last fight at EliteXC: Unfinished Business.

Though these two fighters don’t hold the public prominence of some others, this is a fight that is a super fight of sorts. As the middleweight Lawler, is meeting at 182 pounds to take on the welterweight fighter Shields. Both fighters are top 10’s in their divisions throughout the world, and very well may be the two best fighters in those divisions outside the UFC.

With Lawler, you get a guy with very heavy hands, who trains with Matt Hughes at the recently formed H.I.T. Squad camp. Lawler has only won a fight once by submission with the majority of his wins coming the way of (T)KO. It’s safe to say that Lawler goes in for the kill each and every time, and that makes for some exciting fights when he steps into the cage.

Riding and 11 fight win streak, Jake Shields is more of a Jiu-Jitsu style ground fighter. With 8 of his 22 wins coming the way of Submission, including his last 3, you know that Shields is a threat to anyone on the ground.

What this fight breaks down to is ultimately what Ultimate Fighting was created for, a battle of styles. You have the stand up fighter in Lawler who uses his strength and power to dominate opponents and knock them out.

Meanwhile, Shields is more of a conservative counter fighter, who is exciting in his own right and can submit his opponent at the flick of a switch. The main parts of this fight to watch for will be, can Lawler keep the fight standing and avoid any take downs? For Shields, can he take Lawler down and can he handle the dynamite that Lawler possesses in both hands?

Before Lawler and Shields faceoff, be ready for a hard hitting battle between two heavyweight fighters that both pack a hard punch.

After being brutalized by a punch from Fedor Emelianenko at the last Affliction event, Andrei Arlovski is back to take on the undefeated Brett Rogers.

In his last fight we seen Arlovski effectively using his reach on Fedor to land some punches, though it was all for lost when he was caught going for a flying knee, it was still a glimpse of how good Arlovskis boxing has got.

Unfortunately for the former UFC champ, you can’t teach someone how to have a strong chin, and that could be the ultimate undoing of the Belarusian.

Brett Rogers is a man we do not know a whole lot about other then he knocks people out. The 6 foot 4 -265 pounder is 9-0 with 8 of those wins coming by knockout, the other by submission and he has only ever been into the second round one time. Rogers is a man who seems to have power in both hands and is a very big threat to anyone he faces.

Simply said, this fight does not seem like it will go very long. Arlovski and Rogers both can have knockout power and both are aggressive on their feet, it would be very surprising to see someone not going to sleep in the first round of this fight.

With a solid main and Co-main event, Strikeforce didn’t stop there with putting together their best card thus far.

Two brawlers, in Nick Diaz and Scott Smith will face off in a main card fight after Diaz brutalized Frank Shamrock in the last Strikeforce event.  Both of these fighters can bang it out on the feet, but Diaz, who has won his last 4 fights, would have to get the advantage on the ground so if he gets in trouble with Smith standing up, look for him to go for a take down and submission win. Smith has won his last two fights since losing to Robbie Lawler, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to think that the winner of this fight could be in line to fight the winner of the Lawler/Shields fight.

UFC castaway Joe Riggs will take on the New York Badass, Phil Baroni. Riggs is 4-2 since his departure from the UFC in what has been an up and down career for the man once challenged for the UFC Welterweight title. With Riggs you don’t really know what to expect, he’s fairly well rounded but doesn’t overly excel at any one practice in MMA. Baroni is a very hit and miss fighter, where he puts it all on the line every time he fights, and sometimes it works out, sometimes, not so much. He’s 3-3 in his last 6 fights and has 3 wins in a row. Baroni is a guy who simply brings it, and that shows with his 13-10 record that sometimes the risk isn’t always worth the reward. This should prove to be an interesting fight as both fighters are true veterans of the sport and should put on a show.

Rounding out the main card is a Light Heavyweight fight between Kevin Randleman and Mike Whitehead. The former UFC champion, Randleman has been idle for 13 months now coming into this fight with Whitehead and we’ll have to see what ring rust, if any he has. Ultimate Fighter 2 veteran Mike Whitehead has had an up and down career, much like Randleman and will be looking to take that next step if he can get a win over the ‘The Monster’ Randleman. This will be another interesting fight to see which fighter can impose his will onto the other and come out with the victory.

Overall Strikeforce has done an unbelievable job of putting together an amazing card with a great cast of characters for the June 6^th card and if each and every fighter comes ready to go then everyone should be in for a joyous night of fights.