You tell us: What to do with Luke Rockhold?

You tell us: What to do with Luke Rockhold?

Luke Rockhold was one-fourth of American Kickboxing Academy's dominant evening at Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov. He predicted an AKA sweep, then delivered with a five-round decision win over Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza to win Strikeforce's middleweight belt.

But what does that belt mean? After Strikeforce was purchased by the UFC, the promotion's future is hazy. Some of Strikeforce's biggest stars, like Alistair Overeem, Nick Diaz and Cung Le, have been cherry-picked by the UFC. With a talent pool that gets shallower with every UFC signing, what would you do with Rockhold?

Give him a bout with Tim Kennedy: He lost his last title shot, but since dropping a tight decision to Jacare, Kennedy won a decision over Robbie Lawler. He seems to be the most likely fighter to Rockhold in Strikeforce, and Rockhold told Cagewriter that he would be open to this fight.

Grant Jacare's wish for a rematch: At the post-fight press conference, Souza said he wanted to fight Rockhold again. This is not a surprise, considering how close Saturday's bout was. Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker was open to the idea, but wouldn't commit either way. Rockhold said that he would like to see Jacare win another fight before a rematch.

Ship him to the UFC: At 26, Rockhold is young, talented and hasn't lost since 2007. Should he really spend the best years of his career languishing in Strikeforce, the promotion that Mo Lawal called a dying cancer patient? Rockhold told Cagewriter that he isn't quite ready for a fight with Anderson Silva, but he would love to get tested in the UFC.

So what would you do with Rockhold, Cagereaders? Tell us in the comments or on Facebook.

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Retirement May Loom for Jason MacDonald, But Not Until He Stops Having Fun

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NEW ORLEANS - In a lot of ways, had Jason MacDonald reinjured the ankle that he hurt at UFC 113, it would have at least kept him from being conflicted down the road.

As it is, MacDonald's ankle feels healthy, he said, and he feels good about where he's at heading into his Saturday fight against Alan Belcher at UFC Fight Night 25.

MacDonald said a reaggravation of that injury might have forced him to retire from MMA. But it's not the ankle that will ultimately wind up deciding when it's time for him to quit - it's the realistic mindset he prides himself on.

"I'm interested, I'm still motivated to go train every day, I still enjoy it - so I'm still going to do it," MacDonald said Thursday at the New Orleans Athletic Club. "The moment I don't want to put in the work, I'll be a guy who steps away. I'm not going to wait until I've been knocked out four times in a row and just hang on for that one more pay day. I have things to fall back on. There are other things in my life besides fighting. When I stop having fun, I'm going to move on in life."

It's ironic that MacDonald was recently in the position to come back after a long injury layoff. An injury against John Salter at UFC 113 in Montreal last year kept him on the shelf until UFC 129 in April, when he ignited his home country Canadian fans in Toronto with a submission win over Ryan Jensen.

Now MacDonald (25-14, 6-6 UFC) faces Belcher (16-6, 7-4 UFC), who has been out since, coincidentally, UFC 113 with eye problems that required surgery. And MacDonald said he knows what Belcher has on his mind.

"I can relate to what he's going through," MacDonald said. "I know the things that were going through my head before Toronto: 'Am I gonna get back good enough to do this? Am I gonna reaggravate the injury and call it wrap, call it a career?' There are lots of unanswered questions there. I was able to answer those questions in Toronto, and obviously Alan's going to have to answer those questions. I think I can understand some of the things going through his head."

Belcher had plenty of momentum on his side before his layoff - four straight fight night bonuses and a 3-1 mark which had just a controversial split decision loss to Yoshihiro Akiyama as a blemish.

But MacDonald said even a win over Belcher doesn't mean he can necessarily count on sticking around for a while to go on a title run.

"For me, I know I belong here," MacDonald said. "I'm no one-fight wonder. If you look at my fights and my record, I've fought a who's who of the middleweight division. It's not a question of if I belong here, it's how much longer can I do this for? How much longer do I want to do this for?"

MacDonald said Chris Lytle's retirement last month had him thinking about his own situation with four kids at home, and being closer to 40 than 30. He also said keeping it real comes in handy.

"I'm not a title contender," MacDonald said. "People might say that's a poor thing to say, but I'm realistic. Even if I beat Alan on Saturday, I'm a lot of fights away from a title shot. You start asking yourself, 'How many more fights do I want to do this for?' When it's time to step away, it's time to step away. I don't know the answer to that question yet. I'm 37 years old, I've had a good run and now it's time to start looking forward.

"But right now, right here, right this second, I'm focused on Saturday night."

MacDonald and Belcher open the main card of UFC Fight Night 25 on Spike TV at 9 p.m. Eastern. The main event features a welterweight fight between Jake Shields and Jake Ellenberger.

 

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Strikeforce?s Three Stars: Cormier, Lawal and Mein

Strikeforce?s Three Stars: Cormier, Lawal and Mein

Who stood out from the thrilling card delivered by Strikeforce on Saturday night in Cincinnati? Read Cagewriter's picks, then tell us your stars in the comments or on Facebook.

No. 1 star -- Daniel Cormier: When Strikeforce announced the heavyweight Grand Prix, did you ever expect that one of the finalists would be Cormier? The two-time Olympian was given a golden opportunity when Alistair Overeem left the tournament. Cormier seized the moment, knocking out the much larger Antonio Silva in the first round. Unfortunately, he injured his hand in the process. The timing of his finals bout against Josh Barnett will depend on the severity of the injury.

No. 2 star -- "King Mo" Lawal: After a layoff of more than a year, Lawal showed no signs of injury or ring rust, knocking out Roger Gracie in the first round. After the win, he said he is interested in going after the Strikeforce light heavyweight belt again, but not if it's a bout to win a vacant belt. Lawal and Cormier's wins were part of the 4-0 night by American Kickboxing Academy.

No. 3 star -- Jordan Mein: One of the best performances of the evening was on the preliminary card, as Bas Rutten-trained Mein took out Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos. With his father in his corner, the 21-year-old Mein handled Santos' leg and body kicks before unloading a flurry of strikes on Santos' face in the third round and then finishing with five right elbows.

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BMW Concept e Maxi-Scooter ? Electric Urban Mobility

BMW is latching like a lamprey onto the idea of urban mobility in a big way. In addition to debuting the Husqvarna Concept E-go, zie Germans also launched the BMW Concept e at the Frankfurt International Motor Show today. An electric variant of the BMW Concept C we brought you last year, BMW realizes that when it comes to urban people-movers, the electric power train becomes a ripe contender. Announcing that it will debut two maxi-scooters ...

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Former WWE star Kurt Angle questions his decision to turn down UFC offer

As his competitive career winds down, Kurt Angle did some reminiscing about his career choice following a decorated amateur wrestling career. During a conversation on MMAWeekly radio, Angle said sometimes he wishes he'd resisted the temptation of the big money coming from the world of wresting and the WWE.

"Right after the Olympics, I had the chance," Angle told MMAWeekly Radio about the chance to do MMA. "Was I going to go into pro wrestling or the UFC? I talked to the UFC, but at the time they were only paying their top fighters 15 grand to fight, and here WWE throws this big contract at me. It's kind of like, let me see, do I struggle and go in the UFC or do I go here and make a bunch of money? Obviously, the decision was very easy."

Angle won a wrestling gold medal at the 1996 Olympics and then transitioned to pro wrestling. He suffered a neck injury in 2003 and upon his return, claims to have strongly re-considered the UFC.

"I actually contacted Dana White again after the movie. I flew out to meet him once and got a great offer. I contacted him again, I was thinking about dropping out of Impact wrestling, and there were some personal problems with my marriage and I just wanted to get away. I contacted Dana White, I flew out, and he had me take the UFC physical. I passed it, thank God, and he gave me the offer," Angle stated.

When told about the recent convo, White disputed the account of the 2003 story.

Is it believable that the UFC would've been interested in the 35-year-old pro wrestler? Possibly. Even though he was little older than Brock Lesnar, when he turned to MMA, Angle had a more impressive amateur wrestling career to fall back on and would've been a nice get for the UFC in 2003.

Remember that was a time when the promotion was still rolling out roughly five events per year. The total estimated PPV buy rate in 2003 was 278,000.

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B.J. Penn doesn?t want to make it personal against Nick Diaz

In last week's UFC 137 switcheroo, B.J. Penn ended up facing Nick Diaz instead of Carlos Condit. Because of that, the producers of "Countdown," the show that airs to hype up UFC cards, had to work with Penn again to make the show suitable for the new line-up.

Penn says that the UFC asked him to say Diaz's name and "I'm going to beat Nick Diaz," something Penn found a problem with.

A few things to mention here:

1. Countdown's role is to hype up fights. Of course they want Penn to say something about his opponent. That will help sell pay-per-views, which is a good goal for everyone, right?

2. Penn has threatened to lick blood off his opponents. He has trash-talked before every fight, except for when he fought his friend Matt Hughes. Now he's worried about saying, "I'm going to beat Nick Diaz?" C'mon, son.

3. He says that he is worried that Diaz will be edited to look like a bad guy. Really, B.J.? This video was not edited, and Diaz still didn't come out looking that hot.

If Penn doesn't want to talk trash, that's fine. But that's not what he was asked to do. He was asked to say he was going to win the fight. Is that really all that bad?

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