Daley says his wrestling deficiency is overplayed

On Saturday night, the last thing Paul Daley wants to be doing is stare at the arena ceiling for much his fight against Tyron Woodley. In the past, he hasn't much say where the fight goes against a former college wrestler like Woodley. Daley and his wrestling Kenny Johnson say his Strikeforce bout this weekend will be different.

Johnson, a former Olympian who wrestled at Iowa, has increased his time spent with the British slugger.

"We started picking up the pace in the last few years and his wrestling has gone through the roof," Johnson said (3:50 mark). "He's really dedicated a lot of time and tried to become a mixed martial artist."

Fight fans' last memory of Daley against an elite former college wrestler was Josh Koscheck at UFC 113. Daley was taken down at will and smothered for 15 minutes. The Brit says forget that fight, Woodley isn't in Koscheck's league.

"He's not as big as Josh Koscheck. He is as athletic, but on the technical side, I don't think he can compete with Josh Koscheck," Daley told USA Today. "People are comparing this to that. People do forget in the Koscheck fight, there are takedowns that I stopped. I think that Josh Koscheck is a higher level than Tyron Woodley, so even if I'm able to stop two of his takedowns or stuff them or stall two of his takedowns back then, I think Tyron Woodley's going to have a very difficult time taking me down when I'm on form, when I'm 100%."

Daley (27-10-2) is fully dedicated to shoring up his weaknesses.

"He (Johnson) lives at my house. He eats with me. So if we're not training, we're talking about wrestling; we're looking at footage. So I think people are going to be very shocked, and I think that's an area where Tyron Woodley is underestimating me, and I think that's going to work in my benefit," said Daley.

The biggest question mark for Woodley (8-0) is his experience. He's never been in the cage with someone so seasoned.

"I'm much bigger. I'm much stronger than he thinks. I'm a lot more experienced than him. I don't think he realizes how that's going to play out in this fight," said Daley.

When talking about future opponents, Daley dropped an interesting nugget during this interview.

"There's a mystery guy. There's a mystery guy that's been signed by Strikeforce that Scott Coker's mentioned, and he said that the winner of this fight could possibly be fighting him immediately for the title. There's lots of speculation; I really have no clue, but I want to be back in a position of fighting for a title," said Daley.

Who could it be?

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RotoR Camera System ? We Can?t Wait to See a Sportbike Movie with One of These?

Asphalt & Rubber was recently up on Pikes Peak to watch the 89th Annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, and one of the things we notice there was the proliferation for digital video cameras on the race vehicles. Part of it had to do with the mountain’s fastest man, Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima being sponsored by GoPro HD cameras, but the reality is that affordable high quality consumer video recorders are readily available and come in pint-sized ...

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Video analysis: Iole examines the future of Fedor

Fedor Emelianenko lost his thirst straight fight on Saturday night. The former king of PRIDE is only 34, but his career is at a crossroads. Or is it over? Yahoo! Sports' lead MMA writer Kevin Iole checked in to talk about Fedor's future.

Emelianenko is even big news to casual sports fans. KSNV, the NBC television affiliate in Las Vegas, gave Cagewriter some TV time to preview UFC 133 and speak about the fall of "The Last Emporer."

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Coker video: Is Overeem ever fighting again for Strikeforce?

This is a bizarre position for Scott Coker. The Strikeforce CEO is technically under the umbrella of Zuffa. In a recent interview with SI.com, Dana White swore up and down that he has absolutely no hand in decisions with Strikeforce. Yet when you watch or listen to Coker talking about the future of his fighters and future cards, there seems to be a hesitance about answering questions. That could be the nature of the business or he simply can't promise anything because its out of his hands.

Coker did a 12-minute interview with AOL.com and had some interesting takes on what comes down the road for Dan Henderson and Fedor Emelianenko. A small part of the convo revolved around Alistair Overeem and his future with Strikeforce.

"I mean that's something we're going to sit down with his manager Bas [Boon] and have a conversation about," said Coker (8:00 mark).

That's not a yes or a no, but it seemed pretty curt. White recently said Overeem is definitely sticking around so it was odd for Coker to ride the fence on the question.

Coker also explained that Overeem sort of forced the bold move in the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix. When the Strikeforce heavyweight champ and tourney favorite said he was out for a fight on Sept. 10, Strikeforce had no choice but to replace him.

"We've been very good to Alistair. We've been very patient. It just didn't work out," Coker said. "If we could've took this fight to October or November we definitely would've done it."

Coker said between the busy UFC schedule, Showtime's boxing slate, the Floyd Mayweather fight in November and MLB's World Series, there weren't many dates that made sense.

On other matters, Coker said Fedor vs. Hendo is not a make or break fight for either fighter's future with Strikeforce. Even with a Henderson loss, he definitely wants to keep Henderson around. He's jazzed about Marloes Coenen vs. Miesha Tate being the first female title fight under the Zuffa banner. Coenen was a no-show at the Thursday press conference. Coker joked that he had no idea what happened calling it a "makeup issue or breakfast issue or wardrobe malfunction."

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Overeem fallout? Coenen, Einemo and older bro cut by Zuffa

Three more fighters have been cut from the Zuffa/UFC/Strikeforce roster. There's a plausible explanation for each, but you can't help thinking that Golden Glory fighters Marloes Coenen, Jon Olav Einemo and Valentijn Overeem all got the boot because of the recent promotional issues with Alistair Overeem. Golden Glory head coach Martijn De Jong reported the news on Twitter.

Alistair, another Golden Glory fighter, was released from his contract last week. There were two issues at hand.

Overeem was unavailable to fight during the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix semifinals on Sept. 10 because of injuries yet all of his issues were going to be healed up for an independent fight in October. Secondly, with one fight left on his contract, Overeem needed an extension if he was going to continue to the end of the Grand Prix. Overeem and his management team appeared to be a looking for a clause that would allow the former Strikeforce heavyweight champ to be allowed to fight outside of Zuffa. The company has held firm on the stance that its fighters can only fight under its banner.

The Coenen cut is shocking. She just lost the Strikeforce 135-pound women's title belt on Saturday. Einemo was a one and done for the UFC. The heavyweight jiu-jitsu ace certainly deserved another shot after an entertaining fight against Dave Herman. The older Overeem was already on shaky ground. In June, he lost to Chad Griggs. The 31-29 fighter didn't look like he wanted to be in there when he quickly tapped due to strikes.

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