Mike Kyle (18-7-1 MMA, 2-2-1 SF) has stepped in as an injury replacement for Valentijn Overeem (28-25 MMA, 0-0 SF) and now meets heavyweight Antonio Silva (14-2 MMA, 1-1 SF) at Saturday's "Strikeforce: Henderson vs. Babalu" event.
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed the switch with multiple sources close to the show, including a Strikeforce official.
The fight is part of the Showtime-televised main card of the show, which takes place at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
Overeem was forced off the card this past week with an elbow injury.
Silva's most recent appearance resulted in a May decision win over Andrei Arlovski at "Strikeforce St. Louis: Heavy Artillery." The former and only EliteXC heavyweight champ originally was under consideration for a meeting with Fedor Emelianenko, but the matchup did not materialize. The former EliteXC champion has won seven of his past eight contests overall, and the lone loss came via decision to Fabricio Werdum at a November 2009 Strikeforce event.
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Originally posted by: GOODNIGHTIRENE Date: November 29, 2010 at 02:21 PM Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/mike-kyle-will-face-big-foot.32753/
I'm so glad Kyle stepped up on less than a week's notice. Since I'm going to this fight, I was devestated to hear Valentijn was out, and with less than a week left, I figured Bigfoot would be scrapped from the card. This is great news that Kyle is fighting now.
im starting to think all the SF contracts are a freaking joke... they got great fighters on their roster, but they are sending kyle to fight big foot??? WTF!!!
Mike Kyle fights at HW too, he fought Werdum, and he came decently close to putting Werdum asleep.
And yeah, I think this replacement is better than the original fight. Very cool.
Marktheshark said:
so a natural 205 lb guy is supposed to be an amazing replacement really??
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I dont look to much into that because he has fought at HW. This was his chance at a big opponent and he took it, nothing wrong with that.
we are now in an era that the best HW's can be fighting at LHW because they are smaller (Cain, JDS, Fedor) I dont think there has ever been an issue with that in even in the past smaller guys like Randy, Fedor, Nog, Crocop all small guys were the top HWs
mike kyle as some balls to step in last minute against a guy like bigfoot silva
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I agree. Big risk, but big reward if he wins. I suspect a fat wad of cash was involved as well.
so a natural 205 lb guy is supposed to be an amazing replacement really??
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Randy was a 205er and no one complained when he fought HW. Randy fighting Brock was probably a bigger weight difference than this will be.
Strikeforce is a joke. This is the 2nd time Kyle has stepped up to fight a HW. I'm guessing a win over a non contender for BF gets him Overreem for the belt or Fedor in 2011.
Edit- jvillian, Couture was the HW champ when he fought Brock. He didn't move up in weight to fight him. Big difference in matchmaking.
jvillain said:
Randy was a 205er and no one complained when he fought HW. Randy fighting Brock was probably a bigger weight difference than this will be.
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Randy didnt take the fight against Brock in 4 day before it. We have a natural 205er fighting top 10 265er and he has 4 days to think how to overcome the size strenght talent and superiority.
Props to Kyle for stepping up and taking the fight. I don't get this train of thought that he is some pushover. Kyle is a tough dude who is generally a pretty entertaining fight. I actually think he matches up to Bigfoot rather favorably. Taking a fight on such short notice might impact that some, though.
Lets see Bonnar matched against Carwin and see how people like the idea. SF should just go back to being a small regional promotion. Using matches like this to introduce MMA to casuals and new viewers is not a great idea.
This is agreat fight Kyle is no joke. He stays active and this is going to be a hard fight for him but we can see if his speed will be superior to bigfoots power
Jak said:
Mike Kyle was calling out Fedor after his last win.
Good looking fight.Really didn't need to see the other Overeem again anyways.
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I wanna see the other overeem vs some other up & comer to see where he stands hes a decent vet
7time said:
Lets see Bonnar matched against Carwin and see how people like the idea. SF should just go back to being a small regional promotion. Using matches like this to introduce MMA to casuals and new viewers is not a great idea.
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What a HORRIBLE comparison..
JonnyRico said:
7time said:
Lets see Bonnar matched against Carwin and see how people like the idea. SF should just go back to being a small regional promotion. Using matches like this to introduce MMA to casuals and new viewers is not a great idea.
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What a HORRIBLE comparison..
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agreed
kyle has fought several times at hw and kyle is also hungry. bonnar has no reason to move up
