Strikeforce meets with Jose Canseco

http://mmajunkie.com/news/17927/gracie-canseco-and-strikeforce-ceo-coker-meet-to-discuss-potential-mma-future.mma
Despite several reports to the contrary, it appears Strikeforce is at least giving Jose Canseco (0-1) the time of day.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker and Canseco gathered today in a San Jose, Calif.-area restaurant along with esteemed trainer Cesar Gracie to discuss the possibility of the former baseball star fighting for Strikeforce, according to Gracie, who spoke with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) Friday before the group met.

Jose is training with Gracie camp
http://www.mmamania.com/2010/2/12/1307536/jose-canseco-arrives-at-gracie

Sick, Canseco vs. Walker, EPIC!!!

Please no coker just watch ESPN and see how this makes our sport look. Dont do it its dumb!!!

It's probably not up to Coker.

Showtime is every bit the promoter of Strikeforce that Scott Coker is.

Damn good thing they are serious about MMA as a sport ans not just turning a buck...

I really hope Showtime is to blame for this.

You are all 100% off base. Once this KOTC event is over i'll explain later, but this fight will do huge, huge, huge things for the sport.

While this fight would have been awesome for the sport, by far the biggest in MMA history, would have helped break MMA from the "ultimate fighting" moniker it has now, and would have given mainstream sports fans and sports journalists a fight they would become legitimately emotionally invested in considering Jose is hated world wide and Hershel loved, apparently the report was bogus.


Jose is being trained by Ceasar and was meeting with Coker and some other fighters and a "chance encounter" was arranged, but Strikeforce doesn't seem interested...
































...yet

a 47 yr old ex football player vs a 40 something ex baseball player and admitted steroid user would be "by far the biggest in MMA history?"

I just hope that if this fight does go down, it is not coupled with another circus type fight.

captain organic wrote:

a 47 yr old ex football player vs a 40 something ex baseball player and admitted steroid user would be "by far the biggest in MMA history?"

I just hope that if this fight does go down, it is not coupled with another circus type fight.

It would be the biggest fight in the sports history as far as the mainstream sporting world goes, ya most certainly.


Luke Thomas posted an article on bloodyelbow called "why blame walker when MMA is the freakshow itself" and it discussed how mainstream journalists view MMA, and how the Hershel Walker fight got him more phone calls and emails from real sports media in his local market, where he is trying to break into, than UFC 100 did.

People who look down on MMA aren't going to think anything worse of the sport, people who may casually like it arent going to think anything worse of the sport, but Walker vs Canseco would give the sports media of the world a real fight to become invested in emotionally.

Freakshows haven't hurt the sport yet at all. In fact they're one of the cheif reasons it is where it is now.

1. The UFC HW champion is a former pro wrestler(no one watches him because he won the title in college wrestling 10 years ago, Phil Davis on sportscenter?) and his title fight was against a 45 year old man half his size. Biggest PPV in UFC history.

2. Street Brawler Kimbo Slice himself is taking on a former NFL player with one fight on his resume, and Meathead is a whining weiner who sucks, and would probably lose to Walker. Kimbo is on four or five of the biggest MMA fights in history.

If Strikeforce made this fight, how different, in the public eye, would this be really? Especially to the so called "casual fan" who we are so concerned about alienating, and who doesn't know/give a shit about Brock's NCAA past or if Kimbo is taking this seriously.

MMA fans underestimate how despised Jose Canseco is vs how loved Walker is. Everyone, journalists, talking heads, sports writers, average joe fans who like either baseball or football who have never really watched the sport before, would be talking about the fight big time in the week leading up to it. And they wouldn't be discussiong "ultimate fighting" either, it would be MMA.

If the best in the world, Fedor, was also on the card, along with Cung Le, Manhoef, or some other action styled strikers along with Dan Henderson, this would still expose them to MMA of the highest quality. The image of Hershel Walker reigning down blows on a battered and bruised Jose Canseco would give everyone watching that warm, fuzzy feeling deep down inside. America to become invested in a sport, needs something to root for, and something to root against. This is just that fight.

Perhaps that would be enough to keep them coming back for more?