Roger Gracie in talks to fight Gegard Mousasi at April 9th event

News broke today that Former Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Gegard Mousasi is expected to make his long awaited return to the cage Stateside on April 9th, most likely against Multi time grappling Champion Roger Gracie.

While no official announcements have been made regarding the event, it is rumoured that the planned Heavyweight tournament bouts will be postponed until after the event, and Strikeforce are currently in talks to fill the currently vacant card. With no fighter having yet put pen to paper, it is believed a verbal agreement has been reached with the two parties. Gilbert Melendez is currently in talks to face Tatsuya Kawajiri with "El Nino's" Lightweight title on the line. Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz too is in talks to defend his belt, potentially against hard Hitting Brit Paul Daley, should he beat Yuya Shirai at this weekend's BAMMA 5 event.

Since suffering his first loss in 5 years to "King" Mo Lawal in his last Strikeforce appearance, Gegard Mousasi has fought twice under the DREAM banner, winning both bouts against Jake O'Brien and Tatsuya Mizuno on the same night to capture the first ever DREAM Light Heavyweight title. The former Strikeforce Champ also currently holds the DREAM Middleweight title. Mousasi had been rumoured to be fighting Mike Kyle upon his return, but it seems Strikeforce have abandoned their original idea.


For the currently undefeated Roger Gracie, Mousasi will easily be his toughest test to date. Arguably the best grappler in the world and hailing from the prestigious Gracie family, he recently won his fourth pro fight against Trevor Prangley at Strikeforce: Diaz vs Cyborg. His first bout for the California promotion saw him defeat Kevin Randleman, his third win via Rear naked choke. All four of the ADCC Champion's MMA wins have come via submission.

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel that Roger Gracie will get fucked up. The dude is only 4-0. Why throw him in the belly of the beast. Am I in the minority. This is a mis-match right?

This is way too early in his career to fight Gegard, i really hope he decides to fight a few times before taking a fight like this.

No no fuck that its too early .. dont let this happen pls ! i m countin on gracie being the next big thing baby come on dont fuck this up strikeforce

yeah the guy has just 4 fights i think give him more shits for him to sub and then gegard

yeah way to early. I know Strikeforce doesnt have a big stable, but cmon let the man grow. Gegard should get a more seasoned opponent. If not, save him for the winner of Hendo v Feijao.

I really love Roger, he improves every fight and he got everything right mentally and on the ground, i think he can make it far, but facing Gegard at such an early point of your career can really turn your career around.

On serious thoughts if this fight goes through... he has a huge reach over Gegard and if he gets it to the ground he submits him for sure, so it can be a great striker vs. grappler fight, but if i had to put my money on this fight is Roger getting knocked out, at least at this stage of his career.

Roger next opponent should be Mike Kyle (probably after he get submitted by Gegard) or Babalu if he really want a tough opponent in my opinion.

Good point Nissai. Roger has all the talent in the world. Excellent on the ground.

Gegard has seen this before, he's seen a fighter like Roger before. Roger has never been in the octogan with such a high caliber fighter.

Anybody can win, and there's a possibility Roger might sub Gegard. I just think Gegard has a bigger tool set. Gegard is too much of a vet to let Roger get him in a bad position. It will take alot from Roger to keep Gegard on the ground IMO.

no mike kyle still will be to much for him, mike is one of the elite in strikeforce , trust me on that one

Mike is very legit, but his submission defense isnt the greatest, if he tapped out twice in under 2 minutes, Roger without a doubt will tap him out in 15 minutes, i think that actually Mike is the right opponent for Roger right now since Babalu is abit on a higher level and the LHW roster is just too small.

IMO Roger defeats both Babalu and Kyle anyway.

did you not see kyle get outa that darce choke from bigfoot .. well right now kyle and babalu beat roger

I cant see Babalu lossing to Roger. Babalu's ground game is elite.

roger > babalu for sure !

Kyle would mess dude up on the feet. Strikeforce needs to bring in more middle tier LHW's or Roger is gonna have a tough time

He's not ready for somebody like Mousasi, all he has is BJJ, he's gonna get destroyed

RajisBoss123 wrote:did you not see kyle get outa that darce choke from bigfoot .. well right now kyle and babalu beat roger

Why would i care for Kyle getting out of a D'arce Choke from Bigfoot... Roger is considered one of the best BJJ active fighters in the world, im even talking about BJJ not in MMA so please dont compare his BJJ skills to bigfoot and it doesnt even matter that Bigfoot is a black belt, Roger gracie tapped out Jacare, Aoki and Alexandre Ribeiro in BJJ fights (he defeated Demian Maia as well) and havnt submitted since he was a blue belt... it says enough, if he gets Kyle to the ground hes gonna tap him out easily (Werdum tapped Kyle out under two minutes if you really wanna compare... and yeah... Roger did tapped out Werdum in Abu-Dhabi), i still think he wins over Babalu, Babalu never tapped but im pretty sure he can grind him out with good positions on the ground for 3 rounds.

And guys.. please dont compare Roger BJJ ability to anyone outside or inside the UFC, this is ridicilous, most MMA fighters dont even have a very active BJJ career so trying to compare it to a fighter who win either the -97 or openweight competition in Abu Dhabi every single year is beyond ridicilous.

ummm bigfoot had how many pounds on him ... i would like to see this fight now .. he is a one dimestoinal fighter..

yeah i wanna see roger get destroyed too. roger is still green and people r hyping him. Hes Damian Mia 3 years ago. Damian is just now, coming up with average stand up. Roger has a while to go.

roger has a better cmp though.but im sorry i would start mma while one dimentional .. what he nneds to do is what koscheck did put more focus on stand up and wresltling

yeah he should. how old is roger

ealy 20's i belive .. still really really young

oh ok. well he cool then. this is a good time for him to learn stand up and wrestling. If he was in the ufc, they would groom him like davis, bader and bones. Since SF has no fighters, roger is sent off the cliff.

Atleast it will be a good loss, if u wanna call it that.