In case you haven’t seen the Strikeforce at the Mansion event, I’ll save the official fight results for late.
In the meantime, you can watch an entire replay the event via Yahoo Sports.
Keep your eyes open, lots of celebrities and bunnies to be seen.
Holding a mixed martial arts event at a location such as the Playboy Mansion is a double edged sword. On the one hand it gets the event tons of publicity and raises awareness of MMA in general. On the flip side, you can take away from the attention of the actual fights at this celebrity-filled event . Staging MMA fights in the presence of Heffner, the Playboy Bunnies, A-list celebs and the paparazzi guaranteed the card would garner far more attention that it would otherwise, and give the show the atmosphere of being the place to be and be seen. Reports are that the Strikeforce event experience both the good at the bad at the Playboy Mansion.
“You see all the people here tonight, right?” asked Frank Shamrock. “This is why you stage an event at a place like this, to get your promotion noticed. People are talking about our show.”
For much of the night, the matches were secondary to the scene, as much of the crowd displayed more interest in partaking of Heff’s legendary hospitality than watching the fights. Heffner himself made a fashionably late appearance front-row appearance and took in about half the show before calling it an early night. Fighters the caliber of Andrei Arlovski, Urijah Faber and Renato “Babalu” Sobral (who announced Saturday night he has signed with Strikeforce) were largely left alone to watch the fights while fans looked to catch the attention of the celebs in attendance.
The payoff for the ground-breaking Strikeforce show? We’ll have to wait and see.
At least that’s what Yahoo Sports is claiming. Tonight at 9PM/PT Yahoo will stream the Strikeforce event live from the Playboy Mansion. Free MMA, you gotta love that. It will be interesting to see what the video quality will be like. Regardless, it’s a pleasant surprise that we get to watch for free and I’m sure there will be plenty of Playboy playmates on hand to enhance the action.
Click here to go to Yahoo Sports to view Strikeforce at the Mansion.
In preparation for tonight’s Strikeforce event at the Playboy Mansion, I thought it would be worth a look at one of Gilbert Melendez’s previous fights. Undefeated Melendez will fight in the Strikeforce main event to defend his lightweight title. Is Melendez worth the hype, you decide.
Yahoo! Sports is showing the fight that took place between Melendez and UFC vet Clay Guida last year in June. This is a classic battle, better then anything we’ve seen in the UFC lightweight division lately. Frank Shamrock is in the commentator’s booth while Phil Baroni provides fight analysis between rounds.
This Saturday, the world famous Playboy Mansion will host its first ever MMA event. The Strikeforce card will be headlined by their undefeated lightweight champion Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez (12-0) who will be taking on former Shooto fighter Tetsuji Kato. Although the fight card won’t be as stacked as your typical UFC event, the fact that the show will be held on Playboy grounds will bring a new level of exposure to mixed martial arts as there should be plenty of celebs and other influential people in attendance.
Those fortunate enough to attend will be treated to an array of amenities including a buffet style, gourmet dinner, top-shelf, open bar, and a wine tasting party featuring the spirits of several gold medal wineries. Various Playboy Playmates will be on hand to partake in all activities.
Other fights on the card include UFC vets Joe “Diesel” Riggs vs. Eugene “The Wolf” Jackson, Josh “The Punk” Thomson vs. Adam Lynn, TUF alum Bobby Southworth vs. Bill “The Butcher” Mahood and Daniel Puder vs. Richard Dalton.
A Top-shelf open bar, buffet-style gourment dinner, poker tournament, wine tasting, and photo opportunities with Playboy Playmates. Oh, and up close MMA action too! That’s what’s on tap September 29th at the Playboy mansion.
It’s official, Strikeforce is going to hold a mixed martial arts event at the Playboy mansion. On September 29th Strikeforce will take MMA into another step of the mainstream with an event at Hef’s place. So far the headline of the night will be undefeated Strikeforce world lightweight (155 lb. limit) champion “El Nino” Gilbert Melendez and UFC and Pride Fighting Championship veteran Josh “The Punk” Thomson. We’ll keep you posted as more matches are announced.
Did we mention the Playboy Playmates?
