Strikeforce Challengers 5 Buzz

Strikeforce Challengers 5 comes to us live on Friday night from Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas and on television for Showtime subscribers. While the event lacks big name MMA stars, the combination of a compelling main event with a co-main event that packs an unusual back-story should provide Strikeforce and Showtime with better ratings than its last “Challengers” event.

Friday’s main event between fast-rising welterweight prospect Tyron Woodley and proven Strikeforce newcomer Rudy Bears will be of enough interest to serious fans to convince them to tune in. Woodley is currently ranked 221st in the fan buzz rankings, and while that on its own is none too impressive, it’s a higher ranking than Mike Thomas Brown, who also headlines an event this week on cable TV.

The fight that should help boost interest above and beyond Strikeforce’s last Showtime outing, however, is the co-main event showdown between Kim Couture and Kerry Vera. This bout has the unusual distinction of pitting the wives of UFC 105 main event participants Randy Couture and Brandon Vera against each other. Strikeforce should be able to capitalize on the buzz from last weekend’s Couture-Vera fight and channel it into this weekend’s “rematch” between the ladies. While the Coutures are now separated, Randy will surely be tuning in, as will many other curious fans.

The event is unlikely to out-draw this week’s WEC 44 card since Showtime has a smaller pool of customers to draw from than Versus, but that doesn’t mean the event won’t be a success.