No. 6 ranked welterweight Jake Shields is on board, as it was announced he will face Joe Riggs on the April 11 premiere Showtime broadcast from San Jose, Calif. The fight will not be for a title, though Shields was EliteXC’s final welterweight champion. Strikeforce does not have a 170-pound champion at this time. Another EliteXC titlist, lightweight Karl James Noons, has turned down an offer to face Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh Thomson on April 11. Noons told Sherdog.com that his dance card is full at the moment with boxing opportunities. Thomson is still expected to fight on the card, which is headlined by Frank Shamrock vs. Nick Diaz.
MMA agent Ken Pavia, speaking to the Sherdog Radio Network's "Beatdown" show this week, confirmed that Strikeforce has acquired the contracts of several of his clients. They include Riggs, Phil Baroni (fighting on a May card in Washington), Brett Rogers (May), James Thompson (fighting for Sengoku on March 20), Dennis Hallman (May), and Lyle Beerbohm (May). Pavia said that Strikeforce was working to finalize deals with Cyrille Diabate and Brian Caraway as well.
UFC President Dana White made some of his first comments about the Striekforce-Showtime deal this week, telling USA Today: "I'm sure they're going to put on some good shows, and hopefully, they can make that business model work for them. I've got nothing negative to say about them whatsoever."