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    Tony Nguyen •

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    Cormier set to make MMA debut on Friday in Tulsa

    On Friday, the Spirit Bank Events Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma will host a Strikeforce Challengers event. Daniel Cormier will make his MMA debut against Gary Frazier in the heavyweight division.

    Daniel Cormier
    The Challengers event is a venue for fighters trying to break into the organization’s larger events. It’s a minor league of types. Win a couple fights, get a following, and then you can fight alongside the big names in Strikeforce like Fedor Emelianenko, Robbie Lawler, and Nick Diaz. Cormier’s fight will be on the televised portion of the event on Showtime. Cormier, a two-time Olympian and six-time U.S. Nationals champion in freestyle, is making the transition to MMA. It will be interesting to see where Cormier's skill set is at right now. He is currently training in San Jose, California at American Kickboxing Academy, which also trains former wrestlers-turned-MMA-fighters Josh Koscheck (Edinboro), Jon Fitch (Purdue) and Cain Velasquez (ASU) to name a few. Will he go right to the mat? Or is he going to box a bit? As in any debut, there are a lot of questions? It should be an interesting night and event watching Cormier make his MMA debut.

    Around the Cage

    It was nice seeing all the wrestlers look good at UFC 103. There is serious talent coming to the UFC ... Ricky Story, the former Southern Oregon wrestler, not only put on a show in his win against Brian Foster, he also netted an additional $130,000 by winning the $65,000 bonus for "Fight of the Night” and “Submission of the Night” with his arm triangle ... Nik Lentz, the Minnesota MMA fighter who briefly wrestled for the University of Minnesota, won a nice decision over Rafaello Oliveira. Both men scored takedowns in the fight, but Lentz had nice striking and uses good footwork and grappling to keep Oliveira off balance ... Former Edinboro star Josh Koscheck got back in the winners column against Frank Trigg. Typical of many fights between wrestlers, it was a standup battle and Koscheck once again showed us his evolution as a fighter using great technical boxing to TKO Trigg in the first round ... Jim Miller won by TKO in the second round when Steve Lopez appeared to dislocate his should while throwing a roundhouse punch. The two wrestlers were having a great fight going toe-to-toe slugging it out until the unfortunate injury ... Efrian Escudero won impressively against Cole Miller. Miller, the taller fighter by at least six inches, seemed to be stifling Escudero with his range. Efrain used great feints and footwork to circle inside and drop Miller with a powerful short left hook and straight rights on Miller as he hit the canvas, Escudero impressed many with his first-round TKO victory, his first knockout win in his career.

    You can follow Tony Nguyen on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TonyNguyenMMA.
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