Strikeforce 19

Date
Sat 15th August 2009 (UTC)
Sat 15th August 2009 (Local)

Timestamp

Time

00:00:00 UTC

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League
Strikeforce

Season
2009

Round
5

Status

Location
no fanart thumb HP Pavilion at San Jose
(13,976 Attendance)

Video Highlights

Description

Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg was a mixed martial arts event held by Strikeforce. It was held in San Jose, California on August 15, 2009. The event aired live on the Showtime cable network and marked the first time two women headlined a major MMA event.

Background:
The main event featured Gina Carano taking on Cris Cyborg for the inaugural Strikeforce Women's Championship contested at 145 pounds (66 kg). Five five-minute rounds are now featured for the women's championship bout. Joe Riggs pulled out of his bout with Nick Diaz on July 23, 2009 due to suffering an adverse reaction to a drug. Diaz was then slated to face Jay Hieron for the Welterweight Championship belt. However, Diaz missed a pre-fight drug test mandated by the California State Athletic Commission and was denied a license to compete. Diaz was replaced with former Ultimate Fighter contestant Jesse Taylor and the fight became a non-title bout. Renato Sobral was set to face off against Gegard Mousasi at Affliction: Trilogy on August 1, 2009, but the match was scrapped following the cancellation of the event. The fight was instead moved to this event, and changed to a title fight for Strikeforce's Light-Heavyweight Championship belt, which was already held by Sobral. Josh Thomson, who was set to unify his lightweight championship with interim champion Gilbert Melendez, was unable to do so because of an injury. Mitsuhiro Ishida replaced him and the bout was changed to an interim title bout for Melendez' belt. A previously announced bout featuring Erin Toughill was called off. She became the reserve fighter in case either Gina or Cris were unable to fight. The event drew an average of 576,000 viewers on Showtime.

Main Card:
Women's Featherweight / Strikeforce Women's Featherweight Championship / Cris Cyborg vs. Gina Carano
Light Heavyweight / Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Championship / Renato Sobral (c) vs. Gegard Mousasi
Lightweight / Strikeforce Interim Lightweight Championship / Gilbert Melendez (ic) vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida
Heavyweight / Fabrício Werdum vs. Mike Kyle

Preliminary Card:
Welterweight / Jay Hieron vs. Jesse Taylor
Lightweight / Justin Wilcox vs. David Douglas
Lightweight / Alexander Trevino vs. Isaiah Hill
Welterweight / James Terry vs. Zak Bucia
Light Heavyweight / Scott Lighty vs. Mike Cook