Update: Saffiedine-‘Cyborg’ Now Unlikely for ‘Feijao vs. Henderson’

A welterweight scrap between up-and-comer Tarec Saffiedine and recent title challenger Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos (Pictured), which was reportedly being targeted for Strikeforce “Feijao vs. Henderson” on March 5, now appears unlikely.

After multiple sources close to the negotiations confirmed the rumored contest to Sherdog.com, new information gathered Thursday suggests the bout will not take place after all.

The event, which will be headlined by the light heavyweight title affair between champion Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante and challenger Dan Henderson, will go down from the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, and will coincide with the Arnold Classic.

Saffiedine was last seen dropping a hard-fought unanimous decision to fellow prospect Tyron Woodley in the main event of Strikeforce Challengers 13 on Jan. 7. Prior to his loss to Woodley, “Sponge” had earned three straight victories. The Team Quest product is a veteran of both Dream and Shark Fights and owns a 2-1 record inside the Strikeforce cage. Saffiedine owns half of his 10 career victories by submission.

A product of the vaunted Chute Boxe camp, Santos just contended for the welterweight title on Jan. 29, losing by second-round submission to cagey champion Nick Diaz. Though “Cyborg” controlled the early going with powerful kicks to the lead leg of the Cesar Gracie product, Diaz’s accurate boxing proved equally effective. After taking the fight to the floor in round two, Santos was caught in an armbar and submitted with only 10 seconds remaining in the round. Fighting the majority of his career at heavier weights, his title shot against Diaz marked Santos’ second career fight at 170 pounds.

Along with the main event, a women's 135-pound title affair is also official for “Feijao vs. Henderson,” as Marloes Coenen will put her belt on the line against Miesha Tate. Also announced: a middleweight scrap between Tim Kennedy and Luke Rockhold and a lightweight tilt featuring Billy Evangelista and Jorge Masvidal.

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No Christmas for ‘Feijao’

Rafael Cavalcante: Dave Mandel | Sherdog.com

Of all those who watched Strikeforce “Henderson vs. Babalu II,” perhaps none was more interested in the main event than Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante.

The Strikeforce light heavyweight champion knew well in advance of Dan Henderson and Renato Sobral’s showdown -- which ended with a decisive-first round knockout from Henderson -- that the winner was likely to receive a shot at his belt in the coming year.

With his first title defense now lined up, Cavalcante discussed with Sherdog.com his thoughts on Henderson, his cornering of training partners Anderson Silva and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, and his plans for the holidays (or lack thereof).

Cavalcante: I expect a war. He’s a tough athlete and has great knowledge of the ring. Thank God we have three guys on our team who have fought with him and we’ll build a strategy. I’m training for this fight for five weeks and certainly will get there prepared. Again, I will defend Brazil and show once again that I am proud of being Brazilian.

Cavalcante: Yes, I will train until the date of the fight. By the end of February, God willing, I’ll be well-prepared. I want to be well-prepared for this fight. Let’s go to war, because this athlete is very tough.

Cavalcante: Christmas, New Year and Carnival are over for me.

Cavalcante: I think he’s a very experienced fighter and knows a lot in the ring. He is a complete athlete and very tough. He is a great wrestler and is showing great evolution in the standup. On the ground, he’s no fool. We have to get there well prepared and never underestimate our opponents. Surely, it will be a tough fight, like all my other fights have been. I want to show that if I’m fighting for the belt or not, I’ll always be thinking about my next fight. That’s my next goal, to defeat Dan Henderson.

Cavalcante: It would be very cool. Hopefully we fight at the same event, doing our preparation and training together. With this team of stars that we have -- me, Anderson Silva, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Ronaldo Souza, Andre Galvao, who is out of the country, but he is a part of our team and will come here to give me a hand. I will also have Fabio Maldonado, among others. We have a great team and, for sure, with this unity and strength, we will bring another victory.

Cavalcante: This year was very good. I reached another goal and was able to test myself several times. That’s not for anyone else, but for me. I can really see that what I’m doing is working, and I’m improving in some aspects. I corrected several errors and that was most important this year. We have to look back on everything that has happened and fix what went wrong to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I think I’ve been fixing up some things, but I still have a lot to fix. It’s very difficult to train everything together. When you begin to train more boxing, your wrestling worsens. You focus on your wrestling, and then your BJJ gets worse. You have to be constantly fixing. This is very difficult, but we’ll get it.

Cavalcante: I do all my training here at X-Gym in Brazil. We haven’t discussed the strategy yet, but I’ve already more or less formed it in my head. I’ll still sit down with all my training partners and coaches and see what they think. I don’t have anything specific, but I’ll definitely do specific training for him.

Cavalcante: I’ll be there with him and I think this fight will be a great. Vitor is a very dangerous and explosive athlete. It’s gonna be a great fight and I hope that Anderson continues as champion. We have had the opportunity to train together several times. But at the end of the day, it's Team Nogueira. We all wear the same jersey and it’s Team Nogueira’s jersey, and God willing, we're gonna come back only with victories.

Cavalcante: We are training together. We are always together for everything. Rogerio has evolved a lot since his last fight and everyone is talking about it. God willing, he will also get another victory. Tito Ortiz is a tough athlete and is one of the icons of the UFC.

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