Tyron Woodley and Tarec Saffiedine Headline Strikeforce Challengers Event in January

Added on Dec 06, 2010 by Brian Blake in

UFC & MMA

Strikeforce recently announced that the 13th installment of their Challengers series, taking place on January 7 at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium, will be headlined by up and coming welterweights Tyron Woodley and Tarec “Sponge” Saffiedine.

Woodley, a former University of Missouri amateur wrestler, will undoubtedly looking to make an impressive statement as he heads into the final fight of his six bout contract with Showtime.

Woodley made the jump from amateur wrestler to professional mixed martial artist just under two years ago when he punched his opponent into sumbission during a regional promotion in his home state of Missouri. After just two fights he was offered a promotional contract by the San Jose based company, Strikeforce.

The American Top Team fighter’s debut under the Strikeforce banner came in June of 2009 on the undercard of Lawler vs. Shields and resulted in Woodley securing a brabo choke to submit Sal Woods in the very first round.

Since then Woodley, who now fights out of Coconut Creek, Florida, has built up his record up to an impressive seven wins to no losses. His most recent outing took place just two months ago in San Jose, California where the sumbission specialist scored the first TKO of his young career against André Galvão in just under two minutes.

His opponent, Tarec Saffiedine of Belgium, looks to move to 3-0 within the Strikeforce organization. The hard hitting 24 year old’s last defeat came against Yoon Dong-Sik at Dream 12 in Osaka, Japan where he was narrowly outpointed on two of the three judge’s scorecards.

Since then Saffiedine has reeled off four consecutive wins, all in 2010. His last performance with Strikeforce was back in May in Portland, OR where he knocked out Nate Moore in the second round. His last bout was fought on a Shark Fights promotions which ultimately resulted in Saffiedine leaving the Amarillo, Texas venue with a unanimous decision over Brock Larson.

Also on the televised portion of the card rising heavyweight prospect and former Olympic wrestler, Daniel Cormier of California puts his undefeated record on the line as he squares off against the more experienced Devin Cole of Oregon in what is expected to be Cormier’s toughest match to date.

Hawaii’s Yancy Medeiros is set to take on local product John Salter in a three round bout to be contested in the middleweight division. A special women’s middleweight attraction will feature 145-pounders Julia Budd and Amanda Nunes in a three round clash.

The bout expected to open up the evening’s telecast will pit former Saffiedine foe Nate Moore as he is set to face Nathan Coy in another welterweight tilt.

Tickets for the Showtime televised event will officially go on sale this Friday, December 10. Television coverage for Strikeforce’s first event of 2011 will begin at 11 PM ET/PT.