Major drama at Strikeforce weigh-in

I bet you thought that with EliteXC closing you had seen the last of weigh-in drama because Strikeforce is a more professional operation. Think again. Tonight's fight between Cristiane Cyborg & Hitomi Akano is contracted for 145lbs. At yesterday's weigh-in, Akano weighed 143lbs. And for those who have asked, she normally fights at a lighter weight so she had to put on a few pounds. Then Cyborg steps up and weighs 152lbs!!!!! Huh? I'm not aware of any problems with Cyborg cutting in the past. Chute Boxe must have known about this. They must have thought that Akano would accept the fight anyway. Paging Rosi Sexton. Think again. For starters, the California State Athletic Commission wouldn't sanction the fight and gave Cyborg to 8PM PST to drop to 149. She got to 150 and the CSAC agreed to sanction the fight pending Akano's acceptance. Cyborg has to give up 20% of the purse with 10% going to Akano. Josh Barnett, Shannon Hooper & Megumi Fujii are in San Jose with Hitomi and all said no. This was reinforced by Hitomi's manager Shu Hirata back in Japan who said on his blog that 10% is chump change and Strikeforce & Chute Boxe must think Hitomi's camp are idiots. He also said Cyborg should be fined heavily. So for the next few hours it was on again, off again, you get the idea. Josh, Shannon & Hirata still didn't want to do the fight. Apparently it came down to Strikeforce owner Scott Coker meeting face to face with Megumi Fujii & Hitomi Akano and offering more than money. Coker's cryptic comments on Sherdog indicate major league grovelling and guarantees of future fights for AACC fighters. He also promised to tell the whole story on tonight's broadcast. We'll see. I would rather the fight didn't happen because it's tainted by rampant dishonesty. Debi Purcell said that fighters and dojos need to know that they can't get away with this stuff and the fight is officially a joke. I know who I'm rooting for tonight but I'll tell you this much. After this crap, I wouldn't hire anyone from Chute Boxe to mow my lawn. I have two videos for you. First is video of the weigh-in courtesy of Steve Cofield and a post weigh-in interview with Josh Barnett courtesy of David Andrest of Five Ounces Of Pain.