Gegard Mousasi vs. Mo Lawal: Is the Fight Happening Too Soon?

Gegard Mousasi and Muhammed Lawal are considered to be the two brightest stars in Strikeforce's 205 lb. division. According to recent reports, a fight between the two is already in the works. Given the limited depth of the Strikeforce roster, a bout between Mousasi and Lawal is inevitable, but should it happen now?

If Mousasi and Lawal fight right now, the future of the 205 lb. division in Strikeforce looks really unclear.

Mousasi beat Strikeforce's former champion, Renato Sobral quickly and decisively last year. It's fairly safe to say that there isn't a lot of enthusiasm in a rematch.

There are very few other marketable and credible contenders available.

With Ricardo Arona currently being in talks with the UFC, the talent pool looks even smaller.

Don't believe me?

Name one other light-heavyweight not currently in the UFC that you would like to match up against Lawal or Mousasi. Go right ahead. Write it in the comment section.

The one other potential opponent for the winner of a Mousasi vs. Lawal fight, is Dan Henderson, but he is currently set to challenge Jake Shields for the 185 lb. title.

Should he lose that fight to Shields, it would be laughable to move him into 205 lb. contention, and if he were to beat Shields, then he probably should be defending the belt, to give the belt at least some relevance and dignity.

All things considered, the future of the division at the present looks rather dull without a Mousasi vs. Lawal fight, so perhaps Strikeforce feels like they have no other marketable option but to pull the trigger on their most-anticipated 205 clash, hoping that some other option will reveal itself in the aftermath.

Indeed, I must agree that I'm, ultimately, not particularly intrigued by any of the other possible match-ups for the two fighters at the present time, since I can only stand so many episodes of bully beatdown.

At the same time, I don't know how Strikeforce is going to promote the two fighters in the future, when they have nobody else to fight.

Some people believe that in order for the newly-expanded Strikeforce to survive in the long term, it will need to make a successful jump into the Pay-Per-View business during 2010.

It has been widely anticipated that the first such PPV broadcast would feature a main event between Fedor Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem. This is all well and good, except that after that point, there doesn't seem to really be many other big fights on the horizon for Strikeforce.

It would be a stretch to say that Mousasi vs. Lawal could headline a successful Strikeforce PPV at the present time, but I feel like Strikeforce might be burning out most of it's marketable matchups before it's PPV campaign even gets off the ground.