Strikeforce Carano Vs. Cyborg: The Five Bullet Point Preview

It's Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg this Saturday night and it's time for the Five Bullet Point Preview, giving you five talking points for the four major fights, making you officially sound like the smartest person in the room.

Women's Championship: Gina Carano vs. Cris 'Cyborg' Santos

• The 27-year-old Carano has been a professional MMA fighter for over three years and is 7-0.
  
  
• Santos is just 24 years old and is 7-1 since turning pro in May 2005.
  
  
• All but two of Santos' wins have ended in TKO, while Carano has three wins by T/KO, three by decision and one by submission.
  
  
• Both women had difficulty making weight in their last fight.
  
  
• Carano hasn't fought since last October's Elite XC event, while Santos is coming off an April TKO of Hitomi Akano

Light Heavyweight Championship: Renato 'Babalu' Sobral (c) vs. Gegard Mousasi

• Sobral comes into Saturday with a 35-8 mark and on a five-fight win streak.
  
  
• This will be Sobral's first defense of the Strikeforce belt since defeating Bobby Southworth by TKO last November.
  
  
• Despite being just 24 years old, Mousasi is 25-2-1 and has won 12 fights in a row with a T/KO rate of 56%.
  
  
• This will be Mousasi's first fight in the U.S. after spending considerable time in Japan, Europe and Canada. He likes to finish people off early as ten of his last 12 wins haven't gone past the first round.
  
  
• Sobral has only lost by submission once in his career and that was nine years ago.

Jay Hieron vs. Jesse Taylor

• Hieron was the last IFL Welterweight Champion and has a 17-4 career mark.
  
  
• The 33-year-old Hieron is on a five-fight win streak, three by T/KO.
  
  
• The 26-year-old Taylor has fought six times in 2009 (twice in July) and has a reputation of being a last-second replacement fighter.
  
  
• Since being released by the UFC, the 13-3 Taylor has won seven fights in a row—four by rear-naked choke submission.
  
  
• Hieron has never lost by submission

Interim Lightweight Championship: Gilbert Melendez vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida

• The 15-2 Melendez has been fighting pro since October 2002.
  
  
• Melendez won the Lightweight gold by defeating Clay Guida via split decision in June 2006 and successfully defended the title once before losing it to Josh Thomson last June.
  
  
• These two have fought before back on a Japanese New Year's Eve event in December 2007 with Ishida winning by unanimous decision.
  
  
• Ishida (18-5) is an eight-year pro that has nearly solely competed in Japan.
  
  
• Ishida comes into Saturday with wins in two of his last three fights and has gone the distance in 13 of his 18 wins.
  

Josh Nason - josh [at] ropesringandcage [dot com] - has published MMA, wrestling and boxing blog Ropes, Ring and Cage.com since 2007. He has been a contributor to Fight Magazine since January 2009, Bleacher Report since 2008 and appears on Fight Network Radio regularly.