I just left EA Sports’ gameplay presentation for their new game MMA in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s 85 degrees and sunny, and I am completely ignoring the weather in favor of the sweet graphics I just saw and the energy that has engulfed this city on the eve of the STRIKEFORCE: Nashville World Championship Tripleheader – airing on the CBS Television Network on Saturday, April 17 (9PM ET/PT). People here are losing their minds and for good reason; the main card of tonight’s event features three championship bouts:

Middleweight Championship bout: United States Jake Shields (c) vs. United States Dan Henderson
Light Heavyweight Championship bout: Armenia Gegard Mousasi (c) vs. United States Muhammed Lawal
Lightweight Championship bout: United States Gilbert Melendez (c) vs. Japan Shinya Aoki

Apart from getting glimpses of a couple of the fighters (King Mo is gigantic) I got to see a presentation of EA Sports MMA. I’ll have new video of the game as well as some analysis from the executive producer of the game, Dale Jackson, later on in the weekend. What I wasn’t ready for was an appearance by Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker. He was only on stage for a few minutes, but here is what he had to say:

As many of you have heard we are going to be doing a pretty sizable event in Los Angeles, Wednesday the 16th (of June). We’ll be doing a Strikeforce event for Showtime in the Nokia theatre. We’ll be featuring some of our sizable athletes, we’re not ready to announce which ones today, but you will see some sizable athletes on the fight card. Tickets will go on sale in two weeks. We’re excited its our first entree back into Los Angeles since we’ve had the Showtime and CBS contracts, so we’re very excited and we’re very proud to be part of EA family. We’re going to bring a fight that is going to be of epic proportions on the 16th. I think that one of the things that leaked out to the LA Times is that we’re gonna attempt to put the Robbie Lawler fight together with Mayhem Miller, so if Mayhem wins tonight, that’s a fight that you might see on the 16th.

Jason “Mayhem” Miller takes on Tim Stout in a Middleweight bout in tomorrow’s preliminary card. Let’s see how well Miller recovers from his disappointing loss to Jake Shields at Strikeforce: Fedor vs Rogers, apparently there’s a lot riding on it.

Related posts on 30ninjas.com:

• Strikeforce: Nashville Weigh-In Video, Free Fight Night Tomorrow On CBS
• Jason “Mayhem” Miller: Strikeforce Nashville Post-Fight Interview
• Fedor Triumphant: Russian Defeats Rogers in Strikeforce Heavyweight Fight
• Strikeforce: Nashville Brawl
• UFC 115: Liddell vs. Franklin
• King Mo: Strikeforce Nashville Post-Fight Interview