FanHouse Billy Evangelista

Billy Evangelista beat Jorge Gurgel by unanimous decision in the main event of the Strikeforce Challengers Series event in Fresno Friday night, running his professional MMA record to 10-0.

The fighters on the other Strikeforce card this weekend, Strikeforce Challengers, weighed-in Thursday at the World Sports Cafe in Fresno, Calif. to make their fights official for Friday at the Save Mart Center.

Undefeated Billy Evangelista (9-0) will take on UFC veteran Jorge Gurgel (13-5) in a main event that could garner the winner a shot at the lightweight title. Both stepped off the scale at 159 pounds for a bout agreed upon at 160 pounds.

Below are the weigh-in results.

UFC veteran Jorge Gurgel headlines this Friday's Strikeforce Challengers event against unbeaten Billy Evangelista in Fresno, Calif.

Gurgel, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt with a total of 15 affiliated schools around the world, won his Strikeforce debut in June, though with his oft-criticized, stand-and-bang style. In this interview with FanHouse, Gurgel talks about his love for striking and the sacrifices he accepts to fight his style.

Strikeforce will run shows back-to-back shows for the first time, starting with Strikeforce Challengers on Nov. 6 at the SaveMart Center in Fresno, Calif. and followed by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Roger on Nov. 7 in Hoffman Estates, Ill.

FanHouse has learned that in addition to the previously announced Jorge Gurgel vs. Billy Evangelista main event, Luke Rockhold vs. Jesse Taylor and Shane Del Rosario vs. Brandon Cash have been signed for the card.

Billy Evangelista won an appeal in front of the California Athletic Commission two weeks ago and he'll look to continue his winning ways Nov. 6 against Jorge Gurgel in the main event of Strikeforce Challengers 4 in Fresno, Calif.
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The hometown favorite Evangelista (10-3) competed at the inaugural Strikeforce Challengers event in May and was disqualified for throwing a knee to the head of the downed Mike Aina. However, upon replay, the strike was to Aina's shoulder and the commission has since changed the disqualification result to no decision, handing Evangelista his undefeated record back.

On May 15, Billy Evangelista walked out of the cage at the Strikeforce event in Fresno having suffered the first loss of his career in controversial fashion. But now the California State Athletic Commission has changed the result of Evangelista's fight with Mike Aina to a no contest, making Evangelista undefeated again.

The May 15 fight ended when Evangelista pinned Aina against the cage and landed a hard knee that left Aina dazed and unable to keep fighting. Referee Herb Dean ruled that Evangelista had landed the knee to Aina's head while Aina's knee was on the ground, which is illegal in MMA. As a result, Dean disqualified Evangelista.

But as you can see in the photo on the right, Evangelista's knee actually hit Aina's shoulder, which is a legal blow. So Evangelista should have been declared the winner by TKO.

Herb Dean is one of the best referees in mixed martial arts, but even the best make mistakes. And Dean made a big one Friday night when he disqualified Billy Evangelista for what TV replays and the photo on the right showed was a legal knee to the shoulder of Mike Aina in the main event of the Strikeforce Challengers show.

Dean thought Evangelista had landed an illegal knee to Aina's head while Aina was on the ground. So when Aina couldn't continue fighting because of a possible jaw injury, Dean awarded the fight to Aina by disqualification. That, however, was the wrong ruling.

On Saturday night, Strikeforce put on its first MMA show of 2009, and on Sunday night Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker talked to me about how he thinks the first show went and where he sees Strikeforce going in 2009.

Among the topics we discussed were the success of Nick Diaz, the future of Frank Shamrock, the weight of Cris Cyborg (and her likely future fight with Gina Carano), as well as the possibility that big names in MMA including Kimbo Slice, Tito Ortiz, Royce Gracie and Fedor Emelianenko could fight in the Strikeforce cage. The full interview is below.