FanHouse Scott Smith

HOFFMAN ESTATES, ILL. -- Before news broke that Scott Smith was one of the leading candidates to face Cung Le in Le's return to MMA action on Dec. 19, FanHouse spoke to "Hands of Steel" his recent loss to Nick Diaz, his place in the Strikeforce middleweight title picture, and his evolution as a mixed martial artist.

Check out the video interview below.

CHICAGO -- Scott Smith is ready to fight for Strikeforce in December. Now he just needs an opponent.

Smith is hanging out here in Chicago this week to talk to fans and reporters and help spread the word about Saturday night's CBS show. He's also gearing up to fight on December 19, but he says Strikeforce hasn't yet had time to find him the right opponent.

"I think they're a little bit overwhelmed," Smith said of Strikeforce. "This show on Saturday night on CBS is such a big deal for them that they haven't really had a chance to put together everything on the next show. But they're planning a really stacked event in December and I'm excited that I'm going to be on it."

Strikeforce is gearing up for a busy November, but the organization already has plans in place for their year-end show as well. Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said on this week's edition of The MMA Hour (which will be featured later this week on MMA FanHouse) that the organization's next big Showtime event will take place on Dec. 19 from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

Coker also mentioned that recent Strikeforce signee, "King" Muhammed Lawal, is scheduled to make his debut on the show, but no opponent has been signed just yet.

Middleweight fighter Scott Smith has signed a new six-fight contract with Strikeforce. Smith's agent Mike Roberts confirmed the news with FanHouse on Monday.

Roberts also said that the hard-hitting Smith will be competing on the yet-to-be announced December Strikeforce event on Showtime. As of Monday, no official date or venue has been announced, but MMA Junkie reported on Monday that the organization has a Dec. 5 and Dec. 12 date secured with the California State Athletic Commission for a show at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

A year ago, Joey Villasenor was feeling really good about his MMA career. He had just defeated Phil Baroni on the first-ever MMA event broadcast on network television and was primed to make a run at the EliteXC middleweight title. He was then three weeks away from receiving that shot and an opportunity to avenge an October 2006 loss to Robbie Lawler, until the organization suddenly ceased operations and cancelled the event in November.

Since then, Villasenor has been anxiously awaiting his chance to get back in the cage. "I just can't wait to be under the lights, man," he said. "That's what I have done over frickin' 30 times professionally. I just can't wait to feel that numbness in my stomach. I've kind of grown addicted to it."

On Friday night, Villasenor will feel that numbness again when he faces Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos in the main event of "Strikeforce: Challengers" on Showtime (watch their weigh-in scuffle from Thursday). FanHouse spoke to the native of Albquerque, N.M., about resuming his career and his place in Strikeforce's middleweight division. The full interview is below.

Nick Diaz may have had the most active round in MMA Saturday night, throwing 221 strikes and landing 125 -- both CompuStrike records -- in the second round of his third-round submission win over Scott Smith.

Diaz is a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt who would probably be a better MMA fighter if he didn't try to turn every fight into a boxing match, but no one can dispute that he's been impressive this year when standing and trading punches with his opponents. In fact, Diaz set the previous record of 181 strikes in a round in his fight with Frank Shamrock in April. The 125 strikes Diaz landed in the second round against Smith on Saturday night broke a CompuStrike record that was set by Michael Bisping when he knocked out Elvis Sinosic in 2007 at UFC 70.

As a relatively new promoter in the mixed martial arts world, Strikeforce has two objectives during events. First of all, it hopes for excitement. Second, it hopes to create new stars.

Both goals were reached during Saturday night's card on Strikeforce.

Jake Shields, Brett Rogers and Nick Diaz emerged as forces to be reckoned with after wins during Strikeforce's St. Louis event.

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Add Strikeforce fighter Scott Smith to the growing list of people in the MMA community who are getting sick and tired of Cung Le's decision to put the Strikeforce middleweight title on hold so that he can pursue an acting career.

At the April 11 Strikeforce MMA event, Benji Radach lost to Scott Smith by third-round TKO, and he wasn't happy about it. Radach said later that he believes Smith gained an advantage by grabbing the cage in the second round and by hitting him in the back of the head in the third, and that the referee robbed him of the fight.

Radach now says he's going to appeal the fight to the California State Athletic Commission, and try to get his loss overturned. But he's going to have a hard time convincing the commission to take such an extreme action -- especially considering that he hasn't even convinced his own cornerman, Bas Rutten, who said on HDNet's Inside MMA that he doesn't see Radach winning the appeal.