Sniper v Cyborg! It's Not Sci Fi, It's The Strikeforce Challengers Main Event Featuring Tim Kennedy and Evangelista Santos

United States Army sniper Timothy Kennedy (11-2) and middleweight Chute Boxe brawler “Cyborg” Evangelista Santos (16-13) will top a Strikeforce Challengers card in Tulsa 25 September.

“I think we’re both pretty explosive fighters and we both show up to fight. We both like to throw some big bombs so it’s a good matchup,” said Kennedy.

Kennedy has trained at The Pit with Fighters.com’s eighth-ranked light heavyweight “Iceman” Chuck Liddell (21-7) and added, “I’m working with the best boxing coaches and training with Mark DeLaGrotte, one of the best MMA striking coaches in the world, so I think that people are going to see a new Tim that they’ve never seen before.”

Kennedy punched “The Goat” Nick Thompson (38-11-1) into submission at Strikeforce in Seattle 19 June.

Santos lost an scintillating split decision to “Smokin’” Joey Villasenor (27-6) in the main event of that card.

“I was just a little bit out of rhythm and was coming off an injury so my training was not 100 percent,” explained Cyborg who was returning from a broken arm suffered in a loss to “Afghan Killa” Siyar Bahadurzada (9-4-1) at Sengoku in Tokyo in September 2008. “This is not an excuse. It’s just something natural that all athletes go through when they stop fighting for a long period of time.

“I believe I will be able to do the opposite this time from the Villasenor fight where we stood up and punched each other. I think I will finally be able to show my jiu-jitsu game and surprise a lot of people.”