The Cincinnati show drew an estimated crowd of under 2,000 with the Showtime broadcast averaging 274,000 viewers, which ranked 17th all-time in Strikeforce's time on the cable network.
UFC President Dana White took umbrage at Lawal's comments. From Kevin Iole at Yahoo!:
"If Mo whatever the [expletive] his name is, or any of those guys, think I planned all this [expletive] this week, they're out of their minds. Yes, we signed [Alistair] Overeem and made the Brock [Lesnar] fight. Do you think I expected Nick Diaz to pull this [expletive]? We have all kinds of stuff going and I didn't need this in my life. It is what it is and I never had a thought in my mind of [expletive] with Strikeforce. But I promote the UFC 24/7." - UFC president Dana White, reacting to complaints that light heavyweight Mo Lawal made regarding the lack of attention last week's Strikeforce card received.
White is referring to major UFC news over the alst few weeks -- moving Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos to Fox, signing Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem for the end of December, and the Nick Diaz adventures throughout last week -- overshadowing what many called the best top-to-bottom card in Strikeforce's history.
Lawal knocked out Brazilian jiu-jitsu superstar Roger Gracie at 4:37 of the first round last Saturday.
SBN coverage of Strikeforce Grand Prix: Barnett vs. Kharitonov