B.J. Penn Spits Hot Fire At Nick Diaz, Jon Fitch On The Round-Up

MMA Nation Round-Up provides you with daily coverage of the latest in news, multimedia, and analysis throughout the world of combat sports. Today we bring you a bevy of Strikeforce previews before moving on to a pair of barbed Twitter assaults from Dan Hardy and B.J. Penn.

- With CM Punk joining UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen in his walk to the cage at UFC on Fox 2, MMA Nation's Luke Thomas and Nate Wilcox consider the question of whether there is too much pro wrestling influence in modern mixed martial arts.

- Ariel Helwani caught up with Scott Coker to discuss Strikeforce's rocky 2011, plans for the future, and Saturday night's fight card.

- Notable during Coker's interview was his take on the main card battle between unheralded Adlan Amagov and former champion Robbie Lawler. Said Coker: "I think people underestimate Adlan because they really don't know him."

- Brian Hemminger sat down with "King Mo" Lawal in advance of his light heavyweight duel with Lorenz Larkin, and the former champ seemed to bristle at the notion of turning the fight into a wrestling clinic. "Who says I've got to wrestle? I like to throw hands too."

- Catch an early glimpse of Saturday's action with these Strikeforce highlights.

- Dallas Winston returns with more of the best preview in MMA. Today's editions: Tarec Saffiedine vs. Tyler Stinson and Tyron Woodley vs. Jordan Mein.

- The decision to pair Luke Rockhold up with Keith Jardine seemed head-scratching, to say the least. Well apparently Rockhold was just as confused as the rest of us.

- Capping off the Strikeforce chatter in style, women's MMA appears to have its next superfight. Ronda Rousey vs. Meisha Tate here we come.

- Either B.J. Penn's Twitter account was hacked or the Hawaiian blew a fuse on Thursday afternoon. (Note: Apparently the latter is true.)

- It initially seemed like Jon Jones was going to take a well-deserved break after having such an incredible 2011. Now, however, that doesn't seem to be the case.

- UFC cameras follow Rousimar Palhares as he prepares for a middleweight battle with Mike Massenzio at UFC 142.

- 2011 brought forth the most tumultuous and news-worthy year in kickboxing in quite some time. Fraser Coffeen looks back and asks, is the glass half full or half empty?

- Chan Sung Jung's twister finish of Leonard Garcia at UFC Fight Night 24 was one of the more unbelievable moments of the year and introduced the Eddie Bravo move to the mainstream MMA lexicon. But was it enough to grab the top spot on the UFC's Ten Best Submissions of the Year?

- Dan Hardy is campaigning hard for a shot at Matt Hughes. So it shouldn't surprise anybody that the Brit took issue with Hughes' beef against the "PETA idiots" on Twitter.

- Who's Chris Gethard and why is he calling out Georges St. Pierre? Go ahead and find out.

- With Brock Lesnar retiring and UFC in desperate need of pay-per-view draws, K.J. Gould asks, does the UFC need to pad records to build new stars?

- We'll leave you with this oldie, but goodie. CNN's Terry Baddoo chronicles how former Iranian wrestler Kamal Shalorus moved to the U.S. and ultimately become an UFC fighter.