Luke Rockhold vs Jesse “JT Money” Taylor

A war of rising stars in the welterweight division, Rockhold will look to pick up his fifth win in Strikeforce at the expense of former TUF cast member Taylor, who dropped a Unanimous Decision to final IFL Welterweight Champion Jay “The Thoroughbred” Hieron in his Strikeforce debut.

Rockhold’s biggest strength is his submissions and submission defence has been Taylor’s main weakness thus far. Similarly, Taylor is a good wrestler and striker and Rockhold’s lone defeat came via TKO.

Rockhold (5-1-0) would be wise to pull guard or allow Taylor to take him down because he is skilled at working off of his back and could capitalise on a mistake from his opponent.

Taylor (13-4-0) should use his wrestling in reverse so that he can keep the fight on the feet. Rockhold demonstrated that he has underrated punching power in his brief and brutal bout with Cory “The One” Devela at Strikeforce Challengers 2, but Taylor is a better striker and should hold an advantage on the feet.

While Taylor is the favourite, he has been susceptible to mental lapses in the past and Rockhold will be right there to take advantage of any mistake that Taylor makes. As a result, Rockhold will likely shock the crowd with a submission at some point in round two.

Thomas Diagne vs Warren Merritt

This lightweight fight pits a prospect against a journeyman, as Diagne looks to remain undefeated while Merritt desperately seeks a much-needed victory to get his career back on-track.

Diagne (1-0-0) won his professional debut against the much more experienced Kaleo “Leo Boy” Kwan at Strikeforce Challengers 1 in May, but has not fought since. His bout with Kwan went the distance and Diagne is still largely a wild card.

Merritt (2-3-0) has never gone the distance in his career and all of his fights to date have ended by submission. Unfortunately, he has only come out on top twice and needs a win in order to stick around in the promotion.

The most likely scenario is that this one goes the distance and Diagne will remain undefeated with a hard-fought decision victory.

Zoila “The Warrior Princess” Frausto vs Elisha “Knuckles” Helsper

The lone women’s bout on the card sees Frausto finally make her Strikeforce debut after past issues with making weight, as she takes on winless challenger Helsper.

Frausto (3-0-0) remains undefeated, though most observers of her professional debut against Karina Hallinan felt that the decision should have gone Hallinan’s way. She has ruffled some feathers in the women’s MMA community with past failures to make weight and some were surprised that Strikeforce offered her another chance.

Helsper (0-1-0) dropped her professional debut to highly-ranked flyweight Lisa Ward in July of 2007 and has not competed since. A victory over Frausto would ensure Helsper’s status in Strikeforce, but very little is known about her.

Frausto is a talented striker, but her past three bouts – all of which have gone the distance – have demonstrated that she lacks knockout power and that could be a problem against Helsper.

Having said that, Frausto will add another win to her record with a decision victory here.

With an exciting lightweight headliner and a solid main card, Strikeforce Challengers 4 should be another excellent event for the promotion to showcase its future stars. MMARising.com will have live play-by-play from the SaveMart Center in Fresno, California on Friday.