Tyler Stinson planning to demand a title shot at Strikeforce's weekend show

If victorious at Saturday's "Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine" event, Tyler Stinson has every intention of demanding a shot at the organization's vacant welterweight title.

A five-and-a-half-year pro, he believes his body of work makes him deserving, especially if he tops opponent Tarec Saffiedine at this weekend's event.

It's been quite a ride for a former standout pole-vaulter whose first MMA training sessions took place in a kitchen.

Stinson (22-7 MMA, 1-0 SF) and Saffiedine (11-3 MMA, 3-1 SF) kick off the Showtime-televised main card of Saturday's event, which takes place at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. "Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine" is part of Showtime's "free-preview" weekend, which means Strikeforce could have one its biggest cable audiences ever.

That's just fine for Stinson, who today told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) he's in the event's leadoff-broadcast spot for a reason. Quite simply, few fighters care about their profession like he does.

"I go out there, and I'm ready to die in the cage," he said. "It's a sport, but once that bell rings, I flip a switch. It's kill or be killed.

"I go for whatever is spectacular, but I'm always going for the knockout. My goal is to knock someone's head off his shoulders."

That mindset hasn't boded well for his opponents, who have been on the receiving end of nine-, 10-, 16-, 32- and 33-second knockouts.

Stinson's career, though, began innocently enough. Like so many other former high-school athletes, Stinson (who nearly won a state championship in the pole vault) was watching the first season of "The Ultimate Fighter" with his roommate and best friend. They looked at the training, the pre-fight preparations, the rigors of the sport that they saw on Spike TV for the first time.

"Hell, we could do that," Stinson told his roommate.

So they went out and purchased some cheap boxing gloves, and they proceeded to beat the crap out of each other in their kitchen, which served as a makeshift training facility. Two days later, he found an Oklahoma promotion that was taking fighter applications, so he fudged the facts about his supposed array of training disciplines, and he agreed to take a fight a few days later for a whopping $300 to show and $300 to win.

"I cannonballed into the sport on a whim," he said.

Stinson's first training camp lasted a few days

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