These days, it's not often you have a legitimate heel in the realm of fightsport, what with good sportsmanship and respect for opponents the long accepted credos of mixed martial arts.

However, in the headliner of the Strikeforce-EliteXC card in San Jose, Calif. on Friday night, one fighter has gone above and beyond to raise his villainous flag high.

Love him or hate him, you cannot ignore Phil Baroni (Pictures).

Always sporting an impressive physique, Baroni has rarely met his match in the strength department, but a lack of technique and poor stamina contributed to collapses in the past. "The New York Bad Ass" has had his share of big wins over the years, including highlight reel KO's of Pancrase icon Yuki Kondo (Pictures) and former UFC middleweight champion Dave Menne (Pictures).

His opponent on June 22 is no stranger to supreme conditioning, deep fan appreciation and a heavy focus on image management. He's also played the bad guy role on more than one occasion, but that's where the comparison ends.

Frank Shamrock (Pictures) spent two years abroad in Japan, fighting in Pancrase before transitioning to the UFC in December of 1997. Shamrock would go undefeated in the promotion, beginning with Olympic gold medalist Kevin Jackson and finishing with Tito Ortiz (Pictures). He originally retired from fighting after taking a close decision victory over Elvis Sinosic (Pictures) in 2000, but has fought sporadically over the last five years.

Now, after nearly a year of verbal jabs exchanged on and off air in the Strikeforce promotion, Baroni and Shamrock will finally lace ‘em up and throw down.

There are some clear-cut advantages in favor of either combatant. When it comes to striking, Baroni is the bigger power threat. His stand-up is more simplified than Shamrock's but his explosiveness is hard to endure and no one has really been able to stop him with strikes (we cannot forget the controversy in the Tanner bout).

While Baroni's takedowns are solid, and although he finished his last fight by submission, his overall ground game leaves something to be desired.

Shamrock has a vast knowledge of submission techniques, yet a high percentage of his fights have been finished with strikes. Stamina has never been issue for Frank. If you've ever seen his UFC match with Ortiz or his marathon half-hour RINGS war with Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (Pictures) you know Shamrock will be there all day. Granted, he hasn't fought more than seven minutes in the last seven years, but he has always preached conditioning.

As much as I sometimes sympathize with the highly emotional Baroni, I think we've seen this fight before.

When Shamrock returned to fighting in 2003 he battled a beefed-up powerhouse named Bryan Pardoe (Pictures). "The Pain Inducer" ate a kick as he landed a punch and brought Frank to the mat. It was only moments later that Shamrock secured a limb and spun to the armbar for the win. Baroni is much more experienced now than Pardoe was then and he's beaten down submission experts before, but I think Frank takes the win here.

The rest of the 11-bout card is full of big names, and since the recent UFC card in Ireland looked SpikeTV-worthy on paper let's hope you saved a little dough for this talent-laden spectacle.