Strikeforce is wasting no time making sure they have some of their top stars under lock and key, and the latest is middleweight top contender Robbie Lawler who has just signed a new multi-year agreement with the promotion.

The news comes on the heels of the announcement that Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz just signed a similar multi-year deal with the San Jose based organization as well on Tuesday.

Lawler signs his new deal just weeks prior to a middleweight title fight against current Strikeforce champion Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza in San Jose on Jan 29.

“Strikeforce has treated me good and I am happy to re-sign with them,” Lawler said in a press release. “They have given me an opportunity to fight for the title and I’m looking forward to that and to fighting any and all of the top 185lbers.”

Fresh off of a brutal first round knockout of Matt Lindland, Lawler received the title shot against Souza with a chance to wrap another gold belt around his waist.

The bout between Lawler and Souza will co-headline the Jan 29 show along with Nick Diaz defending his welterweight title against Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos in the main event.

Disappointing news. I want to see Robbie back in the UFC.

I am glad StrikeForce is signing new deals with their star fighters. Sure SF has to better themselves and have their stars fight more but to put everyone in the UFC will make UFC even bigger but what is the point of it...? If SF manages well there is at least one nice promotion next to UFC after WEC and UFC merged already. Let's just hope they manage to sign more contenders and that they will have even better cards as well. I don't want SF to become just a promotion that contains out of UFC fighters that have been sent off by Dana and co