Curran was recently released from the WEC after suffering four consecutive losses to some of the WEC's top fighters, including Mike Brown and Urijah Faber. He was riding a sixteen-fight win streak before his current skid.

Curran, who operates the Curran Martial Arts facility in Crystal Lake, Illinois, told FightLine.com that once he heard that Strikeforce was coming to Chicago, he knew he had to get on the card.

"When I found out they were coming to Chicago, that really got me excited," Curran admitted to Jacob Henson of FightLine.com. "I don't like for a big show to come to my town without me being able to be a part of it. So my manager got it done, and they added me to the card."

While Curran was announced for the card several weeks ago, finding an opponent for him proved to be somewhat of a challenge.

"My first opponent, his record wasn't big enough," he noted. "Their exact words were that they 'didn't want me killing someone in their state'. So they got another veteran opponent, Dustin Neace, who's a 145-er, so I'm going to be going back up to featherweight for this. He's [Neace] 18-13, so he's got a little over 30 fights, so he's a veteran, he's pretty experienced, he's got 14 wins by submission.

Before he even gets a chance to step in the cage this Saturday, Curran's appointment book is already filled up. He will be hosting the Paradise Warrior Retreat this weekend, and will step back into the cage on Dec. 5th at XFO 34 in Lakemoor, IL against Tomohiko Hori, a training partner of Takeya Mizugaki.

"Hoffman Estates is still about a half-hour away, so it's like a hometown fight," Curran noted about his bout this Saturday. "But on December 5th, it is my hometown. We're 5 minutes from my house. We're right by all of my friends and family, so that is going to be like a real homecoming."

Curran faces Dustin Neace this Saturday on the undercard of Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers. The event will be taking place inside the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, and will be broadcast nationally on CBS.