Whenever the UFC has a fight coming up that they want to promote, they’ll hold a media breakfast on Friday or Saturday morning. I always make it a point to attend, because let’s be honest, who doesn’t love free food?
But it’s not just the food. The main point of these breakfast meetings is to spend time with a few fighters who are in attendance to promote upcoming fights. This morning, our attention was turned towards Josh Barnett and Daniel Cormier, who meet in the finals of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix next month in San Jose.
We all know Barnett is a great orator. Years spent in Japan doing professional wrestling has honed his speaking skills, and he’s one of the best in the business. What we didn’t know is that Cormier is very nearly on his level.
The heavyweights sat in front of us for an hour and discussed all manner of topics: catch wrestling, Fedor Emelianenko and his lack of name-value oppponents, the state of American wrestling and how Cormier thinks the U.S. Trials will go this weekend, how the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix ultimately played out and much more.
It was a completely enthralling discussion with two of the most intelligent fighters in the game. And after it concluded, I found myself thrilled at the prospect of seeing them get in the cage and face off. It’s an incredible strategic matchup that just isn’t getting the attention it deserves, at least not yet. Perhaps it’ll start getting some love once we have this nasty business between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans in our rear view mirror.
I can only imagine that fan interest would go through the roof if the UFC put Jon Anik between Cormier and Barnett and allowed the public to see what I saw this morning. Look for video highlights here on Bleacher Report in the near future – you’ll see exactly what I mean.