According to MMAJunkie.com, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker, said that former Pride FC champion Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko is being considered to take part in a final heavyweight bout sanctioned by the San Jose-based company.
The heavyweight division is set to be dissolved once the Heavyweight Grand Prix Tournament finale between Josh “The Warmaster” Barnett and Daniel “DC” Cormier takes place.
That matchup is slated for sometime in March of this year.
At the time, it was thought that the tournament finale would be the division’s swansong, though, not according to Coker.
“Showtime and Strikeforce put a lot of resources behind this heavyweight tournament,” he said. “I think it was a historical day in New Jersey last year with all eight guys there. I think that lineup was impressive. I think we had an amazing heavyweight division. [Showtime] put a lot of resources behind it, and so did Strikeforce. So they felt like, ‘Look, let the tournament final happen and have one more fight. That kind of puts an exclamation (point) on the division for Strikeforce.’ And then let them go to the UFC and have some good fights there,” Coker said.
With that said, most of the heavyweight employees of the company which was acquired by the UFC in 2011 are now set to make their transition to the outfit.
Alistair Overeem who was recently stripped of the Strikeforce heavyweight belt and also released by the firm, was the first of the big men to make that exodus to the Zuffa-based company.
Fabricio “Vai Cavalo” Werdum who was eliminated from the Strikeforce tourney, followed suit, and is already a resident member of the UFC and is scheduled to throwdown with Roy “Big Country” Nelson at UFC 143 on Feb. 4, 2012.
On the other hand, Chad Griggs debuts for the promotion against Travis Brown at UFC 145 and Shawn Jordan is booked to meet Oli Thompson at UFC on FX 2, whilst Lavar Johnson is expected to lock horns with Joey Beltran at UFC on Fox 2 later this month.
That per se, threw a spanner in the works of an intended final finale.
“I had a few ideas, but they were just booked for UFC fights,” he said.
With that being the case, Fedor’s name was brought into the mix as a likely candidate for the aforementioned last heavyweight matchup, after the winner of the Barnett and Cormier fight has been determined.
“That’s interesting,” Coker said. “I’m not sure what Fedor has planned. I haven’t spoken to M-1. I know (M-1 executive) Steve Bash was in the audience tonight, but we haven’t had that conversation yet.”
Following several defeats to the likes of Werdum, Antonio “Big Foot” Silva and Dan “Hendo” Henderson, Fedor has recently found some sort of redemption, with successive wins against Jeff “The Snowman” Monsoon and Satoshi Ishii.
Nevertheless, whether that transpires or not, is dependent on UFC president Dana White and Fedor’s management, M-1 Global, putting their differences to one side.
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