Many believed that the top heavyweight in the world would be crowned when the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix tournament was announced in January of this year. At least four of the consensus top-10 ranked heavyweights in the world were entered in the tournament, including Alistair Overeem, Fedor Emelianenko, Fabricio Werdum and Josh Barnett.
At the time, it appeared almost to be fate that we would see Emelianenko vs. Overeem in the semi-finals of the tournament, given the structure of the tournament. But now, eight months later, as we head into the finals, only one of the original top four remains, while the other slot is filled by a fighter who wasn’t even in the original bracket.
Josh Barnett vs. Daniel Cormier will face off, likely later this year, to crown the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix champion. So where do these two heavyweight juggernauts rank among the top-10 in their weight class, which has been dominated by UFC fighters in recent years?
Read on as we count down and rank the top-10 heavyweights in MMA following tonight’s Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix semi-finals round.