Strikeforce Heavyweight Tournament: Which Semifinal Matchup Should We Be More Excited For?
Bleacher Report’s Blake Dreisbach:
The two semifinal matchups in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Tournament include Alistair Overeem vs. Antonio Silva and Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov.
Even though Barnett (30-5) had the more impressive victory on last night’s card versus Brett “The Grim” Rogers (11-3), it is in the Overeem (35-11) vs. Silva (16-2) fight that fans will be focusing most of their time thinking about.
Barnett will be taking on a very technical striker in Kharitonov (18-4). “The Russian Mercenary” defeated Andrei Arlovski by knockout to kick off the tournament in February.
Both fights have an interesting contrast of styles, but the Overeem vs. Silva fight could arguably be a more exciting fight because of the unpredictability of the two.
The gameplan for Barnett and Kharitonov will be outlined pretty clearly early on. Barnett will look to take his opponent to the ground and use his world class grappling skills to get a submission win while Kharitonov will look to stand and knock him out. Still, it’s a very solid matchup that will feature two of the very best heavyweights not in the UFC.