More than 15 months after it began, the arguably disastrous Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix will finally come to an end on Saturday, when Josh Barnett and Daniel Cormier square off in the tournament’s final bout.
Initially, Cormier was not even a participant in the eight-man tournament that began in February 2011, but an Alistair Overeem injury that led to his departure from Strikeforce allowed Cormier to step in and knock out Antonio Silva in the semifinals.
Barnett, meanwhile, ran through Brett Rogers and Sergei Kharitonov, submitting both fighters to set up a meeting with Cormier in what could turn out to be Strikeforce’s final heavyweight fight. Aside from the finalists, Strikeforce’s heavyweight division has been shipped to the UFC to add depth.
Despite the relative lack of anticipation for this fight compared to the excitement at the tournament’s start, this is still an important fight for both competitors and the landscape of the heavyweight division. The winner of this fight should soon become one of the UFC’s top heavyweight contenders, so let’s take a look at which fighter has a better chance of winning on Saturday.