Tag: Antonio Silva

Strikeforce Heavyweights Descend Upon New York to Lay Claim to No. 1

Filed under: Strikeforce, NewsNEW YORK — For some fans, it’s easy to look past Strikeforce. They don’t run as many events as the UFC, they don’t have a bombastic frontman, and they haven’t been around as long. But it was hard to ignore what they were …

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Fabricio WerdumNEW YORK — For some fans, it’s easy to look past Strikeforce. They don’t run as many events as the UFC, they don’t have a bombastic frontman, and they haven’t been around as long. But it was hard to ignore what they were doing on Tuesday afternoon, when eight burly men demanded and received the attention of a city that usually can’t be bothered.

The field of the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament came to town, with a free fan experience at Manhattan’s famed Roseland Ballroom that drew around 2,000 fans. The message was simple: With the brutal tournament format generating a battle of attrition, the promotion and its fighters believe that the man who emerges as the last man standing out of the original eight will be able to make the claim as the world’s best heavyweight.

While the championship is not in play, in some ways, the stakes are higher than any single piece of hardware.

“I love tournaments,” said Alistair Overeem, the man who holds the belt for now. “Tournaments decide who’s No. 1. This tournament will decide who the No. 1 heavyweight in MMA is, no doubt.”

2011: Year of the Heavyweight

Filed under: UFC, StrikeforceIf 2011 goes as planned, we’ll see more good, competitive, high-level mixed martial arts fights than we’ve ever seen in any year of the sport’s existence.

Strikeforce’s eight-man heavyweight tournament was getting all the …

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If 2011 goes as planned, we’ll see more good, competitive, high-level mixed martial arts fights than we’ve ever seen in any year of the sport’s existence.

Strikeforce’s eight-man heavyweight tournament was getting all the headlines last week, but the UFC did a nice job of bouncing back with the news that Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos will coach the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter, that Shane Carwin expects to return in June, and that Frank Mir vs. Roy Nelson and Stefan Struve vs. Travis Browne are slated for May.

Assuming a best-case scenario for both promotions, we’ll have good heavyweight fights from Strikeforce, the UFC or both every month for the next 10 months or so, culminating with the return of Cain Velasquez and the Strikeforce tournament final toward the end of the year. Remember, I started this with an “If”: Looking ahead to fights that we hope to see in the future is always risky business. But below we’ll look at the fights that will make this the year of the heavyweight.

Fight Video Roundup: All 12 Previous Meetings Between Strikeforce Heavyweight GP Participants [UPDATED]

(Remember when Sergei Kharitonov sent Alistair Overeem’s lifeless body through the ropes at K-1 Hero’s 10? No? Then you really need to watch these videos…)
In our excitement for Strikeforce’s potentially insane heavyweight tournament, one point see…

Sergei Kharitonov Alistair Overeem MMA photos K-1 Hero's 10 Middleweight Tournament Final Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix
(Remember when Sergei Kharitonov sent Alistair Overeem‘s lifeless body through the ropes at K-1 Hero’s 10? No? Then you really need to watch these videos…)

In our excitement for Strikeforce’s potentially insane heavyweight tournament, one point seems to be getting lost in the narrative — namely, that these guys have already fought each other many, many times before. Five of the eight competitors (Werdum, Arlovski, Overeem, Emelianenko, Rogers) have previously faced at least three other fighters in the tournament field. Fabricio Werdum has actually fought everyone except Brett Rogers and Josh Barnett, and only Barnett himself has managed to go his entire career without bumping up against anybody else in this year’s bracket.

All told, there’s eleven twelve fights worth of shared history among the Strikeforce HWGP competitors, dating back over five years. To help you study for the quarterfinals next month, we’ve posted them all below in chronological order…

UPDATE: We originally forgot to include Fabricio Werdum’s decision win over Antonio Silva. So actually, there have been 12 previous meetings, not 11. The video has now been added. 

(Sergei Kharitonov def. Fabricio Werdum via split decision; PRIDE 30, 10/23/05)

(Alistair Overeem def. Sergei Kharitonov via TKO, 5:13 of round 1; PRIDE 31, 2/26/06)

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Fedor vs. Silva Fight Card

Filed under: StrikeforceThe Feb. 12 Fedor vs. Silva fight card will kick off the highly buzzed-about Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J.

Two tournament fights, one on each of the A-B side brackets, will…

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The Feb. 12 Fedor vs. Silva fight card will kick off the highly buzzed-about Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J.

Two tournament fights, one on each of the A-B side brackets, will take place, with Fedor Emelianenko meeting Antonio Silva and Andrei Arlovski facing Sergei Kharitonov. Also, the first alternate bout will happen with Shane Del Rosario vs. Lavar Johnson.

Below is the current fight card.

Strikeforce Tournament Could Crown MMA’s Top Heavyweight

Filed under: UFC, StrikeforceThere’s no such thing as “the heavyweight champion of the world” in mixed martial arts. That’s a title that various promoters can bestow on their fighters, but the reality is that the promotions have their own heavyweight c…

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There’s no such thing as “the heavyweight champion of the world” in mixed martial arts. That’s a title that various promoters can bestow on their fighters, but the reality is that the promotions have their own heavyweight champions. If those champions won’t fight each other, then we never really know, for sure, who the champ is.

But there is usually a consensus opinion among MMA fans and the MMA media about who the top heavyweight is. For years, the top heavyweight was Fedor Emelianenko, which meant that the No. 1 heavyweight resided outside the UFC. The combination of Fedor’s loss to Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez‘s victory over Brock Lesnar, however, solidified Velasquez, in the eyes of most observers, as the No. 1 heavyweight.

None of the fighters participating in Strikeforce’s eight-man heavyweight tournament will get the opportunity to wrest control of the mythical heavyweight crown away from Velasquez inside the cage. But the tournament will give the winner a lot of ammunition for an argument that he is, in fact, the best. And the tournament gives Strikeforce its best chance of making a legitimate case that its champion — and not the UFC’s — is the best heavyweight.

Scott Coker Discusses Heavyweight Tourney, Re-Signing Emelianenko

Filed under: Strikeforce, News, interviewStrikeforce CEO Scott Coker faced his share of criticism in 2010 for the perceived difficulty in putting his heavyweight fighters in the cage together. That criticism came to a screeching halt on Tuesday, when M…

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Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker faced his share of criticism in 2010 for the perceived difficulty in putting his heavyweight fighters in the cage together. That criticism came to a screeching halt on Tuesday, when MMA Fighting broke the news that an eight-man tournament had been finalized that would feature some of the promotion’s biggest names.

The tournament, which begins on Feb. 12, is expected to run over several months and is expected to culminate with the winner as the Strikeforce heavyweight champion (more on that later).

Just hours after his big announcement, Coker spoke with MMA Fighting about the tournament, bringing Fedor Emelianenko back into the fold, the possibility of Strikeforce on pay-per-view and more.