Strikeforce revealed their plans for their Heavyweight World Grand Prix Tournament showdowns (bet on them here) and it all looks pretty enticing until Scott Coker tries to oversell it:
“STRIKEFORCE is home to the best heavyweight division in the world; the athlete who runs the gauntlet in a tournament such as this would have to be considered the best heavyweight fighter in the world.”
Ease up on the sales pitch, Coker. You’re no Chael Sonnen and we’re willing to bet any one of Cain Velasquez , Junior Dos Santos, or Shane Carwin could possibly best your “best heavyweight fighter in the world” …not to mention a certain oversized missing link we know that could lie on top of all those guys and maybe pound out a victory.
This is not to say we aren’t delighted by the line-up and are very much looking forward to this tournament, so let’s take a closer look at the roster.
FEDOR EMELIANENKO: Our favorite Russian mythical beast is still our number one Please Make it Happen, Dana, We’d Like to See Him in the UFC, F@*$ M-1, Damn It! pick. Despite his [surprising] loss to Fabricio Werdum back in June, Emelianenko still holds a respected 32 win record out of 35 fights. He is also the most sought after fighter by any top Heavyweight in both the Strikeforce and UFC promotions. With this tournament, Fedor puts his entire reputation as the arguably best heavyweight in the world on the line. He needs this win against Antonio Silva and to face Werdum once again.
ANTONIO SILVA: Silva is a former Elite XC and Cage Rage Heavyweight Champ and no joke with recent wins against Mike Kyle and Andre Arlovski.
FABRICIO WERDUM: Werdum is on a hot streak with his victories over Fedor Emelianenko and “Big Foot” Silva. Dana White even said he’d like to see him back in the UFC. Werdum’s fight is against the current Strikeforce Champion, Alistair Overeem, who he holds one win over from a Pride fight in 2006 so the pressure is on. He wants to win that belt and advance in the competition to prove to the world that his first round, first minute submission of Emelianenko wasn’t just a one time lucky break.
ALISTAIR OVEREEM: This current Strikeforce, Dream (Interim) and K-1 World Grand Prix Heavyweight Champion just showed us over New Year’s Eve that he can destroy UFC castoffs (ie. Todd Duffee) in seconds. Not too long ago, chatter was that Overeem is more a kickboxer these days and hadn’t proved himself to be the number one MMA Heavyweight. Overeem kicked off the New Year right by becoming the Dream Interim Heavyweight Champ and agreed to face the number one Strikeforce contender.
ANDRE ARLOVSKI: Arlovski is in the biggest pitfall of his career with three consecutive losses, starting with that sad KO from Fedor Emelianenko three minutes into the first round when he [foolishly] got caught with a flying knee after dominating “The Last Emporer” and maybe getting a little too cocky at Affliction: Day of Reckoning. From there, Arlovski went on to lose two more fights in Strikeforce and will face Sergei Kharitonov in the heavyweight tournament with very big hopes for a victory.
SERGEI KHARITONOV: Kharitonov is the last loss on Alistair Overeem’s record from a first round KO in K-1 Hero’s Middleweight Grand Prix Finale in 2007. But that was four years [and 2 weight classes down] ago. He recently had a Dynamite! NYE first round KO win and is looking to keep up the momentum by taking out Andre Arlovski.
JOSH BARNETT: Wait a minute… Is he even allowed to fight? Ah…as long as this fight doesn’t take place in California. The man who took down a promotion (see: Affliction) faster than Norma Rae will hope to continue his 6 fight win streak by taking on Brett Rogers.
BRETT ROGERS: Rogers landed only one punch in his 3 minutes against Alistair Overeem before getting TKO’d and before that bout, he lost his WAMMA Heavyweight title-shot to Fedor Emelianenko. “The Grim” rounds out the Strikeforce Heavyweight Eight-Man Tournament looking to get past Josh Barnett and avenge those championship contender losses.
The Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix begins this February 12th and will air on Showtime Network.
Bet on Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix here.