Should the winner of the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament be crowned as the #1 heav

[WrestlingSmarks News]

The Strikeforce heavyweight tournament fighters. Photo credit: Esther Lin/Strikeforce


First things first, let’s all recognize that rankings are SUBJECTIVE.* However, I’ll use the USA Today consensus rankings for today’s piece since I used to contribute to them and I consider them to be decent rankings.

The question at hand is, would you consider the winner of the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament to be the #1 heavyweight in the world?

Let’s take a look at who is currently ranked (before this past Strikeforce event) #1, #2, and #3:

1. Cain Velasquez has defeated ranked opponents in Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Brock Lesnar.
2. Brock Lesnar has defeated Randy Couture (was ranked at the time as a HW), Frank Mir and Shane Carwin
3. Fedor Emelianenko’s resume speaks for itself.

Of course there are not many top tier heavyweights in the world, which makes this really interesting since most guys got their ranking from defeating similar opponents.

For instance, Lesnar and Carwin both beat Frank Mir while Mir beat Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Velasquez and Emelianenko hold wins over Nogueira.* Mir and Velasquez have beaten Lesnar (although Lesnar wasn’t ranked when Mir beat him).

The Strikeforce heavyweight participants that can still win the tournament are: Fabricio Werdum (#4), Alistair Overeem (#7), Antonio Silva (#10), Josh Barnett (#11), Brett Rogers (#12), and Sergei Kharitnokov (outside top 20).

-Werdum (#4) already holds a submission win over Emelianenko (who was ranked #1 at the time).* He’ll have to beat Overeem (#7) and Silva (#10) to reach the finals where he’ll have to defeat either Barnett (#11), Rogers (#12) or Kharitnokov (NR).

-Overeem (#7) holds the same path as Werdum (#4) if he is able to defeat him in the next round.

-Silva (#10) holds the win over Emelianenko (#3), then must defeat the winner of Werdum (#4)/Overeem (#7).* Then he’ll meet either Barnett (#11), Rogers (#12), or Kharitnokov(NR) in the finals.

-Kharitnokov holds a win over Andrei Arlovski (#17).* He’ll need to defeat the winner of Barnett (#11)/Rogers (#12) and then either Silva (#10), Werdum (#4), or Overeem (#7) in the finals.

-Barnett must get past Rogers (#12) then take on Kharitnokov, and then face either Silva (#10), Werdum (#4) or Overeem (#7) in the finals.

-Rogers (#12) must get past Barnett (#11) and then take on Kharitnokov (NR).* Then, he’ll face either Silva (#10), Werdum (#4) or Overeem (#7) in the finals.

One thing we’ll have to take into account is guys moving up in the rankings after defeating their opponents during the tournament.

Silva will be ranked higher than #10 when the next set of rankings are unveiled after defeating Emelianenko.* Kharitnokov should move into the top 20 or so with his win over Arlovski.* If Overeem is able to defeat Werdum, he’ll be higher than #7, so forth and so on.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker believes that the winner of the tournament should be considered the best heavyweight in the world.* I mean he is the promoter, so you would expect him to say that.

However, I do think it’s a legitiment argument depending on how the matches play out.* I mean, the level of competition that the winner of this tournament will face is certainly comparable to that of which Lesnar and Velasquez have faced in their short careers.

Here’s a quick synopsis of my thoughts on each fighter winning the tourment and where I’d place them:

-I couldn’t place Kharitnokov as the #1 heavyweight in the world if he won this tournament.* I mean, you don’t see the number #25 team take out the three ranked teams and all of a sudden become #1.

-If Josh Barnett were to win the tournament, I think an argument could be made for him to be #1 considering his resume.

-Rogers, he got destroyed by Overeem and lost to Fedor as well.* So I don’t think I could place him #1 if he won the tournament.

-I think the argument could be made for Overeem, considering who he’d have to beat to win the tournament.

-The same can be said for Antonio Silva.

-Werdum, I’m not so sure about.* He got his head taken off by Junior dos Santos(#5) in his last UFC fight, BUT that was over 2 years ago as well.* He did defeat Mike Kyle, Antonio Silva and Fedor Emelianenko after that loss.* Given the field he will have to defeat in this tournament, I think you could make the argument for him as well if he wins.

Give me your thoughts.



Filed Under: Strikeforce

Tags: Alistair Overeem, Andrei Arlovski, Antonio Silva, Brett Rogers, Fabricio Werdum, featured, Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, sergei kharitnokov, strikeforce heavyweight tournament





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