Strikeforce Heavyweight Tournament Official

[Deezy]

Strikeforce’s rumored eight-man heavyweight tournament has become reality, and the promotion has officially announced the bracket’s four opening-round matchups.

Sherdog.com was informed Tuesday by sources close to the tournament that Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Silva, Josh Barnett, Fabricio Werdum, Sergei Kharitonov, Andrei Arlovski, Brett Rogers and Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem will compete in the upcoming tournament. That lineup was later confirmed by a press release from Strikeforce.

As reported yesterday by Sherdog.com, the tournament is scheduled to kick off with an Emelianenko-Silva bout as the main event of a Feb. 12 card at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J. Also featured on that show will be a quarterfinal bout between Arlovski and Kharitonov, as opposed to the originally reported Arlovski-Barnett matchup.

The remaining two quarterfinals will reportedly go down March 5 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Barnett is scheduled to square off with Rogers, while Overeem will meet Werdum. The date and location of these two fights have not officially been announced by the promotion. The tournament’s semifinal and final rounds will be held later in the year at to-be-named events.

The promotion will also hold two alternate bouts as insurance in case one of the main card participants should sustain an injury or be rendered otherwise unable to compete. “Challengers†series standouts Daniel Cormier, Lavar Johnson, Shane del Rosario will likely compete, though the fourth alternate fighter is unknown at this time.

Also unknown is how the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board will handle Barnett’s ongoing licensing situation in California. The former Pride Fighting Championships competitor allegedly tested positive for performance enhancing substances prior to a scheduled bout with Emelianenko in July 2009. Barnett’s hearing before the CSAC on Dec. 2 was pushed back to 2011. Reports indicate that he may go before the commission again on Feb. 4.

So put into shorter words, here are the fights.

Feb 12.

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Silva
Andrei Arlovski vs. Sergei Kharitonov

-----

March 5th

Alistair Overeem© vs. Fabricio Werdum
Brett Rogers vs. Josh Barnett

I'm pretty pumped for this, first off you have a chance to see Fedor vs Kharitonov, something I've been wanting to see since Pride. And Overeem kill Fabricio and get a chance at Barnett. Sure hope this pans out.

If this is successful I'm all for bringing back the Grand Prix, because the SuperHulk tournament is such a fucking phony tourny, especially when you have Minowa winning the last one.

You have 5 of some of the best HWs in the world competing in one tournament. Whoever wins it, is hands down the best HW on the planet bar none. Suck on that Zuffa.

Thoughts?

 

[The New F'n Show]

This should be fantastic. I was worried when I heard of this concept but some of these matchups could be fantastic.

 

[Troy]

It should be a great tournament. They have some great names there and it shows that UFC don't have a monopoly on all the great heavyweights in the world.

My dream final would be Fedor vs Overeem and looking at the brackets I am pretty confident that is the way that it will go.

I would like to see the return of the Grand Prix as well but could they run it in the US? I didn't think that they would be able to get clearance from the Athletic Commision to have fighters fight more than once in the one night.

 

[Deezy]

Grand Prix kicks off this weekend.

Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Silva
Date: Feb 12, 2011

Location: East Rutherford, N.J.
Venue: IZOD Center
Broadcast: Showtime and HDNet

MAIN CARD (Showtime)

•Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Silva (heavyweight-tournament quarterfinals)
•Andrei Arlovski vs. Sergei Kharitonov (heavyweight-tournament quarterfinals)
•Shane Del Rosario vs. Lavar Johnson (heavyweight-tournament reserve fight)
•Valentijn Overeem vs. Ray Sefo (heavyweight-tournament reserve fight)
•Chad Griggs vs. Gian Villante (heavyweight-tournament reserve fight)
PRELIMINARY CARD (HDNet)

•John Cholish vs. Marc Stevens
•Igor Gracie vs. John Salgado
•Don Carlo-Clauss vs. Sam Oropeza
•Josh LaBerge vs. Anthony Leone
•Jason McLean vs. Kevin Roddy

I'm just stoked to see Kharitonov in an MMA fight, he crushed some guy on New Years and Arlovski is still a great striker, people forget he was tooling Fedor until he decided to go for that flying knee.

Fedor should beat Bigfoot, who was having trouble with a LHW in his last fight. Also Fedor always armbars these freakshow fighters.

Don't know why the shitty Overeem is in this tournament, if I was Strikeforce I would've put Dan Cormier in, and maybe Bobby Lashley for name value. I still think Lashley is still under contract, unless Scott Coker is unbelievably stupid.

 

[Deezy]

Fedor just lost to Bigfoot Silva, Fedor diehards shutdown Sherdog and I'm having fun with them on Facebook right now.

Only thing that was good to watch was Kharitonov KOing Arlovski.

 

[Troy]

Two in a row now for Fedor he must be thinking about retiring since his mystique is over. I wonder what would have happened if he went to UFC, I don't think he would have fared to well there considering the class of fighter UFC have.

Arlovski has now lost four in a row and also has to be near the end of his career as he can't beat top fighters anymore.

I have no idea who will make it to the final now.

 

[Dademo]

Coker and Finkelstein say that Fedor could be a replacement but why if you just had three replacement fights? :/.

Now we won't see Fedor/Overeem, but maybe that's a good thing for Fedor fans. So pumped for the next round, and for the next fights on the 9th of April.

I say the finals are Kharitonov/Overeem but that's just me.

 

[Deezy]

I'm actually thinking Barnett has the best chance of winning this tournament. Last time he got knocked out was against Pedro Rizzo when he was a monster, and isn't stupid enough to try trade with Overeem.

 

[Dademo]

I'm actually thinking Barnett has the best chance of winning this tournament. Last time he got knocked out was against Pedro Rizzo when he was a monster, and isn't stupid enough to try trade with Overeem.

That's a good point actually. Josh Barnett is someone who I think is underrated overall as a fighter and if he beats Rogers, I think he could knock out Sergei.

During the AA fight, Sergei didn't have huge problems, but he did take some serious hits from AA and I thought he would go down at some points.

Maybe Barnett/Overeem or Kharitonov vs. Overeem in the finals. The reason I stick by Overeem winning is just that he's on fire nowadays. Maybe it's because he's been destroying cans, but he's impressed me. And it seems like if he wins this, he's going to go the UFC. Winning this has to impress Dana if you ask me.

 

[Troy]

Overeem and Barnett have progressed to the next stage.

Semi-final fights are: Overeem vs. Silva and Barnett vs. Kharitonov.

 

[Deezy]

Still don't know why they put the other Overeem on their cards, looked like he was there to collect a check.

Barnett still no joke and he and Sergei should bwe an explosive fight, hopefully this next round happens alot sooner than it took for this round to end.

Overeem and Bigfoot, intriguing fight here, can Ubereem overcome the size difference?

 

[Troy]

Now Overeem is out of the tournament due to a foot injury, he has been replaced by Cormier.

This tournament has become a joke. It has taken way too long to do and the hype just isn't there. Now that one of the favourites is out it makes it even less interesting. I just want this tournament over and decided.

 

[Deezy]

Overeem hurt his foot running away from Barnett.

They should've included Cormier from the get go, would've been a better fit than Brett Rogers.

Just because the marquee names are gone, doesn't mean the tournament should be scrapped. Still have Barnett, Bigfoot and Sergei left.

 

[Troy]

It shouldn't be scrapped but it has lost a lot of credibility since it seems to have been constantly delayed. There are some good fighters left and I want to find out who wins but it just hasn't been well organised.