Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum

[Troy]

Main card​

Heavyweight Grand Prix Quarterfinal bout: Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum
Heavyweight Grand Prix Quarterfinal bout: Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers
Heavyweight Grand Prix Reserve bout: Valentijn Overeem vs. Chad Griggs
Heavyweight bout: Daniel Cormier vs. Jeff Monson
Heavyweight bout: Valentijn Overeem vs. Chad Griggs​

Preliminary Card (HDNet)
Lightweight bout: K.J. Noons vs. Jorge Masvidal
Lightweight bout: Gesias Cavalcante vs. Justin Wilcox
Lightweight bout: Conor Heun vs. Magno Almeida​

Two more fights for the Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament and they are both tough fights to predict the winner. ​

I am leaning towards Overeem but then again Werdum has two huge scalps, Fedor and Antonio Silva, in his past two fights. You never know which Barnett will show up to fight so I don't know if I can back him. Rogers on the other hand has lost two of his past three but those loses were against Overeem and Fedor.​

Gina Carano is booked for the card as well which will be her first fight in almost two years.​

 

[Deezy]

Werdum has struggled with elite strikers and Ubereem is elite as it gets. He hits him with a knee it's over.

Barnett should be able to crush Rogers.

Gina Carrano has some movie to promote, pretty much the reason she's fighting, doubt she would get a competant opponent.

 

[Dademo]

Can't wait for the Reem to rape Werdum. Also Barnett vs. Rogers, which should be an easy win for Barnett. I see Barnett vs. Overeem in the finals, but this tourny is taking long if you ask me. Still the Quarterfinals 6 months after it started.

 

[Troy]

So is Rogers out of his league in this tournament? I don't think of Barnett as a top heavyweight anymore but you both think that this will be easy for Barnett.

This tournament has taken too long. They needed to book tournament matches on every event that they have so that it doesn't take them two years to run the tournament.

 

[Deezy]

Tournament is taking long, because of the red tape that is shackling it down. Athletic commissions are a pain in the ass to deal with.

Rogers is over his head in this tourmanent, sure he has a chance, everyone has a chance in MMA. Which is part of what makes this sport special, but Barnett is far more skilled than Barnett everywhere. On paper it looks pretty cut and dry.

 

[Troy]

The card has been updated.

Gina Carano is facing Sarah D'Alelio. I have no idea who that is and she doesn't even have a wiki page so I can't look at her previous MMA record.

 

[Deezy]

Knew Carrano wans't getting a competant opponent, first fight for her in almost two years. Tune up fight at best, but most likely just to pop a rating for Strikeforce.

 

[Deezy]

Looks like Carrano is out of this event.

Guessing the HW tourny is going to have to sell itself, no one knows who Sarah Kaufmann is.

 

[Troy]

Was there any reason given as to why she withdrew from the event?

I saw the first commercial for the event today on tv and the commercial is all about the heavyweight tournament.

 

[Deezy]

Commission seems to have not cleared her to fight.

I would rather they get negotiations dealt with Cyborg and she can continue her dominating ways.

That woman is on such a higher level than anyone she could probably fight Bantamweights and win.

 

[Troy]

Overeem defeated Werdum via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Barnett defeated Rogers via submission (arm triangle choke) at 1:17 of round 2.

You guys were right. Overeem and Barnett both won and move on to the next stage of the tournament. I got odds of $1.81 for a multi of those two to win so I was happy with that.

Next Overeem faces Silva and Barnett faces Kharitonov.

 

[Deezy]

Werdum had a shit gameplan, pulling guard would've worked if he didn't make it blatantly obvious about it. If he suckered Overeem into trying to unload on him he would've gotten it to the ground. But he made it obvious and made Overeem gun shy. When he faked a knee injury, he almost lured Overeem to bite. Overeem didn't open up and didn't display what he could do. A shame, but it doesn't mean he sucks.

Bad gameplan made for a terrible fight.

Rogers didn't look in the same league as Barnett, Rogers was just getting controlled the whole fight and threw 4 punches. Barnett is still no joke and should be respected. Steroids or not.

Jorge Masvidal looked great against the perennially overrated KJ Noons. Noons got beat up.

Also liked seeing the improvement in Cormier's standup as he tooled Jeff Monson for 3 rounds, dude is a solid prospect anmd should do big things in a few years.