DavidMarrio Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 Yeh that's the way I saw the draw, I think it's a smart stategy for Strikeforce. Werdum is really the number 1 contender there so thats why he's fighting Overeem, Silva's on a win streak and is fighting Fedor with that being a contendership fight then Stikeforce could get either there Fedor/Werdum II match or Fedor/Overeem match for the title. While on the other side of the bracket your building up a new contender who'll have back to back wins over some good competition. Keeps the division active, gets your two title fights that really should be happening out of the way, gets Overeem active in Strikeforce, builds up a new contender. Actually surprised strikeforce are actually looking like getting stuff sorted out Also the backup fights have been announced: Shane Del Rosario fights Lavar Johnson on Feb. 12 in an alternate Strikeforce heavyweight tournament fight. Will be on the televised card. and A matchup between heavyweights Ray Sefo and Valentijn Overeem is targeted for the supporting cast of Strikeforce's recently announced eight-man heavyweight tournament. Sources close to negotiations today told that contracts have not been signed, but verbal agreements are in place. An announcement on the fight is expected soon. Really I would have put in Cormier instead of Sefo like but meh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene Kiniski Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 I was going to bring up Lavar actually. I'd like to see him work his way up and be able to hang once he gets there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolleje Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 Some more details I found in an interview with Coker: http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/01/05/scott-coker-discusses-heavyweight-tourney-re-signing-emelianenk/ Lavar vs Del Rosario is the first alternate bout and will determine the first reserve fighter. Sefo Vs Overeem determines a next reserve and there could potentially be a third reserve bout (Cormier anyone?). As some people mentioned, the reason for the one-side stacked brackets is indeed that every fight with the champ will be for the title. Furthermore, Coker apparently wants all tournament matches to be 5 rounds (a bit strange, but ok...) Anyway, really stacked tournament. The FightMatrix Heavyweight ranking has 4 guys out of the top 10 NOT in UFC: Werdum (#3 after Velasquez & Lesnar), Emelianenko (#4), Overeem (#8) and Barnett (#10). Silva is #11, Rogers #12, Arlovski #13. So that's the top 7-non-UFC heavyweights according to these mathematical rankings. The only exception in the tournament is Kharitonov who is ranked #23 (mainly due to recent lesser opponents I guess). Better ranked non-UFC fighters are Cole Konrad (the Bellator Champ), Pedro Rizzo, Tim Sylvia (remembering, rankings are mathematical!) and Shamil Abdurahimov (beat Monson & Soukoudjou in Abu Dhabi). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powerhart Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 I still think Overeem deserves a better ranking than that and that Lesnar's ranking is not deserving of No. 2. But this would lead to another discussion/argument about rankings and well, let just not get into those. I'm happy Strikeforce finally agreed on terms with Fedor and M-1 and that this GP is set. Hopefully it doesn't blow up on their face and they give us fans the Heavyweight bouts we've been waiting since 2009 to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_da_bill Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 Apparently Overeem won't be putting his title on the line in any of the matches. Strikeforce has created a new Strikeforce HW Grand Prix Title. Is that really necessary? Strikeforce has some nice HW's, but they really need two titles? And they really a champion who could be coming off a loss in the tournament. Still excited about the tournament, just don't understand that decision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mr. Potato Head Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 Apparently Overeem won't be putting his title on the line in any of the matches. Strikeforce has created a new Strikeforce HW Grand Prix Title. Is that really necessary? Strikeforce has some nice HW's, but they really need two titles? And they really a champion who could be coming off a loss in the tournament. Still excited about the tournament, just don't understand that decision. I don't know about creating a new title (and if you link me to where you saw that so I can laugh at their continual stupidity, that would be great), but having Overeem defend his belt would have led to all kinds of problems. It's not fair to make his fights five rounds and the others three, but in some states a fight can't be five rounds unless it's a title fight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_da_bill Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 http://mmajunkie.com/news/22085/strikeforce-clarifies-tourney-rules-three-round-fights-overeems-title-not-up-for-grabs.mma This is more credible than where I first read it. The winner gets to face Overeem for the title. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene Kiniski Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 Horrible. Tasteless. Uninteresting. Just a few works off the top of my head that describe the wanna be Pride move, IMO. I went from being all exciting about Strikeforce finally doing something right with their Heavyweight championship and they have completely ruined it. If Overeem loses the Heavyweight title loses the .01% of credibility it still had left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mr. Potato Head Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 Horrible. Tasteless. Uninteresting. Just a few works off the top of my head that describe the wanna be Pride move, IMO. I went from being all exciting about Strikeforce finally doing something right with their Heavyweight championship and they have completely ruined it. If Overeem loses the Heavyweight title loses the .01% of credibility it still had left. Not nearly that bad. I read it as creating the GP belt was simply a means to ensure the final would be five rounds, and that after that guy fights (or is) Overeem, they'll forget about the GP title entirely. I don't see why they can't just say "if somebody other than Overeem wins the tournament, of course he'll challenge for the belt, that's just common sense", but this is still better than forcing some fighters into 5-round fights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_da_bill Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 Yeah it's not as devestating as I first heard it when I thought they were just making a new title. I'm just going to be happy that we're going to see some great matchups, even if the way its being done is a bit odd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tristy Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 why put the current champion in a tournament where the winner gets to face the champion? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mr. Potato Head Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 It's a dumb idea that way, yeah. I feel like their thinking was "we want to give everyone the fights they actually want to see, like overeem vs. werdum and one of them against fedor, we might as well guarantee those fights and have an easy road to building a new star on the other half of the bracket". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pizza Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 If Overeem wins the heavyweight division is cleared out. If he loses, and the person who beats him doesn't win, it will be a bit of a clusterfuck. This is stupid booking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_da_bill Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 (edited) They always could have never called the thing a tournament... Overeem vs. Werdum who deserves a title shot. Fedor/Silva winner fights the champion. The other guys try and put together a few wins and earn a shot. We could have had the dream matches without the tournament making it confusing. Edited January 13, 2011 by bill_da_bill 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mancuerda Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 I don't get the people who are angry at StrikeForce for doing the tournament separate from the title. It's how Pride did their Grand Prix back in the day. Overeem could win and wind up fighting someone he didn't fight (there will be 5 people he won't face, and even eliminating Rogers and Kharitonov as he's fought both before, that's still three new opponents - Arlovski, Bigfoot, Barnett, Fedor...) It's really not bad at all. It just proves who the top heavyweight is. The StrikeForce HW Title has been pretty meaningless so far anyway. AO won it from Paul Buentello, held it for over two years without a defense, and his only defense was against Brett Rogers who came off a KO loss to Fedor. It means nothing anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene Kiniski Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 I don't get the people who are angry at StrikeForce for doing the tournament separate from the title. It's how Pride did their Grand Prix back in the day. Overeem could win and wind up fighting someone he didn't fight (there will be 5 people he won't face, and even eliminating Rogers and Kharitonov as he's fought both before, that's still three new opponents - Arlovski, Bigfoot, Barnett, Fedor...) It's really not bad at all. It just proves who the top heavyweight is. The StrikeForce HW Title has been pretty meaningless so far anyway. AO won it from Paul Buentello, held it for over two years without a defense, and his only defense was against Brett Rogers who came off a KO loss to Fedor. It means nothing anyway. That's part of the problem: you have the HW champion in a HW tournament while he is champion and it's not being defended. The championship is taking the backseat to a make believe title that will have no value or meaning after this series of fights. The title is supposed to be THE crowning jewel of a division. If someone goes in there and defeats Overeem and wins the Grand Prix title (which will be dissolved after the tournament) then what do they have? A pat on the back? All they will have accomplished is winning a chance to face the champion, whom they just defeated, for the HW championship. As for the proving who the top heavyweight is, yes I agree. That, however, is supposed to be acknowledged with the championship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mongrel Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 Means the brackets make zero sense to me now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolleje Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 To be fair... Strikeforce wás hoping to make it for the title but then all tournament matches had to be 5 rounds (to make it fair for Overeem). The brackets did make sense at that point (and also don't forget that the fighters do have a say in their matches too... what does Werdum have to win in a match against Kharitonov or Arlovski at the time?) However, the 5-rounds plan didn't go through so they decided to not make it for the title... They still could've chosen to 'strip' Overeem of the title and crown the winner of the GP the new champ... but ok. Perhaps next time they'll need to plan more ahead and check if the 5-round thing is possible first... it's small things like that that make the UFC still a much more professional organisation then Strikeforce. But the most important thing is that we shouldn't let a small negative thing ruin the huge positives: we'll finally get to see Strikeforce (and the non-UFC-world's) best heavyweights battle it out :-). Fedor! Overeem! Werdum! Barnett! Can't wait :-) !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toe Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 I agree. Title or no title, this still could be a fantastic event to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieG Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 Four athletic commisions were contacted, all of them announced that all matches could have 5 rounds, but Strikeforce never even contacted them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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