Strikeforce planning an eight-man heavyweight grand prix tournament for 2011

Quote :

The report states that Fedor Emelianenko will face Antonio Silva in a yet-to-be-announced Strikeforce February event as part of the semi-quarters, along with Fabricio Werdum, coming off his historic victory over Fedor, versus Sergei Kharitonov in a March event. The other two possible fights for the tournament could involve current Strikeforce HW Champion Alistair Overeem against former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski, and recent Strikeforce acquisition Josh Barnett could face Strikeforce HW prospect Brett Rogers to round out the tournament.

The tournament could be broken into three events, where the semis and/or finals are potential candidates to spearhead the first Strikeforce pay-per-view event since signing a deal with Showtime/CBS after purchasing the Pro Elite assets back in 2009. MMAPayout has also learned although all the details are not confirmed as of this time, it is Strikeforce’s intent to run the HW GP and have contacted several HW’s in their roster to prepare in case injuries or other rumored participants cannot compete.

http://mmapayout.com/2010/12/strikeforce-big-plans-for-2011-8-man-heavyweight-gp-weekly-tv-show-possible/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Payout+%28Payout%29

Oh man would this be amazing! they have the type of guys to do a tournament and make it competitive

I love it if it happens! Great pairings for a tournament.

No Rogers. Del Rosario or Cormier. I'd rather some fresh blood get in there. Even without the up and comers this is still an incredibly deep tournament.

I suppose Rogers is an up and comer too. I'd just be excited to see some of their newer faces involved. But there really isn't as much to worry about because there is no way all of these fighters will be able to go as planned. Someone with withdraw.

How many other possible HW's does Strikeforce have available? Cormier, Del Rosario, Lavar Johnson(15-3), Bobby Lashley, Othereem, Chad Griggs(9-1), Ray Sefo, Mike Kyle are also listed on the site. As is Hershal Walker but he is a special case.

If they could get their entire division to compete they'd have enough for a decent 16 man tournament.

Cool if it happens, but a straight up Title shot for some HW would be nice..

Wolfgangsta wrote:

I suppose Rogers is an up and comer too. I'd just be excited to see some of their newer faces involved. But there really isn't as much to worry about because there is no way all of these fighters will be able to go as planned. Someone with withdraw.

How many other possible HW's does Strikeforce have available? Cormier, Del Rosario, Lavar Johnson(15-3), Bobby Lashley, Othereem, Chad Griggs(9-1), Ray Sefo, Mike Kyle are also listed on the site. As is Hershal Walker but he is a special case.

If they could get their entire division to compete they'd have enough for a decent 16 man tournament.

It's seems if they can't the main 8(Fedor, Werdum, Overeem, Barnett, Bigfoot, AA, Sergi, Rogers) or if any of them get injured along that way that they will pull from other fighters from their roster.

Can't get excited about this at this point.

Showtime is all about the tournaments right now

Super Six, Bantamweight Tourney

Now carrying over to Coker & SF

good point gomez

tournaments bring in a lot of attention and revenue, of coarse theyre all over it

Had to add this pic, AA's look is just priceless

bring back rogers. had he pulled the trigger against fedor..(yeah I know shoulda woulda coulda) he had a chance for the upset.

I want to hold my excitement untill I hear the words offical...... But that would be fucking awsome!

captain organic wrote:

Can't get excited about this at this point.

You dead, or some MMA equivalent of gay where awesome fights = hot chicks?

gomez1012 wrote:

Showtime is all about the tournaments right now

Super Six, Bantamweight Tourney

Now carrying over to Coker & SF

That's a good point but SF has been doing MMA tournaments since before Showtime. They did a women's tournament already this year.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

gomez1012 wrote:

Showtime is all about the tournaments right now

Super Six, Bantamweight Tourney

Now carrying over to Coker & SF

That's a good point but SF has been doing MMA tournaments since before Showtime. They did a women's tournament already this year.

Oh yeah well PRIDE did tournaments before that and UFC before that. So suck on that!

I'd be pumped if I believed there was any actual chance of this going down and being completed

bobbitt15 wrote:

I'd be pumped if I believed there was any actual chance of this going down and being completed

Strikeforce has had how many major plans fall through? One MW tournament? What else? Why all the skepticism?

We make plans to go out at night. Wait till two and I turn off the light.


Strikeforce : Self Esteem

They could make four huge show headliners out of this if it worked out. It would be huge and it would go something like this.

Quarter Final 1 - January
Fedor/Silva
Sergi/Werdum

Quarter Final 2 - February
Overeem/AA
Barnett/Rodgers

Semifinals - May
Fedor/Werdum
Barnett/Overeem

Finals - August
Fedor/Barnett
Consolation
Overeem/Werdum

Wolfgangsta wrote:

bobbitt15 wrote:

I'd be pumped if I believed there was any actual chance of this going down and being completed

Strikeforce has had how many major plans fall through? One MW tournament? What else? Why all the skepticism?

Its like performing oral surgery just getting Fedor and Overeem into a cage at this point. I'll believe an 8 man tourney when I see it

Getting all their best HW in it is far fetched. I can see Barnett, AA, Kharitonov and Rogers being involved.

Fedor has one fight left on his contract. As long as that is, i don't see him involved in any tournament. Bigfoot is the right opponent right now.

Overeem vs. Werdum should be next, and for the title seperate from a tournament. It's a cool idea but much like the MW tournament idea, the stars would have to align and Strikeforce has had trouble getting their HW's involved in the standard matchups, let alone a GP.

Strikeforce will lose alot of money with Fedor in it if he has the same type of contract he usually has.

My skepticism stems from the fact that I've read about a dozen headlines talking about a HW tourney. Add in the the dozen I've read about the MW tourney, and im in "i'll believe it whenI see it" mode.