Daniel Cormier: Will His Final Strikeforce Fight Be a Rematch with Josh Barnett?

If you watched the Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Kennedy fight card on Saturday night, you surely caught the mention that Strikeforce World Heavyweight Grand Prix champion Daniel Cormier would be fighting on September 29 in what will be his last bout for the promotion.

What you didn’t catch was the name of an opponent, but if you follow Cormier on Twitter, you may have been able to take a guess as to who he expects his opponent to be.

When Cormier and Josh Barnett met to decide the Grand Prix champion, both fighters were aware that the winner would fight once more with Strikeforce before they were most likely moved over to the UFC.

What they didn’t know was that the loser would also stick around with the promotion for another fight. That announcement was made following Cormier’s May 19 victory over Barnett.

It was somewhat of a surprise to hear that both the winner and loser would stick around with the promotion after the Grand Prix had come to an end.

The Strikeforce heavyweight division had been dissolved prior to Cormier and Barnett meeting. When they fought, they were the heavyweight division. There was no one else left on the roster and the likelihood of the UFC sending a fighter over to face either Cormier or Barnett seemed slim.

So, who will these two men face in their final fights? Allow me to speculate, but it appears that they may face each other.

The tweets began on Sunday afternoon when Cormier tweeted the following:

@JoshLBarnett sept. 29?

— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma)

Barnett then answered with:

@dc_mma I'm free. What'd you have in mind? Dinner and a movie?

— Josh Barnett (@JoshLBarnett)

Which Cormier followed up with:

@JoshLBarnett Haha, Yes that Would be great. We can have a nice meal downtown sac after we kick some ass. U gonna be ready?

While no official announcements have been made, if these tweets are any indication, we are looking at a rematch between Cormier and Barnett to bring the Strikeforce heavyweight division to its official close on September 29.

I'd rather see them both get squash matches than see Barnett just get handled in a decision loss again. Not that the first wasn't one of the most entertaining HW fights in a long time, but still

While weird and not needed it is probably the best fight for either of them.

DC gets the win, beating a very worthy opponent for the second straight time, then gets an immediate contract and title shot with the UFC.

Hands Babyface his second loss in a row, and Dana uses that as grounds to not bring him to the UFC, and he is cut from the Zuffa umbrella entirely.

Win win in Danas eyes.

Fuck this. They just need to make it worth it($$$) for a couple fighters to fight on Showtime just once. Cormier vs Reem just makes sense for both. Unify SF title and punish Reem at the same time the winner earns the next UFC title shot.
Then you have Barnett vs Frank Mir. Frank Mir will never fight for the UFC title again, so why not? Hell they gave James Toney 500K for half a round. Over pay these guys, Showtime should be happy with the names on the card and it should get both over to the UFC.

Im not into a rematch. UFC fighters idea sounds cool, but unrealistic. Is there no other options?

captain organic wrote:

Im not into a rematch. UFC fighters idea sounds cool, but unrealistic. Is there no other options?

They should re-schedule 2 fights that never happened. Barnett vs Fedor and Cormier vs SDR.

I wouldn't mind the rematch, but it should not happen really. All very stupid. Disband the HW division except for two fighters who are fighting each other, and those fighters have an contractual obligation to fight once more at HW in SF after their fight, in the disbanded division.