Strikeforce Champ Alistair Overeem Declines Fedor Emelianenko Bout for K-1, DREAM.17 Cancelled

From bloodyelbow.com

Oh lordy, it just gets worse. Here's Alistair Overeem talking to Ariel Helwani:

Ariel Helwani: Have you decided when and where your next fight will be?
Alistair Overeem: Yes, I'm going to fight in the K-1 tournament, so my first fight will be October for the Final 16 in Korea. If I win the fight, I will advance to the Final 8 in Japan. That fight will be in December.

Why isn't your next fight going to be for Strikeforce?
I've stated many times that Strikeforce was my number one priority, but after Fedor lost to Werdum, I had no intention of fighting somebody other than Werdum. I came to the States to challenge the winner of the fight and that was Werdum, so no need to fight somebody else. Furthermore, I like K-1 very much and there are not many opportunities to stay fighting in K-1, so I want to fight if I still can. One of my goals is to be K-1 champion and this is my chance.

He also discusses his feelings about Fedor's manipulative management and has some serious praise for "another big MMA organization in the States". Read the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Dave Walsh at Head Kick Legend breaks the news from FEG:

...we spoke with FEG USA's Mike Kogan this afternoon and it turns out that DREAM.16 is the last DREAM event for a while. The next MMA event you can expect from FEG is Dynamite!! 2010, which is set to go on as scheduled. As for what happens from there, there is no word yet and will most likely rely on television ratings from DREAM.16 and Dynamite!! as well as how the arrangement with PUJI works out.

The future of K-1 MAX in 2010 is as foggy as ever, though, as Kogan knew of no dates for the K-1 MAX tournaments for the rest of the year. Logistically, this would all have to happen very soon as last year the Final 16 was April, Final 8 was July and the Finals were October. With all of the fighters tied up already, I have very little hope of this going off as planned.

Our own Chris Nelson wanted me to note:

It's worth noting that DREAM.17 was never formally announced, and DREAM didn't run any shows in November or Dececember of 2009 either. Big news is really K-1 Max cancellation. However, DREAM did run six shows in both '08 and '09, and only four this year.

DREAM.16 is on TBS back-to-back with the Kameda boxing match in September, so chances are they'll pull some okay residual ratings there, maybe even enough to survive for a few more shows in 2011.

Dave Walsh at Head Kick Legend talks to Overeem's manager Bas Boon:

In regards to GG and Overeem "ducking" the Olympic Style drug testing, "all bullsh*t" was Boon's response. They will submit to drug tests like every other fighter on the card, which means they also are against certain fighters having certain treatment.

According to Boon, M-1 Global has no intentions of putting together an Alistair Overeem vs. Fedor Emelianenko bout according to their timeline of "late November or early December." M-1 Global is currently putting together a fight against Josh Barnett at Dynamite!! 2010 at the end of December, according to Boon, and this seems like a desperation move by M-1 Global management now that their negotiation tactics of the past (stalling, demanding more money, threatening lawsuits, etc.) have been exposed and cannot hold up. So it seems that calling out Overeem for a fight in Strikeforce was a negotiation tactic to help grease the wheels on the possible Barnett fight.

Both Fedor and Reem are like that chick in high school who just wanted to tease you all the time and never give it up. I hope Reem gets KO'd in the K-1 tourney!

Unconscious. On a stretcher.

What's with the blood testing demands?

Ugh what a shambles.

This makes me grateful for the UFC. MMA if it were ran like boxing ^

Having a company run fights is way better imo. Atleast we know we will get to see the good fights.

Fuck having it in Dream anyway.

Hmmm, i'm sure there is a few times this year where i could have made a "M-1/Fedor ducks Overeem" thread.

M-1 is all over the place.

We'll wait for Werdum today. We're talking about Bigfoot tommorow. We want Alistair now. Oh, Alistair does not want us because we have disrespectful demands. Calling for Olympic style drug testing is the same exact thing is saying "we think you're a roid donkey, grant us a fight even though we're coming off a loss in a fight that only happened because we avoided you like the plague for months"

Exactly how I feel King, the multiple stories about who's facing who next has confused me, I've got no clue what's happening.

Feel bad for Antonio Silva, he's done nothing to deserve being in the middle of a tug of war between Fedor and Overeem.

Kings I am convinced you're not actually saying Fedor was out of line to demand Olympic testing. This conversation never happened.

Dream is enjoying its last few breaths of life. Meanwhile, we can sit back and enjoy Fedor/M-1/Vadim vs Overeem for the title of "Joe Silva's Understudy". This shit makes me fucking sick. I have heard a lot of BS on this board and in articles about how unfair things are for the fighters. It is this kind of horseshit that creates problems in combat sports and fucks up the fights people want to see. Let the promotion run the fights and let the fighters just do the fighting. If they don't like how things are being run, they can fucking quit and run an ice cream stand or something.

I didnt say that. It's disrespectful to the person you are challenging...Overeem probably thinks they are completely out of line and i imagine SF thinks they are completely out of line for suggesting publicly that their champ is a gashead considering these assholes are the ones not accepting fights and making more demands then just "we want olympic drug testing". They refuse to if be contenders just like GSP, Silva, etc. would if they are coming off a loss. They act like they are still running the show when to Strikeforce, UFC, anybody...they(M-1) are lame ducks desperatley trying to manipulate their way into another co-promotion deal and without M-1, Fedor does not make this demand.

Strikeforce should not make Overeem/Fedor because it opens up the possibility they will have to make a new contract with those guys. They arent out of line for wanting olympic style testing if it's in Japan but M-1 knew that was not going to go over well, thats why they made the demand. They want Werdum and nobody else.

The fact Alistair Overeem isn't called out by everyone who takes a fight with him like this is a problem. M-1 and Fedor would deserve criticism for doing anything but what they did with Overeem. He was never a legit champion or contender until he beat Rogers. But then Fedor lost. Overeem has never earned or been in a real position otherwise to fight Fedor until now. He declined.


Everyone knows he is a gashead and having him not tested or confronted about it is worse in the long run for everyone, including Strikeforce.