Breaking Down the Strikeforce Tournament's Opening Bout's

The Who Gives a Shit Bout - The lame duck, the who gives a fuck, the forgotten one. All could sum up the Andrei Arlovski vs Sergei Kharitonov bout and hey, there's nothing wrong with that. With 3 of the best fighters in the world in the tournament there was bound to be one bout that was the ugly duckling of the tournament. Maybe it will turn out to be a black swan; but, Arlovski looks way over the hill and Sergei should honestly win this. However, since beating Alistair Overeem in 2007 Khatironov has not been busy. This is not a bad match it is simply the least interesting of the tournament.
Who Wins : Sergeii Kharitonov. Arlovski has simply looked old against Rogers and Bg Foot.

The Mismatch : Sure in a tournament with 8 men 1 fighter will seem to get the lucky draw, in this tournament that lucky person is Josh Barnett. Brett Rogers went from being on the brink of upsetting Fedor to being turned into a human-rag-doll against Alistair Overeem (hey atleast we know how those hot tv hosts felt.) Barnett should have no problem beating Rogers and if Grim somehow pulled off a win, it would be one of epic proportions.
Who Wins : Josh Barnett. He is simply to good of a fighter (dirty or not) too lose to Rogers.

The Swing Fight : In order to have a succesful mma tournament you have too have one of these. You know, two guys just standing going toe to toe. Fedor vs Big Foot has all the makings of a stand up classic that could result in a nasty KO. On paper, this is the most entertaining fight going into the tournament; and also a fight that many fans wanted, so hopefully it lives up to the hype.
Who Wins : Fedor should win this, Silva's head is simply to big of a target.

The Holy Shit Their Fighting in the First Round Fight : back in the old days the UFC brass used a sort of lottery to pick the tournament fights. Strikeforce did no such thing. They basically put the 2nd biggest fight they could make in the Heavyweight division and made it the opening fight in the tournament. Thats AWESOME for us fans. Especially considering if Fedor beats Big Foot that we either get Overeem vs Fedor or Fedor vs Werdum. Both are winners and I still can't believe this fight was made especially considering how inept Strikeforce looked with the first go time with M-1.
Who Wins : Overeem can win this standing or on the ground, Werdum can win it on the ground. This is the hardest match to pick but I have to go with Overeem.

Overeem, Fedor, Barnett and Arlovski.

The easiest fight for me is Overeem/Werdum. He's going to cave his head in

The hardest fight to call is AA/Sergei with Fedor and Barnett both as heavy favorites

Great breakdown bird. Weird to think Overeem vs Werdum in the 2006 Openweight Pride was the in the opening round as well.