Strikeforce Fedor vs. Silva Main Card To Be All Heavyweights in New Jersey

Quote :

Before the ink dried on a new contract with Fedor Emelianenko, Strikeforce announced his and most of its heavyweight roster’s next fights. Fedor and most of the other heavyweights under contract with the San Jose, Calif.-based promotion are slated to compete in the first Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.

The eight-man tournament kicks off Feb. 12 in New Jersey, and is expected to play out over the next eight months or so, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told MMAWeekly.com on Wednesday.

The first two quarterfinal bouts and two alternate bouts will fill the main card at the IZOD Center on Feb. 12 in East Rutherford and air on Showtime.

“The Feb. 12 event at the IZOD Center is going to be an all-heavyweight event,” Coker revealed. “It’ll be a lot of fun. We’ll have some big guys in the cage and when you have heavyweights, there’s always a lot of action.”

Laying out the fight card, Coker said that, as expected, quarterfinal bouts featuring Fedor against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Andrei Arlovski vs. Sergei Kharitonov would head the card.

He added that he first alternate bout would feature top heavyweight prospects Shane Del Rosario and Lavar Johnson. The winner between the two will be deemed the first alternate if one of the bracketed fighters is unable to move on in the tournament.

A second alternate bout will pit Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem’s brother, Valentijn, against K-1 standout Ray Sefo.

The other two quarterfinal bouts – pitting champion Alistair Overeem against Fabricio Werdum and Josh Barnett against Brett Rogers – will take place at an undetermined fight card in April, skipping the promotion’s March 5 event in Columbus, Ohio.

He also noted that there are other heavyweights, such as Daniel Cormier, who faces Devin Cole at Friday night’s Strikeforce Challengers 13 in Nashville, that could step up for the tournament if necessary.

“It’s gonna be a great time not only for fight fans,” extolled Coker, “But for mixed martial arts as an industry.”

http://mmaweekly.com/strikeforce-fedor-vs-silva-main-card-to-be-all-heavyweights-in-new-jersey

the last line was suppose to be included in the quote but i gotta go now ill fix it later

The last line is 100% true also. So many people have been getting mad and ripping Scott, well, he is finally redeeming himself in grand fashion.

Coker and StrikeForce are stepping up to the plate, my main gripe with them last year was they hardly used their best division.

They aren't letting the Heavyweight division sit anymore. First 4 months of the year and we will know who the best heavyweight in the world is. Thats pretty damn cool. I think this tournament can work better than the Super 6 because it is a single elimination tournament.

Will be extremely fun to watch and I can't wait. May even try to go to the Overeem card

Man this is getting more play and attention then the merger around here.

Shit man we havent had a tournament like this since Pride died

Well it is huge news LA.

LA wrote:

Man this is getting more play and attention then the merger around here.

As it should.

What??????

I have to give it to Coker and SF also. I talked alot of shit about him and he delivered more than what we ever thought would happen. This tournament is awesome.

You aren't hyped for this LA?

LA wrote:

Man this is getting more play and attention then the merger around here.

+1. I guess its because we haven't seen a tourney in a while. I think its cool and I'll watch all the fights but outside of a Fedor/Reem matchup, I can't really say I care that much. I don't give two shits about the entire right side of the bracket

Werdum vs Fedor 2 = no interest???

Andrei vs Barnett or Andrei vs a huge shock in Rogers rematch would interest ya?

Werdum is going to get destroyed by Overeem which will be the funnest part of the tournament and hopefully we can all quit pretending he's a top 4 HW at that point

AA-Sergei should be entertaining but Barnett-Rogers ranks about 750000 on the list of MMA fights I care about watching.

so because you arent excited about 1 fight we pooh pooh the tournament??

I already said I'll be watching it. Overeem should have been defending the title against Werdum and then the winner of Fedor-Silva regardless of this tournament ever happening which is how its set up. And like I said, the right side just looks like a few has beens and one never was to me

bobbitt15 wrote:

I already said I'll be watching it. Overeem should have been defending the title against Werdum and then the winner of Fedor-Silva regardless of this tournament ever happening which is how its set up. And like I said, the right side just looks like a few has beens and one never was to me

thats why I dont care if the other side of the bracket doesnt math up with the left side. They set this thing up so we get what we wanted and then have the next title shot (the finals) figured out.

LA wrote:

Man this is getting more play and attention then the merger around here.

I didn't see the merger as that big a deal myself. Yeah it merged the 2 lw divisions, but most think the UFC division to be far superior, the biggest news would be Aldo if and when he decides to move up a weight class, but other then that the merger meant less total fight cards, and less free cards on Vs. But am I more psyched for Faber vs Cruz under a UFC banner as opposed to a WEC banner? No I am not.

Well Bobbit's posts are refreshing to read in these threads

Capt. merging a whole Organization, 3 total divisions (one integrated) 2 completely new divisons (some of the most exciting), some of the best fighters in the World (some P4P) isn't a big deal?

LOL LA contriving a comparison to the fucking merger and the amount of play it got? Holy fucking shit. You either work for Zuffa LA or have an unhealthy obsession with Scott Coker.

Bobbitt did your bank account get slightly fatter? You're not normally on this faggonwagon.

It was a valid observation, I've read today this "Prix" is/was a bigger deal

Can't wait to be at this card.

In terms of moving the needle, ya this may be a bigger deal. In terms of fighter quality, this may be a bigger deal. They're both huge deals. Besides, they're just different. How many stories could the merger really produce besides afuckingnnoying ones about how a top three vs top 15 guy being buried on the undercard while NYBA stinks up the fucking prelims.

hemanthjava wrote:

Watch Fedor vs Silva Live Stream Strikeforce Event here. The event features the first half of the quarterfinals for the promotion's eight-man heavyweight grand prix, including a Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Silva headliner.

http://www.sportsbun.com/strikeforce-fedor-vs-silva-live-stream/

Thanks buddy.