Dana on Overeem

http://mmajunkie.com/news/24461/white-overeem-still-under-contract-with-strikeforce-will-fight-again-when-toe-heals.mma?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mmajunkie+%28MMAjunkie.com+Feed%29

Says that's the date that Showtime wants them to go so its gotta happen. Unfortunate that Alistair is injured but that's what alternates are for and he will fight again when he's healed and ready

So essentially Reem vs the tournament winner or coming to the UFC to fight Cain-JDS is what seems to be the case here

cain jds winner may have to take another fight before then. Something tells me if Fedor beats Hendo some weird shit is gon happen

Meant "or" on my post not "and". Now that he's out of this tourney I wouldn't be shocked to just see him come over and fight the winner of Cain-JDS. Something with Fedro is possible too if he beats Hendo

"IF" he beats Hendo? I laugh at you dogs!

http://mmaweekly.com/alistair-overeem-out-of-strikeforce-grand-prix-replaced-by-daniel-cormier

And just like that Alistair Overeem is out of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.

The current Strikeforce heavyweight champion has been removed from the tournament and will be replaced by Daniel Cormier, who will now face Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva, currently rumored for Sept 10.

The news was confirmed to MMAWeekly.com by sources close to the situation on Monday. Tatame.com first reported the switch.

Overeem stated on Monday that he had been approached to fight on the Sept 10 card, but wasn’t prepared to accept the timing of the bout.

Instead, Overeem will be removed completely from the tournament and will be replaced by undefeated American Kickboxing Academy fighter Daniel Cormier.

Cormier last fought in June on the same card as Overeem where he dominated Jeff Monson for three rounds en route to a lopsided decision win.

The former Olympian will look to keep his record perfect when he takes a dramatic step up in competition to face Silva in September.

As for the future of Alistair Overeem, that remains to be seen. While he is out of the tournament for now, there’s been no word from Zuffa or Strikeforce officials if he will remain in the company or what the recourse for this situation will be.

if dina says it I believe it. he speaks for me

well , like i said before , this tourny will be done by then end of 2012.

Coming into this tourny the 2 top HW at SF were Fedor and Reem. This tourney is now missing Fedor, Reem and Werdum. This tourney is not playing out like anyone expected and that is not a good thing. I think overall you can call this a failure, definitely not the tourney everyone was hoping for.

i've lost interest in it to be honest

It is what it is. I didn't want Coleman to win the Pride Grand Prix, but that is what happened. It didn't lessen the Grand Prix did it?

;haha great sign drew

I still want to see the fights. Barnett v. Kharitonov should be epic.

boomer sooner wrote:

I still want to see the fights. Barnett v. Kharitonov should be epic.

I dunno about EPIC, but I want to see it.

http://www.mmamania.com/2011/7/19/2282787/dana-white-alistair-overeem-hurt-his-toe-pulled-out-of-tournament-end

Alistair Overeem is still the Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion ... for now.

Despite being pulled from the semifinals of the promotion's upcoming heavyweight grand prix tournament on Sept. 10, "Demolition Man" will continue to compete under the Strikeforce banner after he recovers from an injured toe.

Overeem "hurt his toe, pulled out of the tournament, end of story," according to a recent Twitter post by Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White.

White also called it a "simple story," though many fight fans would beg to differ following Toe-vereem's comments on the July 18 edition of The MMA Hour, where he accused Zuffa, the parent company of UFC and Strikeforce, of threatening to cut him from the roster if he didn't adhere to the proposed time line.

According to White, it was "the only date Showtime could give us."

The show must go on, which means the televised tournament is happening on Sept. 10 with or without the champion, who earned a bid into the semifinals with an uninspired unanimous decision win over Fabricio Werdum back in June.

In this case it's without, as undefeated heavyweight prospect Daniel Cormier has been asked to step in to replace "The Reem" in a titanic tilt against Antonio Silva, who beat the brakes off Fedor Emelianenko last February to earn his spot in the final four.

The winner of the grand prix is expected to be named division number one contender.

With any luck, Overeem and his faulty toe will be all patched up by then and ready to defend his strap. Anyone think there's more to the story? Or is it really as "simple" as White makes it out to be?

Simple people think this is a simple story

GDPofDRC wrote:

Simple people think this is a simple story

It's really that simple.

UFC biggest star wrote:

Sept. 10 was the date Showtime wants us to go, so it’s the date we’ve got to go

This should be believed why again?

Is it because Showtime has this history of taking a viable product and making it much worse overall?

What have been Showtime's highest rated MMA events again?

Facts wrote:

1. "Strikeforce: Silva vs. Fedor" (February 2011): 741,000 viewers
2. "Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum" (June 2011): 624,000

With the four who were remaining, there was star power to make the semi finals reach those numbers again. The biggest star left by far was Reem. Sure seems like that is who you would want to make absolutely sure is there to compete in the semis. Sure seems like after having told the fighters they would be competing in October as little as 3 weeks ago and letting them run with that in their media interviews that you would not demand three days ago that they now fight in just 6 weeks time, especially the marquee name to then replace him with a fighter unknown to all but people really watch MMA. Smart business. September 10, set in stone three days ago, do or die, you have to fight at that show in... well no actual venue has been booked, but you have to be there still. Seems like you would consult with the guys doing the work before demanding they fight or be removed for a show you told them would be in October, now 6 weeks earlier, for which there isn't even a location for, and above all you would want to make sure Reem was there for it.

Because we know Showtime has never rescheduled an event. What possible reason could they have for wanting to do that when they can replace Reem with Cormier?...
I guess the idea of the two HW GP semi final fights not being on the card was to tough to swallow. I mean a card that would end up looking like this:

Ronaldo Souza vs. Luke Rockhold
Gegard Mousasi vs. Mike Kyle
Roger Gracie vs. Muhammed Lawal
Josh Thomson vs. Maximo Blanco
Evangelista Santos vs. Jordan Mein

They cannot do something like that.

Wait, that looks lie a caliber of SF card that many a great SF shows have had until March of this year. But not anymore, that was the old SF. This isn't SF anymore. As apparent by Dana "God bless him" White being the mouth for the situation. He likes SF right, he is a big fan of what Showtime does right, he really like Grand Prixs especially one where the winner would receive so much HW acclaim, he is whose word I should take in regards to what he says about things he likes and plans to do business with for the long term future, isn't he? When he says Showtime human centipeded itself and he has to go with it, then that must be so right? .... Right.

It's not like he would be concerned about the very real fact that Silva, Barnett, or Kharitonov could beat Overeem out of the GP or the impact that would have on the potential dollars to be exploited from Reem. We know that is not how Zuffa thinks. This isn't some ploy to protect Reem from that possibility to in turn immediately leverage him into a position where he is making PPV dollars for the Zuffa bosses. No, put the logic hat on, this is all about his pinky toe, no smell of bullshit at all.

+1

:bow))):

I'll be happy if Reem's next fight is for the UFC title. This tournament stalled out already to be honest. That's what they get for the stupid ass gap in the middle of it. He can still fight these guys when they merge anyway