Strikeforce planning HW tournament in 2011

California based MMA promotion, Strikeforce have today officially announced the resigning of formerly ranked number one fighter in the world, Fedor Emelianenko to a multi-fight contract, as well as confirming they will be holding an eight-man heavyweight tournament beginning in February.

Speaking via a press release handed to MMABay.co.uk earlier today, Strikeforce CEO, Scott Coker said:

“We are thrilled to have come to a long-term agreement with Fedor and M-1 Global. To have the greatest MMA fighter of all-time put his legacy on the line in a single-elimination tournament will truly captivate MMA fans worldwide. Strikeforce is home to the best heavyweight division in the world; the athlete who runs the gauntlet in a tournament such as this would have to be considered the best heavyweight fighter in the world.”

M-1 Global co-founder, Vadim Finkelchtein added:

“I’m very pleased to be working with Showtime and Strikeforce and Mr. Coker and Mr. Hershman personally. Thanks to their interest and efforts, we’ve created what will go down in history as MMA’s greatest heavyweight tournament of all time. M-1, Strikeforce and Showtime have built a partnership committed to the future growth of MMA—a sport where organizations represent a working collaborative that enable the best fighters in the world to fight each other. This agreement benefits everyone, especially the fans who’ll see Fedor in action more often.”

Finally the most dominant heavyweight ever seen inside the cage or ring, Fedor Emelianenko was next to go, saying:

“I have been training very hard since my last fight and can’t wait to get back in the cage. Strikeforce has assembled a roster filled with the best heavyweights in the world and, together with M-1 Global, we have the opportunity to fight the best in a great tournament format.”

The four tournament fights will pit Fedor against former EliteXC heavyweight champion, Antonio “Big Foot” Silva and former UFC heavyweight champion, Andrei Arlovski against Sergei Kharitonov. In March Strikeforce heavyweight champion, Alistair Overeem will return to the cage to battle Fabricio Werdum, while Brett Rogers takes on another former UFC champion, Josh Barnett.





You have no idea how shocked i was reading the title, of Fedor resigning. I read it as if he was retiring but then i realised it meant a new contract

payneNglory1 wrote:











Ray Sefo vs. Valentijn Overeem targeted for supporting cast of Strikeforce tourney

well it's something,but I would of thought that Strikeforce would of used this event to promote and have two of there younger HW talents fight for the chance to be a replacement.

but hey ho what do I know compared to the genius that is coker

Why involve a young unproven fight and risk him gettin destroyed by someone he's not ready to fight and setting his development back a long way?? That would be like the UFC holding a 4 man WW tournie right now and have GSP, Fitch, Shields and Jon Hathaway involved. Use your head.

just for fun, here is kenflo bending over to his boss via twitter:



# @blue_63 I say again, name a top 10 guy that he has beaten in MMA?? Please do it. Brett Rogers does not count.

# @Jride247 I guess ur right jride. U must know more than me.

# @Jride247 in June 09? Do we compare Overeem to when he fought Liddell? What top 10 MMA guy has Overeem faced?

# @Showman89 this upcoming tourney will bring Overeem into top 3 if he wins it imo.

# @Showman89 Fedor, Carwin, Cain, Dos Santos are some of the best strikers in the hvy div. Tough to say who is THE BEST striker of them all.

# @Jride247 Overeem is an awesome fighter. He is a bit overhyped imo

# @boardion he is awesome, no doubt but beating a 40 yr old Aerts, injured Gokhan Saki (teammate) & an undersized Spong shouldn't get ppl too excited.

differing from other WGPs...THERE WILL BE A TITLE FIGHT EVERY ROUND!!

its been confirmed at ESPN

On one side, you have the champ, defending his title against the rightful #1 contender with the 2 next guys in line for the belt battling to fight the winner.

On the other side you have your next 4 HWs battling it out to see who deserves the next title shot after that. You get to establish the champs next opponent with that bracket.

It actually makes more sense, caus you can say that fedor has a much harder road than JB, but he is actually 1 fight away from title shot...
doesnt this take away from the idea of the tournament a bit, making a title fight every round....unless the tournament winner gets a shitload of cash.

Barring injuries I'm putting my money on a Fedor-Barnett final. The dream final for a lot of people. The greatest HW of all time against the man many people believe to be the second best ever talent at HW but someone that hasn't fulfilled their potential.

Kenny Florian - company man.

Florian really is getting too big for his boots of late. Here's a question for Kenny, who has he fought that's been in the top ten when he fought them.

Sherk, Penn, Maynard. All 3 destroyed him. Florian needs to check his own record before questioning anyone elses.

questions with coker:

Fedor & M-1 have renegotiated after each of your first two fights with him. Does this new deal with him cover the entire scope of the tournament?
Yes, it covers the tournament and even further. No more renegotiation. The beauty of the deal, and I can't get into the details of the contract, but it's multi-fight and multi-year. Fedor will be doing co-promotion with Strikeforce, M-1 and Showtime for many years to come.

Did that added wrinkle of putting him in this tournament and having his commitment add a big degree of difficulty into the negotiations?
You know what's admirable about these guys, including Fedor? They wanted to be in the tournament. They came to us and said we want to be in it. I said, 'OK, fantastic.' And we made it happen.

Believe me, he was trying to talk us into letting him fight on the Jan. 29 card. I said, 'Fedor, I think you'll be OK two weeks later.'"

Does that mean you've seen him recently?
No, but we've been talking to the M-1 folks, and we're all one, big, happy family now.

to use anfield favourite word, its "comical" how kenny :

a) says its unclear who is a better striker between Overeem and Carwin

b) says it will make him top 3 if he wins the tourney (in reality this has all the best non UFC heavyweights and UFC havent had #1 heavyweight since pre 2000)

c) shits all over his GP win... talking about these great UFC strikers, wheras in reality an "undersized" Spong would beat all of them with total ease.

UFC has 1 guy that has a legitimate claim to being a top 5 HW right now IMO. Regardless of current rankings and all that shite, Fedor, Overeem, Werdum and Barnett are 4 of the top 5 HW's in the world. Cain is the other and he sits at number 3 for me.

Anfields5thKing wrote:

payneNglory1 wrote:











Ray Sefo vs. Valentijn Overeem targeted for supporting cast of Strikeforce tourney

well it's something,but I would of thought that Strikeforce would of used this event to promote and have two of there younger HW talents fight for the chance to be a replacement.

but hey ho what do I know compared to the genius that is coker

Why involve a young unproven fight and risk him gettin destroyed by someone he's not ready to fight and setting his development back a long way?? That would be like the UFC holding a 4 man WW tournie right now and have GSP, Fitch, Shields and Jon Hathaway involved. Use your head.

How would either a 39 year old 2-0,Sefo or a 28-25, V Reem who's never even fought for strikeforce yet,be more deserving of a chance at the top 8 than a 10-0,2 fights and 2 wins in strikeforce,Del rosario,a 6-0,fought and won 3 times for Strikeforce,Cormier or a 15-3,johnson who has fought and won 3 times for strikeforce,not only have they all ready earned the right in strikeforce but they are all home grown fighters,that appeal to strikeforce's main audience ?

It would be absolutely nothing like the UFC doing a 4 man tourney with the 3 out right best WW's in the world and adding someone that is miles away from them in the UFC's rankings,a huge exageration to try and make a daft point.
Del Rosario,Johnson and cormier are the next highest strikeforce ranked guy outside the top 8.

Del Rosario,Cormier and Johnson are all ranked higher in Strikeforce's HW division than either V Reem or Sefo,so surely that gives them more right to be fighting the guys that are just above them in strikeforces rankings doesn't it,don't forget you always try to use the fact that Strikeforce have a smaller amount of fighters in each division to try to justify some of these fights,claiming that they are not ranked that far apart from each other in Strikeforce.

this is the whole list of strikeforce HW's and how I'd rank them,obviously i'm sure your gonna rank them slightly differantly

#1 Werdum
#2 fedor
#3 Reem
#4 Barnett
#5 Bigfoot
#6 Sergei
#7 Rogers
#8 Arlovski
#9 del Rosario
#10 cormier
#11 L Johnson
#12 V Reem
#13 Griggs
#14 Lashley
#15 Sefo
#16 Hershal

not only are Del Rosario,Cormier or Johnson more deserving of a chance to be a reserve,non of them are that young either,Del Rosario is 26,Cormier 31 and johnson is 32.

If they aren't ready to fight any of the top 8,who should they fight in strikeforce?


Plus if Reems opponent drops out,do you really think his brother is going to step in to fight him?

I'm not going to be to down on coker because I'm still holding out hope that he will make another reserve fight that includes a couple of these guys,then non of this matters,as i think the right thing would of been done,but so far with that reserve fight,i think it's a stupid decision.

Strikeforce adds Shane Del Rosario vs. Lavar Johnson as tourney reserve bout

With Strikeforce's talent-laden heavyweight tournament now official, the California-based promotion is busy finalizing all the details.

And while many announcements are still forthcoming, the promotion has already secured a pair of contestants to fight in a reserve-match contest.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) has confirmed that Shane Del Rosario (10-0 MMA, 2-0 SF) and Lavar Johnson (15-3 MMA, 3-0 SF) will meet on Feb. 12 in a heavyweight tournament reserve matchup.

The contest, which has yet to be officially announced by Strikeforce officials, was first reported by ESPN.com.

Featuring heavyweight tournament matchups of Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Silva and Andrei Arlovski vs. Sergei Kharitonov, the tentatively titled "Strikeforce in New Jersey" event takes place Feb. 12 at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J.

Del Rosario fights for the first time since July 2010, when he earned a first-round TKO over Lolohea Maha at Strikeforce Challengers 9. The first-round stoppage was nothing new for Del Rosario, who has finished nine of his 10 career opponents in the opening round.

Del Rosario makes his big-show debut after several years of fighting on prospects-drive show. In addition to two appearances at Strikeforce Challengers events, Del Rosario is also a three-time M-1 Challenge and three-time ShoXC vet.

Meanwhile, Johnson competes for the fourth-time under the Strikeforce banner, though he's also making his big-show debut after three previous contests on Strikeforce Challengers cards.

"Big" Johnson, who made headlines in 2010 after a miraculous recovery from a July 2009 gunshot wound, carries a seven-fight win streak into the matchup. All 15 of Johnson's career wins have come via stoppage, and 13 of of those results have come via knockout or TKO.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/21981/strikeforce-adds-shane-del-rosario-vs-lavar-johnson-as-tourney-reserve-bout.mma

Well that was quick,problem solved.
Coker,all is forgiven

would of saved me a shit load of typing

but just out of interest from your previous comment anfield,does this mean that you think this is a daft decision and Coker should of used his head before making this decision

I don't like the idea of involving the younger fighters, it's pointless as I've already said.

And you're right Sefo or V.Overeem have NO chance of winning against a top fighter BUT, like i said, it won't set their careers back if they lose. You put Daniel Cormier in with Overeem, he gets destroyed in less than a minute and it sets him back at least a year in his development. You put V.Overeem against Fedor, he gets knocked out, it makes no difference to his life or his career.

I completely forgot cormiers fighting on a strikeforce challengers card this friday.

I just read this interview with him.

The news of Strikeforce's upcoming heavyweight tournament was a bombshell development for a company still working on prying eyes from the UFC. And it's also a welcome scenario for the Strikeforce athletes, who are well aware of the extra spotlight it is likely to bring, even to fighters who are not part of the field.

One such fighter who may receive added attention from it is Daniel Cormier, an undefeated fighter who is among a group of rising stars in Strikeforce's heavyweight ranks.

On Friday night, Cormier (6-0) will face Devin Cole in a featured bout on Showtime's Strikeforce Challenger series.

In 2010, Cormier fast-tracked his development, fighting five times. In 2011, he hopes to take his career to the next level, fighting some of Strikeforce's stars. A win over Cole, his most experienced opponent at 18-8-1, may be the fight to get him there.

"I'm constantly getting better, so I think I'm at a point in my career where I'm going to be fighting the better guys here pretty soon," Cormier told MMA Fighting in a recent interview. "So I've got to be constantly getting better in the gym. I've got to be careful, to train every day and train hard. My preparation has been good for Devin. Before I was just training to get better and rounding out my game. But when I get an opponent, I can focus on him."

Cormier, a two-time U.S. wrestling Olympian, has made the transition to MMA in a relatively smooth fashion, finishing all six of his opponents inside of two rounds.

But he says the move wasn't as smooth as his record indicates. After his MMA debut in September 2009, Cormier wanted to get back in the cage quickly, but was slowed down by his training staff at American Kickboxing Academy.

He quickly realized they were making the right move for him.

"In the beginning, I wanted to fight all the time, but I wasn't good enough," he said. "Like my first fight, it was just bad. I wasn't good enough, so my guys at AKA wouldn't let me. But now that I'm getting better, [trainer] Bob Cook is more comfortable with me fighting more often. It's something I want to do. I like it. In wrestling we competed a lot, and I want to take that approach. Now, I'm getting better so I can do that more."

His learning curve was helped along by the entire AKA team, but most notably the man who recently captured the UFC heavyweight championship, Cain Velasquez.

While preparing to join the Strikeforce elite, Cormier has had the good fortune of preparing with the UFC elite, including its heavyweight kingpin. Needless to say, he learned a few things the hard way.

"I've got to get better learning across the cage from Cain," he said with a smile. "I've got to find confidence from that to know I can get in there with anybody. When I go into the cage now, I'm thinking, 'OK, this isn't Cain.' I go in there every day and I spar with Cain Velasquez. This guy isn't Cain. I find comfort in that, honestly. This guy is the UFC champion. He's the No. 1 heavyweight in the world. So I think to myself, 'I'm not fighting him, so why should I lose?' That's like my thing. It's what I tell myself before I go fight. 'This ain't Cain.'"

Like Cormier, Cole grew up on the wrestling mats, and he went on to compete collegiately at Southern Oregon University, but no one mistakes his resume with that of Cormier's.

Cormier says the adjustment from wrestling takedowns to MMA takedowns was one of mind set, saying, "it's almost like you have to dumb it down a little bit," because most MMA fighters are not high-level wrestlers. The focus, he says, needs to be on timing even more than technique.

But his greatest enjoyment has come from learning the striking portion of the game. He says he didn't have a tough time learning how to take a hit.

"I grew up in Louisiana and I used to get beat up all the time. That part came pretty naturally," he jokes.

All of it, he hopes, has been a prelude to a long and successful career. As a former Olympian, he has to believe that fights like Cole have to be steps on the way to something bigger. Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told MMA Fighting that Cormier may have a chance to be an alternate in the promotion's upcoming heavyweight tournament, but even if he doesn't get that opportunity, Cormier feels like he's fast on the way to sharing a cage with the Alistair Overeems, Fedor Emelianenkos and Fabricio Werdums of the world.

"There's no mid-tier," he said. "That's the thing about Strikeforce, it's really a separation between these elite-level guys and then us, the guys that are coming up. There's kind of no gatekeepers to go through to get to that level. I think I'm getting on the cusp of that where I'm one, maybe two fights away from being in the thick of it, fighting against what I believe are some of the best heavyweights in the world.

"I've got to keep working in the gym," he continued. "It's not going to come from in-cage experience. One day I'm going to fight Devin Cole, and then six months later, I'm going be standing across the cage from Brett Rogers or Josh Barnett. It's not going to be learning on the job. I've got to get better with learning across the cage from Cain. I've got to find confidence from that to know I can get in there with anybody."