by Bryan Lee
Fight fans often reminisce of days gone by, looking back at their own personal rendition of the golden era. Boxing fans can go back to Ali, Robinson, and even the Galveston Giant, Mr. Unforgivable Blackness himself, Jack Johnson. MMA fans, however, don’t have quite as much of a history to work with, leaving many to yearn for the not-so-distant glory days of the early 90’s and 00’s of NHB, Pancrase and Pride FC.
With their recent announcement, Strikeforce is finding themselves bringing back one of the most sorely missed and clamored-for elements of the glory days of MMA: The Grand Prix.
Scott Coker announced that Strikeforce will be holding an eight-man heavyweight tournament with some of the biggest names in mixed martial arts. The first round will commence on February 12th in New Jersey, with all-time great Fedor Emelianenko taking on a hungry Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. On the other side of the bracket, former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski will fight Pride veteran Sergei Kharitonov, fresh from his KO victory at Dynamite! on New Year’s Eve. March 5th in Columbus, OH will see the conclusion of the first round with current Strikeforce/Dream/K-1GP champion Alistair Overeem looking to avenge one of his earlier losses to ADCC champion and submission expert Fabricio Werdum, while former #1 contender Brett Rogers welcomes former UFC champion Josh Barnett to the Strikeforce cage.
All in all, a tremendous tournament with some amazing fights lined up…that is, if it can go down how Strikeforce has planned. The ever present specter of M-1 renegotiation’s seems to loom over every Fedor fight. Overeem’s love for fighting in Japan, whether it be MMA or K-1, looks to be lingering about as well. Throw in three-times busted Josh Barnett, and you have a number of variables outside of the normal factors that could bring any tournament to a screeching halt (injuries, politics, contracts, etc.). All these things put together make many fans cautiously excited for this GP, but, if you take a closer look at the brackets, I don’t think Scott Coker is sweating it too much.
At first glance, it would seem very odd that the top 4 fighters that are most closely associated with Strikeforce are on the same side of the bracket. This would be very interesting tournament seeding by the crew at Strikeforce…if it were truly tournament seeding. It looks like Coker and company are not necessarily looking to run a traditional style tournament, where #1 faces #8 in the first round. Let’s take a look at the brackets to see what I’m saying.
Alistair Overeem vs Fabricio Werdum
This is the fight that should have been made, regardless of the tournament. Werdum is 3-0 in Strikeforce and holds submission wins over both Overeem and long-time #1 Fedor Emelianenko. He is clearly the #1 contender for Overeem’s belt.
Fedor Emelianenko vs Antonio Silva
The next two highest regarded fighters in the division are matched up in this first round bout, in what can also be described as a title eliminator match-up. Silva holds victories over Mike Kyle and Andrei Arlovski , with his lone loss in the organization being to Werdum. Emelianenko has been the long-time #1 ranked heavyweight in the world prior to his last bout, a submission defeat at the hands of Werdum. The winner of this fight has an obvious claim for the next title shot.
Andrei Arlovski vs Sergei Kharitonov and Josh Barnett vs Brett Rogers
The opposite side of the bracket is filled with former champions and grizzled veterans. Whomever is able to emerge from these four fighters will be on a two fight Strikeforce win streak against some of the bigger names in the division, laying a claim to the #1 contender’s spot by the time the finals roll around (seeing as how 3 of the 4 fighters on the other side of the bracket will be coming off of losses).
So, what does this all mean? Basically, this tournament is a series of championship fights, with the next number one contender being determined on the fly with a fixed path to the title shot. The champ (Overeem) will be fighting the current #1 contender (Werdum), with the winner fighting the next #1 contender (Fedor/Silva) in the second round. It will all culminate with the champion fighting the next contender after that (either Arlovski, Barnett, Kharitonov or Rogers) in the tournament finals.
Why do it this way? Well, if at any point the tournament falls apart, you will still have a clear cut champion and the makings of a #1 contender. A brilliant move by Strikeforce. They are bringing back the Grand Prix to high level MMA, while keeping their asses covered through clever matchmaking and tournament seeding.
Although Pride is gone, I can’t help but feel nostalgic about this GP. When I saw the opening round matchups, flashbacks of 2006 came to mind. As was the case four years ago, Alistair Overeem will face Fabricio Werdum in the first round of the this tournament. Same matchup, very different times. Overeem was largely an afterthought back in 2006, with several losses at 205. Werdum was an up and comer, but only a handful truly believed in his BJJ for MMA. Now, Overeem is the reigning K-1 GP champion and one of the most feared men in all combat sports, while Werdum is streaking with a win over the man many consider to be the greatest fighter ever. Fedor, who spent the first round of that 2006 Pride GP on a bye as the reigning HW and 2004 OWGP Champion, is for the first time in over a decade looking to rebound from a loss and reclaim his spot at the top. Josh Barnett, who made it to the finals of the ’06 GP, is looking to clean up his name after a long suspension from MMA in the States. Arlovski, Kharitonov, and Rogers have all seen better days and are looking to re-establish themselves among the elite of the heavyweight division. And Bigfoot Silva, who got a taste of the elite in his win over Arlovski, is hungry as ever.
I don’t know what will happen with this tournament and I’m not making the claim that this is a return to some magical golden era of MMA. I just want to see some good fights, and from the looks of it, Strikeforce is ready to deliver.
