Thursday, January 13, 2011

Battle of the Bulks


Strikeforce’s heavyweight tournament comes into fruition


The Strikeforce mixed martial arts promotion, will be holding an eight man heavyweight grand prix tournament throughout 2011.  

Scott Coker, CEO of Strikeforce, had announced the tournament in late 2010.  While there were skeptics of the announcement, due to Strikeforce’s prior announcement of a middleweight title tournament that actually never happened, the promotion is following through with their plans and have already announced the fighters competing in the tournament, and the dates for two of the four quarterfinal matches.

Who will be competing in the grand prix

The Strikeforce grand prix will feature former champions, as well as stars who are hoping to climb the ladder in the promotion’s heavyweight division.

According to the Strikeforce website, the first two quarter final matches will take place Feb. 12 at the Izon Center in Rutherford NJ.  One tournament match will feature Fedor Emelianenko, former Pride Heavyweight and 2004 Grand prix champion going up against Antonio Silva, former EliteXC heavyweight champion. 

Also featured on the Feb. 12 card will be Andrei Arlovski, former UFC heavyweight champion, versus Sergei Kharitonov.

The other two matches in the quarterfinals of the grand prix are Brett Rogers facing Josh Barnett, former UFC heavyweight champion. 

The date for this fight has yet to be announced.  Some speculate this match might not take place due to Barnett’s suspension for testing positive for Steroids back in 2009, as well as California Athletic State Commission’s denials of Barnett’s request for appeals, and Barnett’s no showing of the hearing of his application for a fight-license, according to MMA junkie.

The fourth match will be Fabricio Wedrum facing current Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem

Wedrum, who submitted Emelianenko back in June, defeated Overeem by submission at the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix back in 2006.

Special rules and positions implemented for tournament


Although Overeem is the promotion’s current heavyweight champion, according to an article in the Ringside report, his heavyweight championship will not be on the line during any point in the tournament. 

“To make it simple, the tournament champion will stand on his own,” Coker said.  “We will have our heavyweight champion, and our tournament champion.”

In addition to the main fights on the tournament bracket, Coker said that a fourth judge will be implemented for the grand prix, and a five-person fight committee who will select a reserve fighter in the case that a fighter who advances in the tournament gets injured before they can advance in the finals.

“This fighter will be chosen from a pool of fighters that will include the previous opponent and the winners of reserve matches,” Coker said.


What the tournament could do for Strikeforce

One benefit of this grand prix is that it gives Strikeforce a chance to showcase the talent in their heavyweight division. 

In addition to having experienced fighters like Emelianenko, Barnett, and Arlovski in the tournament, it also allows rising stars like Rogers, Wedrum, and Kharitonov to showcase their talents to the audience and promoters.  Reserve matches for the tournament could also be successful for the promotion.

There are some still some preparations Strikeforce will need to make if they want to promote the tournament in the right way.   One is drawing fans into the watching the tournament broadcast. 

While Strikeforce cards on Showtime have helped the promotion during their initial years, it may hurt the promotion if the UFC were to show events on Spike TV, or the Versus Network during the same time as Strikeforce cards that were featuring tournament matches.

According to MMA Junkie, Strikeforce: Babalu vs. Henderson drew in 465,000 viewers during its broadcast on Showtime, while the UFC’s Ultimate Fighter 12 finale drew in over 2 million viewers.  The highest Strikeforce watched event was Carano vs. Cyborg back in August 2009, with 576,000 viewers.

Regardless of how successful the heavyweight grand prix becomes, Coker has hinted  that Strikeforce will hold more tournaments in the future.


History of tournaments in MMA

Grand Prixs and other tournament have been a stable in mixed martial arts since the sport’s inception.  Tournaments are still held in promotions such as DREAM and the Bellator Fighting championships.

While the UFC has the Ultimate Fighter competition in tournament format, several of their early events were comprised of one night tournaments.  While the earliest tournaments were open weight, the organization began holding four-man tournaments in different weight classes in 1997. 

Many of the winners of these tournaments would go on to have long careers in mixed martial arts.  Some of the tournament winners include Royce Gracie (UFC 1, 2, and 4), Mark Coleman (UFC 10 and 11), Randy Couture (UFC 14 heavyweight), Dan Henderson (UFC middleweight), and Kazushi Sakuraba (UFC Japan).

Pride FC was known for holding a grand prix each year.  Among the list of winners include Coleman (2000 openweight), Maurcio Rua (2005 middleweight), Wanderlei Silva (2003 middleweight, and Mirko Filipovic (2006 openweight).

Strikeforce has held tournaments in the past.  They held a middleweight tournament back in 2007, and a women’s welterweight tournament back in August that was won by Meisha Tate.

Quick facts about the Strikeforce grand prix

  • Will take place during various Strikeforce events in 2011
  • Each match will be three, five-minute rounds, with the exception of the final tournament match.  This match will be five, five-minute rounds.
  • The eight fighters hold together a number of  13 mixed martial arts championships.
The tournament bracket, courtesy of the MMA news






Questions:


Who would you like to see compete in a tournament?  

What weight would it be at, or would it be open weight?  

How many fighters?

1 comment:

Eddie Osabi said...

This grand prix is possibly the best thing that Strikeforce could have done to raise their profiles some awesome fights should materialise as a result