Strikeforce: 8-Man Heavyweight Tournament
 

If Strikeforce can actually pull this off, this could be THE event that puts them on the course to direct competition with the UFC. There is so much that could go wrong, however: Werdum's injury, Barnett's suspension, Fedor's fuck-all management, Overeem's participation in other organizations, etc.

If they could pull it all together and air it on CBS or (finally) a PPV, this could be epic:

Emelianenko-Silva, HW Tourney Slated for Feb. 12

With competitive match-making, the winner of this tournament becomes the number one heavyweight in the world as far as I'm concerned. Especially if Emelianenko and Overeem are left as the top two, which I'm sure Coker and Co. would be praying for. As good as the top UFC guys may be, none of them will have run the gamut this tournament will present.

Speaking of which, if there was ever a time for the UFC to consider co-promotion, this is it. Velasquez is out for months for surgery and rehab and Dos Santos doesn't want to wait for his title fight; imagine what a win (or even a competitive showing) would do for him if the tourney aired on CBS. It wouldn't have to affect his contender status within the UFC and it could potentially draw in more casual viewers who previously had no idea who he was. Even with a poor showing, the UFC could drop him back down the ladder and replace him with a money-maker like Mir to fight Velasquez.

On the flip side, Dana could also send a middle-of-the-road heavyweight (Madsen, Russow, etc). If he wins, it smashes the legitimacy of Strikeforce's heavyweight division; if he loses, he was never anything special in the first place. Either way, it pushes the UFC brand on a big-- and FREE-- stage. Win-win.

Co-promotion is a pipe dream, but in this select instance I think it makes sense. With or without it, however, if the event actually takes place, it's going to be badass. Strikeforce has a good roster of very experienced veterans and up-and-coming prospects.

I am AMPED. Fedor/Overeem in the final will answer a lot of questions for me...

About both guys. If Fedor smashes his way through to the championship (including a Werdum rematch, hopefully), he remains relevant and takes back his number one spot. If Overeem beats Fedor, his hype is justified and the can-smasher / hater crowd has to STFU.

I'm anxious to see Josh Barnett back in the states. He'll be the only great wrestler in the tournament.

Agreed. [edit: I'm an idiot]

Things that make you go humm....didn't know about this possibility.

Hopefully it can be worked out.

It's too bad it's Strikeforce. They've got some good fighters, but their piss poor production quality, horrendous terrible horrible announcers, and super zero personality ring people make their events hard to stomach in anything more than small doses.

This event needs to be on anything other than Showtime. If it's on network tv, it's got a chance to pull in some new people. If it's on PPV, it'll still get some eyes. If it's on Showtime, it's a wasted event.

For pure entertainment value, I typically prefer Strikeforce events to the UFC's. The UFC may keep things more relevant overall, but Strikeforce's (and even Dream's) fighters and match-making are often more exciting.

I credit this to their comparative lack of wrestlers.

I think UFC hit a point this past year where they had way too many fights. You can only have so many blockbuster fights before you have to put some mediocre boobs as the headliners. Frank Mir vs Mirko Crocop? Bispbing vs anyone? Really? Having so many cards just drained out the quality fights. I think the one (hopefully) good thing that came out of last year was UFC finally absorbing the rest of WEC. With few exceptions, WEC put on some of the best fight cards in the past year. If the UFC utilizes the bantam and featherweights right, they can start trimming the fat in the other divisions and really filling in solid cards and way less stinkers.

Right now, everything not UFC suffers from not getting enough exposure. Strikeforce cards are too few, and being on Showtime makes them all but invisible. Dream, K1, and Bellator are worse off, with no real exposure. K1 has had some great fights, but I only catch them after the fact on youtube/fight sites/the interwebs. I don't get Showtime, so the chances of seeing a Strikeforce event that doesn't hit the networks are rare. If the quality of the UFC fights continues to be mediocre, this year could be a huge year for any non-UFC event, but exposure will be key.

Did you guys see Duffee/Overeem? :lol: :lol: :lol: WTF are they thinking anymore?

Didn't Duffee take that fight on short notice, too? Not that it would have made much difference, IMO.

HDNet has a metric shit ton of fights on pretty regularly. They cover Dream, K-1, and just had the Dynamite show on new year's eve. The only bad thing is that they are usually on pretty late. But a live Dream show could be 6 hours long.