Strikeforce and Showtime made their upcoming heavyweight tournament official this week by announcing the first round matchups as well as the date and venue of its opening event.
The tournament will kick off February 12 at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J with former world champion Fedor Emelianenko taking on Antonio Silva and former UFC champ Andrei Arlovski meeting Pride veteran Sergei Kharitonov.
Much of the MMA media speculation on this tournament has been skeptical, if not downright critical from the start.
While I do understand that Strikeforce has teased us numerous times with potentially great matchups only to snatch them off the table and replace them with something of only lukewarm interest before, it is hard for an old school fan like myself to not get excited about a classic Pride-like heavyweight tournament, especially one consisting of as many great veterans as this.
However, upon reading the bracket placement and tournament rules recently released by Scott Coker (Strikeforce CEO) and Ken Hershman (head of Showtime Sports), I became a bit confused and momentarily disappointed.
As mentioned, Emelianenko and Silva will square up, as well as Arlovski and Kharitonov. And in the second event of the first round loosely scheduled for April, Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem will meet top contender Fabricio Werdum with the title on the line, and former UFC champ Josh Barnett will face former Strikeforce title challenger Brett Rogers.
At first I found it strange to have the top two contenders in Overeem and Werdum face off in the first round of the tournament, and even more strange that it will be a five-round title fight.
Shouldn't the top two seeds be placed on opposite sides of the bracket?
Further confusing my initial thoughts on Strikeforce's intentions for this tournament was that they announced the winner of Emelianenko and Silva will face the winner of Overeem and Werdum. Meaning the top three fighters in the tournament are all on the same side of the bracket.
That's when I began to realize that this isn't a bracket at all. It's simply the champion fighting the top contender, then the next top contender, and then the winner of the opposite side of this "bracket" will get their shot at the title.
The only difference is whoever wins that third title fight can call themselves a tournament winner.
While I was slightly perturbed that this wasn't a classic style tournament, I realized that this is what we have all wanted from the beginning. The champion fighting the top contender now, and not fighting anyone coming off of a loss afterward, as was the case with Brett Rogers.
This will basically just add a little hype to some already great and highly anticipated matchups.
And I have to say, I think that Showtime and Strikeforce are getting this one right. After all, this will be the third combat tournament Showtime has currently taking place, so they must be learning something.
With all of the injuries and dropouts in boxing's Super Six, why not have this tournament revolve around the champion?
They have even added an alternate bout between Shane Del Rosario and Lavar Johnson in case someone is forced to drop out. That seems like a fine alternate to me.
So while some may be skeptical about Strikeforce's big plans, it seems quite realistic to me.
They have tied Fedor down to a new four-fight contract, which has taken some time. They have discussed Josh Barnett's licensing issues with states other than California due to his previous performing-enhancing drugs issues. And even if the tournament does fall apart, we will get to see the champion Overeem fighting top ten heavyweights at least a couple of times.
It may not be the Pride-like tournament that I was hoping for, but it may be something even better.
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