Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Provides Excitement

If you think about it, the heavyweight division and the tournament format have a lot in common. For instance, both are oddly compelling, though it’s hard to say exactly why. Even though the heavyweight division is easily the most shallow when it comes to talented fighters, fans still clamor to see the big guys duke it out. And while many problems- injuries come to mind right away- surround tournaments, there’s still something appealing about seeing a field of fighters whittled down to just one winner.

Put the two together, and you get a lot of things. Chaos? Sure. Unpredictable results? Of course. Entertainment? Definitely.

The Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix provides fans, fighters, and Strikeforce itself with a lot to be excited about. Fans get to see some great matchups, and fighters get to distinguish themselves among a top-heavy division that has a lot of question marks. Meanwhile, Strikeforce gets to settle a number of nagging issues in the division (including having a champion who’s never faced Fedor Emelianenko or the only man to beat him in the last ten years) while attracting plenty of viewers for the spectacle.

I poked fun at the bracket itself in my last column, but it really is rather smartly constructed. By putting the heavy hitters in one side, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker ensures that none of his most marketable fighters drops a fight against an underachieving opponent. He also ensures that at least one of those four will be in the tournament final, injuries aside.

Most of all, though, it provides flexibility. Look at Fedor, for example. If Fedor loses to Antonio Silva, Strikeforce can sleep easy knowing that Silva is a legitimate talent who they have locked up for the forseeable future. If he wins only to lose to Fabricio Werdum again, the same statement holds true. And if he loses to Alistair Overeem in the second round, they just have to hold their breath in the final, as Overeem would then be possibly the most hyped (and possibly most talented) heavyweight in the world.

If Fedor is able to run the gauntlet, then he will have redeemed himself and provided some wins against quality opponents to act as a rebuttal to the annoying and ridiculous claim by his detractors that he “hasn’t fought anybody”.

If there’s a problem in all of this it’s either a) the possibility of someone like Josh Barnett coming out relatively unscathed from the other end of the bracket and beating whoever emerges from the “big four” side of things and b) the fate of the heavyweight title itself.

Coker says now that the heavyweight title will not be on the line in any of Alistair Overeem’s fights, for reasons that make sense. For one, it wouldn’t be fair for Overeem (and his opponents) to be fighting five round bouts while other competitors only have to be ready for three round contests. Another situation is that the title could conceivably change hands three times in one tournament, which wouldn’t do anybody any favors.

Ideally, the champion wouldn’t even compete in such a tournament, but seeing Overeem against Werdum and possibly the winner of Fedor and Silva is well worth any title lineage headaches. Plus, it’s not as if the promotion’s heavyweight title has an illustrious history at this point, anyway. Thanks to this tournament, there’s a good chance to change that, so if non-title bouts for Overeem are a necessary evil, so be it.

Strikeforce is doing their best to handle the tournament professionally, even going so far as to have three separate reserve bouts and a committee to decide the best possible replacement should there be an injury to a victorious fighter. There’s also a system in place to prevent a draw, as a fourth judge will be on hand for each fight to name a winner based on “overall performance” if the other three judges are deadlocked. Of course, you could do the same thing by having any judge who scores the bout even based upon rounds name an overall winner, but we’ll take what we can get.

Strikeforce needs to take care of a couple of issues in their heavyweight division, namely finding out who stands where in terms of rankings and legitimizing the title itself. If everything pans out, this tournament could help them do both (and wouldn’t it be great if Strikeforce became a spiritual successor to Pride in terms of running yearly tournaments?). Even if it doesn’t work out as Strikeforce would like, the tournament will provide for a fun 2011 for fans.

E-Mail Jon Hartley

Tags: Alistair Overeem, Antonio Silva, Fabricio Werdum, Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Scott Coker, Strikeforce