Well we should have seen this coming. The highly ambitious Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix has lost almost all of its momentum with the news that Alistair Overeem has been pulled from the tournament.
On Monday, Overeem broke news on the MMA Hour that Zuffa were insisting that he fight the next round of the grand prix against Antonio Silva on 10 September. According to the “Demolition Man”, October had been provisionally slated for the bout which would allow him to recover from some injuries sustained in the Werdum fight.
The K-1 world champion then dropped the bombshell that Zuffa had threatened to pull him from the tournament if he refused to comply.
It was then reported by various sources that Dana White removed Overeem from the tournament, but that he would still honour the final fight on his contract.
Daniel Cormier, a talented heavyweight prospect and former Olympian will now step in for Overeem in the grand prix. Losing two of the tournament’s leading lights in Fedor Emelianenko and the “Reem” will severely curtail the interest there was in finding out who was the world’s best heavyweight, at least according to Strikeforce in the pre-Zuffa era.
Overeem has also been floating some interesting ideas about possibly moving to boxing to challenge a Klitschko for a world title.
As extraordinary as this suggestion is, it’s hard to see how a kickboxer with no professional boxing experience would be able to get a bout with an undisputed champion like Wladimir, who has over 50 fights experience, or to find anyone that would sanction it.
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