The Strikeforce heavyweight division looks to be very limited as match makers continue to discuss possible future bouts for the second half of 2010. Fabricio Werdum is coming off a submission win over Fedor Emelianenko and was supposed to face current champ Alistair Overeem for the Strikeforce heavyweight title. Unfortunately, Werdum will be sidelined until early 2011 due to an ongoing elbow injury he needs to take care of.
Fedor Emelianenko is currently under negotiations as he has one fight left in his Strikeforce contract. In a recent interview, Fedor tells us that he is looking into signing for 4-6 more fights under Strikeforce and makes it clear that he is not interested in the UFC right now. The possibility of a rematch against Werdum may occur in 2011, but he’d rather fight someone else in the meantime because that would be too much time off. So that leaves Fedor up in the air waiting for a heavyweight opponent as well.
Antonio ‘Big Foot’ Silva is coming off a huge win over former UFC heavyweight champ Andrei ‘The Pitbull’ Arlovski. He’s open to face anyone in the heavyweight division and a fight against Fedor would make the most sense since they are both 1-1 in the Strikeforce promotion. However, there are rumors of a heavyweight title fight between Overeem and Silva sometime later this year.
Brett Rogers will have to wait his turn as he has lost back to back fights against Fedor and to Overeem. No word as of yet who he’d be facing next either.
The only official upcoming heavyweight fight will be WWE wrestler Bobby Lashley who is scheduled to face Chad Griggs at the Strikeforce ‘Houston’ event on August 21st. The winner of these two fighters can be put into the mix with other top Strikeforce heavyweights.
We’ll keep you guys posted on the official Strikeforce heavyweight match-ups, but here’s what some of the fighters had to say this week…
From Alistair Overeem:
“Fabricio (Werdum) will not be ready until the beginning of next year so I’m not sure who he’ll be fighting next because of the time he’ll be taking off. Hopefully we’ll have Overeem back in the cage in October. Against who, we don’t know. It might be ‘Bigfoot’ Silva [but] the heavyweight division hasn’t been determined and we’re still having ongoing dialogue with M-1. That should flesh out here pretty soon and once we come to a deal with them on when (Fedor will) fight, who he’ll fight, and with Fabricio out, I think the rest of the division will kind of unfold itself before the end of the year. I don’t think [Emelianenko vs. Overeem] will happen this year.”
From Antonio Silva:
“I know what you already know. Strikeforce hasn’t been in touch with my manager Alex Davis yet to make the fight 100-percent confirmed. Anyway, I’m already training for it.”
From Fedor Emelianenko:
“For now M-1 Global works with Strikeforce and we are concentrating on that, the contract is not over yet. So for now we don’t have any interest in the UFC. So far I feel very comfortable fighting, very good with my fighting, and I’m planning of fighting as long as I can physically. As far and I’m concerned we should discuss the possibility of signing another contract for 4-6 fights.”
