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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Strikeforce's heavyweight tournament features a very top heavy left side of the bracket, with the Fedor Emelianenko vs. Bigfoot Silva winner set to meet the winner of a Championship bout between Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum, but it looks like it may have taken a little prodding from the Champ to get that fight together in the first place.
"Alistair asked for Fabricio, personally,” Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said in an interview with Sherdog.com. "When I was in Japan last week, he said, 'You've got to let me fight Fabricio. I want to avenge that loss. It's important.' So that was an easy fight to put together. Werdum says he's going to make Alistair go to sleep."
It's already been reported that all bouts during the tournament featuring the Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion will be contested as five round title fights, but Coker revealed that it is not set in stone and they're looking to get all of the bouts set as five round fights.
"We're trying to talk to all the commissions in all the states that we are attempting to go to work it out," Coker said. "But I think we'll have it ironed out in 24 hours. The goal is to have the title on the line and let them fight it out because that's our world champion and Fabricio beat Fedor. I think that'd be a great representation of the Strikeforce belt."
Penick's Analysis: I sincerely hope Overeem's title will be on the line when he fights, because if it's not then it will damage what they're doing with the matchmaking in this tournament. These fights are set in the logical order they should be taking place, but the title has to be on the line for that logical progression to play out. As for this being an "easy fight to put together," it really should have been on their minds the moment Werdum defeated Fedor. It should have been the fight that was coming together from the outset, and though it's great that they're getting it together, it shouldn't have taken prodding from Overeem to make it happen.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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