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ROUNDTABLE (pt. 2 of 2) What should Strikeforce do with Fedor Emelianenko's final contracted fight? Pelkey, Williams, Hyden, Lee, Matthew and Penick
How should Strikeforce handle the situation with Fedor with one fight remaining on his contract?
MATT PELKEY, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
Well for starters, nothing like how they're actually going to handle it. Fedor lost, so a title shot against Overeem would just be asinine on so many levels. M-1 is pushing for an immediate rematch with Werdum, but that's basically them just trying to say, "It was a fluke! Fedor would smash him nine out of ten times. We want a do-over".
But it wasn't a fluke. Fedor made a mistake and played around in Werdum's guard and got caught. It happens, but it was still a clear-cut loss. If they were to fight in an immediate rematch and Fedor knocked out Werdum, M-1 would claim that all is right with the world and Fedor has reclaimed his throne. But really, they'd just be tied 1-1.
Werdum has earned his title shot with a sneaky-impressive three fight win streak. Let him get fed to Overeem and find something else for Fedor in his last contracted fight. Since there's no guarantee Fedor will be fighting for Strikeforce after his next fight, you don't want to sacrifice a title contender you're grooming, so Antonio Silva is out.
I say put in a call to Josh Barnett. Its a fight that was supposed to happen in Affliction before Barnett sunk the entire promotion with a(nother) failed steroids test. Its also still a marketable and relevant fight, and one that Strikeforce can sell as an MMA dream match as opposed to a stop on Fedor's road to the title.
Then if Fedor wins and re-signs, you can hype him up coming off the big win over Barnett, and if he bolts you can just pretend the fight never happened. If Fedor loses, you all of a sudden have a new heavyweight star in Josh Barnett and send Fedor limping to the UFC on two straight losses. It's basically foolproof. Not sure I have the faith in Strikeforce to pull this off.
ALEX WILLIAMS, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
It does not make business sense for Strikeforce to have Fedor Emelianenko fight unless they will have him for more bouts beyond his next. If they can invoke a clause whereby he continues to compete for them if he wins the championship, then I would match him against Strikeforce strap holder Alistair Overeem.
While Fedor, coming off a loss, clearly doesn't "deserve" a title shot ahead of Fabricio Werdum, Overeem's belt is a "paper title" anyway. (The real, linear heavyweight championship is held by Werdum.) If Overeem wins, then Strikeforce can let Fedor go (or negotiate a new contract with him on much better terms for the organization) and proceed with Overeem vs. Werdum. If Fedor wins, then Strikeforce has a natural rematch with Werdum and Fedor under contract until he loses.
FRANK HYDEN, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
If Strikeforce has resigned itself to Fedor leaving and going to the UFC, then they should rematch him against Brett Rogers. Worst case, Fedor beats a guy he'd already beaten before. The best case is that Rogers knocks out Fedor and you can send him limping to the UFC with 2 straight losses. This would also work to possibly cause the UFC to not have interest in signing Fedor.
If Strikeforce believes that they will re-sign Fedor, they should put him against Alistair Overeem, with Fabricio Werdum fighting the winner. If Fedor re-signs, you're covered even if he beats Overeem. You can also build towards a Fedor vs. Werdum rematch.
If I were Strikeforce, I'd go with the first choice.
ERIC LEE, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Strikeforce needs to let Fedor go. He lost. That's not what they were expecting. Plus, it's time for Fedor to fight some UFC heavyweight competition. See if he's really all that good.
SAM MATTHEW, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
Ideally Strikeforce can use Fedor’s loss as a bargaining tool at the negotiation tables with those crazy Rusky’s at M-1 Global. If Fedor wants an American belt he needs to step in line. I don’t like the idea of giving him a shot at Overeem after a loss or even an immediate rematch with Werdum. Now that Scott Coker has the upper hand he needs to use his head and convince M-1 that their most valued commodity is not immortal. Giving Fedor an easy win to fulfill the final fight on his Strikeforce contract would allow Coker to possibly sign the Russian at a bargain for another 3-5 fights and make a legitimate title run.
JAMIE PENICK, MMATORCH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The two most talked about fights by Strikeforce are the two they should be avoiding right now. An immediate rematch with Werdum is a complete waste of Werdum, as he's earned his rematch against Overeem with the win over Fedor. As for the proposed fight with Overeem, there are any number of reasons not to make that fight.
If it's for the Title it's ridiculous because he just got beat. If it's not for the Title than Overeem will once again be going an extremely lengthy amount of time without defending the belt again.
Fedor should face off against one of three fighters: Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva, Brett Rogers or Josh Barnett.
The first choice may not take place if Strikeforce isn't confident they can re-sign him after the fight, as like Matt pointed out they won't necessarily want to derail another possible title contender in Silva with a loss.
The second choice would work because a lot of people still hold to the belief that Rogers had Fedor in trouble in that fight, and another win over him by Fedor wouldn't hurt Strikeforce in the long run.
It's actually rumored that Josh Barnett could be coming to Strikeforce, so this is likely the best and most realistic option for Strikeforce to pursue. If Barnett's going to be allowed a license to fight after his three failed steroid tests, this is a fight that was supposed to take place last summer as it is, and would make for a big time fight against a new opponent. It's a fight that could still be highly entertaining, and if Strikeforce just has one fight left with Fedor, this may be the way to go.
RELATED STORY: Part one of this roundtable with responses from Perez, Bacior, Hobaugh, Marsh and Hansen: CLICK TO READ PART ONE
UPCOMING ROUNDTABLE QUESTIONS
• What do you think about the UFC 119 and 120 cards with Mir-Nogueira II and Bisping Akiyama as their respective headliners?
• What are your early thoughts on how Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez match up in their UFC 121 showdown?
[Fedor Emelianenko art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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