2011 is a make or break year for Strikeforce coming off a bad 2010. Let's just say 2010 was uglier than Brandon Vera's nose with with Fedor's upset loss to Fabricio Werdum, Jake Shields defeat of highly sought after free agent Dan Henderson followed by Shields' subsequent defection to UFC, only one fight from Alistair Overeem and a disastrous card on CBS that ended up in a brawl and may have scared off network TV from showing another Strikeforce event.
Strikeforce has started off 2011 with a big announcement - they're holding a 8-man heavyweight tournament to crown a super champion and hopefully spark viewer interest.
At first glance the tournament bracket looks more stacked than Scarlett Johansson on one side. With Werdum, Overeem, Emelianenko and Big Foot, Strikeforce has its top-4 HW all grouped together while the other side of the bracket has fighters with plenty a bunch of question marks.
With the way the tournament is structured let's call it what it is - a clever bit of marketing. This is not so much a tournament as it is Strikeforce announcing their matchmaking for the next 6 months to the public.
Let's look closer: the Werdum-Overeem fight is a title fight that Werdum earned after beating Fedor. The winner of the Fedor-Big Foot fight is for the #1 contender spot. The other side of the bracket simply builds up another viable title contender.
Good on Strikeforce for coming up with a clever way to garner some interest in a damaged brand.
Good on Strikeforce for coming up with a clever way to garner some interest in a damaged brand.
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