Fedor Emelianenko is back

Strikeforce pulled it off. They signed Fedor to another deal and now he will fight in the 8 man heavyweight tournament that they're holding!

I would go into greater depth on this right now, but I am spending the night at the girlfriends place and I can't really go into it now. I am even posting this from iPhone. I am going to blog about it, and trust me when I say that this is great, I can already see some stuff that Strikeforce should have done differently, be patient and I'll tell you what they should have done!

i3rian 87 wrote:

Strikeforce pulled it off. They signed Fedor to another deal and now he will fight in the 8 man heavyweight tournament that they're holding!

I would go into greater depth on this right now, but I am spending the night at the girlfriends place and I can't really go into it now. I am even posting this from iPhone. I am going to blog about it, and trust me when I say that this is great, I can already see some stuff that Strikeforce should have done differently, be patient and I'll tell you what they should have done!

awww i was hoping he was going to get into UFC

the dude is a beast, i was really impressed when i first seen him fight

he isnt going to go to the ufc, why go fight there when your running stuff where your at

I would have loved for Dana White to have signed him back when he was a free agent, but I can't say I blame him for passing on the money he was asking for. And with Fedor getting beaten last time out rather handily, White made the right decision. This tourney will prove that either Fedor is still relevant or that he is done. At least he will be fighting again considering he fought for a total of 60-someodd seconds in 2010

From my blog, about Fedor Emelianenko and the Strikeforce tourney:

Quote :

The biggest news to come out of Mixed Martial Arts that is not related to the UFC was announced yesterday: Strikeforce will host an eight man heavyweight tournament featuring Brett Rogers, Josh Barnet, Andre Arlovski, Alistar Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, and most importantly, Fedor Emelianenko. Yes, the same Fedor Emelianenko who was known as the best mixed martial artist in the history of the sport only to lose to Werdum in just 69 seconds back in June. Those 69 seconds were the only seconds he spent fighting during 2010, after fighting just twice in 2009. Before his loss, Fedor had gone on a streak of winning 29 consecutive fights and to most was considered undefeated as his only loss at that point was because of a flukey cut that happened in 17 seconds into a fight back in 2000, only to avenge that loss years later. The name Fedor sold shows, as was proved after Barnett tested positive for steroids a week prior to their fight and a replacement was never found thus causing the Affliction pay per view to be canceled and the promotion to fold.
Strikeforce was able to sign Fedor back in 2009 after the UFC was unable to come to terms with Fedor. This was a very strong play by Scott Coker, CEO of Strikeforce, which jumped his fighting promotion into the spotlight. The first Strikeforce card I ever watched was the card that pinned Fedor against Brett Rogers. Since then, I have still considered Strikeforce as several steps behind the UFC, but they are definitely in the big conversation for MMA. So far, Fedor is 1-1 in the Strikeforce promotion and is now in 8 man field of the heavyweight tournament that Strikeforce had been dangling in front of MMA fans for what feels like years.
The 8 man tournament will be awesome, and has the potential to have some great matchups. The tournament will definitely be able to pull in big ratings and potentially be able to move the promotion closer to the UFC than it has ever been. It will also be a great time for the non-heavyweights to be able to get some attention that they may have not previously received because of the ratings. Up-and-comers will have a chance to be able to show the world what they can do to audiences who may have never watched. That right there is a beautiful thing.
BUT, Strikeforce did two major things wrong with this tournament:

- Why are they having Fedor fight on the first night of the tournament? Say he loses in the first round, the casual fan looking to catch the hype will lose interest in the rest of the tournament, and therefore lose interest in the promotion. He should definitely be in at least the third fight of the tournament, but probably the fourth.

- Why does the winner of the Fedor vs. Silva square off with the winner of Overeem vs. Werdum? I understand that Strikeforce wants to have either Fedor vs. Werdum (rematch will draw major ratings), and that they want to have Fedor vs. Overeem (Overeem being the best Heavyweight in the promotion, other than Fedor himself), but you need to have Overeem and Werdum on the opposite side of the tournament tree than Fedor, because that could cause a Tournament Final between one of these two. But to have them fight each other in the first round is kind of weak, and then to have the potential "Super Bowl" before the actual championship appears to be silly.

But, if the matchups remain as are, then the bracket should be:
Fedor vs. Silva / Arlovski vs. Kharitonov ----- Overeem vs. Werdum / Barnett vs. Rogers

If Fedor wins against Silva, his next match would be against Arlovski (which would be a rematch) or against Kharitonov (former training partner of Fedor). If Fedor wins that, he would either have a rematch against Rogers or Werdum, or a fight in the making against Barnett (since they were never able to actually fight), or the super-fight that we all want to see against Overeem.

Hype leads to ratings, and if they swapped the Overeem/Werdum matchup with Arlovski/Kharitonov it would be that much better. Lets be honest, this tournament is all about Fedor, so why not set up the tournament so it is all about Fedor too?

Either way, I'll be watching and possibly drooling during all of this

Overeem > Werdum > Fedor

jk

I still like Lesnar > Fedor.

I would have said Lesnar over Fedor as well... until he did balerina twirls after being punched by Cain Velazquez


(2:30 mark)

Lesnar has the potential to be a beast except he needs to change his camp. His Deathclinch camp can only get him so far. The reason the top MMA fighters are so good is because they go around the country to train in other gyms constantly. You peak when you stay with the same people and you don't learn anything new.

Sound familiar? Its the same way with Madden and their crews. This website even! If you didn't go online and learn new tricks and plays, you wouldnt get better. Thats what he needs to do.

Also, Lesnar doesnt like getting hit in the face. Well dude, you're in the wrong business.

If Brock doesnt change up his camp or bring in someone like Greg Jackson, he wont ever be dominant in MMA again.