Coker Talks About The Details Of The Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix

Added on Jan 05, 2011 by John Petit in

UFC & MMA

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker has announced an 8 man heavyweight tournament that will take up a majority of 2011 earlier this week. Speculation and rumors exploded in the MMA media, and the news left more questions then answers. Even with the ambiguous press releases, the news left many people asking themselves Why do this? Mike Chiapetta from Fanhouse recently sat down with Scott Coker to talk about the tournament, and answer some of the questions people were raising.

As far as why is concerned, Coker says its because its where his experience in combat sports lies. There is no doubt that this is a risky plan for Strikeforce, and Showtime, and Coker says with their combined expertise they should be able to pull it off. Coker said “I went to Showtime with this plan about 3 months ago. I saw what they did with the Super Six tournament in boxing. I thought it was a great format and definitely made some more stars in the boxing world. They definitely created more hype and more stars in that sport. I thought it’d be a good way for USA fans to get to know some of these top heavyweights that we have fighting, like Sergei Kharitonov, like having Josh Barnett back in America. It’s a great way to unveil it and roll it out.” Coker also feels that the tournament itself is what Combat sports are all about, and they will forever be part of Martial Arts’ rich history. He continued “I came from a background in K-1 where we did tournaments all the time. Take it back even further than that; If you grew up in a martial arts school, whether it was judo, jiu-jitsu, karate, tae kwon do, the first time you ever compete is in a tournament. We thought it made sense on a lot of levels. Now we get to see it roll out, and we’re going to see some amazing fights over the next months. “

Most fight fans next question when they heard about the tournament was what happens to the belt, Will the belt be defended, and what if the champion loses before the final round? Currently Coker didn’t have many solid answers, but only alluded to what Strikeforce would want if they could get their way. He said “Right now, Alistair Overeem is the Strikeforce heavyweight champion. That’s something we can answer tomorrow, because what we’re trying to do is clear it with the commissions to allow the fighters to fight more than three rounds outside of the title. The rules of MMA now say a five-round fight has to be a championship fight, and so we’re working on that. Hopefully we’ll have an answer soon on that.” Coker says he wants all the fights to be 5 round fights, and the belt would travel along the right side of the bracket depending on who won. However, Strikeforce can’t confirm that because they need to hear it is okay from the commission. He said “It goes back to the commission and what they’re going to allow us to do. That’s something I can’t answer right now but hope to have an answer very soon.”

The first thing you notice when you look at the standings is the the first round features a fight between Overeem and Werdum. To some fans, this is a fight that should be later in the tourney, or maybe the champion should fight the winner of the whole tourney. Coker says his champ wanted the fight, and said it was exciting enough to make happen. He said “We originally thought he could fight the tournament winner, or fight a super-fight. But when I talked to Overeem’s management Golden Glory, they said he wanted to fight in the tournament. And then when I talked to Alistair and Bas Boon, his manager, over the weekend when I was in Japan, Alistair came to me and said, ‘I want to fight Fabricio Werdum.’ You have to give me that fight.’ And I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ It’s something he wanted to do. He wanted to avenge that loss from three or four years ago, so it’s good for everybody.”

The other wild card is Fedor Emelianenko. Fedor, and his management team M-1, have historically renegotiated his contracts after all his fights. This has caused many to question if Fedor will be in for the long haul. Will it cover the whole tournament? “Yes, it covers the tournament and even further. No more renegotiation. The beauty of the deal, and I can’t get into the details of the contract, but it’s multi-fight and multi-year. Fedor will be doing co-promotion with Strikeforce, M-1 and Showtime for many years to come.”

Finally, we come to the name Josh Barnett. Barnett hasn’t been fighting in the last year and a half because of positive drug test before his scheduled fight with Fedor that never took place. Barnett didn’t clear this up with the commission, and didn’t appear before them until a few months ago. Even then it wasn’t resolved, and Barnett still has to work it out with them. Coker says Barnett will be able to fight, and its almost a non-issue. He said “We’ve talked to four athletic commissions that will license him with a clean test. We feel confident that won’t be an issue. Keep in mind Josh Barnett went to Sacramento six weeks ago, took a test and was clean. He hasn’t fought for a year-and-a-half in America. He still has issues in California, so his fight won’t be in California, but Josh has moved on, and we’re moving on, too. He’s been out of the fight business in America for 18 months. I think he’s served his time.”

The first tournament fight will take place on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2011; Live on SHOWTIME® From IZOD Center, E. Rutherford, N.J. STRIKEFORCE, M-1 GLOBAL in Association with Showtime.