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Alistair Overeem Out of Strikeforce Grand Prix; Replaced by Daniel Cormier

4K views 56 replies 33 participants last post by  kantowrestler 
#1 ·
And just like that Alistair Overeem is out of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.

The current Strikeforce heavyweight champion has been removed from the tournament and will be replaced by Daniel Cormier, who will now face Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva, currently rumored for Sept 10.

The news was confirmed to MMAWeekly.com by sources close to the situation on Monday. Tatame.com first reported the switch.

Overeem stated on Monday that he had been approached to fight on the Sept 10 card, but wasn’t prepared to accept the timing of the bout.

Instead, Overeem will be removed completely from the tournament and will be replaced by undefeated American Kickboxing Academy fighter Daniel Cormier.

Cormier last fought in June on the same card as Overeem where he dominated Jeff Monson for three rounds en route to a lopsided decision win.

The former Olympian will look to keep his record perfect when he takes a dramatic step up in competition to face Silva in September.

As for the future of Alistair Overeem, that remains to be seen. While he is out of the tournament for now, there’s been no word from Zuffa or Strikeforce officials if he will remain in the company or what the recourse for this situation will be.

http://mmaweekly.com/alistair-overeem-out-of-strikeforce-grand-prix-replaced-by-daniel-cormier
Words dont describe how fucked off this makes me..
 
#42 ·
I don't know whether it makes sense from a business perspective or not.

The tournament is Strikeforce's main attraction at the moment, it's the thing Zuffa can milk most, but now it lost much of it's attractiveness with Emelianenko out, all that annoying rescheduling and now Overeem out without even losing. But then again Overeem is now Strikeforces biggest draw so Zuffa might want to transfer him "unharmed" to the UFC for a superfight or something like that. A possible loss to Silva (after that not as dominant as thought to be lack luster win over Werdum) would mess all that up and Overeem would be much less worth and a superfight much less sellable (if at all). So maybe that's the way to save the last marketable bits of what is left from Strikeforce before letting it collapse.
 
#44 ·
Before I even go through this thread I just have to say that this blows ******* giant monkey dick. Honestly...this sucks big time.

If this is to get him into the UFC faster then fine, but if this is contract negotiation bullshit then I am pretty annoyed.

The broken toe comment was really funny though lol.

Arg...just so annoyed that we don't get to see the "tourny"
play out. It is beyond meaningless now and after Fedor fights Hendo SF will be pretty close to meaningless, too.

To top it all off I went all in with 1 mill creds on Overeem in the SF tourny vbookie lol!

Now to read what you guys think...
 
#46 ·
It's not about putting up with the toe for the night of the fight obviously!!! It's about undergoing a 6-8 week camp with the toe still injured. He needs time to recover from it otherwise it's guaranteed to get injured again during training. Besides 10th September is 7 weeks ago. That in itself is barely enough time to prepare and rest for an additional week. Basically they thought they could force him to reconsider but theres nothing changing: not enough time.
 
#50 ·
Is there something saying Dana had something to do with it? I cant remember .....And if he was pushing Reem to fight it was because Showtime wouldnt budge....I mean there are big name fighters dropping out of fights all the time and the UFC just puts it off till another date
 
#51 ·
this is good, cormier vs barnett in a fantastic final and a great semi final series of matches and then overeem has his tune up fight with a ufc gatekeeper and if he wins he gets jds/cain, i dont know why you guys dont like this
 
#52 ·
YESSSS. I mean it sucks his not competing in the tourney anymore but he had no business in there whatsover. The whole concept was that the winner of the GP would face Overeem for the title. A champion taking part of the tournament without putting the title on the line was ridicolous. Only thing now is that who is he going to face in SF? There's nobody left. I hope this means a crossover to the UFC and a tune-up fight with Frank Mir. As for the GP outcome, i have no idea and don't really care since they are definitely folding SF after it's all said and done.

Plus, no need to blame Zuffa, Showtime decides when the shows take place, not them.
 
#54 ·
YESSSS. I mean it sucks his not competing in the tourney anymore but he had no business in there whatsover. The whole concept was that the winner of the GP would face Overeem for the title. A champion taking part of the tournament without putting the title on the line was ridicolous. Only thing now is that who is he going to face in SF? There's nobody left. I hope this means a crossover to the UFC and a tune-up fight with Frank Mir. As for the GP outcome, i have no idea and don't really care since they are definitely folding SF after it's all said and done.

Plus, no need to blame Zuffa, Showtime decides when the shows take place, not them.
That is some god awful management by Coker. Surely he would have had more influence when the deal was agreed.

It may sound idealistic and silly buuuuut it seems like Overeem was never going to finish the GP. He has only one fight left on his SF contract. Were they hoping he'd renegotiate during the GP? Why tie a man to a tournament that he was never confirmed to be finishing. I reckon they'll have him face Fedor in October, as he seems very insistent on fighting in October. Fedor will have plenty of rest after the Hendo fight, and I'm sure they'll want one last big fight out of Alistair before he inevitably moves onto the UFC.
 
#56 ·
Pinky toe injuries happen. The tournament is more legitimized without the champion in it anyway. What was Overeem going to do if he won the tournament? Have a mirror match with himself? or a Tournament Finals rubber match? Plus, judging on his fight with Werdum, where Werdum was getting the better of the stand up, I'd have picked Bigfoot to win.
 
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