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The idea of Fedor as an alternate in the Strikeforce HW GP is not popular online
By Zach Arnold | February 15, 2011
Everyone’s talking about Fedor, so let’s discuss what the Cagewriter.com crew at Yahoo Sports had to say on the matter. The discussion starts off with talk about Fedor as a Light Heavyweight and then transitions into a discussion about everyone still wanting the Fedor gravy train to continue operating. That’s the starting point for this transcription passage about the idea of Fedor as an alternate in the Strikeforce HW GP (over fighters like Shane Del Rosario & Valentijn Overeem).
STEVE COFIELD: “It’s the way he lost that leads us to the next point, which was Scott Coker talking about the future as maybe an alternate in the tournament, which I got to tell you even a casual fan should be outraged at that. The hardcores will go ballistic. You can’t put him back in the tournament under any circumstances. You got other qualified alternates. I know he’s your big-money guy, but you can’t just make the image of him getting destroyed go away.”
ADAM HILL: “You know, there’s people that have bashed on this tournament. You were not one of them, I was not one of them. I was excited about this tournament. It completely loses credibility if he goes back in. I mean, we both had the same reaction when we heard that. It’s preposterous to put him back in and that’s, to the hardcore fans especially, just throw it out there, nobody cares about this tournament any more if that’s the case. I do think there’s some element and I believe Strikeforce believes there’s some element of fans that just want to see Fedor and I think that they probably have it in their mind that people will be more interested in watching Fedor than they would any of the other fighters going forward. I don’t see that. I think that you completely lose integrity. I think there’s a way to get him back involved in the mix in heavyweight without putting him in this tournament, but there’s already some crazy things about this tournament any way. As much as we both like it, the fact that, you know, Overeem is the favorite to win the tournament and the prize for winning the tournament is to fight Overeem? That doesn’t make any sense.”
STEVE COFIELD: *laughs*
ADAM HILL: “It’s crazy. Is it that much crazier to say, okay, Fedor you lose but you’re back in because you’re the big name, you’re back in, we want you in, people will watch you, so we’re putting you back in. It’s not that much crazier. I think for hardcore fans and people that follow the sport closely, we will say, ‘no, stop it, that’s ridiculous, that’s dumb.’ I think some people out there and I think Strikeforce believes some people out there might say, ‘oh, Fedor’s fighting, let’s watch this.’ I think it’s possible.”
STEVE COFIELD: “I think the solution is easy. I think he fights the loser of Overeem and Werdum. That gives him some time off. He can recover, if he’s got a serious injury. He can also get himself more mentally prepared and physically prepared to fight these big guys and kind of get back on track and that would be a big fight against the loser of that fight and then the winner out of that, especially if they’re impressive, maybe can fight the winner of the tournament at the end of the year or early 2012. That makes sense. Putting him back in? Just crazy.”
ADAM HILL: “Okay, I really like that idea, it’s actually a good idea. I think it would be a marketable fight and one that people, both hardcores and casual fans, would be interested in. Here’s the problem — if Overeem loses, so it’s Fedor vs. Overeem for the title both coming off losses? That would be a difficult sell, I think.”
STEVE COFIELD: “That’s a tough one, too. They better root hard for Overeem to make it to the finals in this thing, at least make it to the finals if not win it.”
ADAM HILL: “And that’s the problem with Overeem having the belt and competing in the tournament and the belt not being on the line. What happens when he loses? That means you have a champion, at some point, defending the title coming off a loss against somebody who either won the tournament or somebody’s coming off three wins, it’s crazy.”
STEVE COFIELD: “It’s like the College World Series (Omaha). You’re doing double elimination. You have to beat Overeem twice. If it’s someone who knocks off Overeem and goes on to win the tournament, they’re going to have to beat him again to get the title. That is weird.”
ADAM HILL: “There you go. Fedor’s back in. It’s double elimination … to move on. It’s just, it is the problem that was set up and it was set in place by having Overeem in the tournament and not defending the title and the title being on the line at the end against Overeem, who’s in the tournament. It’s just a weird mix.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
these two Journalist knows nothing about what’s happening online with the fans, everybody wants to see Fedor in that HW mix again.. these Journalist are noobs and Zuffa shills
Um…what?
Seriously, what fan in their right mind wants to see Fedor passed up to the next round of the tourney after getting wrecked in round one?
Have him fight the loser of Werdum-Overeem? Great, I’d love to see it. Make up some bullshit reason to toss him back into a tournament he was knocked out of? You’ve gotta be kidding me.
Especially after airing two alternate fights with two guys who are obviously healthy enough to fight.
Agreed.
I don’t get the need to see him back in the tourney. He lost, kinda stinks but whatever.
Three alternative fights. Yeah, the Sefo/Overeem fight had no business being made, but it was designated as a tournament reserve fight for God knows what reasons.
Completely agree.
I’d love to see Fedor fight again, but he has no business being slotted back into the tournament.
Strikeforce now needs to bank on Overeem beating Werdum so they can do Fedor/Werdum 2.
Nobody is going to care to see Arlovski/Fedor 2 or Fedor/Rogers 2. And Fedor’s camp will not accept a fight with Overeem.
So once again, Strikeforce is at the mercy of a coin flip.
any fan who says he doesn’t want to see Fedor back in the tournament is lying. He has the Tyson factor; anyone who was at one point the best in the world, and who still physically resembles the dude who was best in the world, is going to attract eyeballs long after his skills start to fall off. Liddell is another example.
Are you being serious or are you trolling the board?
You can’t be serious.
I’d like to see him fight again. I’ve seen every Fedor fight and will continue watching his fights. Similar to watching Liddell fights, I’ll agree there. But I don’t want to see him in the tourney again.
I’d rather see him fight Dan Henderson than any of the guys at HW.
If anything they just need to give him a fight against a total dud so he can get a win again and build him back up. Obviously the law of karma means he would get miraculously KO’d. Though one of the few positives to come out of the thrashing he received was that he’s still got a helluva chin and is tough as nails to absorb that beating without getting stopped (he remained remarkably lucid and actually [attempted] to intelligently defend at all times). It’s too bad he had a Hasseem Rahmen hematoma on his eye, otherwise he could have at least tried to land one last hail mary shot (pretty unlikely…but, ya’know).
Mike Russow knows how it is done with the Hail mary shot. Don’t bash it.
how was that possibly a trolling comment? You’re saying that if one of the competitors got hurt and a replacement was needed, you would rather see Shane Del Rosario than Fedor?
I agree that Fedor’s next fight should be against somewhat of a can. If I were Fedor, I would just lipo down to 225 and then cut/diet down to 205–I don’t think it would be that difficult.
“any fan who says he doesn’t want to see Fedor back in the tournament is lying.”
That’s why I thought you were trolling.
I do not want to see Fedor back in the tournament.
He just got cleanly beaten by two guys in the tourney.
I don’t want to see anyone who got eliminated get back in. It’s silly. It was dumb in Japan, it’s dumb anytime that happens.
Let’s go with the premise that an eliminated fighter gets another shot.
Why Fedor? He got demolished. What if Werdum/Overeem fight a 3 round war that’s a split decision or if Barnett and Rogers do. Or if one of those fights gets stopped by a cut and the guy who loses was ahead at the time of the stoppage.
What SF should do is match up Valentijn Overeem and Del Rosario. Or Gian and Del Rosario and have the winner be ready to step into the tourney.
David you’re obviously ignorant to what these fighters go through because if you weren’t you wouldn’t want to snub one of them just to see one guy who’s undeserving.
I just hope people let him retire, if that’s what he wants to do.
Was just thinking, what if Overeem loses, would they do Overeem Vs Fedor non title or a title fight? two guys coming off loses fighting for the title isn’t going to look too good and the winner of the GP should really get the first shot.
and if Fedor wins, then it also hurts the title fight as Overeem would have lost twice in a row.
They under no circumstances should put Fedor back in the tournament….it would make the tourney a joke.
Fedor should fight the loser of Werdum/Overeem. For Strikeforce’s sake, hopefully it’s Fedor vs Werdum 2 cuz it would be weird giving Fedor a title shot coming off 2 losses.
That would be some UFC circa 2003
shit.