Last night’s Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix may have been the best main cards in the promotions history with two epic headlines that preceded two quick ending opening bouts. In the second bout of the night’s main card, Rafael Cavalcante impressed many with his revenge served ice-cold approach to his Mike Kyle rematch.
The day has finally arrived. Tonight the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix will come to an end and Daniel Cormier and Josh Barnett take to the cage in the finals. Not only that but the often talked about Gilbert Melendez vs. Josh Thomson III will conclude the trilogy while inhabiting the night’s co-main event.
The fighters competing on Saturdays Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix finale all step on the scales today from the concourse inside the HP Pavillion in San Jose, California. All but one fighter made weight and lightweight James Terry only missed weight by a quarter pound as the athletic commission attempted to figure out the scale.
As this train wreck of a Heavyweight Grand Prix comes to a close, it really helps you appreciate that Bellator can put on so many snag-free tournaments. Through a slew of injuries, both real and painfully fake, and a great deal of completely random alternates, we arrive at Josh Barnett vs. Daniel Cormier, with the winner being locked in the forever stasis of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Division.
All eyes in the MMA community will be on Strikeforce this Saturday night as they crown their Heavyweight Grand Prix Champion, when Daniel Cormier squares off with Josh Barnett. What people will be seeing in three of the four main card bouts, are American Kickboxing Academy fighters trying to win a Grand Prix, a Lightweight Championship and a Number One contender-ship. It’s a big night in the south bay.
Let’s play a little game; now it’s not as cool as 52 card pick up but it is very similar in nature, it’s called “sorting out the top of the Strikeforce divisions”.
When ZUFFA (parent company of the UFC) purchased Strikeforce last year, a handful of the promotion top talent include champions Nick Diaz, Dan Henderson and Alistair Overeem defected to the UFC. This would leave a gaping hole that the promotion has yet fill, and really doesn’t have any sense of urgency to do so.
With Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal in limbo right now pending some form of suspension following his positive test for steroids, the Strikeforce light heavyweight division is moving on. Mike Kyle announced today via his Twitter account that he’s fighting on March 3rd against former champion Gegard Mousasi.
The semifinal round of the Strikeforce Grand Prix is in the books and it time to move onto December’s Strikeforce event and the Grand Prix final in early 2012. Before we officially close the book on Saturday’s exciting card, the Ohio Athletic Commission and handed out it medical suspensions along with the reported fighters pay.
