Could Strikeforce in May Be the Most Packed Heavyweight Card Since PRIDE?

Sakara=Excitement · 03-02-2010, 08:27 AM

Could Strikeforce in May Be the Most Packed Heavyweight Card Since PRIDE With Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem and a Former UFC Champ, Andrei Arlovski? - Bloody Elbow

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With the announcement of the signing of Andrei Arlovski to Strikeforce -- the number #11 heavyweight in the USAT/SBN Consensus MMA Rankings -- and his expected fight against #17 Antonio Silva has Strikeforce laid the first brick in what could become the biggest wall of heavyweight fights on a single card since a PRIDE Open GP. Both fighters are coming off losses, two in Arlovski's case but both are still respected and considered to be formidable contenders.

#9 Alistair Overeem vs #8 Brett Rogers is a solid second layer to the event. It won't be a title fight (lame), but Overeem needs a build-up fight and to get some exposure with the Strikeforce audience. If he walks through the formidable Brett Rogers -- a man who annihilated a former UFC champ in 22 seconds and gave Fedor quite a bit of trouble -- Overeem will have earned his place in the USAT/SBN Consensus MMA Rannkings heavyweight top ten.

And if they manage to get Fedor on the card, his fight against #10 Fabricio Werdum will be a fight worth seeing and a legitimate title fight in any promotion.

In fact you might say Strikeforce is attempting, as Affliction did before it, to beat the UFC in the same division where PRIDE famously dominated for most of the past decade.

But before I get all misty eyed, the UFC today with its stacked and compelling heavyweight division might just be better than anything PRIDE ever did, as BE fanposter DavidAC wrote in his excellent FanPost:

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Personally I think a lot of this misses the real narrative: the barometer for success is being raised. It's an obvious enough point I guess, but sometimes I suspect people still don't get it. There's a level of nostalgia surrounding the old hunting grounds known as Pride that reveals the fanboy in us all, but that fanboy sometimes looks less like a sucker for the past, and more like the Star Wars geek who is 40 years old, and ignored the social joys of being next to a living breathing female in order to rebuild his bed in the shape of the Death Star.

This, to me, was the real story of UFC 110: that the future is now. Watching icons of the past like Nog, Wand, and Mirko struggle all at once simply made it more obvious.

...

It's not that I don't appreciate Pride. It was a great organization. I missed (literally) the Sakuraba years, but became well acquainted with it in 2002, mostly through online results. And yes, like all good MMA, loved it. But I never felt the need to romanticize Pride, like some do. I get the sense that for some observers, both professional and non, Pride was as good as it got: the equivalent of the Ali era in HW boxing, or something incredibly stupid.

...

This not to say that MMA as is good as it will get, and the sport is not without its many problems. But like it or not, if there is such a thing as an MMA "golden era", we're a hell of a lot closer to that now than we ever were.

I think he's right, needlessly insulting to the greatness that was PRIDE, but still right.

And sadly, no matter how stacked Strikeforce's May card is, the UFC heavyweight division has more up and comers in Carwin, Velasquez, Dos Santos, Duffee and yes, Brock Lesnar than Strikeforce does. In fact, other than potentially Alistair Overeem, there is no one on a real career upswing in Strikeforce's heavyweight division.

But that doesn't mean that they haven't inadvertently done an excellent job of hyping up this card because of all the mystery and confusion and yes, controversy, about who will be fighting on it.

I've bitched about Strikeforce's poor PR practices in the past, but they appear to be pulling off something that us communications professionals call "the rolling clusterfuck" in which a company or individual creates a seemingly endless series of controversies and in the end, only gains profitable notoriety from the hubbub. Paris Hilton is the past master of the form.

So in sum: Strikeforce is putting together the most stacked heavyweight card in MMA since the heyday of PRIDE, but it doesn't matter because the UFC's heavyweight division is so incredibly stacked that it shames Strikeforce's older roster, and yet, Strikeforce is doing very well for themselves by generating this much controversy whether inadvertent or not.

Fedorlei Gomipierre · 03-02-2010, 08:28 AM

I really miss PRIDE.

willpunisher · 03-02-2010, 09:07 AM

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Originally Posted by Fedorlei Gomipierre

I really miss PRIDE.

we all do. specially the old Cro Cop and Wandy domination days.

personally i think throwing all of their HW in one card is a mistake. For future ppvs and if one of them get injured. But than again i love seeing every one of them in the card in one night.

Fedorlei Gomipierre · 03-02-2010, 09:15 AM

Let's not forget about Del Rosario and Lashley too, I wouldn't be too surprised if either or both receive a fight soon too.

Pasha K · 03-02-2010, 10:45 AM

They have a great roster of HWs, but they are still far from pride. Pride had the best fighters in any division, and SF is arguably the best only in HW.

RonPaulForPeace · 03-02-2010, 12:23 PM

to bad they couldnt throw barnett on the card and fedor, that would take the hw cake all dayy, they will probally have lashley on there which will be a smart move, and in april they got 3 title fights which all fights are between great fighters and top ranked fighters, i think all those fights will be good but the hendo shields might be lopsided but ya never know, sf is pulling out all there cards for april and may id say, but m1 is holding back o n fedor those fuckers

Canes · 03-02-2010, 04:02 PM

Better than Affliction?

hurt80 · 03-02-2010, 04:21 PM

wait wait wait so strikeforce has overeem vs rogers and arlovsky vs silva and its the best HW card since pride??????? i dont think so. are fedor and werdum on this card too? i must have missed something....someone help me understand please

goodtimes · 03-02-2010, 04:22 PM

I'm not really sure why they are lumping Duffee in with the other up and comers in the UFC, he KO'd a C level fighter, that's his entire UFC career. I think Struve has shown a lot more talent in his fights. Also, I get the feeling that the up and comers in the UFC get their high rankings simply because they are in the UFC, not because of the guys they have beat. For example, Werdum has much better wins then Carwin, but he has losses since he has consistently fought better fighters.

Also, I think the article is fundamentally flawed in that it is saying that the fighters who were in their prime in Pride struggling shows that the newer fighters in the UFC are vastly superior. Its a fact that in the fight game, fighters do not perform well at the end of their careers, unless they retire early. Just because Nogueira, Cro Cop, and Wanderlei are not the same fighters they were in Pride, does not mean Pride was worse.

But its hard to deny that the UFC has the best HW's right now, based mostly on quantity. They recently had a pretty massive influx of high caliber HW's, but they mostly have been kept away from each other. This upcoming year will do a lot to sort out who really are the top guys at HW in the UFC.

tinkerskippy · 03-02-2010, 10:37 PM

I disagree with the position that strikeforce has the best heavyweights. You could match up the big 4 in UFC with any strikeforce heavyweight (except fedor) and they would win at least 7 out of 10 times

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