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[killakem1]

Coker: Fedor News Coming, Big Plans for Heavyweights Next Year

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker expects Fedor Emelianenko to return to the promotion in the first or second quarter of 2011.

“He’s not going to be back this year because the schedule is already full,” Coker said Wednesday during an episode of “Beatdown” on the Sherdog Radio Network. “Who he fights (next), that’s something that we’ll probably have an announcement in the next, I would say, four weeks we’ll have an announcement on how we’re going to unveil this whole thing.”

Fedor competed last in June, when Fabricio Werdum upset him with a triangle-armbar submission. It was the Russian’s first loss since December 2000.

As for Werdum, the Brazilian heavyweight is recovering from the elbow surgery he had in August.

“The message that I got from his manager is that he will be available probably late first, early second quarter of next year,” Coker said. “Injuries take time. We’re not going to rush him. He just came off a big victory. … When he comes back, we want him to be 100-percent healthy.”

Meanwhile Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem has been kickboxing. He scored a first-round stoppage of Ben Edwards on Saturday to advance to the Dec. 11 K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 Final. Overeem’s camp has made it clear to Coker that winning the tournament, which is the most celebrated in kickboxing, is important to “The Demolition Man.”

“It’s very clear in our agreement with Alistair that we have booking priority,” Coker said of allowing Overeem to fight in K-1. “So we could have easily said no, but then is it really fair to him? It’s a personal goal of his. Let him go try to be the best standup fighter in the world. … The best strikers in the world fight in K-1 in Japan. He already won his first fight. I thought he looked amazing, and now he’s going to go into the finals and fight Tyrone (Spong), who is no joke. I think Alistair is going to have his hands full with that fight, but we’re going to support him and we’re going to wish him well and hopefully he can win the whole tournament. Then he can come back the Strikeforce champion and the K-1 heavyweight champion. As far as accomplishments, I’ve never seen that done before.”

Coker did not cite specific matchups for the returns of Overeem, Werdum and Fedor, but he expressed some ambitious plans for his heavyweight division in the coming year.

“One thing I can tell you is all these guys … Alistair, Fedor, Fabricio, Josh Barnett, ‘Bigfoot’ (Antonio Silva), (Sergei) Kharitonov, Andrei Arlovski, Brett Rogers, all those guys are all going to fight each other in 2011,” Coker said. “We’re not going to hold anything back. You’re going to see these guys fight the toughest guys because really, if you’re a heavyweight, there are no easy fights in Strikeforce. It’s arguably the best heavyweight division in the world, and I think Josh Barnett said it best. The competition is here. He signed with us because he wants to fight all those guys. We’re going to put those fights together, and I think the fans are going to love it.”

know its kinda pointless to post this because strikeforce doesnt really follow through with what they say but lets hope it comes true. id like to see overeem/werdum, fedor/barnett happen soon within the next year. possibly fedor/barnett in jan/feb and werdum/overeem in like march/april, or even on the same night and winner fights winner. as for bigfoot wanna see him fight kharitonov. i also think arlovski should fight valentijn

[the_dark_angel_4ever]

The only concrete thing Coker says in this article is that they're not planning anymore HW fights until next year. Meh... we pretty much already knew that.

[MMA4EVERRR]

Originally Posted by the_dark_angel_4ever

The only concrete thing Coker says in this article is that they're not planning anymore HW fights until next year. Meh... we pretty much already knew that.

Goes to show u how pathetic SF and Coker are...Not one single HW match is in sight for them,
the UFC on the other hand, has guys like Lesnar, Cain, Shane, Nelson, Struve, Kongo, Yvel all booked to fight in the coming months and guys like CC, Mir, Hunt, Mitrione, and JDS all having just recently fought

Wish those hw from SF would just come to UFC that way we can regularly see them ever few months instead of 1x a year

[GL Jeff]

“He’s not going to be back this year because the schedule is already full,” Coker said

Ummm,can he tell us the schedule, because SF is notorious for last minute changes.

[Pasha K]

What a pathetic bullshit, and in 4 weeks he will say "we dont know when fedor is fighting, we are in talks with M1 global, maybe next month we will make an announcement"

Coker is a fucking joke, its pointless to have all those great fighters if we can never see them in action.

I would really love to see Fedor fighting Herschel Walker and then leave from SF, hell I dont even care if he fights in UFC, It does not matter for me if he fights in small M1 shows against nobodies. I prefer to see him fight against cans rather than not seeing him fight at all.

[Northman]

Not to dogpile on the guy but everytime I listen/read Scott Coker I keep thinking "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". Plan, talk, plan, talk, watch fighters fight in Japan and plan some more...

[xraygex]

God dammit. All that talent in their HW division. But they never fight. Depressing. I think Big foot and overeem should fight on a dream card. That would be sick

[optimusjoel]

Only thing I cared about in the article is that AO will be fighting Sprong. While Sprong is a great fighter he has really struggled since moving up in weight, so looks like AO will be moving to the next round.

[foutch550]

I'll probably get attacked for this, but for me, Fedor has lost much of his appeal for me. I guess maybe cuz he (or his management) has no desire for him to consistently compete. I wont jump on the "Fedor's scared" bandwagon, but I think "Fedor's uninterested" is more accurate. Personally, I'd rather see how Overeem would do in the UFC. I think Im passed the fantasy of Fedor in the UFC. The HW I want in the UFC at this point is Overeem. At least he wants to compete.

[Pasha K]

Fedor actually wants to fight, but he only wants Werdum or Overeem. Werdum is injured so the fight wont happen, Overeem declined the fight and prefered to fight in K1.
So with no opponents obviously Fedor is not fighting anyone.