As has been revealed over the past couple of days reigning Strikeforce HW Champion, Alistair Overeem, has been pulled from the Grand Prix. The reason behind this was because he refused to fight on September 10th, the date Showtime has tentatively booked the semi-finals for. Overeem has stated he needs time to rehab a foot injury and so the 10th would simply have been too early. He has been replaced by the quickly surging Daniel Cormier, who is coming off of a fantastic unanimous decision win over hardy veteran Jeff Monson. The result now being that the semi-final fights are currently Antonio Silva vs. Daniel Cormier, and Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov. Now these are still very good and relevant HW fights, but my complaint is that the Grand Prix has lost nearly all relevance.
When news of the Grand Prix broke it was considered that it was going to be the biggest MMA story of the year (though it was quickly overshadowed by the Zuffa insurance policy story). The Grand Prix's claim was that this contest would show who the number one Heavy Weight in the world is (that was not in the UFC). Yet with Overeem gone the scenario now seems to be: This GP will decide who the second best HW in the world is (that is not the in the UFC). As I said before the remaining fights are still very good, but this tournament has been bastardized to the point of obscurity in the context of its original MO.
Furthermore, it would have been nice to have seen Showtime display a bit more tact in dealing with Overeem and his injury. Despite his horror show of a fight with Werdum, a Strikeforce PPV with Overeem will perform better than one without. Keeping him off it makes no sense in terms of ratings. What seems more likely is that Showtime could hear the bell tolling as soon as Zuffa announced their takeover of Strikeforce, and so are now keen to run through their contract and let the UFC swallow Strikeforce.
The most likely outcome now will be Overeem heals and signs with the UFC. There are reports of Overeem's desire to fight Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko in a boxing match, but there is no way that is happening. It is Nick Diaz all over again, except with less weed, broken cars and triathalon meets and a lot more horse meat and bicep curls. As for the Grand Prix, it would not shock me if Cormier uses his olympic caliber wrestling to run an absolute clinic on 'Bigfoot', whilst Barnett decisions Kharitonov. By the time this all ends each of the remaining finalists will be richer for the experience, but the overall winner will be left with a mediocre belt and a better view to greener pastures, where Overeem will be riding his horses to the UFC.
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