Overeem cut from Heavyweight GP

[Jason 'J-Faz' Farren]

Just read that Strikeforce Heavyweight champion Alastair Overeem has been cut from the Heavyweight tourney for refusing to fight Sep.10.
Curious as to what the general concensus is regarding why he didn't fight? Do you guys think it's because he felt rushed from the Werdum fight or because he didn't want to fight Antonia 'Big Foot' Silva?

[Brent Smith]

Damn that sucks.

[James Worley]

Overeem claimed he had a toe injury that had been lingering for some time and wanted to heal up. Not long at all actually, only about a month longer (he would have been ready to fight in October rather than September). On one hand, it seems like a double standard on Strikeforce's part, changing event venues and dates so that Barnett can fight, but not accommodating to Overeem, but I think Alistair's openness in wanting to fight Vitale Klitschko may have been a factor in this.

Tournament or not though, he is still under contract for one more fight, and he still is the Strikeforce heavyweight champion, so this doesn't necessarily mean we won't see him under the Strikeforce banner again.

[lates85]

i think he needed more time for the half life to dissipate out of his system

[Isaiah Mendoza]

i think he needed more time for the half life to dissipate out of his system

lol

[Joshua Spriggs]

i think he needed more time for the half life to dissipate out of his system

^^^ allegedly...

[Daniel Valdez]

what a sham. the tournament just lost its clout. no matter who wins, they didn't have to beat the best heavyweights in Strikeforce for the title. b.s.

[David Stager]

Fuck. I thought for sure you were going with an intentionally misleading title and that it was Alistair's no-account brother, Valentijn, who'd been cut.

[David Rosado]

My speculation:

I honestly feel like what might have happened is that the SF GP is no longer looking like the super important tourney that it was supposed to be. Fedor's fight with Bigfoot was important. Now that's over. Bigfoot has no star power. So his next fight isn't really seen as "who's the best of the best." Then Alistair has a boring ass fight. That puts another downer on how important/exciting the SF GP will be. Then you have Barnett walk through Rogers in unexciting fashion. The SF GP has basically lost steam. The only good fights were the Bigfoot/Fedor and Sergei/Arlovski. So now what? Well, with the GP losing steam, importance, and excitement, it loses marketablity. I can attest. I don't really care anymore. I mean, I'll watch. But I'm not really excited anymore. The last event put a huge damper on it. But anyway, point is, with the SF tourney losing marketability, and Dana wanting to put Alistair in the UFC asap, I'm guessing they're bullshitting about the pinky toe injury so he can get out of the tourney and rush him into the UFC before his star power dies. A quick easy fight to get it over with. The longer Alistair stays with SF, the less people will be interested.

On the bright side, we get Alistair in the UFC sooner. That makes me happy.


Short version: It's a BS move to get Overeem into the UFC quicker. But I'm just taking shots in the dark and calling conspiracy.

i think he needed more time for the half life to dissipate out of his system

^^^ allegedly...

LOL

[Corky]

I cant wait till he goes to the ufc and fails every test and gets released and goes to a 3rd world promotion like dream and wins a belt there facing 0 competition