Strikeforce Heavyweight Tournament - Pt 1

Just watched the Arlovski-Kharitonov and Bigfoot-Fedor fights on YouTube - 'cause Strikeforce, in all its wisdom, can only be seen on Super Channel in Canada (which only a small percentage of the population does).

The big news was that Fedor lost - again. Yikes. Two losses in a row for the previously "undefeated" Emperor has him contemplating retirement, it seems. Bigfoot mashed him up good, such that the doctors stopped the fight after the second round because Fedor's eye was swollen completely shut. Could he have continued? Maybe. It would not have been safe (but how safe is MMA anyways?). Koscheck kept fighting with a messed up eye (though it wasn't completely shut), but this looked almost worse. Fedor's corner didn't seem to object, either.

But this wasn't just Fedor getting caught in a submission while pounding on a guy like in the Werdum fight. Bigfoot smashed the Last Emperor on the feet and with the ground and pound, beating Fedor at his own game. In fact, I had Silva narrowly winning the first round (he had two takedowns and was only on his back when he wanted to be) and winning the second one 10-8 easily. I've long said Fedor is on the wrong weight class and should cut to 205 if possible. This fight really showed how size matters and how Fedor is at a disadvantage almost every time out.

This result was BAD news for Strikeforce who were obviously hoping for a Fedor-Overeem match-up. Not gonna happen now. Now Bigfoot Silva will meet either Overeem or Werdum in the semis.

On the other side of the bracket, Andrei Arlovski suffered a fourth straight loss, this time to Sergei Kharitonov who was in some respects the X factor in this tournament. He had some big wins but hadn't fought much in recent years. Arlovski looked decent for the first couple of minutes, but his glass jaw has been exposed and it took only one good flurry by Kharitonov to put the former UFC champ to sleep. It looks like Andrei's career is beyond salvaging at this point and he may be forced to retire.

So now Kharitonov faces either Josh Barnett or Brett Rogers in the semis.

What struck me in the aftermath of the Fedor fight was not so much the result, but the amount of time it took for the result to be made known to the fighters. The doctor spoke to the ref who waved off the fight. But it took a good minute or so for that info to reach the fighters who were still prepping for the next round. Makes you wonder: who's running the show inside the cage for Strikeforce anyway? We've seen in the past that cage management is not their strong suit...