Breaking: Overeem out of Strikeforce GP. Silva fights Cormier on September 10
By Guilherme Cruz
Photo Esther Lin
The champion is out.
Alistair Overeem, the Strikeforce heavyweight champion, defeated Fabricio Werdum at Strikeforce GP’s first round, but he’s no longer fighting at the tournament.
The fighter told MMA Fighting he wouldn’t fight at September 10th, and TATAME learned with sources close to the situation that he has been removed from the GP.
Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, who defeated Fedor Emelianenko at the first round, fights undefeated wrestler Daniel Cormier next. On the other semifinal, Josh Barnett takes on Sergei Kharitonov.
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Dernière nouvelle : Overeem sort du StrikeForce Grand Prix. Silva combattra Cormier le 10 Septembre.
Par Guilherme Cruz
Photo Esther Lin
Alistair Overeem, le champion poids lourds du StrikeForce, a vaincu Fabricio Werdum au premier tour du StrikeForce Grand Prix, mais il ne participera plus au tournoi.
Le combattant a déclaré à MMA Fighting qu'il ne combattrait pas le 10 septembre, et TATAME a appris de sources proches des faits qu'il a été retiré du Grand Prix.
Antonio "Bigfoo" Silva, qui a vaincu Fédor Emilanenko au 1er tour, combattra ensuite le lutteur invaincu Daniel Cormier. Dans l'autre demi finale, Josh Barnett affrontera Sergei Kharitonov.
Bigfoot on Overeem's “decision” not to fight at Strikeforce GP: “It’s kind of suspect”
By Guilherme Cruz
Photo Esther Lin
Alistair Overeem was set to fight Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva for Strikeforce Heavyweight GP on September 10th, but he claimed he wouldn’t be ready to fight on that card, and the organization decided to take him out, replacing him by undefeated prospect Daniel Cormier, ad TATAME first reported this Monday.
Initially matched against a K-1 champion, Silva spoke to TATAME about the changes he’ll have to make in training for a top level wrestler.
“I’ll change a lot of things… I already was training a lot my ground game, and now I’ll train even more,” he said. “He’s very good in Wrestling, Minotauro (Rodrigo Nogueira) already told me they trained together and he’s pretty good, and I’ll have to be great on my ground game to reverse that in case he takes me down and impose my game. The strategy changed completely”.
Upset with the change, “Bigfoot” talked about Overeem’ decision to not fight.
“I didn’t understand that. If I do something like that, they would cut me immediately. If I do something like that, people would say, even him would say, that I ducked him, that I was scared and didn’t wanted to fight, but I don’t want to think that about him. I don’t know, maybe he’s injured, and I wish him a good recovery if he really is. It’s kind of suspect, but I have to fight, to feed my family”.
Before coming back to the US, Silva will stay in Rio de Janeiro for a couple days to train with Rodrigo Minotauro, Anderson silva, Junior dos Santos and Rafael Cavalcante.
“I was already excited to train with him (Nogueira) as soon as I entered at Team Nogueira and saw that monster in front of me... Junior is here too, Anderson, all the great guys. I’ll be great for me to train with them”.
As for the bout, “Bigfoot” expects more pressure from the fans, but he won’t feel the same.
“I’ll fight Daniel now, a new guy, undefeated in eight fights, has nothing to lose. That’s exactly the opposite, if I win people will say it’s the least I could do, and if something happen and I don’t win all the hard work I did in the past few years will be gone. I always face my opponents if they were the best of the world, just like I did against Mike Kyle and worked”.
