Strikeforce – Heavy Artillery – Saturday May 15th, 2010

By: Erris Green

Recently on a conference with Strikeforce Champion Alistair Overeem, the challenger Brett “The Grim” Rogers, and Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker, one thing was certain, the stakes are high.

As Strikeforce looks to wipe itself clean after it’s last network televised event ended in an brawl inside the cage, an event that aired on CBS April 17th, Brett Rogers hopes it’s Alistair Overeem whose “clean.” Rogers has been more than vocal about his rationale regarding the rapid weight gain of Overeem. When asked about Overeem cleansing his body, prior to a fight in the United States, Rogers questioned the thought that Overeem was clean, stating that “a thousand people would back him in the other direction.” As Rogers puts it, “it’s questionable,” leaving it in the hands of the athletic commission to resolve. Overeem responded in a straightforward manner by putting the testing process first, “I’m gonna have to pee just like Brett is gonna have to pee…and that pee will be tested…there will be a positive or a negative, and I know there’s gonna be a negative.”

Either way, both men are ready to do battle for the Strikeforce Heavyweight belt May 15th in St. Louis. Alistair Overeem, a phenomenal Dutch striker, enters the cage with a record of 32-11-1, and 6 of his losses have come by way of knockout. A statistic that works in Brett Rogers favor. The street Rogers, street tough and ever improving MMA fighter, enters with a record of 10-1, all by way of knockout. Rogers says “he’s hungry for it” and that this is a fight that he’s been waiting for over year. It has been over two years since Overeem won the first Strikeforce heavyweight title, defeating Paul Buentello back in 2007.

Alistair said the delay was due to an injured hand. But, speaking on behalf of all heavyweights, Rogers remarked that “Alistair has been out of the mix in America for a long time.” Rogers also went on state that the “time is now” and blamed Alistair for slowing down in his rise to the top. One thing that hasn’t slowed down Rogers rise to the top, was his second round TKO loss to Fedor Emelianenko in 2009. A loss which begged the question, did Rogers deserve a chance to fight for the belt? Alistair hesitated when asked if Brett Rogers deserved the title shot, and said that “he’ll fight anyone they put in front of him.” He also went on to say that Rogers may have given Fedor the “fight of his life,” but that one thing is certain “Fedor doesn’t want to fight me, it’s very simple.”

Interesting, because a win for either fighter, puts him in prime position to potentially challenge, Fedor, who is widely believed to be the #1 heavyweight in the world, if not the pound for pound best fighter in the world. These speculations are assuming that Fedor is victorious in his June 26th fight versus Fabricio Werdum, and none of them were corroborated by Strikeforce CEO, Scott Coker, who chose to remain ambiguous about any plans involving Fedor and the M-1 Global partnership.

Alstair is hoping to meet Fedor in the cage for the first time, but commented numerous times during the interview that he’s been “challenging Fedor for some time now” and that Fedor’s management has been responsible for declining the fight on numerous occasions.” Rogers, on the other hand, is looking to avenge his loss to Fedor, which was delivered via a monstrous over-hand right from the Emperor.  The Grim said he’s learned from his mistakes in the first match and knows for a fact that if he has a second shot at Fedor, “it will be a lot different,” and guarantees that a second fight with will go another way.

For now both men are set to meet this Saturday May 15th in St. Louis. Alistair made it clear that he is “ready to fight anyone,” and admitted that he does need to defend his title because “people are starting to talk about it” and he is preparing to do so by fighting in the United States for the next year.

But Rogers, always confident, boasted with his six years of MMA experience, “Alistair is not going to do anything I haven’t seen.” As he for his fight prediction, Rogers says “he’s getting that title…and he doesn’t care what anybody else has to say.”