Heavy Wait Part 1: What Will Happen If The Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Lives Up To Its Potential

Hello fans and friends and welcome to the start of what I’d like to call a “maxi-series”. Starting today, I’ll be beginning a series of topics called “Heavy Wait: The Hunt for Strikeforce Gold”. The goal of the series is to completely and totally examine the upcoming Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix from all sides: what I like about it, what I don’t like, what I think will happen, and much more. I haven’t been this excited for an MMA event in quite some time, and I can’t wait for the Grand Prix to get started. So, to kick off “Heavy Wait”, here are five things (in no particular order) that I think will happen if the Heavyweight Grand Prix lives up to its potential.

5. Strikeforce will be back on national television.

If this tournament lives up to its potential, what we’ll be getting is all the best Strikeforce talent competing against each other in fantastic matches, with several fights getting into Fight of the Year contention. And that’s incredibly appealing to a network like CBS, which has engaged in a prolonged political war with Strikeforce ever seen the notorious post-fight brawl that broke out at Strikeforce “Nashville”. Money talks, and if the Grand Prix delivers big ratings for Showtime, CBS is going to want some of that action, and more than likely we’ll see Strikeforce back on CBS, perhaps even before the tournament is over.

4. The Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship will become the organization’s most prestigious championship.

Strikeforce’s other divisions do have a lot of good talent, but the Heavyweight division is where all the top stars and notable names are. Now that they’re all going to fight each other, the Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship stands to become a hotly-contested and highly-valued title. It even has the possibility of becoming one of the biggest championships in the entirety of MMA, not just in Strikeforce.

3. Both Fedor Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem will be able to shrug off the cynics that say they don’t fight enough.

Fedor has been embroiled in contract negotiations ever since losing to Fabricio Werdum, while Overeem has been off in Japan hunting down a K-1 championship. Now that Fedor and his management team have signed a new contract, Emelianenko should be able to make a deep run in this tournament and compete multiple times in 2010, maybe even multiple times in one night. The same goes for Overeem: now that he’s won the K-1 World Grand Prix, he should also be able to fully commit to MMA and fight several times in 2011. Not only will this give both men a big popularity boost with the casual fans, it’ll rebuild some of their lost credibility with a section of the more hardcore MMA audience.

2. Strikeforce will prove that it has one of the best Heavyweight divisions in the entirety of MMA.

There’s really no effective counter to this argument if the tournament lives up to its potential. You could say that a lot of these fighters used to be in the UFC, but the UFC is the largest and longest-lived organization in the history of this sport. If all eight fighters give their all, what we’ll get is a firm indication that Strikeforce’s Heavyweight Division is one of the best in all of MMA.

1. Strikeforce will take a big step in becoming a viable alternative to the UFC.

Those that thought the battle-lines were already drawn haven’t seen anything yet. If this tournament lives up to its potential, the war over which promotion is better will reach a fevered pitch. Sides will be taken, stances will be declared, and arguments will abound. And that’s a great thing for Strikeforce, because controversy creates cash. Strikeforce still probably won’t be on equal footing with the UFC even if this tournament lives up to all of its potential… but mark my words, they’ll be within shouting distance.

And that’s what I think, fans and friends. What’s your early opinion on the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix?