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By: Steve Sutcliffe, MMATorch Columnist
"One bad thing about making a deal with the devil is, he always comes to collect."
With the sincerest apologies to Fabricio Werdum, everyone who watched Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery came out wanting to see one fight and one fight only: Allistar Overeem versus Fedor Emelianenko for the Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship.
From a pure booking perspective, it makes total sense. Both are coming off victories over Brett Rogers. If anything, Allistair's win was even more impressive; for three and a half minutes, the Dutch kickboxer made Rogers look like nothing more than a Sam's Club strongman with raw power and no mixed martial arts training. In the Fedor fight, Rogers at least got out of round one and did some damage to his opponent, punishing the Last Emperor on the ground that must have made at least a few observers pause and think "This is the guy that's going to give Fedor his first legitimate professional loss?"
As much as people like to joke about Overeem defending his title as often as there are presidential elections (okay, not quite, but you get the point), he now has one successful title defense under his belt. When Fedor signed with Strikeforce, a run at Overeem's title seemed inevitable. Anything else at this point is beneath Fedor, and that includes a June showdown with Mr. Werdum.
Outside of Carano-Cyborg II or a potential freakshow fight pitting recently "future endeavored" Kimbo Slice against Herschel Walker, what other match-ups can Strikeforce conjure up to headline the next CBS broadcast, if there is even a next one, or the organization's first Pay-Per-View? None. You would think Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker would be jumping out of his skin to put the ink on the Overeem-Fedor contract, even putting aside that negotiating a fight with Fedor's "people" is about as easy as understanding Michael Bisping's trainer without subtitles (don't pretend to not know who I'm talking about - the dude on all the Countdown specials who looks like Uncle Fester's younger brother and talks like a character out of a Guy Ritchie movie).
Fedor-Overeem quite simply is the company's two best heavyweights duking it out over the title. Unfortunately for Strikeforce, making the match happen and its potential consequences are not quite that simple.
From reports last year at the time of signing, Fedor's contract with the organization allegedly calls for three fights. Put simply, Fedor's last contractually obligated fight could lead to the Russian holding the World Heavyweight Championship with no future obligations to Strikeforce. Sound awfully familiar?
Now I'm not saying you'll see Fedor and Dana White making out at cageside a week after knocking out Overeem a la Jake Shields at the WEC PPV; or showing up on UFC television with the Strikeforce Heavyweight Title censored out like Ric Flair jumping to the WWF back in 1991, but this sport has seen stranger bedfellows.
After all the venom spewed between Dana and Tito Ortiz resulted in a reconciliation between the two sides, you can bet your bottom dollar that stalled, and ultimately, failed negotiations doesn't necessarily mean Fedor and UFC are over and done with. If M-1 Global backs off their demands to co-promote, which granted is a big if, then who knows what could happen.
At the very least, it's something for Coker to keep in the back of his mind while drawing out future plans for his most valuable fighter, necessitating Strikeforce handle the situation with kid gloves. The last thing the organization needs is the moniker of a gratis developmental system for Zuffa.
If Lesnar trumps Carwin for the UFC Undisputed Heavyweight Championship and the Last Emperor ends his Strikeforce contract holding the belt, then people will be even hungrier than they were last summer for the two behemoths to collide. And it would be an absolute shame if the match-up never happened due to politics and business differences. Quite frankly, there's too much money on the table for all those involved, although a gazillion dollars wasn't enough to convince Manny Pacquiao's people to submit to stringent drug testing in the aborted boxing dream fight with Floyd Mayweather.
Which leaves both Strikeforce and Fedor in an awkward position with one fight left on his contract and time running out. There's really nobody besides Overeem that would make a convincing challenger. Strkeforce could go with Fedor-Arlovski II, aka "the rematch that absolutely nobody demanded" and give Arlovski's sports psychologist more material for their therapy sessions.
Bobby Lashley has the name recognition but lacks any credibility; he is an admitted MMA novice and has made it well known that he wants to take it slow in adapting to the sport. So if you don't have Fedor fight for the title, then you'll have critics once again accuse him of ducking the best challengers.
Strikeforce could always let Fedor's contract expire with one fight left and claim that negotiations broke down for the final bout. But that would be a most unsatisfying end to Fedor's tenure in the organization. And Showtime and CBS, if they get back in the mix, would no doubt prefer that the company at least try to get Fedor's name out there as a headliner one last time.
And there's always that two-time BJJ world-champion who could make all this conversation completely moot in May if he pulls off an absolutely earth-shattering upset. Because what type of second-rate organization in their right mind would give a person a title match coming off of a loss?
Steve Sutcliffe realizes that the column's opening quote comes from television's Gossip Girl. Besides being the only MMA columnist to ever use a Gossip Girl reference without trying to be ironic, he also is the only MMA columnist to repeatedly refer to himself in third person in italics. Put him in his place at steve.w.sutcliffe@gmail.com.
RELATED STORY: PENICK: "Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery" exactly what fans have come to expect from Strikeforce, and that's not necessarily a good thing: [CLICK TO READ ARTICLE]
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