The writing’s been on the wall for awhile, but Scott Coker finally confirmed earlier this week that the middleweight tournament he got everyone excited about isn’t going to happen.
“We were hoping it would happen, but it didn’t happen, and we’re happy with Jacare being our world champion,” Coker told MMAWeekly Radio recently. “I think he’s a great representative and a great fighter.”
Coker cited problems with putting together a one-night tournament with virtually any athletic commission, along with a myriad of other problems, so the promotion decided against it at this time.
It’s disappointing news, but might we still see a tournament in another division to make up for it? Well, there have been rumors that Strikeforce has been working on some sort of a heavyweight grand prix, but Coker shot those rumors down too. A heavyweight tournament would have been awesome, but let’s be serious, if Strikeforce has a hard time booking their heavyweights in single match-ups, how were they ever going to get them to all agree to a tournament? That rumor was a pipe dream from the start.
Instead, the biggest thing Coker appears to be working on in the heavyweight division right now is re-signing Fedor Emelianenko. Coker says he “feels good” about the negotiations, but they have been going on for nearly five months now. When are they finally going to end and when will Fedor get back in the cage? Well, Coker “believes” Fedor will return to action sometime in the first quarter of 2011, but he doesn’t sound terribly confident about it.
Source: http://www.mmaconvert.com/2010/11/06/sc ... in-q1-2011