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Strikeforce Signs a Likely Death Warrant After Releasing Alistair Overeem
By Dale De Souza (Featured Columnist) on July 29, 2011

Arguably, one of the stupidest things any promoter can do in the mixed martial arts realm of the sports universe is release any of their world champions.

It doesn't matter if the champion is injured or if he somehow winds up in some sort of situation that disallows him to compete for some time, but for a promoter to release the champion from the promotion is ridiculous and unquestionably that would raise a question of if said promoter has an interest in keeping the company active for more than 48 hours.

Especially when the champion chopped from the promotional block is the heavyweight champion. That instance makes the release extremely questionable.

MMA Fighting reports that earlier today, now-former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem was been released from the promotion.

It's been well-documented that a broken toe caused Overeem to pull out of his fight with Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva, a situation where multiple theories have been proposed and a situation where scheduling issues have also come into play.

The scheduling issue stems from Showtime officials scheduling the event for September 10, a date by which the broken toe of The Reem would not be healed in time for Silva.

Also of note is that Overeem's native Netherlands hosts the United Glory card that Overeem is scheduled for, and all these things could be attributed to the release of Overeem, but they also raise a question in my mind:

Should any of that matter when Overeem is the Strikeforce heavyweight champion?

Overeem said he would not be ready until October, when he will no longer be hurt and thus be able to fight at United Glory's next event on the MMA portion of the card.

Is it the end of the world—or the Strikeforce promotion—if Overeem would've rather fought Bigfoot in October, where a loss could've been chalked up to Bigfoot's development as a fighter?

Did Overeem have to fight with an excuse for his fans to unwillingly fall back on against a fighter who clearly is developing?

Dana White admitted to Sports Illustrated that he really doesn't get too involved with what goes down in Strikeforce, and Scott Coker is the guy who is responsible for the fact of Overeem being DREAM heavyweight champion and K-1 heavyweight champion.

Had White been as involved with Strikeforce as he's been with the UFC, two things would've happened:

1. Dana White would have one hell of a migraine.

2. Overeem would never have been able to fight for United Glory, but at least he'd still be in Strikeforce.

There is definitely more to this than meets the eye, but the take-home point here is that Overeem was the leader of Strikeforce's heavyweight class until earlier today.

His fighting style and natural humility drew the MMA world to the Strikeforce brand of Mixed Martial Arts at a time when Cain Velasquez was healing, Junior Dos Santos was prepping for Velasquez, Brock Lesnar was going five rounds with diverticulitis and Fedor Emelianenko was preparing for Dan Henderson.

Shocking to his detractors, he also did not piss hot after any of his fights.

He, Fedor, Gilbert Melendez and Nick Diaz helped fans discover Strikeforce during a time when there was zero alternative to the UFC, and Overeem was a name fans would have paid to see regardless of how good his opponents truly were.

Overeem was the champion of the one division that even a casual fan would not dare turn away from, and yet the decision was made to eliminate the last fight left on his contract.

Maybe the company can survive if the Grand Prix winner gets the heavyweight crown, but unless the winner can develop a creative enough style to pull crowds in, it's a long shot that the company survives past the second quarter of 2012.

Sergei Kharitonov, Bigfoot Silva and Daniel Cormier are talented fighters that can keep crowds awake in fights and possibly cause even casual fans to get electric for a heavyweight title bout, so maybe Strikeforce won't totally be staring death in the face if Josh Barnett loses the Grand Prix.

However, with Overeem gone and Fedor on his way out if he loses to Hendo, it'll be a miracle if Strikeforce survives long enough for the Grand Prix to reach its end.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/785117-strikeforce-signs-a-likely-death-warrant-after-releasing-alistair-overeem