With the undeniable buzz surrounding the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix that is to commence February 12th on Showtime, with main events showcasing Andre Arlovski and Sergei Kharitonov, as well as Fedor Emelianenko's comeback fight against Brazilian Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva, it certainly feels as if there's a nostalgic feel to things.
After all, the Grand Prix was essentially what made the now defunct Pride Fighting Championships. Don't get me wrong, while Zuffa, LLC was doing great things to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) at that time in the earlier part of this century, from 2000-2006 the Grand prix tournaments provided us with loads of highlights, from Mark Coleman returning out of his 3 year hiatus to win The open weight tournament in 2000, To Fedor's dominance of the Heavyweight division with his defeat of Noguiera in 2004, to Mauricio "Shogun" Rua's coming out party complete with a hammer fisting into the mat of Ricardo Arona the next year. The Fertittas and Dana White knew it too, which is why they brought their best Light Heavyweight (at that time) Chuck Liddell to the organization in 2003, where despite an early KO (of future Strikeforce Heavyweight Alistair Overeem), he was ultimately eliminated by finalist Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.
Since Pride's demise in 2007, no North American promotion has attempted such a thing until Strikeforce's gamble, while the Japanese contribution has more or less been a mish mash of attempts which while noble and have seen the emergence of fighters like Gegard Mousasi, have none the less been freak shows (including the Jose Canseco attempt at Mixed Martial Arts in Dream's "Super Hulk" tournament, which ended very very badly).
Why am I saying this? Well, with the abundance of lighter fighters in the UFC (due to the recent merger and subsequent folding of WEC into the parent promotion) , I feel that a lot of fighters are NOT going to get the neccessary "game" action to remain competitive. I feel that now it is the perfect time for the UFC to try to hold a tournament.
Now, i'm not a head of any athletic commission, but is there a chance they could hold an "Open Weight" tournament? Sadly no, the could not because of the possibility to get sanctioned.
However, if they could cap the weight limit and make it a Grand Prix featuring 135-155 lb Fighters, would it happen then? I think the possibilities of this idea are endless.
Here's how it could work : You take 3 or 4 of the top 10 from each of Bantam, Feather, and Lightweight, with champions and suspended fighters omitted. Here's how it might look :
Bantam >> Jorgensen, Faber, Bowles and Benavidez. Bowles is coming back from an injury, as well as Jorgensen is coming back from a tough loss to Dominick Cruz and Benavidez and Faber are both coming off wins.
Feather >> Mike Brown, Gamburyan, Josh Grispi and Raphael Assuncao. Brown and Grispi need to right the ship pretty quick (brown's lost 4 of 6 fights), Gamburyan is fighting Assuncao (might make an interesting first round match)
Light >> Pettis, Guida, Guillard and Florian. Pettis wants to stay active, a first round matchup with Guida might be just what the doctor ordered. Guillard wants to step up in competition, so let's throw KFlo at him and see what happens.
From these 12 fighters, you can seed them from 1 through 12 on the basis of Won-Loss record, strength of opponents records and record against the top 5 in their weight class (it would carry more clout if any of the top 5 is in the tournament), as well as title fights (if applicable). With seeding, give #1 and #12 each a first round bye, with seeds #2 through 11 finishing the first round. #12 would be entered into the quarterfinals, with #1 entering the fray after the 3 remaining fighters advanced to the semis. The end of the tournament could be either the end of the year, or could ease into 2012 based on whether or not if it would just be Pay per view or even free cards (like on Versus or Spike TV).
As for the fights themselves, to take care of the weight difference (much like in Pride's "Open Weight" showcases), lighter fighters would be given the option of allowing kicks and punches to the face in a "four points" position. So obviously the Athletic Commissions would have to permit blows to a grounded opponent and eliminate elbows (which probably wouldn't happen).
Would it work? I have no doubt through a little bit of leniency, patience and some chain pulling it might be able to pull it off. That being said, Athletic Commissions probably wouldn't go for this, and the fights might have to happen in Japan.
Questions? Agree or disagree? Want to inject with something else? hit me back at mmarmaggeddon@gmail.com or tweet me at twitter.com/mmarmaggedon
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