Strikeforce and M-1 Global present : Fedor vs Bigfoot preview.

Well, its almost time, kids : We're about to see if Strikeforce's "huge gamble" will pay off, as Saturday night gives us their first round of a heavyweight Grand Prix, live from the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

This is an ambitious move by the California based promotion. Not since the days of the now defunct Pride Fighting Championships have we seen 8 heavyweights compete in a single elimination tournament, with the winner of this arguably having a shot at being the best heavyweight in the world. I'm only going to focus on the 2 main event fights which have tournament implications (the 3 other main card fights are merely "alternate" bouts, which means a winner may or may not get slotted in, depending on medical suspensions and injury).

Fedor vs Bigfoot :
The main event gives us the man that was once dubbed "the baddest man on the planet" and former Pride heavyweight champion, Fedor Emelianenko return to the cage following his first career loss (well, first non-controversial loss, all things considered) against Fabricio Werdum last June. After a contract negotiation that took us until the end of last year, he takes on Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva, the man who last held the defunct EliteXC's heavyweight strap. Silva himself has also lost to Fabricio Werdum in his Strikeforce debut, but rebounded by defeating Andrei Arlovski by unanimous decision, and surviving a scare against Mike kyle in his last fight in December on the undercard of "Henderson vs. Babalu II"

Its clear that Silva has a distinct size advantage (Fedor is 6'0" with insoles in his shoes. Its generous for people to list him at that), and he's no slouch on the ground either. However, the fight against Kyle showed that anybody can get caught. Fedor, despite his off night against Werdum last June, is still a solid favorite on oddsmakers books. With his one punch KO power due to the anvils in his fists, I expect Fedor to be very patient, timid and not bull rush in like he has the past few fights. If Silva is able to push up against the cage and get him to the ground, Fedor has great ground skills and can armbar anybody. I expect to see Fedor get taken to the ground and hit a few times, but find an opening and armbar Silva early in Round 2.

The co-main event features the aforementioned former UFC heavyweight champion, Andrei "The Pitbull" Arlovski take on former Pride standout and Emelianenko's former training partner Sergei Kharitonov. Arlovski is coming off a loss to Bigfoot Silva his last time out, while Kharitonov has battled injuries the past few years but, looked good his last time out in a fight at Dynamite! 2010 on New Year's Eve in Japan.

Arlovski is a great all around fighter : fast hands, good stand up and a solid ground game with Jiu-Jjitsu and Sambo skills to put on his resume. All around, except.....the motion touch sensor he calls a chin. He's been KO'd on more than few occasions and lost several fights (including fights to Fedor and Brett Rogers) because of it. Kharitonov might have gotten KO'd in the K-1 Grand Prix 2010 early in December, but I think he has enough to push forward and land a solid strike on Arlovski's chin, and once he has him down he'll gut out a majority decision.

Well, what do you think? Am I just biased towards Russian guys? Would you rather see Fedor take on a mutant Bigfoot instead of a dude just calling himself "Bigfoot"? get back to me. email me at mmarmaggeddon@gmail.com or tweet me at twitter.com/mmarmaggedon.

until next time, fight fans!