STRIKEFORCE CEO SCOTT COKER TO APPEAR ON MMA LIVE ON ESPN2 TOMORROW/FRIDAY
WHO: STRIKEFORCE CEO Scott Coker
WHERE: ESPN2
WHEN: Friday, Jan. 7 (late night) at 12 a.m. ET / 9 p.m. PT
WHAT: Interview on MMA LIVE tomorrow/Friday on ESPN2
Coker will discuss this week’s announcements – the re-signing of legendary Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko and the historic, upcoming STRIKEFORCE World Grand Prix – Heavyweight Tournament, a three-stage, single-elimination tournament that will take place over several events in 2011 and feature eight of the world’s greatest heavyweight MMA superstars, including Fedor, and STRIKEFORCE Heavyweight Champion Alistair “The Demolition Man” Overeem.
The tournament kicks off with two quarterfinal round fights on Saturday, Feb. 12, live on SHOWTIME® from IZOD Center in E. Rutherford, N.J. In the main event, Emelianenko (31-2, 1 NC) will face Antonio “Big Foot” Silva (15-2) in a STRIKEFORCE and M-1 GLOBAL co-promoted event.
Co-featured on Feb. 12, former world champion Andrei Arlovski (15-8) will face Sergei Kharitonov (16-4), the last man to defeat Overeem.
The other two quarterfinal matchups are as follows: Overeem (34-11, 1 NC) will face the only man to submit Fedor, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Fabricio Werdum (14-4-1), while the heavy-handed Brett “The Grim” Rogers (11-2) will meet superstar Josh Barnett(29-5). The location and date for these last two quarterfinal tournament fights are to be announced.
On Tuesday, it was announced that STRIKEFORCE and M-1 GLOBAL, in association with premium television network SHOWTIME®, had signed a new, multi-year agreement to co-promote events headlined by Emelianenko.
CONTACT:
STRIKEFORCE Mike Afromowitz (917) 566-8754, mafromowitz@strikeforce.com
Brener Zwikel & Associates John Beyrooty (562) 233-7477, Johnnybey@aol.com