“I am not going in there with any weaknesses.” – Josh Barnett on his fight against Sergei Kharitonov

CageCraze.com was on the live conference call today for the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Semi-Finals. The event is being held at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Saturday, September 10. Tournament semi-finalists Josh Barnett, Daniel Cormier, and Sergei Kharitonov were on the call. Strikeforce president Scott Coker was on the call, but Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva was absent for undisclosed reasons.

Scott Coker announced that Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati standouts Chris Mierzwiak (Jorge Gurgel MMA) and Dom Steele (Team Vision) would face eachother on the undercard of the event. Coker went on to let us know that HDNet will be airing the undercard fights and the weigh-ins for the event. The main card features Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva vs. Daniel Cormier, and the Strikeforce Middleweight Championship fight between Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Luke Rockhold. “King Mo” Muhammed Lawal squares off against Roger Gracie and Pat Healy steps in for an injured Josh Thomson against Maximo Blanco to round out the card.

Sergei Kharitonov was late getting onto the call and the translation was sketchy so there were not many questions asked of him. However, when asked about the importance of winning to keep his job at Zuffa (due to his ties to Golden Glory) he made it short and simple: I will win. I must win. Josh Barnett did have some things to say about Kharitonov though. Barnett feels that Kharitonov “pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes” and led them to believe he had no stand up but that was not the case. Barnett feels that he can be elusive and score a knockout on the feet, or win the fight via submission on the ground. Barnett added, “I am not going in there with any weaknesses.”

Daniel Cormier comes into his bout against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva with an undefeated record and everything to gain. Cormier steps in for Allistair Overeem and Scott Coker stated that Cormier was their first choice to replace Overeem. Cormier said that this was perfect timing because he is coming off of the biggest win of his career and he feels that he has a fighting style to beat Silva. Cormier concedes that Silva has a striking and BJJ advantage, but feels that his wrestling advantage outweighs all other disparities in skill. Cormier trains with Cain Velasquez on a daily basis and he feels that there is nothing that he will see from Silva that he does not see in his own gym.

The biggest news on the call came from Scott Coker when he said that the winner of the Heavyweight Grand Prix will not be awarded the Strikeforce Heavyweight Title. Per Coker, there are still “internal discussions” regarding their treatment of the title situation. Coker also said that no date had been set for the Grand Prix Finals, but that the event will be held in the first quarter of 2012. Coker confirmed that Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos plans on fighting before the end of the year but they do not have an opponent at this time.

This is an exciting card but we are more excited about the Mierzwiak vs. Steele matchup than any other fight. CageCraze.com has had the opportunity to cover both fighters in the Greater Cincinnati area and it is a great feeling to see local fighers with an opportunity to compete on this stage.

 

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