I just had a thought about the marketing going into this show, Strikeforce's priorities, the questions as to whether or not Fedor will catch on in the States, and if Strikeforce can pin themselves as a promotion to Fedor's cult status.

Why doesn't Strikeforce put more marketing muscle into Gegard Mousasi? If Fedor is largely an unproven commodity in the US and they have rights to virtually none of his fight footage, are they not starting from virtually the same point marketing-wise as they would w/ Mousasi? Mousasi, in the opinion of most experts, is on the cusp of having a second dominating performance in the US and should begin to have a reputation after his fight with Sokoudjou tonight. It seems to me like Mousasi has certain advantages already over Fedor in terms of making an appealing start stateside.

For one, he already has a Strikeforce belt, which seems to matter.

He looks more like a fighter than Fedor does. To me and most hardcore fans, this doesn't matter at all, but obviously there is some concern as to how the mainstream will react to Fedor's appearance.

Presumably Strikeforce has access to the footage of his Dream fights and accordingly could do a lot more to promote him w/ fight highlights.

Most importantly: He's extremely young to have accomplished all that he already has in fighting (25 years old). Barring injury, he'll be around for a long time and, frighteningly, will continue to improve his skills and physical attributes. Finally, he speaks English very well, which has been shown to be important for fan reception in the US.

Now obviously Fedor has a reputation among the hardcore fan base as one of if not the best fighter, but there's still a question as to how that will translate into overall ratings. As long as that question mark looms, why doesn't Strikeforce try to build their own star in this youngster who is a beast already and holds the attributes I've listed above over Fedor. The one great response I can come up with as to why Strikeforce so blindly pumps Fedor for now is he represents the one fighter from any popular weight class where UFC can't claim to have the top guy. But I think there's a question mark there as well as to whether or not people will care.

Just seems like Gegard is a star waiting to explode and in hitching themselves so firmly to Fedor, Strikeforce may have neglected this opportunity to their detriment.