Deceptively so, but still. They can market Rogers as a credible opponent..

I don’t remember Brett mentioning Fedor as someone he wanted to fight in that last interview.

ZZZ.

I think i am gonna throw $100 or so on Brett when the lines come out.

One lucky punch from Rogers and there goes their investment

Fedor in the first round. Again. :)

Rogers gets rushed, swings wildy, gets taken down & subbed.

Fedorbar FTW.

Rogers is expendable. Overeem is probably the only guy in Strikeforce who can credibly challenge Fedor, AND he has the belt. No reason to blow their load for the first fight.

Well, the winner will be seen as a really strong challenger to Overeem’s title, I can say that much.

Otherwise, I don’t see how Strikeforce can afford to consolidate the number of legitimate title contenders with a Heavyweight roster than can be counted on slightly more than one hand.

It’ll be so huge if Rogers pulls win somehow. Strikeforce will have a huge more marketable star if that happens. Still its very doubtful but id like to see it happen. From changing tires to defeating the one of the greatest fighters in mma history, in less than a year

The date would allow for the UFC to sneak in a live event between 104 and 105

by then fedor will have two fights in a cage. then he will move to the ufc where if he is undefeated will face brock lesnar. dana white said so. brock will get much better in that year and will beat fedor with a takedown with the crucifex position and put the beatdown on the so called greatest hw of all-time. you think mir bleed. fedor was bloodied by matt lindland. also fedor has lost in a sambo tournament to a bulgarian about a year ago. he is not indestructible. count on it lesnar will defeat him and put him into retirement!

Fedor will obliterate Rogers AND you know Dana White will have a crap ton of UFC programming on Spike that day.

Alas that will lose out to college football anyway so…..

I like Rogers, he does seem like a HW Balboa story. I hope he makes the best of it, I can imagine he will quadruple his pay for this fight and permanently quadruple it if he wins.
Way too many unknowns for me to pick him winning though, I’d love to be wrong though for the sheer violence that would happen on the internet though.. UG and Sherdog would likely implode from the epicness of such an event.

Waddya know, fedor fights another best-in-the-business guy thus further justifying his #1 ranking…………………………………………..

The guy has beaten everyone put in front of him, and now he’s ducking fights because he won’t bend over for Dana?

I don’t get it.

it was fedor’s mangement team that wanted a piece of zuffa holdings. zuffa is owned by the ferttita’s of las vegas. they own ufc, wec and station casino’s. the ferttita’s lost alot of money on the ufc until it became profitable about two years ago. why should dana and the ferttita’s bend over to fedor’s management team. they built the ufc into the machine it is. blame fedor’s handlers not the ufc peace out! vamos!

The amount of criticism this fight is getting here is kind of amazing.

In terms of in-ring accomplishments to date, Rogers has at least equaled if not surpassed UFC HW #1 contender Shane Carwin. And yet commentor after commentor—“boring” “zzzz” “Fedor is still fighting cans” etc. etc.

I understand the skepticism to a point—Rogers is still fairly green, and hasn’t shown the kind of well-rounded skills one would expect to be necessary to beat Fedor. But give the man his due: he’s undefeated, has finished all his opponents, and knocked Andrei Arlovski’s block off.

Rogers has one hell of a puncher’s chance, and every Fedor fight has that anxious excitement hanging over it—will Fedor finally lose? Will age or apathy catch up to him? Will he turn in a vintage performance, but still get caught, maybe struggle more than expected? Or will he sail to victory yet again?

Exciting stuff. To me, at least.

I don’t see this fight being competitive. Fedor is at his worst when his opponents are either fast or very good wrestlers. Rogers is neither

I’m about as excited for this fight as I would be to see GSP fight Paulo Thiago.

I think they would do better countering a SF PPV with a PPV of their own rather than a free event. People who buy PPV’s can justify buying it even if there is something of equal vaule on for free. They can consider it a bonus or simply buy it cause they are accustome to buying 1 ppv per month. However if the UFC counters with the best PPV event then it will force ppl to actually make a choice. I know i wont buy 2 ppvs but I am likely to buy 1 even if something of comparable value is on free (thanks to DVR).
In short, the UFC should focus on making thier card superior in every way but go ahead and make it a PPV and force me to choose. In the end I hope they DONT do that cause I dont want to have to choose.

For the foreseeable future SF will not have the depth of talent that the UFC does but Scott coker obviously knows how to hire good talent when it is available. I think you’re statement that SF and showtime are not taking a single fan away is correect but the most significant correlation to that is that the UFC is generating more fans for SF! The UFC has helped make MMA very fan friendly. And as I said b4, if you like MMA you like Strikeforce. I think fans will get the most out of this if SF stays in it’s current status as “would be competitor for PPV $”. Obviously we benefit from the free PPV replays and such. I just hope it never gets to the point of countering a PPV with a PPV. I have a feeling SF will be content to be a successfull proivder of network TV content and maybe an occassional PPV once they get a larger following.

I believe he UFC is creating more of an apatite for MMA than it has heretofore been able to satisfy entrely on it’s own. It’s possible that only 10% of NEW UFC fans became MMA fans but I think as that UFC fan matures he or she willbe alot more likely becoma an MMA fan after 2 or 3 years.
In any event, the UFC is creating way more fans so 10% of the UFC fan base is still probably bigger than 90% of new fans generated by showtime.
The main point I’m attempting to make is that as the sport grows there is no reason why there cant be a strong # 2 promotion as long as it is competently run. I dont think # 2 can make a series of successfull PPVs if # 1 fights it but there is plenty of room on TV.

Whoop de shit.

This is actually the most logical matchup for StrikeForce right now.

I recently mentioned that Brock’s next fight would be on network… I must have been high and still in shock that Fedor hasnt signed with Zuffa yet. The plan was 103 on network headlined by Fedor v Brock. Brock v Carwin will be PPV so my bad.

Bruce Wayne, you are truly human…. I respect that.

He doesn’t need to come to anybody, they need to come to him if they want to be the best. That’s the simple thing everyone is overlooking.

“blah blah blah, Fedor dodged this, Fedor fights cans, Fedor needs to go here, go there”

Shut the fuck up already. He’s the champ, it’s not him who needs to join promotions to fight the best in that area. Brock Lesnar’s record is shit compared to Fedor’s record, so why should Fedor come to him?

If Brock wants to prove he’s the best, he goes to Fedor. That only makes sense, and all your excuses to hate him hold no water against this.

I’m just thinking back to Finkie talking about the UFC Deal “We have a champion, they have a champion…”

I guess Fedor’s just not up to fighting the Strikeforce champ. TOO TOUGH.