The first leg of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Tournament has ended with Antonio Silva and Sergei Kharitonov advancing to the next round. While most people have pegged the winner of the upcoming Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum bout to be the tournament favorite, Dana White thinks otherwise. According to Dave Meltzer (Subscription Required), the UFC President has predicted that Josh Barnett will win the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix:

Silva will face the Overeem vs. Werdum winner while Kharitonov faces the Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers winner. For the record, Dana White is predicting Barnett, who he hates, to run the table. He believes Werdum will catch Overeem on the ground, but Barnett, who has never been submitted, will be strong enough to avoid Werdum’s strength.

Certainly Overeem vs. Werdum is your classic match dependent upon whether or not Werdum can get it to the ground. Rogers has a good punch, but unless Barnett has slipped a lot, and we don’t know because it’s been years since Barnett was in with elite competition, he has to be the favorite.

Here's how the heavyweight bracket is currently looking: