Barnett makes case for regular HW title
“All right, Scott,” he said. “I love you, but you’re my man. Why don’t we sweeten the pot? Why don’t…
“All right, Scott,” he said. “I love you, but you’re my man. Why don’t we sweeten the pot? Why don’t we put that title on the line between me and Cormier? Either one of us is a grand champion. Either one of us is the kind of guy who will hold it proud, hold our pants up with it, and people will look at us and say, ‘Those guys are champs. That’s the kind of people we want representing our company; that’s the kind of guy I want to look up to and say, ‘Hey, you want to see a fighter? You want to see a real bad ass? He’s right there. You see the gold around his waist? That’s not a joke; that’s a reality. The people he had to step over to get it? He earned it.’
“I think (with) that tournament belt, (they did) a beautiful job. That’s an amazing belt, but Strikeforce needs a real champ. They need a champ like me and Cormier. One of the two of us has to be it. Because besides us, who is it?”
Barnett has a point. In addition to Emelianenko, fellow heavyweights Andrei Arlovski and Brett Rogers were eliminated in the first round of the tournament (and no longer fight for the company). Fabricio Werdum also was eliminated. And following Barnett’s first-round submission victory over Kharitonov, the Russian also is out of the picture. The same goes for Silva.
A heavyweight division that once rivaled the UFC’s has been whittled down to Barnett and Overeem’s replacement, Cormier, who meet in an early-2012 tourney finale.
Coker, though, wasn’t willing to grant Barnett his wish. Not yet, anyway. He said he and other company officials will need to discuss the future of the tournament, the heavyweight division, and its currently vacant title.
