“Not only have I never done steroids, I wouldn’t know who to approach if I wanted to buy them.” (Photo: MMAMania.com)

Thus far the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix has laughed in the face of safe bets. Tournament favorites Fedor Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem aren’t just out of the competition, they’re out of the promotion. With Daniel Cormier in the finals, I’m kicking myself for not throwing down that $1 bet on “Any fighter not listed”. Now continuing with that trend, it is being reported that following his victory over Sergei Kharitonov, Josh Barnett pissed a sample so warm, so pure that it may as well have been bottled in the foothills of Machida Springs™.

MMAJunkie.com confirmed the results with Bernie Profato of the Ohio Athletic Commission. Given the “War Master’s” storied past with P.E.D.’s, there were legitimate concerns that this tournament could end in a Trilogy-style disaster, but he passed both pre-and-post-fight tests. In your face, us!

Other fighters tested and found clean were: Sergei Kharitonov, Daniel Cormier, Antonio Silva, Luke Rockhold, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Mike Kyle, and Yoel Romero. Congrats, men: you’re either in that “very small percentage” of fighters who don’t juice, or in that big group smart enough to pass the tests.

(“I got your marketing and PR right here, King Whatever the Fuck Your Name Is. Come and get it.”)

When Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal was asked last week about the lack of media turnout for last weekend’s Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov event in Cincinnati, the former Strikeforce light heavyweight champ admitted that he was put off by the situation, but there wasn’t much he or anyone else in the promotion could do about it.

“I was hoping there would be more people out here, more media, more questions, but really I guess ya’ll don’t care about us that much because everybody’s worried about other issues instead of the fights this weekend — I’m just being real,” Lawal said, referring to the fact that the media and fans were more enamoured by the soap opera Nick Diaz was involved in during the week leading up to Strikeforce event, than they were the event itself.  ”[Luke Rockhold]‘s fighting for a title, you got two fights in the heavyweight tournament. …It’s not to me, but it’s a slap in the face to them [that there isn't more coverage of the event]. I don’t know what happened [with Diaz] but it’s not like he was speaking his mind, saying ‘I think this press conference is dumb.’ He just didn’t show up. Now, speaking out and telling the truth is a different story than not doing something that helps the fight. That’s on Diaz. I think he’s a hell of a fighter, but like I said, here we are talking about Diaz instead of this event.”

(“Cormier has been fighting how long and he made how much?!” -Photo courtesy of Ric Fogel/ESPN.com)

Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix finalist Josh Barnett’s $150,000 salary accounted for 16 percent of the $942,150 payroll of Saturday night’s Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov event in Cincinnati. The man Barnett defeated, Sergei Kharitonov and his fellow HWGP finalist Daniel Cormier both tied for the second best paid fighters of the night with $100,000 a piece for their efforts, followed closely by Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal who received a flat fee of $85,000 for his win over Roger Gracie, who got $80,000.

Newly-crowned Strikeforce middleweight champ Luke Rockhold netted $50,000 for his win over Ronaldo Souza, who took home $70,000 and no belt.

Great belt, or the greatest belt? PicProps: AnnieSHOSports/Twitter

After another fun night of heavyweight action, the Strikeforce Grand Prix finals are set: Josh Barnett and Daniel Cormier will fight to be recognized as the best heavyweight in the world, except for those guys in the UFC. Or the guys that have left Strikeforce in the past few months. Whatever.

Anywho, you may have seen pictures of the GP championship belt that showed up last week, and heard that Coker and company are still lukewarm about the idea of calling the GP winner the Strikeforce champion. We thought that didn’t really make sense, and Josh Barnett agrees. At the Strikeforce press conference Saturday night, Barnett tried to twist Coker’s arm a bit, asking: “Why don’t we sweeten the pot?” Barnett asked. “Why don’t we put that title on the line between me and Cormier?”

Coker, bless his heart, didn’t want to commit to that, and you have to wonder: “Why?”

(Props: shosports)

In case you missed the action on Saturday night. After the jump: Full videos of Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov and Daniel Cormier vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. Check ‘em out while they last…

King Mo, during the UFC application process post-fight interview. Props: Showtime Sports

Last night, the real story behind “Barnet vs. Kharitonov had nothing to do with the heavyweight grand prix. It had nothing to do with the middleweight championship of a sinking organization. Last night, as with every other Strikeforce show since the promotion was purchased by Zuffa, was little more than an audition. It was about who will get a UFC contract when Strikeforce goes under, and who will have to go through TUF. The fans knew it, the announcers knew it, going as far as confirming the Belfort vs. Le rumor, and the fighters definitely knew it.

Despite Strikeforce’s best efforts to hype Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov as a potentially close fight, we all knew what to expect: A repeat of Kharitonov vs. Monson, except with a far superior version of Jeff Monson. Because of this, it’s hard to be impressed with anything that Josh Barnett does at this point. The tournament’s biggest names and most intriguing matchups for Barnett- Fedor, Werdum and Overeem- were all removed well before last night. Barnett has become such an overwhelming favorite to win that when he wins, he’s simply living up to expectations. He was paired up against an opponent with weak grappling credentials, knew he would dominate the fight once Kharitonov was on the ground, and fought accordingly. At least the tournament was set up so that he would get to face a competent grappler in the finals.

(Dan Cormier does a dead-on impression of how his face is going to look after he gets hit with one of those fists. / Photo via MMAFighting.com)

Tonight, four big-ass dudes become two, and we mean that in the straightest way possible. Strikeforce’s lovably meaningless heavyweight tournament reaches its semi-final phase tonight at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cicinnati, Ohio, supported by a middleweight title fight and a compelling light-heavyweight feature between Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal and Roger Gracie.

Round-by-round results for the “Barnett vs. Kharitonov” Showtime main card will be piling up after the jump starting at 10:30 p.m. ET. CagePotato liveblog-mercenary Matt Kaplan will be handling business tonight, so please make him feel welcome, and refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest.

Man, it’s been a crazy week, huh? Between the UFC 137 lineup shuffle and the announcement of Alistair Overeem’s entry into the UFC, you may have forgotten that the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Semi-Finals are going down tomorrow night at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati. We’ll be liveblogging the action starting at 10:30 p.m. ET, so don’t be a stranger.

MMAFighting was on the scene yesterday for the “Barnett vs. Kharitonov” press conference, and released the above highlight video. Skip to the 1:33 mark to see Daniel Cormier give away his gameplan against Antonio Silva; lots of laughs there. Later, King Mo says what everybody’s thinking: “I was hoping more people [would be] out here, more media, and more questions, but really I guess y’all don’t care about us that much. I’m just keeping it real. Me and Roger [Gracie] gonna put on a good fight, it’s gonna be a good card. I think people are gonna miss out on it because everybody’s worried about other issues instead of the fights this weekend. I’m just being real.”

Also on the card, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza defends his middleweight belt against Luke Rockhold — who hasn’t competed since February 2010 due to injuries — and Maximo Blanco makes his promotional debut against Pat Healy. The complete lineup is after the jump.

(Sorry, kids. Christmas is canceled this year.)

Josh Barnett is currently scheduled to face Sergei Kharitonov in the semi-finals of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, September 10th in Cincinnati. He was also scheduled to face kickboxing legend Jerome Le Banner in an August 27th pro-wrestling match for IGF in Japan, because he’s Josh Barnett, and fake-fighting dudes that he could just as easily fight for real is what he does, damn it.

But while that sort of thing wouldn’t have batted an eye under Scott Coker’s droopy watch, Zuffa runs a much tighter ship, and won’t run the risk of Barnett suffering an injury in a worked puroresu match two weeks before he has to show up for a legit cage-fight. As Fighters Only reports:

VidProps: BloodstreamMMA100/YouTube

Strikeforce is forging ahead with this crazy “Grand Prix” gimmick — no telling how they came up with a concept like that, but props to them — and the semifinals could go down in September. If everything goes according to plan, the event should be packed with good matchups. Let’s take a look.

The heavyweight GP will continue with Alistair Overeem squaring off with Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, and “War Master” Josh Barnett against “The Russian Concussion” Sergei Kharitonov. Those two fights alone would be enough to carry a card, but Coker and company want to make it worth your while to watch, so they’ve continued to put together bouts with an eye on producing a blockbuster.

Every other bout currently rumored for the show features a current or former champion for the Strikeforce banner, including a title match for current middleweight champ “Jacare” Souza.

(Why doesn’t the UFC allow pre-fight staredowns?)

How did we not know Josh Barnett vs. Bobby Lashley was happening last night in Japan under the Inoki Genome Federation Banner? Thankfully SportsNavi had proof that the fight went down and that it was actually closer than we would have assumed it would be.

Barnett demonstrated some uncharacteristic stand-up skills by punishing Lashley’s legs with leg kicks before he was picked up the former UFC heavyweight champion and slammed to the canvas. But in the end it was the submission skills of the fighter formerly known as “The Babyfaced Assassin” that proved the difference. Barnett caught Lashley in an armbar and the former WWE champ was forced to tap out in the opening frame.

Oh, did we forget to mention that it was a pro wrestling bout? Our bad.

Check out the photos of the “fight” after the jump.

(Props: Ariel Helwani)

“You know what, it was not the most exciting, but in terms of from where I was at, it was perfect. Basically, I put him on ground, and after I started feeling him out, feeling his energy underneath me, I knew that he had a lot of umph, he had a lot of guts, he had a lot of gusto, so any opening, any transition, any big movement, it was going to be met by a lot of explosive force.

We could then end up in some scrambles, spend energy I don’t want to, it’s unnecessary, so instead, get him bucking, get him using that energy. And I have quite heavy hips, which is a very common staple of catch-as-catch-can [wrestling], wearing people out — not just with strikes or submissions or holds — but with your overall body positioning.

THE REEM EPISODE 4: COUNTING DOWN from THE REEM on Vimeo.

While everyone was busy on Internet message boards and comment sections furiously typing in caps locks with extra exclamation points how overrated and shitty of a fighter Alistair Overeem is because he didn’t walk through Fabricio Werdum as expected, The Reem Season 2, Episode 3 was quietly released to the masses.

Yeah, we were praying for something to happen in that fight, too.

Heading into last night’s Strikeforce card, there were a lot of potential storylines. There was Werdum continuing to clean out Strikeforce’s heavyweight division. There was Overeem avenging his loss to Werdum five years ago in devastating fashion. There were the returns to relevance of Josh Barnett and Jeff Monson, the rise of Daniel Cormier and “Othereem” getting the fans to learn his name. Yet after the event was over, the most compelling thing we can take from it is that Dallas has some educated MMA fans. While your average Affliction clad meathead was booing from the start of Cormier vs. Monson until the end of the night, Dallas fans only booed during Overeem vs. Werdum.

Normally I hate when fans boo fighters, but to say Overeem vs. Werdum was boo-worthy doesn’t begin to capture what a disappointment the main event was. We expected fireworks, and instead were given an even less relevant version of Silva vs. Leites (at least that fight was for a title). If that fight was under the UFC banner, Dana White would have immediately issued an apology to the fans and a threat to fire Werdum over another performance like that. To say the least, Werdum’s chances of getting back into the UFC were more than likely squashed by that fight three round Thales Leites impression.

(Where’s your creepy joker-smile now, playboy?)

The latest installment in Strikeforce’s Heavyweight Grand Prix Tournament goes down tonight at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, featuring the long-awaited rematch between Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum, and Josh Barnett’s promotional debut against Brett Rogers. Plus, KJ Noons and Jorge Masvidal jockey for #1 contendership in the lightweight division, and 14-year veteran Jeff Monson collides with rising heavyweight star Daniel Cormier.

Handling the play-by-play for this evening will be the Shemp Howard of CagePotato’s liveblog-rotation, Matt Kaplan, so let him know you care in the comments section. Live results from the Showtime broadcast of “Overeem vs. Werdum” will be stacking up after the jump beginning at 10 p.m. ET; refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMAInterviews)

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(Props: MMAFighting)

Brett Rogers has been publicly M.I.A. since February, and it was starting to worry us a little bit. So it was a relief to see this interview he did with Ariel Helwani yesterday, in which the Grim appears to be in a healthy but reflective state of mind before his match with Josh Barnett this Saturday. Discussing his two-fight losing streak at the hands of Fedor Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem, Rogers said:

“I was moreso in that mindset of my amateur days, you know, I was kind of like ‘just give me a date and I’ll be there,’ and hope for the best. The proof is in the pudding, I can’t always flow with that mentality. That attitude will get me in a hole.”

Our friends at Victory Belt just hooked us up with a copy of Anderson Silva‘s new book, a semi-autobiographical collection of short fiction titled Ghosts of the Favela. Just kidding. The book’s actually called MMA Instruction Manual: The Muay Thai Clinch, Takedowns, Takedown Defense, and Ground Fighting. A follow-up to Silva’s guide to striking, it focuses on the other aspects of hand-to-hand combat that have made the Spider so dangerous in the cage. And you can have it, as long as you can predict the future.

This Saturday night, Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum goes down in Dallas, featuring two more bouts from the promotion’s heavyweight grand prix: Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum, and Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers. Submit your predictions for these two fights in the comments section below, including the winner’s name, the method of victory, and the time/round of stoppage, if any. Your entry should be in this format:

If you are a child of the 80s, Richard Dean Anderson will probably forever hold a special place in your heart as one of the coolest heroes ever. Why there isn’t still a show running in which a non-violent genius improvs helpful gadgets and kludges with a few innocuous articles from his lady friend’s purse is beyond us. Luckily, the spirit of MacGyver lives on in us all, and that includes Mr Josh Barnett.

The Babyface Assassin was having interview funtime with Karyn Bryant of MMA HEAT when a mishap with free weights put a damper on some dude’s day, leaving him with a dinged schnoz. Weightlifter guy is doing the whole routine: yeah, this is like the other times I broke it, nah, it don’t hurt that bad, yeah, I’m ok, nah, I ain’t got time to bleed.

Barnett springs into action! Using a couple of ballpoint pens, our buddy Josh manages to open and straighten Mr Bad Snatch’s nasal passages. It’s no field tracheotomy, but still probably a handy bit of knowledge to have, especially if people punch you in the face a lot.

Weightlifter dude walks away to cry off-camera, Josh does his PSA about bad snatch, end scene. While you probably didn’t learn anything, we at least distracted you for three minutes, so you’re welcome. If you’ve ever performed some oddball first aid using the field medic training you received in ‘Nam, tell us about it in the comments. (No need to share your own stories of snatch encounters, thanks.)

[RX]

(“Rogers a hater. Rogers a hater. [*long pause*] Rogers, you a hater. You a hater, Rogers. Big, soft…you a hater, man. Hater. You hatin’!“)

Last week, we expressed some concern that Josh Barnett‘s application for a license in Texas was still incomplete, just ten days before he was scheduled to throw down against Brett Rogers at “Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum” in Dallas. But it turned out there was a logical explanation for Barnett’s licensing status that involved pre-fight medicals, and the Babyface Assassin was actually among several other fighters on the card whose applications were incomplete as of last week.

And now it’s official. As MMAJunkie reports, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has issued Barnett a license to fight this Saturday:

Barnett’s license is good for one year…As earlier reported, Barnett was required to provide the TDLR with a clean drug test in addition to the usual pre-fight paperwork as a condition of his licensure. Strikeforce is conducting independent drug testing at the event…

After Josh Barnett‘s re-licensing bid was stonewalled by the CSAC in December — leading him to basically give up on California altogether — Strikeforce figured they could solve their problems by hosting Barnett’s promotional debut in Texas, a lawless wasteland whose notoriously lax athletic commission allowed Antonio Margarito to box Manny Pacquiao at Cowboys Stadium the year after after he was caught loading his gloves.

That fact that we hadn’t heard anything about Barnett’s licensing status in the lead-up to June 18th’s “Overeem vs. Werdum” event at the American Airlines Center seemed like a good sign. But problems remain — namely, that the Babyface Assassin reportedly hasn’t completed his Texas licensing application, with just ten days until showtime.

(Hell in the ring, silent on elevators.)

Any time two heavyweights with a history of testing positive get into a bi-lingual war of words, you can book us for a ringside seat. Such was the case this week when Josh Barnett and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva launched into the now nearly obligatory online fighter beef session. Silva got the ball rolling during an interview with Sherdog, wherein (apparently apropos of nothing) he lashed out at Barnett for – among other things – ignoring Brazilian fighters on elevators. So … that was weird.

If we had to guess, we’d say Bigfoot is feeling a little lonely and cranky after being kind of overlooked in all the hype, speculation and gratuitous match-up fantasizing that’s gone on since the UFC-Strikeforce merger. After all, Bigfoot became the latest dude to slay the unslayable Fedor Emelianenko back in February. You’d think that was worth something, right? And then pictures of Barnett exchanging bro-grabs with Dana White show up on the Internet? Why, that’d be enough to set any giant’s blood to a boilin’. His attacks, along with Barnett’s response are after the jump.

(“By the way, my offer to piss in your mouth? I’m still down if you are.” Photo courtesy of JoshLBarnett.)

The UFC is holding its annual Fighter Summit this week in Las Vegas, bringing together the entire UFC and Strikeforce rosters for the purposes of education and camaraderie — pretty boring stuff, judging from Gegard Mousasi’s amazingly child-like doodles. But it did provide opportunities for old rivals to rub shoulders. Josh Barnett posted this photo yesterday evening with the note, “Pigs have now flown. Watch for Hell to freeze over next. Me and @danawhite together again.”

Barnett has publicly criticized the UFC and Dana White in the past, but when Zuffa bought Strikeforce in March, all of a sudden DW was a pretty fucking metal dude in Josh’s opinion. (That’s a compliment.) Barnett is scheduled to face Brett Rogers at Strikeforce’s “Overeem vs. Werdum” event on June 18th in Dallas. Whether he has a future in the company after that is still anybody’s guess, no matter how friendly he and Dana appear to be when somebody’s pointing a camera-phone at them.

(Fans may now choose between both kinds of music, country *and* western. Pic: MMAViewers.com)

It was almost like Dana White was shooting for some kind of bizarre performance art during his interview with Ariel Helwani on Saturday announcing Zuffa, LLC’s sudden acquisition of Strikeforce. It was as if the big bossman was trying to underscore what a huge moment this was for his company by assuring us again and again that it was actually no big deal. Instead of jumping up on the $5,000 coffee table and shaking his junk in our faces while yelling “Domino, motherfucker!” he played it cool – indifferent, even. White didn’t gloat, barely smiled and perhaps set some kind of personal record by conducting a 20-minute interview without really swearing at all. It was all pretty telling, in a roundabout kind of way.

If White’s very un-Dana demeanor didn’t clue you in to the fact his new “business as usual” catchphrase is total bullshit, well, you must be new to the sport. This is a dude who keeps a Styrofoam tombstone in his office bedecked with the names of his fallen enemies and over the weekend his company essentially sewed up total, indefinite control of the marketplace moving forward. Chances are, underneath it all he was pretty pumped. The Strikeforce deal may not give Zuffa a legal monopoly on our sport, but it sure looks like the company now has a practical one. So, maybe – just maybe – White’s “ah shucks” act and constant downplaying of this moment is a bit of strategery. Perhaps he’d like it very much if the rest of us would forget that this news is very, very good for him and his partners and very, very bad for almost everyone else.

“Konichiwa, bitches!”

There are a lot of things we’ve come to know about Dana White over the years. He loves his Pink Berry. He relieves stress by pulling mediocre pranks on his subordinates. He’s an astute, cut throat businessman. And he holds a grudge like a mother fucker. It’s these last two traits that we’ll be examining at this time. With the UFC’s latest acquisition, Dana is in the position of working directly with many of the folks he’s either banned from the UFC or burned bridges with when attempts to work with them didn’t pan out. Aside from the recent legal quandary surrounding Roy Nelson’s employment, Zuffa has proven through aggressive litigation and hard ball negotiation that they know their way around a contract. This makes it very likely that Dana will do just as he says in honoring all current Strikeforce related contracts.

But virtually all contracts come to an end at some point, and when Strikeforce’s agreements reach their expiration date it’s a whole new ballgame. Some Strikeforce staples, such as open, non-exclusive contracts and event co-promotion are sure to disappear. The same is certain for many of the organization’s familiar faces, both in front of the camera and in the cage. Despite Dana’s vindictive nature, he didn’t get where he is today by letting hard feelings get in the way of good business. Let’s take a closer look at who’s on the chopping block when the legal obligations dissolve and Dana is wielding the axe.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/NewzFirst)

Former WWE wrestler Shad Gaspard is claiming racial profiling in an incident that occurred just hours prior to Saturday night’s Strikeforce show in Columbus, Ohio. Gaspard was crossing the street with Strikeforce heavyweight Josh Barnett and another friend when an altercation with a motorist prompted police on foot patrol to swoop in to  tackle and handcuff the 6’8″ 300-pound Brooklyn, New York native who now lives in Houston, Texas.

(“Is there any way you can hold those poses until the summer?”)

It struck us as blindly optimistic when Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker announced that the second leg of his heavyweight tournament quarterfinals would take place on April 9th, even before he had a venue (or a host country) locked down. If it was just a matter of finding an arena with an open date on its schedule, it wouldn’t be a problem, but Josh Barnett‘s licensing issues made the task a lot more challenging.

So it’s really no surprise to read this new Sherdog report, which claims that Strikeforce’s remaining heavyweight tournament quarterfinals — Barnett vs. Brett Rogers, and Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum — won’t be happening on April 9th after all. Sources close to the promotion tell Sherdog that Strikeforce will host their 4/9 event in California (a forbidden zone for the Babyface Assassin), but with no tournament fights on the card. Instead, the event will feature a lightweight title fight between Gilbert Melendez and Tatsuya Kawajiri — a rematch of their bout at PRIDE Shockwave 2006 — and possibly another welterweight title defense from Nick Diaz (opponent TBA, though Paul Daley and Tyron Woodley are options).

Anyway, that’s what some sources are saying. Other sources hear it differently…

Brett Rogers interview – Watch more Funny Videos

After starting his career with ten consecutive KO/TKO victories (eight of which were earned in the first round), Brett Rogers came face-to-face with MMA’s heavyweight elite — and couldn’t rise to the challenge. A competitive bout with Fedor Emelianenko in November 2009 ended in a second-round loss thanks to a devastating overhand right. Somehow, Rogers was graced with a title shot for his next appearance, and got Reem’d in short order.

The Grim rebounded with a decision win over Ruben “Warpath” Villareal in October, and now finds himself in the eight-man field of Strikeforce’s heavyweight grand prix, where he’ll be facing Josh Barnett in the quarterfinals on April 9th (venue TBA). Our reporter Brian J. D’Souza caught up with Rogers at last weekend’s Fedor vs. Silva event to get his thoughts on the fights, his matchup with the Babyface Assassin, Fedor Emelianenko’s decline, and the opportunity to redeem himself in the heavyweight GP. Give it a look.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMAHeat)

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Just wanted to pass along a few interesting moments from Fedor vs. Silva‘s post-fight presser, which featured all of the night’s winning fighters, plus the other four heavyweight grand prix competitors who will be squaring off on April 9th (venue TBA). Josh Barnett was the first to be introduced, and he gave the media his usual mix of insightful analysis and comic-book-like hyperbole. “Getting an easy win doesn’t do anything for you,” he said. “I’d rather stare death in the face.”

Scott Coker confirmed that Fedor Emelianenko could theoretically return to the grand prix as an alternate, jumping ahead of Shane Del Rosario, who was supposed to have earned the first replacement spot with his impressive win over Lavar Johnson. Nope. The tournament committee will decide that. And Coker’s not even on the committee. It is only now, two days later, that it’s occurred to me to wonder, “Wait a minute, so who is on the committee?” Vadim Finkelchtein and Gus Johnson? God help us.

After the jump: Alistair Overeem is bummed that Fedor got knocked out of the tournament because of the “glow” he brings to the proceedings, but after being ducked by Fedor twice, he already gave up on the idea of fighting him. Plus, Alistair and his brother Valentijn say that they’d have no problem fighting each other in the context of a tournament. I’m sure Dana White would respect that, but Coker is less than thrilled by the idea.