Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix champion Daniel Cormier has one more fight with Strikeforce before he can leave the promotion for the higher-profile of the UFC Octagon. There’s just one problem, the Strikeforce HW division has already been shuttered so potential opponents like Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, Chad Griggs, Shane del Rosario and Alistair Overeem have already moved to the UFC.
That doesn’t leave a very deep pool of potential opponents for Cormier, or Grand Prix runner up Josh Barnett who’s also got 1 more fight in Strikeforce purgatory.
Lowkick.com spoke to Cormier had he shared some interesting ideas:
Cormier himself threw out some names, saying he would like to fight the heavy-handed Sergei Kharitonov:
“I saw him walk down Overeem and slump him over the ring ropes. That would be a great fight. I would fight Kharitonov.”
He also was open to the possibility of fighting former UFC Heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia, noting that beating any former champion is an accomplishment in and of itself. With many pushing for Cormier to fight in the UFC, even for the title,
Kharitonov is interesting. He is one of the few SF heavies not to migrate to the UFC. He’s instead stayed busy with kick-boxing. Sylvia would also be interesting as at least he’s high profile. There are a couple of other former UFC HW champs out there in the wild: Ricco Rodriguez is riding a 1-7 streak, Pedro Rizzo is fighting Fedor Emelianenko this summer and Andrei Arlovski has picked up a couple of KO wins since being cut by Strikeforce.
Who would you like to see go up against Cormier?