It’s been another slow week, with the Strikeforce Challengers 13 the only major event to make a small blip on the rankings radar. The bigger news of the past week was the announcement of another Strikeforce event – or rather a series of events: an eight-men single elimination heavyweight championship tournament, or Strikeforce World Grand Prix.
While Strikeforce has a number of top heavyweights on their roster, they received plenty of criticizm in the past year for not being able to put together matchups due to injuries, suspensions, contract negotiations, scheduling conflicts, and a slew of other issues. CEO Scott Coker took the criticizm in stride and promised big things to come in 2011. The announcement of the tournament lays out the planned matchups for the next year, and is a huge step towards legitimizing the Strikeforce heavyweight division and title.
The current heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem will defend his title in a rematch with Fabricio Werdum in the first round, and the title will be subsequently defended in the tournament semi-finals and finals.
Here’s how the Grand Prix participants stack up according to FightMatrix rankings:
Bracket I
| Rank | Fighter | Record | Points | |
| 3 |  Fabricio WerdumLast Fight: 6/26/2010 [Strike Force] |
14-4-1 |
|
|
| 8 |  Alistair OvereemLast Fight: 12/31/2010 [K-1] |
34-11-0 |
|
| Rank | Fighter | Record | Points | |
| 4 |  Fedor EmelianenkoLast Fight: 6/26/2010 [Strike Force] |
31-2-0 |
|
|
| 11 | Antonio Silva Last Fight: 12/04/2010 [Strike Force] |
15-2-0 |
|
Keep reading for the second bracket & alternate bouts:
Bracket II
| Rank | Fighter | Record | Points | |
| 10 |
 Josh BarnettLast Fight: 7/10/2010 [Impact Fighting Championship] |
29-5-0 |
|
|
| 12 |
Brett Rogers Last Fight: 10/23/2010 [Warrior-1 MMA] |
11-2-0 |
|
| Rank | Fighter | Record | Points | |
| 13 |
 Andrei ArlovskiLast Fight: 5/15/2010 [Strike Force] |
15-8-0 |
|
|
| 23 | Sergei Kharitonov Last Fight: 12/31/2010 [K-1] |
17-4-0 |
|
Alternate Bouts
| Rank | Fighter | Record | Points | |
| 66 |
Shane del Rosario Last Fight: 7/23/2010 [Strike Force] |
10-0-0 |
|
|
| 71 |
Lavar Johnson Last Fight: 10/22/2010 [Strike Force] |
15-3-0 |
|
| Rank | Fighter | Record | Points | |
| 104 | Chad Griggs Last Fight: 8/21/2010 [Strike Force] |
9-1-0 |
|
|
| 140 * |
Gian Villante Last Fight: 12/03/2010 [RoC] |
7-1-0 |
|
* Gian Villante’s rank at HW is approximated based on his current LHW rating.
| Rank | Fighter | Record | Points | |
| 126 |
Valentijn Overeem Last Fight: 5/21/2010 [K-1] |
28-25-0 |
|
|
| NR |  Ray SefoLast Fight: 9/25/2009 [Strike Force] |
2-0-0 | N/A |