If you can’t beat the bully, pick on his little brother: during an “MMA Live” segment last week, ESPN’s own Franklin McNeil floated the potential for Strikeforce to go head-to-head with a rescheduled WEC event on Oct. 10. If they do, the latter’s main event of Donald Cerrone and Benson Henderson will suffer terribly in media: Fedor Emelianenko and Brett Rogers could face off in Newark’s Prudential Center.
The WWE will be hosting an event there one week prior. Hopefully, the smell will dissipate in time.
While Strikeforce rep Mike Afromowitz characterized the booking as “just rumors,” there may be something to the expediency in getting Emelianenko gloved up soon: the UFC was planning upwards of three shows in November, a major Los Angeles show in late October, and big year-end bookings in time for the holidays -- all instances where the UFC’s media could trump the Russian’s coverage in ways Cerrone vs. Henderson couldn’t.