All fighters made weight for Strikeforce’s event Saturday in St. Louis, where heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem takes on Brett Rogers in his first title defence since capturing the vacant belt more than two years ago.
Overeem, who defeated Paul Buentello by TKO in November 2007, hit the scale at 253 pounds Friday at the Scottrade Center in the weigh-ins for Strikeforce St. Louis: Heavy Artillery. Rogers, who is coming off a second-round TKO loss to WAMMA heavyweight title-holder Fedor Emelianenko last Nov. 7, weighed in at 264.
The event, broadcast on Showtime in the U.S., will be available on Super Channel in Canada.
It will be the first fight back in North America for Overeem, who has been fighting mostly in Dream in Japan since becoming Strikeforce’s first heavyweight champion in San Jose. The Dutch fighter, who also competed a couple of times in his home country, said his priority now is to fight back in the U.S.
“I’m happy to be fighting in the States again,” Overeem (32-11) said on a recent conference call. “I injured my hand, but right now I’m really fit and ready to get it on.”
The 29-year-old, who has received criticism for apparently avoiding top competition by fighting overseas, said he’s not specifically looking to make a statement in the fight to change people’s thoughts.
“People are free to think whatever they want, people are free to say whatever they want,” Overeem said. “It’s my job. I’m getting paid for it. They’re not my boss, so I don’t care what they say or think. They’re entitled to their own opinions or thoughts.”
The choice of Rogers (10-1) as Overeem’s first challenger, has been met with equal critique. Despite opening his career with 10 straight wins, some wondered if he should have been awarded a title shot coming off of a knockout loss.
Rogers, 29, uses that kind of talk as motivation.
“This is the type of fight that I have wanted for a long time,” Rogers said. “It’s not something that I’ve taken it very lightly. People are just holding the Fedor loss against me. People think I don’t deserve it, so I’m feeling a lot of pressure to do anything to prove it.”
Overeem, meanwhile, feels Rogers’ performance against Emelianenko shows he can present a worthy challenge.
“He’s a big guy, strong guy,” Overeem said. “He performed really well against Fedor. He gave him, I would say, the fight of his life.
“I’m really prepared for anything that he’ll throw at me. It’s going to be a really good fight, a really good matchup. People are going to want to see this battle.”
In the co-main event, former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski, who hasn’t fought since a 22-second TKO loss to Rogers last June, takes on Antonio Silva. Arlovski, who weighed in at 242 pounds, said he’s rededicated himself to fighting since that defeat.
Silva, coming off a loss by unanimous decision to Fabricio Werdum in November, was within a half-pound of the weight limit at 265.5.
Here are the rest of the weigh-in results:
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (186.5) vs. Joey Villasenor (186)
Roger Gracie (205.75) vs. Kevin Randleman (205)
Antwain Britt (204.5) vs. Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante (206)
Prelims
Justin DeMoney (169) vs. Jesse Finney (172)
Lyle Beerbohm (156) vs. Vitor Ribeiro (156)
Darryl Cobb (184) vs. Booker DeRousse (187)
Mike Chandler (170) vs. Sal Woods (170)
Lee Brousseau (204) vs. Fransisco France (206)
Tom Aaron (157.5) vs. Erik Steenberg (155)
Matt Ricehouse (156) vs. Greg Wilson (155)
NOTES: Strikeforce officially announced Friday that Emelianenko will face Werdum on June 26 in San Jose. Also fighting on the card will be women’s 145-pound champion Cristiane (Cyborg) Santos, with an opponent yet to be named. … MMAjunkie.com reported that heavyweight star Bobby Lashley will take on undefeated prospect Ron Sparks on the main card of Strikeforce: Los Angeles on June 16.
