The August 15th Strikeforce event on Showtime continues to form as Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem goes toe to toe with former UFC heavyweight Fabricio Werdum on the show.
Despite winning the belt over Paul Buentello (29-11-1) back in November 2007 (seen above), this will be the first title defense for the 29-year-old Overeem. Since the victory he has mainly been competing in Japan's DREAM.
Overeem has compiled a 3-0-1 record since then with his last competition coming in Nov. 2008.
Werdum (11-4-1) was last seen getting KO'd by Junior dos Santos at UFC 90 in Oct. 2008. After a 2-2 mark with the organization, the 31-year-old was released. He's been a pro since June 2002 and has fought top talent like Gabriel Gonzaga, former UFC interim Heavyweight Champion Antonio Nogueira, and Andrei Arlovski.
These two actually fought back in May 2006 for PRIDE with Werdum submitting Overeeem with a 2nd-round kimura.
The show has nearly been completely filled out with this and last week's announcement of Nate Diaz vs. Joe Riggs. These bouts were added to a show that will feature Gina Carano vs. Cris Santos as the main event and Lightweight Champion Josh Thompson vs. Gilbert Melendez.
Josh Nason - josh [at] ropesringandcage [dot com] - has published MMA, wrestling and boxing blog Ropes, Ring and Cage.com since 2007. He has been a contributor to Fight Magazine since January 2009 and Bleacher Report since 2008.
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