Alistair Overeem: Is the Strikeforce Heavyweight Champ Ducking Antonio Silva?

It was recently reported that Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem has officially dropped out of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.

Zuffa needed Alistair to be ready to go for early September and the champ told them that was just too soon.

Unfortunately, the television company airing the heavyweight tournament, Showtime, needs the fights to place in September. The event was unable to be delayed and Overeem was removed and replaced by Daniel Cormier.

According to Alistair's management, the reason the he will be unable to fight in September is a nagging broken toe.

This news was met with groans of disapproval by the fans, who believe that Overeem should still be able to compete despite his injury.

A broken toe is not an overly debilitating injury and does not even require a cast or splint to heal. Many fighters have competed with worse afflictions.

Could it be possible that Alistair Overeem is trying to duck Antonio Silva?

Overeem and Silva were set to fight after both winning their respective quarterfinal bouts.

Before we take a look at whether or not Overeem is ducking Antonio, specifically, let's look at Alistair's record over the past few years.

For starters, he won the Strikeforce heavyweight championship four years ago and has defended it just one time.

Based on that, you would think that his division has a shortage of contenders, but you would be wrong.

Since winning the belt, there have been tons of potential high level opponents for Overeem. Names like Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Sergei Kharintonov (who owns a victory over Overeem) and Overeem's would be opponent in the semi-finals Antonio Silva all come to mind.

But with all those tough opponents, the only man Overeem has defended his belt against is Brett Rogers, who is a B-level fighter.

Alistair has spent most of his title reign fighting overseas in smaller mixed martial arts promotions against blatantly mediocre competition.

Earlier this year, we finally got to see Overeem take on a top ten heavyweight in Fabricio Werdum.

The Strikeforce heavyweight champ was victorious, but it was an ugly fight and largely unimpressive.

Werdum was actually able to land more punches than Overeem, who was supposed to be the far superior striker. The main reason Alistair won the fight was that Fabricio kept flopping on his back trying to pull guard.

After years of dominating low level competition, Overeem stepped into the cage with one of the best in the world and looked utterly mediocre.

Now he's pulled out of a fight with an even more dangerous opponent citing a questionable injury?

Even his biggest fans have to admit that's a little bit suspicious.

I cannot say for sure whether or not Alistair is ducking Silva, but it is strange that he could have been taking high profile fights over the past few years, but has instead been fighting cans overseas.

It seems to me like Overeem might be afraid to lose and is trying to avoid taking on the best.