Fedor To Possibly Get Title Shot: Why That's OK

When Fedor Emelianenko lost last month to Fabricio Werdum, most assumed the potential title fight between Fedor and Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem was dead.

It now appears the fight still has a pulse, as Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker has recently issued a public statement expressing that he still has interests in making the fight a go.

Now, before you go writing off Strikeforce as some Mickey Mouse Club with no rhyme or reason as to who gets to fight for their titles, consider a few points.

First off, and most importantly, Fedor only has one fight left on his Strikeforce contract. When that fight is fulfilled, it is very likely that Fedor will be done with his American ventures and return to the comfortable confines of his homeland, possibly taking the occasional big-money fight in Japan.

Even with his recent loss, he is still the biggest name that the organization can claim. If they wasted the one fight they have left of him on Antonio Silva or someone of that stature, they really would not be getting their money's worth.

An immediate match with Overeem may draw some criticism from the educated fans, (a small minority of the viewers), but they would certainly be getting more bang for their buck in terms of the amount of people that would tune in.

There are plenty of people that would insist a fighter has to earn his way into a championship fight, which is certainly a legitimate claim, but ten years at the top of the sport with only one loss should be worth something. If there was ever a fighter that deserved a bye, it would be Emelianenko.

It wouldn't be the first time a fighter got a title shot following a loss . Brett Rogers was coming off a knockout loss to Fedor when he was given a shot at Overeem and his Strikeforce belt earlier this year. Some might say it would be unfair to allow the unaccomplished Rogers to ignore the rules that Fedor must follow.

Brock Lesnar was given a shot at the UFC heavyweight title when he was just one decision win over Heath Herring removed from his first-round submission loss to Frank Mir. And most consider the UFC title to be held with higher regard than that of Strikeforce. It was also only Lesnar's fourth MMA fight.

There is also the issue of what the champ wants. Overeem has made it very clear that he would jump at the opportunity to fight the Russian legend. The champ deserves some say in who he prefers to fight.

Frankly, Werdum will still be around to fight whoever comes out with the title. There is no rush to put Werdum in the cage; his contract, and career for that matter, is not coming to an imminent close, like Fedor's may well be.

So why not give the legend what could possibly be his last big fight?

It is a tremendous match-up—if it doesn't happen now, the fans might lose the opportunity to ever see these two lock horns. Should we really let the Strikeforce title keep us from seeing what could be a historical and excellent fight?

In a perfect world, Fedor and Strikeforce would have all the time necessary to plan out the perfect path to making this fight as big as it could possibly be. Or even better, Fedor would have just run through Werdum like Strikeforce had intended, setting up a giant fight for the promotion between Fedor and Overeem, leaving us to count down the days until we got to fork over 50 bucks to see it.

But as we all know, the best laid plans of mice and men and MMA promoters often go awry.