Strikeforce Fedor Vs Silva: Grand Prix Fan Event Held in New York City

By 3:10 pm on Tuesday, already hundreds of bundled up fans waited in a line wrapping down the street in New York City's Theatre District to catch the some of the biggest stars in MMA.  

And I literally mean "biggest."

The promotional event was open to the public and featured all eight combatants entered in the highly anticipated Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament that kicks off this Saturday.

Overall, the event was a good call on Strikeforce's end.

Aided occasionally by Frank "The Legend" Shamrock, the event was hosted by sports talk radio personality Scott Ferrall.

Initially doing a good job to get the crowd excited, Ferrall's act seemed a little like extra noise as the presentation got to its meat and potatoes.

One too many times to be fresh did Ferrall make suggestive comments about the "Strikeforce girls," although the ladies were in top form.

For a short while, he took the time to rally for New York state legislation. Most of the crowd was educated to the issue and cheered with me as he called the lawmakers "a bunch of sissies."

Most of the fighters answered questions in their droll run-of-the-mill answers, but there were a couple of highlights.

When Andrei Arlovski came up, the crowd showed their support. In his understated comedic stylings, the Belerussian commented about his upcoming matchup by saying, "I saw Sergei, and f@#*, he is huge."

While demonstrating some impressive techniques for the crowd, Fabricio Werdum did not miss an opportunity take a jab at his former victim and the current Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem: "This is the move where I made him my b*$@h."

Not a sinister move, as Alistair and Fabricio have no personal beef, but a funny glimpse into Fabricio's personality.

This was a good event for Strikeforce to do, but still a learning experience for them.  

The fighters made comments about the tournament that you would expect from any press conference or interview, but it still had some nice bells and whistles and was a good opportunity for the public to see a tiny bit of their personalities up close.

Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva Results, News And More