Strikeforce Grand Prix: Ranking The Striking Of The Fighters In The Tournament

Tonight’s Strikeforce event will feature the semi-finals of the heavyweight grand prix tournament with tournament newcomer Daniel Cormier fighting Antonio “Big Foot” Silva and Josh Barnett fighting Sergei Kharitonov.

These four fighters each bring a very different style into the cage which should make for some interesting match-ups both tonight as well as when the winners finally meet again to determine the tournament champion.

Each fighter will be looking to implement his own gameplan tonight, utilizing his own skills and his opponents’ weaknesses to try to secure a victory in this very important tournament. But while the fights may end up on the ground at some point, we do know one thing—these guys are going to have to exchange some punches first.

So which of the four fighters remaining in this tournament has the best striking striking skills?

Let’s take a closer look at not only offensive, but also defensive striking skills of these four fighters.

4. Antonio “Big Foot” Silva

Total Striking Accuracy: 43%

Significant Strikes Landed Per Minute: 2.97

Opponent’s Strikes Accuracy: 35%

Opponent’s Significant Strikes Absorbed Per Minute: 1.68

Though he has the worst numbers out of the bunch, Antonio Silva still packs quite a punch in that huge frame of his. “Big Foot” owns a 16-2 career MMA record with 11 of those wins coming by way of knockout.

His complete and utter destruction of Fedor Emelianenko came mostly on the ground, but we got a glimpse of the kind of damage that can be produced when a fighter has hands that resemble cinder blocks.

All statistics are credited to FightMetric.com

3. Josh Barnett

Total Striking Accuracy: 47%

Significant Strikes Landed Per Minute: 2.34

Opponent’s Strikes Accuracy: 39%

Opponent’s Significant Strikes Absorbed Per Minute: 1.42

As the most experienced fighter in the field, Josh Barnett goes into tonight’s semi-finals as the odds-on favorite to walk away with the tournament crown.

His combination of wrestling and submissions have made him one of the best heavyweights of all-time and his experience could prove to be the difference against three fighters who are still relatively new to the sport of mixed martial arts.

But Barnett’s striking will likely not be his biggest asset, as despite having the best total strike accuracy among all of the fighters, he is still landing quite a few less significant strikes per fight than his opponents.

Then again, that could be largely due to the level of competition he has faced, as opposed to the newcomers that the other fighters in the tournament have mostly faced.

All statistics are credited to FightMetric.com

2. Daniel Cormier

Total Striking Accuracy: 46%

Significant Strikes Landed Per Minute: 3.66

Opponent’s Strikes Accuracy: 24%

Opponent’s Significant Strikes Absorbed Per Minute: 0.93

The freshest face to the sport among these four is also the newest entrant in the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix, Daniel Cormier.

Cormier replaces Alistair Overeem who left the tournament with a minor injury and has since opted to sign a UFC-exclusive contract which will pit him against Brock Lesnar later in the year. The decision to replace Overeem with Cormier was an easy one, though, as Cormier had dominated veteran fighter Jeff Monson in his Grand Prix alternates bout in June.

Monson is really the only big-name fighter that Cormier has fought thus far in his career, but his striking defense has been absolutely outstanding thus far. It could be due to his world class wrestling skills making his opponents fearful of a takedown, but Cormier has completely dominated the striking game thus far in his career. 

All statistics are credited to FightMetric.com

1. Sergei Kharitonov

Total Striking Accuracy: 45%

Significant Strikes Landed Per Minute: 4.00

Opponent’s Strikes Accuracy: 44%

Opponent’s Significant Strikes Absorbed Per Minute: 2.94

The numbers don’t always tell the whole story.

Despite him having by far the highest number of opponents strikes landed against him, Sergei Kharitonov has the best striking skills of any fighter left in this tournament. His 4.0 significant strikes landed per minute tells the story that he can take a punch, but he also delivers them back in a big way. Just ask Andrei Arlovski.

Kharitonov has been fighting in MMA since 2000 and has compiled a record of 18-4 with nine wins coming by way of official knockout (two others came by submission due to punches). His striking has been good enough that he has even gone over and competed in K-1 over the past few years.

He has the best striking of the remaining fighters, but will that be enough overcome the odds that place him as a +325 underdog against Barnett tonight? 

All statistics are credited to FightMetric.com