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Conventional wisdom told us the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix might be a win-or-go-home proposition for Josh Barnett.

Given the fighter’s notoriously frigid relationship with Zuffa, LLC, we suspected all along the only way he might get back into the UFC was by force; by winning a tournament that had already begun by the time the organization bought Strikeforce last March.

In the past, Zuffa brass has occasionally invoked Barnett’s name as an example everything that is wrong with MMA and when news broke a few months back that the long-awaited GP champion would have yet another fight in Strikeforce before being allowed entry to the Octagon, at least a few conspiracy theorists wondered if it might be akin to “Barnett Insurance” for the UFC.

Now we might never know. Barnett’s bid to win the Strikeforce heavyweight tourney fell painfully short on Saturday night, as he was summarily out-struck and out-wrestled (pretty much out-everything’ed) by Daniel Cormier en route to a lopsided five-round unanimous decision loss in the grand prix final.

When at any point a 6-foot-3, 250-pound man gets scooped off his feet, turned upside down and unceremoniously slammed to the canvas during a fight, it’s a pretty clear sign that things didn’t go his way.

Funny thing about this sport, though: Sometimes even in defeat you come out looking better than before.

Fine, maybe not better -- not exactly -- but if there are any tangible takeaways from Barnett’s performance this weekend they are that the 34-year-old can still go, that he should still be solidly ensconced among the heavyweight top 10 and that he deserves to continue fighting the best in the world.

Now we just have to wait and see if Zuffa will give him the chance.

Prior to entering the Strikeforce tournament, Barnett had spent the last four years splitting time between professional wrestling in Japan and making sporadic appearances in any independent MMA promotion that would make it worth his while. He ran off six straight wins, but did so largely against nobodies like Geronimo dos Santos, spectacles like “Mighty Mo” Siliga and oldsters like Pedro Rizzo.

As a result, we didn’t know quite what to expect when he dived into the ambitious and star-studded GP draw. His first two bouts -- short and sweet submissions over Brett Rogers and Sergei Kharitonov -- didn’t tell us a lot, either. It wasn’t until Saturday's final against Cormier that we truly got to see what Barnett still has in the tank, and it was impressive stuff.

Despite claiming to have broken his hand landing a hard left hook in the first round, Barnett hung in there with Cormier for the duration, continuing to fire off crisp punching combinations to the last. In the fourth round, he threatened the former Olympic wrestler with a leg lock and if not for 15-plus minutes worth of exhaustion, sweat and maybe that broken meathook compromising his grip, who knows what might’ve happened. He fought with the sort of guile and complete disregard for his own face that -- while troubling, if you worry for Josh Barnett the person -- was obviously not the showing of an apathetic, disinterested guy who was just there to get a few paychecks.

Finally, here was Josh Barnett. Here was the guy who crashed onto the scene with a submission victory over Dan Severn in 2000. Here was the guy who defeated Randy Couture to win the UFC title in 2002. Here was the guy who fought his way into the final of the Pride open weight grand prix in 2006 and the guy whose only previous MMA losses came to in-their-prime versions of Rizzo, Mirko Filipovic and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

With his career possibly on the line here, finally, was Barnett, putting out the kind of effort we've been waiting to see from him since the fall of Pride. Yeah, he came up short against a man who could well prove to be “the next great heavyweight” or whatever the over-the-top Strikeforce broadcast declared Cormier on Saturday, but he did it with considerable style.

Simply put, Barnett looked like a UFC heavyweight. In the late stages he looked arguably better than some UFC heavyweights might after 25 minutes at a whirlwind pace, after taking a fairly hellacious beating and after breaking his hand in the early going.

Here's hoping he gets the the opportunity to actually become a UFC heavyweight again. Here's hoping that the baggage of the past does not obscure his future, that he and the UFC can ultimately find some common ground.

Barnett's effort against Cormier proved the 265-pound class would be better for it.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix wasn’t supposed to end with an undersized, inexperienced alternate as the last man standing.

Daniel Cormier apparently writes his own script.

Cormier (10-0) dominated veteran Josh Barnett over the course of five rounds Saturday, claiming the belt from a tournament he didn’t even have a spot in when it was announced in 2010.

Strikeforce is a difficult realm in the current landscape of mixed martial arts in which to make noise, but Cormier has been the exception to that rule. No heavyweight’s stock has risen more in the past two years than that of the former Olympic wrestler.

“If you look at the heavyweight group that fought in this tournament, I think it’s something Daniel should be very proud of,” Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told ESPN.com.

“It’s an amazing feat. I mean, Fedor [Emelianenko], Alistair [Overeem], [Antonio] Silva, Josh Barnett -- he didn’t have it easy.”

The improbable road through the Grand Prix started with a unanimous decision win over Jeff Monson in June. Cormier then went on to knock out Antonio Silva before handling Barnett.

Silva is currently the No. 10-ranked heavyweight on ESPN.com. Barnett was ranked No. 5 heading into the finale.

As is often the case in this sport, it wasn’t just the names of the competitors Cormier defeated. The most impressive moments hide in the details.

At the postfight news conference, Cormier admitted he had reinjured his right hand in the first round -- the same hand that caused a delay in the Grand Prix finals since September.

He hid it amazingly well the rest of the way and later speculated he’d undergo surgery now that the tournament is finished.

“I followed our game plan,” Cormier said. “Josh did great. He fought hard in there. He was in my face. I couldn’t believe some of the shots I landed on him and he was able to stay up. I think I broke my hand in the first round.”

His cardio held up well over the course of his first five-round fight, and he showed a terrific ability to slow down the pace during the only time he was really in trouble. After eating a straight right, then a knee from Barnett while regaining his balance from a body kick attempt, Cormier locked up his bigger opponent and survived.

As was the case when he fought Monson, the evolution of his standup was what stuck out most. He landed strikes on the inside and out, and seemed to have Barnett in trouble during the third round with knees from the Thai clinch.

“The thing I’m impressed with is that he comes from Olympic wrestling,” Coker said. “If you saw his fight against Jeff Monson, you said, ‘Who is this guy?’ He was a kickboxer in that fight, and today he was a complete martial arts fighter.”

Cormier will fulfill one more obligation with Strikeforce, a title defense of his Grand Prix belt against an unnamed opponent, possibly this year.

All that could wait Saturday night, however, as the 33-year-old Cormier simply wanted to enjoy the moment. For a man who suffered the loss of his father when he was young and a daughter to a car accident a few years ago, and who has experienced many wins in his career but perhaps never the big one -- it’s an understandable request.

“All the negative things that have happened in my life prepared me for this,” Cormier said. “Everything has kind of turned around.

“Not only is my career going well, but I’ve got two young kids and a great girlfriend. My family life is perfect. Everything is on the up and up.”

It took 15 months and some monumental forks in the road to arrive at the end point of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix. No, it didn’t go the way people thought it would, nor the way many hoped. There isn’t going to be Fedor Emelianenko versus Josh Barnett. That fight, for its entire luster, never could come to terms with fate. Not in Pride, not in Affliction, not in Strikeforce.

However, of the eight-man field that was rolled out in January 2011 as the greatest stock of heavyweights ever assembled, Barnett was the steady. He was supposed to be in the final, and he is. He got there by competing in the quarterfinal (a submission of Brett Rogers) and the semis (a submission of Sergei Kharitonov). Isn’t it strange that the man with the most asterisks coming into the tournament was in the end the only one who could stick to the script?

On the other hand, Daniel Cormier’s course was improbable. He was an alternate to this tournament. A deep alternate. He was the 11th man in an eight-man field. Yet he worked over Jeff Monson on the same night Barnett clubbed Rogers in something called a “reserve bout.” Then Cormier found his entry when Alistair Overeem was unceremoniously removed. What did Cormier do? He obliterated heavy favorite Antonio Silva on the feet with speed and power.

And that’s how we arrive at the moment. The old “War Master” Barnett, against the opportunistic, understudy-turned-contender Cormier. The 1-seed versus the 11. Just how crazy has the 15-month journey been to San Jose? Crazy enough that sports books have these guys at even money heading into Saturday night.

Here are five things to watch for at Strikeforce this weekend.

Cormier’s lack of experience

Daniel Cormier is a nerves-of-steel guy. He is always relaxed. Right before his fight with Bigfoot Silva, he wore and expression that said, “I wouldn’t mind a nap” more than “I’m about to lay waste to somebody.” Needless to say, Cormier keeps himself cool under pressure.

This can be attributed to his wrestling days at Oklahoma State and later as a part of the 2004 U.S. Olympic wrestling team. Cormier has competed his whole life. You really believe that fighting -- for all its literal brutality -- is just another competition for him. He believes in his ability and knows he has deceptive explosiveness and speed. In short, his confidence shows in that calm expression.

Yet with only nine professional MMA bouts, and realistically only one of those against a top-10 opponent, how will he handle a submission specialist like Barnett? Even when training with the likes of Mike Kyle and Cain Velasquez, it’s hard to duplicate the strength and slickness of Barnett, who has been at this a long, long time (since he was 19 years old, to be exact). Cormier will very likely find himself in fixes he hasn’t been in before in the cage. How will he handle himself?

Barnett’s comfort zone

Everybody knows what Barnett likes to do. He likes to muscle you to the ground, straighten you out, and work for submissions from that top position. He’s not afraid to punch a hole in your head, either. Just ask Pedro Rizzo and Gilbert Yvel. But Barnett's most effective way of finishing a guy is to put him on his back and then fish for limbs to manipulate.

Dating back to 2006, Barnett has finished foes via toeholds, heel hooks, kimuras and arm triangle chokes. He does these things more with brute force than textbook jiu-jitsu. In Cormier, Barnett gets a guy who has never been made to fight off his back and has never had his shoulder joint pressured into a panic situation.

But the bigger questions are these: Can Barnett get Cormier to the ground? And if so, can he keep him there?

Melendez’s motivation
Trilogies are usually pretty personal grudge matches. In the case of Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson, it feels more like a necessary evil. At least to Melendez, who will be asked to duplicate what he did in 2009 when he smoked Thomson in the rematch to unify the interim and meaningful belts. That fight was so definitive that most thought he was done with Thomson for good.

Well, circumstance has made that impossible. Thomson gets a chance to strip Melendez of his belt a second time because the “Punk” was the best option available on Strikeforce’s depleted roster. It’s a rubber match that benefits Thomson a thousand times more than Melendez, because third chances rarely come along.

Which begs the same question that has fallen to Melendez for the past year: How motivated will he be to again prove himself against Thomson? Knowing the work ethic of “El Nino,” it’s easy to expect to see him in vintage form. But complacency is a hard-to-detect virus that usually gets discovered after it’s too late. Will Melendez suffer from this?

(Probably not, but you never know ...)

Thomson’s attitude

The first time Thomson fought Melendez in 2008, it was as if Thomson was showing up for a day of capers and fun. He was smiling the whole time. He was loose. There were moments when it almost felt like he was messing with his younger brother, just fooling around. Every so often he would do something to remind Melendez that, when serious, he could dictate things how he wanted.

But the key to that fight was that Thomson was first. He was quick with the leg kicks. He was effective with his combinations. He would shoot now and again for a takedown and keep Melendez off balance. Thomson thwarted Melendez’s wrestling. And by being the aggressor, he disrupted Melendez’s timing and flow. Can he do that again?

Remember, Thomson had broken (and rebroken) his fibula before that rematch with Melendez in 2009, and he was carrying some ring rust after 15 months on the shelf. Chances are we'll see a combination of those two fights with one similarity: that it goes the full five rounds.

Feijao returns

Though it’s getting very little fanfare, former 205-pound champion Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante returns to the cage on Saturday night against Mike Kyle. Remember, Cavalcante is the guy who beat Muhammad Lawal to win the Strikeforce belt not all that long ago. And, in his title defense against Dan Henderson, there was a moment where it looked like Cavalcante had Hendo in trouble.

It’s been eight months since Feijao beat Cuban freestyle wrestler Yoel Romero, a fight that Cavalcante finished even with a broken arm. He’s still one of the best 205ers in the world, and a win over a tough Kyle might make Feijao a tempting property for the UFC to bring over and fortify its own light heavyweight division. After all, the list of contenders for Jon Jones has shrunk down to Henderson and change.

There are at least two kinds of greatness in MMA. Greatness that’s current (like Jon Jones), and greatness that’s always been (like Dan Henderson). In a world of immediacy, we warm our hands more quickly to the former.

Henderson now knows the date for his title challenge with Jones, and that’ll be Sept. 1 in Las Vegas. He will celebrate his 42nd birthday just a week prior to the fight. In 1987, Jones was being introduced to onesies while Henderson was reciting lines from “Vision Quest” and winning state wrestling championships at Victor Valley High School in California. The vegetation on his ears is older than Jones.

If nothing else, Hendo definitely has the experience edge over the UFC’s current light heavyweight champion. He’s been at it a long, long time. Yet the books opened in Las Vegas with Jones installed as a 6-to-1 favorite for this UFC 151 clash. The 24-year old Jones would be a huge favorite over anybody in the 205-pound division, so nothing peculiar there. There’s no such thing as even money bet with Jones in 2012, unless he borrowed from Anderson Silva’s flight of fancy and fought his clone. (Ahem).

Yet what is interesting all these months ahead of the fight is that so many people consider it a foregone conclusion that the prodigy will smash the old ax grinder. In fact, the thing is being discussed as inevitable. Forget about odds, Henderson has no shot.

In a game that deals in shaping perception, this becomes the UFC’s task to mend for no other reason than this: it’s hard to generate buzz on a perfunctory matter. Between now and late summer the idea needs to be that Henderson does have a shot. This of course would be best sold as something believable.

And realistically -- why should that be such a tough sell?

Surely over the course of winning simultaneous titles in Pride FC and later taking the 205-pound belt in Strikeforce there should be some love for Henderson here. His list of casualties in the UFC, Pride and Strikeforce -- pan-divisional -- is next to impossible. He was wrecking guys like Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva during their heydays.

As for his own prime? It’s apparently a dozen-year venture. Henderson knocked out Michael Bisping with that anvil right at UFC 100. Since then he finished Renato Sobral, Rafael Cavalcante and Fedor Emelianenko, and he decisioned Mauricio Rua at UFC 139. He did these things in his late-30s and early-40s. These are feats that, if lost on the media, aren’t necessarily lost on his peers.

Last week on MMA Live, Jorge Rivera had Henderson in his top five pound-for-pound fighters. Daniel Cormier told MMA:30 that he “should be mentioned as one of the greatest fighters of all-time, if not the greatest fighter of all-time, but he’s missing that UFC title. He has to be a UFC champion. I think if he is, Dan Henderson will universally be considered the best fighter of all-time.”

To be considered anywhere near the greatest of all time you’d have to believe Henderson has more than a puncher’s chance to beat the greatest of right now. Yes, Jones’ landslide run through the division trumps Henderson’s legacy in forecasting how things will play out. If Shogun, Quinton Jackson, Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans failed to make Jones appear even remotely vincible, what makes Henderson any different? Nothing, it seems.

Jones is not only destroying opponents, but also our sense of imagination.

Yet the other reason that Henderson is unsung goes back to what Cormier was touching on -- he has been decorated as this sort of fugitive champion in other organizations, but not the one that we store greatness by. He hasn’t made it to the top of any weight class in the UFC.

And at 42 years old -- or any age, really -- Jones looks like a pretty imposing hurdle to get there. Imposing, that is, not unclearable. Henderson’s a guy that fights in squalls and yet has remained a lesson in perseverance for more than a decade. He has a chin, and what he gives up size he makes up for it in leverage, a tangible from his Greco-Roman days. And he has that “H-Bomb” right hand. He’s smart on how and when to deploy it.

Does all of that make for a competitive fight with Jones? Not necessarily. It still feels like a reach, as it will continue to feel until Jones is downsized into something human.

Yet given how long Henderson has sustained his own brand of greatness, it doesn’t feel like a given he’ll lose, either.

Leading up to the Strikeforce World Grand Prix final on May 19 in San Jose, it would be easy for heavyweight Daniel Cormier to scoff at Josh Barnett’s wrestling background.

Really, Cormier could scoff at just about anybody’s experience level when it comes to the wrestling mat. Twice, he was a member of the U.S. Olympic team and in 2001 he placed second at the NCAA Championships.

In contrast, Barnett opted to leave the amateur circuit for the professional wrestling scene. He’s competed in "worked" wrestling matches off and on for the better part of his career.

When asked to describe how they’re backgrounds in the sport of wrestling compare, Barnett joked, as he often does, “I cut better promos and I’m more adept at jumping off the top of a cage.”

Cormier, though, quickly interrupted on a more serious note.

“I think when you guys call him a professional wrestler, some of his opponents have listened to that,” Cormier said. “In order to do all that stuff he does on the ground, he has to get you down. This dude’s a wrestler first.

“I think that’s what people misunderstand. People say, ‘Oh, you’re fighting a professional wrestler.’ No, I know better than that.”

The wrestling community has a reputation of being close-knit, a generalization that certainly applies when watching Barnett and Cormier interact.

“One thing wrestlers have over mixed martial arts guys is they know their history,” Barnett said. “Even the guys that are jerks, everybody comes up to you, shakes your hand and tells you who they are. You know your lineage.

“In MMA, there are a lot of kids who run out and don’t know nothing. They couldn’t tell you what Pancrase is. It’s not as if you should worship [past generations], but you should know your past.”

Of course, that means Barnett is well-aware of everything Cormier has accomplished. With 19 submission wins in his MMA career, Barnett has every right to be confident in his grappling skills when the two meet this month, but his first love was still amateur wrestling and he recognizes Cormier as one of the very best.

“I’ll tell you, there’s a part of me that’s envious,” Barnett said. “The experiences he had wrestling in college and the Olympics, I think it’s awesome. I think it’s absolutely fantastic. Amateur wrestling, bar none is the best sport out there.”

It's interesting the two understand wrestling so well, as it's in many ways the sole equalizer in determining the champion of this Grand Prix.

Barnett has competed in MMA since 1997. He’s held title belts in multiple organizations and competed against the who’s who of the heavyweight division for years. Having him fight a 9-0 Cormier is, on paper, a colossal mismatch.

The difference for Cormier has been and may continue to be his wrestling excellence. While it’s not in him to dismiss Barnett’s participation in pro wrestling, he believes his path through the amateurs ultimately outweighs everything.

“My coaches told me the other day it’s kind of weird I’m so calm with my level of experience,” Cormier said.

“When I’m in a fight, I’m confident that the skill I spent a lifetime gathering, which has been shown to be the most dominant skill in MMA, I can do better than anyone else. That, more than anything, makes me calm and confident.”

ATLANTA -- News broke Friday that famed heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko has booked a fight against Pedro Rizzo on June 21 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

A large contingent of fans voiced its displeasure of the matchup immediately following the announcement.

Rizzo (19-9), though a longtime fixture in mixed martial arts, hasn’t competed since posting a TKO win over Ken Shamrock in July 2010.

Strikeforce Grand Prix finalists Josh Barnett and Daniel Cormier, who are scheduled to meet on May 19, are not amongst those bashing the matchup. In fact, both heavyweights defended the fight when asked to comment.

“What are you going to do?” Barnett told ESPN.com. “Would you rather see [Emelianenko] not fight at all? At the end of the day, it’s not always up to Fedor. Don’t believe Pedro was the only guy asked.

“So, what’s the other option? How about he just sits around for another six months?”

Cormier voiced a similar opinion, stating that regardless of what opponent Emelianenko’s management group found, fans would likely find it disappointing.

“There’s just not that many guys who would be OK,” Cormier said. “If they said, ‘He’s fighting Rolles Gracie,” people would say he [Gracie] got beat by Joey [Beltran] and flushed out of the UFC. If it were Bobby Lashley, they’d say he’s just a pro wrestler who got beat by Chad Griggs.

“It’s always going to be something. The best guys are under the Zuffa umbrella. [Emelianenko] is not -- so he doesn’t have much to choose from.”

Emelianenko (33-4) was an original participant in the Strikeforce Grand Prix. He was knocked out in the first round after losing via TKO to Antonio Silva, who was eventually knocked out by Cormier.

The Russian star finished his tenure in Strikeforce on a three-fight losing streak. Since leaving the promotion last year, he’s rebounded with back-to-back wins over Jeff Monson and Satoshi Ishii.

While some consider Emelianenko to be past his prime, others still hope the day will come when he makes a very long-awaited UFC debut. President Dana White has expressed in recent interviews he has no interest in signing Emelianenko.

That means fans will have to be content watching him take on an opponent like Rizzo, who, Barnett says, is capable of giving the 37-year-old Rizzo problems. Barnett has split two fights against Rizzo in his career.

“He’s heavy handed,” Barnett said. “He’s got strong low kicks, great counter punches and a great overhand right. Against Fedor though, with his speed, it could be a very difficult matchup for Pedro. But his footwork is pretty good and his takedown defense isn’t horrible. I know he can give [Emelianenko] trouble with that.

“Let the fights turn out. Let’s see how it goes. It’s one thing to talk about how this is going to be a mismatch. Once the punches start flying, who knows what will happen? It could be an amazing fight.”

Alistair Overeem hasn't spoken publicly since news broke Wednesday that he tested positive for an increased testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio. He probably doesn't have to for Josh Barnett to understand what the 31-year-old Dutch heavyweight is feeling right now.

Barnett, of course, paid a heavy price when he failed a prefight drug test in California almost three years ago. Lost was a huge payday against Fedor Emelianenko, then ranked No. 1 in the division and widely considered among the best competitors in mixed martial arts. The loss of the fight was also the impetus for Affliction Entertainment going under, a situation that rattled the business, fostered the growth and subsequent decline of Strikeforce, and eventually led to Zuffa's move to consolidate the industry.

It's unclear what penalties Overeem will suffer, but similar to Barnett (32-5) he could easily surrender a huge payday as well as the most important fight of his career -- a UFC title tilt against Junior dos Santos. Hey, at least he doesn't have to worry about bringing down a promotion, though he might not be around to partake in UFC's continuing prosperity.

Still, with dark clouds currently hanging over his head, Overeem should take solace in the notion of Barnett's return the UFC for the first time in a decade -- the message being: No matter how badly someone messes up, Zuffa is prone to forgive under the right circumstances.

Barnett's new lease on a UFC life is incumbent on defeating Daniel Cormier on May 19 to cap off the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix tournament. If that happens, UFC president Dana White has suggested that the 34-year-old American could enter the Octagon for the first time since stopping Randy Couture in 2002 to claim the promotional title.

How would he fare against the men ranked above him (which for the time being continues to include Overeem)?

Frank Mir

At stake would be the title of best submission grappler in the heavyweight division. Mir, 32, may have usurped that title by breaking off a piece of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and you know Barnett would love the opportunity to make a point against the former UFC heavyweight champion.

On the floor it's essentially an even fight, though Barnett is much better when he fights from the top. Mir's strength comes in attacking arms. Barnett can do that too; he just prefers the leg techniques born out of catch-wrestling. I can't help but think a grappling-heavy fight between the two would be incredibly appealing.

Both have shown the ability to hurt opponents while standing, but Mir (16-5) owns a slight edge here based on recent results.

If they fought 10 times ... they'd split.

Cain Velasquez

Barnett would carry a significant experience advantage over Velasquez (9-1) and he wouldn't get pushed around by a mid-sized heavyweight.

Barnett utilizes his size and athleticism to squash other grapplers, and if Velasquez winds up on his back he may not stand up or get a reversal. You do not want to face a situation where Barnett establishes top control. He is much more dangerous from the top than Brock Lesnar ever was because he'll string together submissions, is very adept at guard-passing, and is happy to grind away at someone's facial features with his elbows.

Barnett cedes ground in this matchup when it comes to speed, striking technique, and pure wrestling. Velasquez, 29, would have to keep moving against Barnett, never let the bigger man tie him up in the clinch, especially along the fence, and stay off bottom. That's obviously the key.

If they fought 10 times ... Velasquez wins 6 of 10.

Alistair Overeem

Filling a column full of "ifs," Overeem's status remains the largest. So in this scenario, the reprieve Barnett could receive from Dana White extends to Overeem.

Now to the matchup. Overeem is a different class of striker, and while Barnett might be tempted to engage the Dutch fighter's strength it would be a mistake. Getting Overeem (36-11) to the floor isn't easy. Toying around in the clinch, which Barnett does not mind doing, might result in a rocket of a knee puncturing his midsection. Barnett does not react well to body shots, as proven by Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, so that could be a major factor.

Barnett has to put the fight on the floor and push the pace against Overeem, whose stamina can be a question mark.

This is a violent matchup, one that surely wouldn't last the distance.

If they fought 10 times ... Barnett wins 6 of 10.

Junior dos Santos

The current UFC heavyweight champion is all about speed, movement and anvil-like punches. He's as tall as Barnett with about 25 less pounds to move around.

Barnett would lose if he stood with dos Santos, simple as that. The question is, can he take the 27-year-old Brazilian champion down without absorbing too much damage?

Barnett would be best served by roughing up dos Santos (14-1) against the fence, fighting for takedowns (just not from the outside so dos Santos can counter with knees or sprawl on the American's head), and establishing top control. Presuming he can do those things, he can win. Otherwise chances are good he'd be rendered unconscious.

If they fought 10 times ... dos Santos wins 7 of 10.

The biggest heavyweight fight in UFC history between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez lasted a minute and four seconds. It was so brief that the coveted casual fan that tuned in to FOX that night was left with these four lonely words -- wait, so that’s it?

On the other hand, the biggest heavyweight grand prix in history has stretched on for 15 long, meandering months. When it started, Strikeforce was still a rival of the UFC’s. Fedor Emelianenko was still formidable. Antonio Silva was constructed from body parts unknown. Fabricio Werdum was still a castoff, and Brett Rogers was free of legal isues. Josh Barnett had single handedly shut down Affliction, and Andrei Arlovski was still believable in fangs. You might remember that The Reem wasn’t yet viral, and Sergei Kharitonov was still unspellable.

It was a different era when the tournament started. In fact, Daniel Cormier, who is in the grand prix final against Barnett, was the eleventh man in the field of eight. How, exactly, did we get here?

Just about all the elite Zuffa heavyweights (and Roy Nelson) will be making appearances in a seven-day span in May. The roads to spring 2012 have been very different, but between May 19-26, everybody will finally get on the same page. Schedules will sync up for matchmaking, guys who have been cordoned off from each other will be at liberty to poke their fingers in whoever’s chest they please, and the division will become one massive melting pot.

It starts with Strikeforce’s heavyweight swan song in San Jose, Calif.; and ends with the UFC’s big man extravaganza in Las Vegas. On May 19, Cormier-Barnett goes down at long, long last, before one or both head to the UFC. On May 26, Frank Mir against Velasquez, Nelson versus Antonio Silva, Alistair Overeem in a title fight with Junior dos Santos. Seven of those names belong in ESPN.com’s top 10 Power Rankings.

That’s a lot of firepower. Forget about the biggest fight or biggest grand prix in heavyweight history -- this will be the biggest single week of consolidating big men we’ve ever seen. And a week after that, we’ll be in a state of musical opponents, matching up winners with winners and losers with losers, and pitting re-emerging bodies like Shane Carwin and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira with each other.

What does it really mean, though? That we’ll finally have a division that captivates the imagination like the others, with a little more matchmaking wiggle room and a lot more overall possibility. It’s a relaunch of something, only this time something whole. Now the best heavyweights in the world are gathering under one roof. And as everybody knows, heavyweights have always carried a little extra clout in the minds of fight fans. The bigger the man, the more likely people are to stop what they’re doing to watch. It’s what happens when guys like Alistair Overeem walk around weighing two Ian McCall’s.

And Zuffa is smart to roll out this broadened division en masse like this.

If you’re going to reimagine something, do it big.

Finally, the end is near.

At least, we hope it is.

With a date now officially set and Josh Barnett at least provisionally cleared to fight in California, it’s actually starting to look like the crazy pipe dream that was the Strikeforce heavyweight GP tournament might draw to an orderly conclusion two months from now.

May 19 is currently being targeted as the day Barnett will meet Daniel Cormier in the tournament final, at a venue in the Golden State to be determined later. You know, probably. Maybe. Barring any further setbacks.

Assuming it happens (fingers crossed), their proposed fight will jerk the curtain on more than a year of false starts, delays, chaotic lineup changes, untimely upsets, injuries and all other manner of misfortune that beset the Strikeforce grand prix and more or less proved the validity of Murphy’s Law.

Even then, we’ll have to use the term “conclusion” fairly loosely, as the terminal stage of this tournament only sort of, kind of resembles how it looked at the start.

But, hey, you know what? If Barnett and Cormier take to the cage as scheduled 73 days from now and engage in a sanctioned MMA fight that results in one man being crowned the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix tournament champion, well, that will have to be considered a success.

Somehow, against all odds, Strikeforce has lucked its way into an extremely interesting and potentially meaningful end to its ill-fated tournament, and that's something almost nobody expected.

After a few years of bouncing between second-tier promotions, fighting B-listers and nobodies, never seeming particularly interested in a future in MMA, Barnett has used this tourney to launch himself back into the thick of the 265-pound elite. Currently ranked No. 5 on ESPN.com’s heavyweight rankings, winning the GP would award Barnett a kind of relevance he hasn’t enjoyed since advancing to the final of Pride’s open weight draw in 2006. It could also set the stage for his return to the UFC for the first time since winning the heavyweight title from Randy Couture and testing positive for steroids in 2002.

At least for Barnett, the stakes in this tournament -- once so arbitrary (not to mention malleable) -- now seem very real. Unlike Cormier, who is probably UFC-bound no matter what, the veteran fighter with the longstanding grudge against Zuffa brass probably needs to win this one to be invited back to the Octagon.

If he pulls it off, it could signal a rebirth. If he loses, he'll just be the uninvited guest at the former Olympic wrestler's coming out party.

All in all, it's a surprisingly intriguing championship fight. Either way it goes, it'll make for a better ending than this flawed tournament rightfully deserves.

Critics unilaterally snorted at the prospect of a heavyweight grand prix featuring three participants as unreliable as Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem and Josh Barnett when the pairings were unveiled in the early part of last year.

An organization as hapless as Strikeforce could never traverse the mine field of working with all three of those guys simultaneously, right? Surely, Emelianenko’s people would decide to renegotiate his contract midstream. Surely, the notoriously flighty Overeem would get a better offer somewhere else. Surely, Barnett’s preexisting problems with various athletic commissions would make his involvement an enormous headache.

As it turned out, the critics weren’t wrong. Not exactly.

Strikeforce’s heavyweight GP did indeed play out as an epic cluster. As part of his historic tumbling act, Emelianenko got bounced in the first round by Antonio Silva. Overeem notched a single, tepid victory over Fabricio Werdum and then either withdrew or was withdrawn due to scheduling conflicts or an injury or a desire to hopscotch his way straight into the UFC, depending on who you ask.

There was a four-month break between the first leg of the opening round and the second and somewhere in the middle of all of it, Strikeforce sold out to the UFC, either dooming or saving the entire bracket, again, depending on who you ask.

Of the original participants, only Barnett successfully navigated through two fights -- wins over strikers Brett Rogers and Sergei Kharitonov -- to get to the final the old fashioned way. Amid all the surrounding chaos, Cormier was plucked from a field of eight reserves (despite the fact Chad Griggs had won two alternate bouts) and then defeated Silva in a makeshift semifinal to set up a May date with “The Warmaster.”

Yes, this tournament went on so long Barnett actually had time to change his nickname in the middle of it. And no, it probably didn’t go exactly how Strikeforce matchmakers drew it up on a chalkboard at the start.

Nonetheless, here we are. We’re two months out from the end and Strikeforce still lives. It’s managed to set up a solid fight, with better fighters, more relevant stakes and more momentum than anyone could’ve expected when it began this impossible mission.

That’s something, at least.

Now all we need to do is wrap it up, put it in the books. That should be academic at this point, though any time you’re dealing with all the things that could go wrong in a heavyweight tournament, 73 days might as well be an eternity.

For all the marvels, one thing that UFC President Dana White has never been particularly good at is speaking for Dan Henderson. This was the case before Henderson bolted for Strikeforce, and it’s still the case right now.

And for as telegraphic as Henderson has been in his latest title quest -- in any division he can physically make from middleweight on up -- he apparently turns into a sphinx when it comes to everything besides. White says Hendo’s waiting for Jon Jones/Rashad Evans; Henderson says that isn't true, that he wants to stay busy. White says Hendo turned down a fight with Lyoto Machida; Henderson says that’s the buffet talking -- that fight was never on the table.

One of these guys needs to get a landline, because the phone calls keep breaking up.

So what’s the truth? Probably that neither party has any good ideas on what to do. Henderson is hovering as contender No. 1B in two divisions, with willingness to explore a third (heavyweight). Yet out of all those divisions, the UFC can’t find him an opponent. It’s problematic for a 41-year-old to hit these kind of wait-and-see impasses.

The sticking point is that Henderson wants a guy of similar projection, somebody with a couple of wins in a row and title momentum. Those are scarce right now in the divisions Henderson dabbles in. If Henderson could make welterweight, he’d find the kind of guys he’s talking about. People like Carlos Condit, who has an interim belt he doesn’t know what to do with. Or Jake Ellenberger, who fits that bill, too. To fight those types, Henderson would have to fast like a yogi for as long as it would take to wait out Jones/Evans in April. In other words, fat chance.

At light heavyweight (his obvious preference), there’s Machida, who’s lost three of his last four bouts. But Machida’s in his own purgatory -- and even then he’s become a pretty attractive “why not” proposition for people in better positions to consider. Henderson apparently is. And there’s also the winner of Ryan Bader/Quinton Jackson, which happens on Feb. 26 in Japan at UFC 144. If the UFC could book a quick turnaround fight with the winner there and jibe up the schedules to the Jones/Evans bout, Henderson would do it.

Again, though, that’s all a dice throw.

Yet aside from a Mauricio Rua rematch, that’s about all there is -- and a Rua rematch would feel too much like déjà vu. How haunting would it be to sign on for that fight just in time for Evans to go down with an injury, just like last time? Never mind the memorable fight they put on, had Henderson waited a week before signing on for Rua at UFC 139, he’d already have fought Jon Jones at UFC 140 in Toronto. That stays in Henderson’s mind as much as the experience with Rua.

So who else is there? Henderson has made it clear he doesn’t want to go back down to middleweight unless it’s for a rematch with Anderson Silva -- which leaves heavyweight, a division that Henderson would never balk at fighting in so long as it could be perceived as fan friendly. Unfortunately, not a lot of fights make sense there, either (read: virtually none).

Pat Barry has Lavar Johnson in his sights, and Cheick Kongo is fighting Mark Hunt in Japan. Stefan Struve? Doesn’t seem a big enough name for Henderson. All the elite names (Junior dos Santos, Alistair Overeem, Frank Mir, Cain Velasquez) have fights already. And besides, as Henderson said, “none of those guys wants to fight me, anyway.” Daniel Cormier stares at his phone most days saying, “why won’t you ring, why won’t you ring?” Shane Carwin is still a mile down the calendar from coming back. The only name that could be intriguing at all would be Fabricio Werdum, a smaller heavyweight who shares a distinction with Henderson of having defeated Fedor Emelianenko.

It would be a cameo, but in a world of very few alternatives, it might be enough to pique Henderson’s interest.

Otherwise, the options for a marquee fight are very limited for Henderson right now, and matchmaker Joe Silva and Dana White are throwing up their hands with what to do. So is Henderson. Will he wait? Will he fight? Seems like a good time to meet up, put some headshots on the wall, and throw some darts.

Or, at very least, for the UFC and Dan Henderson to have a talk.

Cung Le attempted to beat Wanderlei Silva at UFC 139 with an unlikely game plan -- that of fighting like Cung Le.

It nearly worked. Le tried to kick Silva’s liver through his spine, but in the end he was downed with a barrage of strikes that left his nose in crescent form. The scrap was good enough to be a candidate for "fight of the year" but was unfortunate enough to be only the third-most exciting bout of the night. That was the same evening Michael Chandler won a back-and-forth battle with lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez in Bellator, and Dan Henderson outlasted Mauricio Rua in a five-round grind.

But the immediate reports back seem to be that Strikeforce fighters like Le are faring pretty well in the UFC. These were supposed to be the B models, slogging it out in a nice regional show. They weren’t supposed to be able to compete with the elite of the world. At least that’s what we heard from carnival barkers whenever somebody had the audacity to compare a Strikeforce fighter with a UFC fighter.

Yet, since the Zuffa purchase of Strikeforce and the great integration, it looks like Strikeforce had its share of equals and betters. This weekend Nick Diaz will fight for the interim welterweight belt against Carlos Condit after belting B.J. Penn at UFC 137. Win it, and he gets his long-awaited shot at Georges St. Pierre. Meanwhile, Fabricio Werdum takes on Roy Nelson in a fight with very loose title connections in the heavyweight division. Should Diaz and Werdum win -- and Vegas thinks they should -- it will continue a trend that makes Scott Coker look vindicated for something deep inside that could use some vindication. It also diversifies things for matchmaker Joe Silva.

Last weekend, Lavar Johnson scored a knockout of the night against Joey Beltran in Johnson's UFC debut. Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Henderson came back and beat Rua and is now patiently waiting in line for the Jon Jones-Rashad Evans winner. Strikeforce titlist and linear champion Alistair Overeem kicked Brock Lesnar into retirement, and next faces Junior dos Santos for the UFC heavyweight strap. Other Strikeforce fighters (not named Gilbert Melendez) are making their way from the hexagon to the Octagon, too. In fact, just about anybody who’s anybody in the clearance of Strikeforce heavyweights will soon be in the UFC: Antonio Silva, Chad Griggs, Daniel Cormier, Josh Barnett, et al.

The floodgates are open.

Granted, some of the Strikeforce fighters coming over are UFC retreads. But in the early returns the worst you can say is that Jake Shields, who jumped ship to the UFC before the acquisition, hasn’t lived up to billing. Most Strikeforce fighters are having a happier time of it than when the UFC/Pride partition came down, and the Pride fighters faltered. Same with the WEC, given the potential of Condit and Ben Henderson. Yet most of the WEC’s talent competed in the bantamweight and featherweight divisions, which didn’t exist in the UFC until the beginning of 2011, so it’s hard to make a full spectrum comparison.

But think about it -- in mid-to-late 2012, as many as three reigning Strikeforce champions could be wearing UFC gold (Diaz, Henderson and Overeem). If Melendez was ever released from exile, he could challenge for the lightweight belt, too.

What does it all mean? Maybe nothing. Or maybe it’s something that we’ve always suspected and debated about. While the best fighters in the world are generally thought to be in the UFC at all times, there are fighters dying for the chance to be brought in for no other reason than to prove them wrong.

And knowing just how short the fight society’s attention span can be, the UFC is only too happy to be wrong when they do.

So, Strikeforce is running a clearance on its once vaunted roster of heavyweights, and everyone between 207-266 pounds must go. What a difference a year makes.

In January of this year, the eight big guns on Strikeforce’s heavyweight roster stood on a New York City stage and looked like the most imposing ingredients to a nonfictional tournament since the Pride days. Even the alternates -- guys like Daniel Cormier, who defied odds by sneaking in and making it to the finals, and the mutton-chopped Chad Griggs -- were lively enough understudies.

The subtext of the grand prix? That Strikeforce had more depth in the most glamorous weight class than the UFC. It wasn’t the elephant in the room -- these were eight elephants in a room.

Dana White snickered. By spring, Zuffa bought Strikeforce. By summer, Alistair Overeem was on his way to the UFC. By winter, the wrecking ball assembly that made up the grand prix is being rapidly consolidated with the UFC's roster.

Zuffa is closing down the Strikeforce heavies to deepen the UFC’s. This, of course, is a good thing. The UFC’s heavyweight landscape will finally be on par with its other weight classes. How timely is that?

Not long ago (as in August), Brendan Schaub began to look like a top-flight heavyweight in the UFC. Not out of merit, but out of necessity. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, in the twilight of his career, shut things down. Then it was Matt Mitrione, before he was Jenga’d by Cheick Kongo. Even UFC newbie Stipe Miocic began to look like “promise,” well before he stepped in the Octagon. All this time we’ve been playing at the dearth.

But now reinforcements are arriving. Reigning Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem was first, and he’ll fight Brock Lesnar next week at UFC 141 in a title eliminator. Fabricio Werdum came next, and he’ll take on Roy Nelson at UFC 143. With the news of Strikeforce shutting its heavyweight division down in total, the carpet is rolling out for others now, too.

Lavar Johnson, who also fought in the WEC back in 2005 and 2006, has signed to fight Joey Beltran at UFC on FOX: "Davis vs. Evans." And MMA Weekly reported that Griggs -- who foiled overly idealistic plans for Bobby Lashley by obliterating him -- also signed a contract with the UFC, and will debut in the Octagon in 2012. Antonio Silva is expecting a call soon, and Sergei Kharitonov would like to join his training partner John Olav Einemo in the UFC.

Of all the grand prix participants, only a few will likely be left out -- Andrei Arlovski, the former UFC champion, who is on (what he hopes) a comeback trail; Brett Rogers, whose personal life is in shambles; and Fedor Emelienenko, whose management would like to skip the process and pencil in a date with Cain Velasquez.

Once Daniel Cormier and Josh Barnett finish up the afterthought-ish grand prix in March, one or each will make their way to the UFC. (There is still a bonus heavyweight fight for the winner, which is short on details right now). When that happens, which could be as early as April or May of 2012, matchmaking in the UFC’s heavyweight division becomes more fun. With the reemergence of Frank Mir, there are now five legit bigs at the top -- Junior dos Santos, Velasquez, Overeem, Lesnar and Mir. Shane Carwin will be back in mid-2012, as well. Cusp fighters like Roy Nelson, Kongo and Travis Browne are still there, and green-but-emerging guys like Schaub and Mitrione are hovering.

But when you stack Werdum, Bigfoot Silva, Barnett, Cormier, Kharitonov, Shane del Rosario and Griggs in there? This thing about finding out who the best heavyweight in the world is becomes legit.

At the beginning of 2011, the questions centered around what happens if there wasn’t a partition between Strikeforce and the UFC, if guys like Overeem fought in the UFC? The partition is coming down, and we’ll find out soon enough.

The degree to which Junior dos Santos will own the heavyweight division is traced directly to this: Can he, when pressed to do so, fight on the floor?

He says he can. People who have trained with the new UFC champion say the same. We just haven't seen it in action because he hasn't found it necessary yet. And based on the way he's talking, it sounds like, regardless of who wins UFC's main event on Dec. 30 (a clash between giants Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem for a title shot against dos Santos), the answer could be revealed very soon.

"I don't want to fight on the ground," dos Santos told ESPN Brasil. "I prefer to fight stand up. I prefer to use my boxing fighting, so that's what I try to do in all my fights. But [in] my next fight, [if] I think I can win the fight on the ground, I will try to do jiu-jitsu with my opponent."

That's an interesting way of phrasing things.

It doesn't take a master game planner to recognize Lesnar will try to force dos Santos to his back. So would the 27-year-old Brazilian want to go to the ground against the house-sized wrestler because he envisions it’s his best chance to win? Likely not, particularly because he'd probably have to play guard the entire time. The new UFC champion's best path to beating Lesnar is standing and punching the American in the head. Everyone knows that.

So what about his quote?

If dos Santos believes he needs to go to the ground, is that a concession that Overeem, a K-1 champion, is too dangerous to strike with? If so, dos Santos could be sending several messages. This is how I read it. First, his style of fighting is not determined by ego. He clearly wants to stand. It's where he's best. But he's not going out trying to belabor the point. Second, he's content doing what it takes to walk out of the cage victorious, nothing else. That's a promising sign for the talented young champion. Third, dos Santos has always talked about being "ready to fight everywhere." He might just actually mean it.

Again, he'll have to answer this question eventually. If not Lesnar, then someone else because the heavyweight division is teeming with potent ground assaults. Lesnar, for reasons explained above, is the front runner to test dos Santos on the floor. However based upon ESPN.com's heavyweight rankings and deductive reasoning, there are four potential foes not named Lesnar who could challenge dos Santos' grappling resolve.

Cain Velasquez

Let's not forget the man dos Santos knocked out in 64 seconds. Velasquez failed to wrestle the Brazilian earlier this month and it cost him dearly. It would be an epic failure if Velasquez stood and traded with dos Santos in the rematch -- you have to figure they'll meet again sometime in 2012. It would be interesting indeed to watch Velasquez challenge dos Santos with a wrestle-first mindset.

Josh Barnett

Maybe the most accomplished heavyweight grappler in MMA, Barnett would surely pose major problems for dos Santos on the floor. Unlike Lesnar, Barnett is not a take down-and-hold threat. He's a take down, beat down and submit-if-it's-there kind of threat. If Barnett defeats Daniel Cormier and then makes his way into the UFC, neither being guaranteed of course, the man who once held the distinction of being the youngest heavyweight champion in UFC history would jump to the top of the list of the most serious threats to dos Santos’s reign.

Frank Mir

Yet another grappler whose speciality is submission rather than position. Mir is not a great wrestler, but if you go to the floor with the guy you're asking for trouble. I don't care how advanced dos Santos's jiu-jitsu game is, he'd need to endure a serious examination against Mir. With Mir fighting dos Santos's mentor, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, for a second time on Dec. 10 in Toronto, there might just be a great story line built in too. Remember, Mir dismantled Nogueira, who by all accounts wasn't close to 100 percent when they fought in 2008, leading to a second round technical knockout.

Daniel Cormier

The darkhorse. Cormier is unbeaten in nine fights. If he manages to defeat Josh Barnett there will be calls for him to fight the best in the division. The former U.S. Olympic wrestling captain seems undersized, but what he lacks in height and weight he makes up for with speed and technique. This is Cain Velasquez's wrestling coach we're talking about. He can put anyone on their back.

Heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko had one of the greatest runs in MMA history -- if not the greatest.

Between 2000-2010, he went without a loss. But since getting caught by Fabricio Werdum in June 2010 with a triangle/armbar, the "Last Emperor" has come down to earth with a thud. He lost to Antonio Silva in the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix quarterfinals, then got TKO'd by Dan Henderson in July. Now he signs a deal to fight Jeff Monson on Nov. 20 in Moscow, in what he (and a still very substantial fan base) hopes will be a return to his winning ways.

The question becomes: Is the 40-year-old Monson credible enough to restore anything for Fedor? Truth is, if you're a Fedor fan, a win after three straight losses will be huge no matter whom he faces. Moreover, Monson represents an upgrade over the opponents originally being discussed by M-1 when the November return seemed certain (Travis Wiuff, Mike Whitehead, and allegedly Kevin Randleman). Monson had reeled off eight wins in a row before dropping a decision to Daniel Cormier in June. Even in that fight, a very hard to put away Monson was able to go the distance and keep the fight competitive. Cormier, of course, went on to TKO Bigfoot Silva in the semifinals of the heavyweight GP -- and Silva beat Fedor.

In other words, M-1 didn't bring in a slouch to face the pride of Stary Oskol. Monson can still fight, and he'll be more than just a warm body on Nov. 20. But it's a fight Fedor had better win if he wants to keep whatever's left of his relevance intact. A loss to Henderson is explainable, but one to Monson magnifies his decline ten times over.

By any measure, Saturday's “Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov” show was one of the company’s best, most complete efforts in recent memory.

Somehow -- beyond all reasonable expectation -- Strikeforce actually lucked into a halfway intriguing final for its beleaguered heavyweight grand prix tournament when Daniel Cormier and Josh Barnett breezed through their semifinal matchups. It welcomed a pair of former champions back to the fold as Muhammed Lawal and Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante both nabbed much-needed wins, conceivably setting up a rematch between the two for its vacant light heavyweight belt. It also crowned a new and arguably more interesting middleweight titlist in the upstart Luke Rockhold.

Even the two-and-a-half-hour preliminary broadcast turned out to be worth watching, despite a reliance on annoying overhead camera angles and oxymoronic attempts to dub Mike Kyle’s bout against Marcos de Lima the “undercard main event.”

Not for nothing guys, but a fight can’t really be a main event if it’s on the … ah, never mind.

Point is, for the first time in a long time, it felt like Strikeforce was making progress on Saturday in Cincinnati. The irony, of course, is thick: Along with some obvious help from Zuffa, it seems Strikeforce is shifting into second gear just as the road ahead prepares to dead end in a cliff.

Really? Now Strikeforce is going to start establishing some momentum? Now?

At this point, the questions we should be asking aren’t whether or not the winner of the grand prix should be the new Strikeforce heavyweight champ (he should) or what Rockhold’s first title defense should be (rematch, naturally), but if the company will even live long enough to see these storylines through to completion.

Perhaps the only thing keeping Zuffa brass from pulling the plug right now is Strikeforce’s ongoing broadcast contract with Showtime. Reports indicate that deal expires sometime in early 2012, but the premium cable channel has the option to extend it as far into the future as 2014. If Showtime declines, Strikeforce may well die on the spot. If it opts to renew, Zuffa’s hands could be tied.

Just to make things even more confusing, Strikeforce announced following Saturday night’s event that it’s planning the grand prix championship some time during the first quarter of 2012. That is, if Cormier’s apparent hand injury doesn’t turn out to be serious enough to put him on ice for an extended period. That could be disastrous. It would seem the fight organization can’t afford any delays.

With all this in mind, the TV guys might have a very interesting decision to make here during the next several months. The Catch-22 is that Zuffa’s influence is clearly already changing Strikeforce for the better and better broadcasts naturally sweeten the pot for Showtime. On the other hand, all previous reports indicate Showtime can’t stand certain high-ranking Zuffa officials. So, what’s the proper play here?

Will the promise of an increasingly relevant product be enough to keep Showtime and Zuffa in business together? Will Showtime just wash its hands of the whole arrangement? Could it extend the life of Strikeforce just because it knows that’s exactly what Zuffa doesn't want it to do? You can see the dilemma.

For fight fans, the real question is this: If Showtime doesn’t keep Strikeforce on life support, will the grand prix final also be the promotion’s last show? Or might it not happen at all?