Strikeforce and DREAM will announce a partnership that could see an exchange of fighters between the two promotions.Strikeforce Chief Executive Officer Scott Coker revealed Monday night in a radio appearance on The Carmichael Dave Show that the number two mixed martial arts promotion in the USA will enter into an "alliance" with Fighting Entertainment Group, the parent company of the number one mixed martial arts promotion in Japan.
The partnership could open up new possibilities for the recently-signed Fedor Emelianenko, who had seemingly only Alistair Overeem, Brett Rogers and Fabricio Werdum as opponents in Strikeforce. Fedor could also find himself fighting in Japan after his fall Strikeforce on Showtime date. The former PRIDE Heavyweight Champion is well-loved in the country and from 2003-2007 took pride in a tradition to compete every New Year's Eve in Japan's annual blockbuster year-end show.
"We've talked about (the partnership) for a long time," Coker said on the Northern California sports program. "It's finally going to happen now so maybe (Sergei) Kharitonov could fight Fedor at some point."
Besides more options for Fedor, there's an entire pool of new opponents for each promotion that could also give a clearer understanding to world rankings outside of the UFC.
The current champions and direct title contenders under DREAM are Joachim Hansen (lightweight champion), Shinya Aoki, Marius Zaromskis (welterweight champion), Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, Jason "Mayhem" Miller, Bibiano Fernandes, Joe Warren, Hiroyuki Takaya and Hideo Tokoro.
Meanwhile, the champions with Strikeforce are Alistair Overeem (heavyweight), Renato "Babalu" Sobral (light heavyweight), Cung Le (middleweight), Josh Thomson (lightweight), Gilbert Melendez (interim lightweight) and the August 15 winner of Nick Diaz versus Jay Hieron.
The two promotions already share the services of former DREAM Middleweight Champion and current number one Strikeforce light heavyweight title contender Gegard Mousasi, who also happens to be under contract with Fedor's management, M-1 Global.
Coker added that more details on Fedor's future, including the date and opponent, could be announced as early as Thursday.
