With four heavyweights remaining in Strikeforce's grand prix, a date has been set for the semifinals of the eight-man tournament.
Multiple sources close to the promotion on Thursday told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) that an event set for Sept. 10 will host the third leg of the grand prix.
A host city has yet to be confirmed at the time of this writing.
Four bouts are already rumored for the early fall card: A middleweight title match between current champ Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and Luke Rockhold; a light-heavyweight bout between former champ Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal and submission ace Roger Gracie; a lightweight matchup between former lightweight champion Josh Thomson and Maximo Blanco; and another light-heavyweight tilt between former champ Gegard Mousasi and Mike Kyle.
None of the bouts have been made official by Strikeforce, nor has the event.
As for the tournament, the semifinals feature two bouts: Alistair Overeem vs. Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva and Sergei Kharitonov vs. Josh Barnett.
Overeem (35-11 MMA, 3-0 SF) advanced this past month with a decision win over Fabricio Werdum while Silva (16-2 MMA, 3-1 SF) pulled a major upset this past February with a TKO of Fedor Emelianenko due to doctor stoppage.
Kharitonov (18-4 MMA, 1-0 SF) fought alongside Silva, where he leveled Andrei Arlovski in the first quarterfinal event, and Barnett (30-5 MMA, 1-0 SF), who also fought this past June, submitted Brett Rogers in the second quarterfinal event.
Following that event, which took place June 18 in Dallas, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said the semifinals would take place sometime in the fall with the tournament concluding in February 2012. Although a jump to pay-per-view has repeatedly been mentioned for the finals, plans have yet to be finalized.
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