Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum Booked for Strikeforce

MMA News

Posted by MMA WW Staff on the 6 July 2009 | View Comments

Alistair Overeem will finally defend his Strikeforce heavyweight title on August 15 against former PRIDE and UFC veteran, Fabricio Werdum. Strikeforce director of communications Mike Afromowitz confirmed the news with FanHouse Monday.

Overeem (29-11) defeated Paul Buentello in November 2007 to win the belt, but has yet to defend it once. He was supposed to fight on Strikeforce's June 6 card but a hand injury sustained in a bar fight just weeks before the event kept him out of action.

Werdum (11-4-1) defeated Overeem in May 2006 at PRIDE - Total Elimination Absolute via Kimura submission. He has yet to fight since being released from the UFC following his October loss to Junior dos Santos. Following the April 11 Strikeforce event in San Jose, Werdum told the media that he is expecting to defeat Overeem once again.

"I'm going to take the other arm home," Werdum said. "And then the third time it's going to be hard to fight with no arms at all."

Overeem is on a four-fight winning streak, with one no contest against Mirko Cro Cop at DREAM.6. Werdum finished his UFC career with a 2-2 record, picking up wins over Brandon Vera and Gabriel Gonzaga. He also lost his Octagon debut to Andrei Arlovski at UFC 70 in April 2007.

Strikeforce's next event, headlined by Gina Carano vs. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos for the new Strikeforce 145-pound women's title, will take place at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. Also officially announced is a lightweight title fight between champion Josh Thomson and Gilbert Melendez. The event airs live on Showtime.