Once rumored to take on Strikeforce Heavyweight champ – Alistair Overeem, Brett “The Grim” Rogers (9-0) will instead face former UFC Heavyweight champion – Andrei “Pit Bull” Arlovski (15-6). Despite rumors that Arlovski would put his MMA career on hold to resume his professional boxing career, he will indeed test the young Rogers in a main card Heavyweight showdown.
“The Grim” will look to continue his roll of nine straight wins – eight of the wins via TKO. He is taking a huge step up in competition against the Belarusian. To date – his toughest opponent was James Thompson, who he defeated in February 2008 at Elite XC: Street Certified with a 1st round KO.
Team Bison’s Rogers last time out was a little more than one month ago when he stopped Ron Humphrey with a series of strikes that led to an eventual TKO. The win over Humphrey was the first time that Rogers had to go past the 1st round.
Andrei Arlovski is making his first appearance since the brutal 1st round KO at the hands of Fedor. The former champ got off to a quick start against Fedor but got too aggressive and was knocked out with a hard right hand 3:14 into the 1st round. The loss snapped a five fight win streak.
Already skilled in the striking department, Arlovski has improved that part of his game by working with boxing trainer – Freddie Roach. The results are hard to argue with, prior to losing to Fedor, the “Pit Bull” knocked out both Roy “Big Country” Nelson and Ben Rothwell via punches within the last year.
Since his departure from the UFC in early March 2008, Strikeforce will be the third different organization that Arlovski will compete in. He has also been involved with Elite XC, going 1-0, and Affliction where he is 1-1.
Prediction: Arlovski over Rogers – 3rd round submission
After the fights are complete on June 6, 2009, look to Pro Fighting Fans for the Strikeforce results for this event and other Strikeforce MMA events.