Alistair Overeem and steroids overshadow a great Strikeforce card

Drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs. That’s all anyone wants to talk about in regards to today’s Strikeforce event (all except those who are choosing to hide their heads in the sand and ignore the issue entirely). Can’t say as I blame them when the main event features heavyweights Brett Rogers and champ Alistair Overeem.

Overeen has been missing from U.S. competition for two years – which Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker claims was because the promotion lacked opponents for the Dutch behemoth, which is ridiculous and inexcusable and all kinds of wrong-headed and I’m not buying it. I mean, why even have a heavyweight division if there’s nobody in it? Of course, the division wasn’t empty, it was just (very suspiciously) missing it’s champion.

Regardless, during Overeem’s absence from Strikeforce he fought a bunch of fights in Japan and Europe and also packed on a freakish amount of muscle. That’s led people – yours truly included – to speculate that perhaps Overeem has been putting more than horse meat into his body, which would explain why he’s been avoiding Stateside events that require drug testing.

And now, even the Strikeforce card in St. Louis, Missouri may not have proper drug testing. At least, the athletic commission there has been a bit dodgy in providing a clear answer as to what type of testing will be used (if any). Seems they will only be doing random testing, which has forced Strikeforce to step up and implement its own independent testing of all fighters. Yes, that’s definitely an oxymoron when the promotion oversees “independent” drug testing. Here’s a pretty good breakdown of the latest on the issue.

At this point, I’m not sure it even really matters. I mean, of course it matters. Fair play and all that. But in terms of my interest I just want to see Overeem in a cage. I don’t care if he’s wearing one of those armoured battle suits from Avatar when he does it.

As for the rest of the card, there’s the possible redemption story as Andrei Arlovski faces Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, who has had his own run-ins with bad drug tests. There’s jiu-jitsu wizard Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza against Joey Villasenor, which could set the winner up for a shot at the soon-to-be-vacant middleweight belt. And there’s Roger Gracie facing Kevin Randleman, which sounds an awful lot like a Japanese super fight and looks like it, too, when you consider the obvious (comical) height difference.

Ed. note: The funniest moment of the weigh-ins (which you can’t see on the video above) came when one fan shouted “You owe me $50, Anderson!” at UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Silva, who accompanied Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante, didn’t react in the slightest.