It has not been a good week for Golden Glory members in the UFC and Strikeforce.
After Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem was surprisingly released from the organization on Friday, teammates Marloes Coenen and Valentijn Overeem have been released by Strikeforce and John Olav Einemo has been cut from the UFC.
Golden Glory coach Martijn de Jong wrote Wednesday on Twitter “I am very dissapointed to let you know that Marloes Coenen John Einemo and Valentijn Overeem have been cut from Strikeforce ufc…..”
Coenen (19-5) fought this past Saturday at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson where she lost the Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight belt with a fourth-round submission to Miesha Tate. Prior to that, Coenen’s only defeat under the Strikeforce banner was to arguably the top female fighter in the world, Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, in January 2010.
Einemo (6-2) was expected to be make his UFC debut against Shane Carwin at UFC 131, but instead fought fellow UFC newcomer Dave Herman after Carwin was called up to headline the June event. Herman would defeat Einemo via TKO in the second round, but the bout did earn “Fight of the Night” honors for the pair.
Valentijn Overeem (31-29) is the older brother of Alistair Overeem and holds notable wins over Randy Couture and Renato “Babalu” Sobral, but has not shared the same success as his younger brother. Valentijn fought twice for Strikeforce, defeating Ray Sefo in the opening round for alternates in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix before fighting Chad Griggs on the same card as his brother in June. He would go on to lose in the first round against Griggs via TKO, the thirteenth fight in a row for Overeem that has ended in the first round. He has gone 6-7 in that span.
The cuts leave just Gegard Mousasi and Sergei Kharitonov amongst Golden Glory members currently signed with Zuffa organizations. Mousasi has not fought for Strikeforce since a draw with Keith Jardine in April. Kharitonov is set to face Josh Barnett in the semifinals of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix on September 10 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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That’s interesting. I could probably understand Valentijn being cut but Marloes Coenen? She’s still among the top female fighters in the world and she was just the champ. Could it be something against that camp? Weird…
Was that seems mob like. “Not only do you get killed, but they go after your whole family.”
You’d think they would want to keep Coenen considering the small weight classes that are the womens division.
@BRENT
That’s a good point dude. It’s not like the 135 women’s division is stacked with a lot of fighters/contenders. Besides the fact that she’s one of the best, she’s also fought in 2 weight classes. I just think she’s too valuble to just let go like this.
Could it be that Dana and Zuffa are not planning on keeping women’s MMA in the future? Dana said in an interview that it wasn’t so much that he was against women’s MMA that it was just that there weren’t that many women to fill the divisions. If he really feels like this than why is he cutting the best female fighters when there are hardly any of them already??
i’m super surprised Coenen got the boot..
One fight one fight of the night and cut. Pretty mad
pretty crappy stuff ……………..
It looks like worm welcome of Golden Glory to the DW word.
You can be sure that these moves are buisness related and not performance related. Overeem in pretty self explanitory. Coenens…Im not too sure. Einemo too. Im not too sure about that one either. The one thing we know is that Dana and company hate when people turn down fights. This could be a case of fighters being too selective with their opponents…
cannot acuse einemo of being selective
Lots of “all bad” here.
As noted, if Zuffa has any thoughts of promoting womens MMA, they’ll definitely need Marloes Coenen. I suppose a case could be made that Zuffa has no such plans and therefore no need for keeping a top 5 female fighter.
As for V Overeem, the guy is a lifetime .500 fighter and was most likely signed as a favor to his brother, who’s now on the outside looking in.
This one we all saw coming if we thought about it.
But its the Einemo release that would seem to indicate that this is both personal and “just business”.
The guy looked halfway decent IMO in his first fight in like 5 years and scored a FoTN with a pretty good fighter in Dave Herman.
No, neither of these guys is ready for Frank Mir, but the release seems pointless.
On the surface.
Looking deeper, one has to wonder do these Strikeforce cuts originate in Scott Coker’s office?
Again the V Overeem thing is understandable.
SC is on record as a supporter of womens MMA, so I think it unlikely that he decided to release Coenen.
This could just be another bit of evidence for the case against “business as usual”.
Or, its possible, but remotely, that Golden Glory has some sort of unity mindset that Zuffa wanted “corrected”.
Hard to tell as we only know part of the story, but from what we have seen Zuffa isn’t making friends in European MMA, which is weird considering that one of Zuffa’s stated goals is to bring MMA everywhere…
well you covered a lot of possibilities. Now well have to wait and see what’s said.
Covering the possibilities is what the site is for, so why not get them out there for all to discuss?
;-)
Kinda looks like Zuffa isn’t gonna continue that female MMA thing after Strikeforce is done…
well my comment was deleted for some reason(S) TO BE UNKNOWN TO ME… anyway put it like this, ZUFFA company… can you say MONOPOLY ?!?!
Zuffa isn’t a literal monopoly as long as Bellator and all the stateside orgs [Titan FC, SharkFights, etc] are promoting MMA on HDNet and in your local neighborhoods, but figuratively you’re not that far off…
agreed, well yes their are other good promotions out there, juat none with the talent of ufc and of course none have the money that zuffa has
Zuffa is really starting to piss me off! How the fcuk do you cut your former champion? She didn’t even get to try an avenge her loss. What a joke North American MMA is becoming under Dana White and Zuffa. I’ll always watch but I feel as if they are just $hitting on people because they can. The female market is scarce enough as it is. Or maybe this is Zuffa’s way of giving women’s MMA the finger? What a joke.
“Starting” to p!ss you off?
Where the fu<k have you been dude?
;-)
The deal here is that the UFC and by extension its fighterbase is built on a specific model, carefully crafted over time by Dana White and the Fertitas.
Back when the UFC needed as many fighters as they could find they'd tolerate fighters who didn't fit the employee model out of necessity.
Now that the UFC is IN FACT and not just in advertising the greatest [MMA] show on Earth, they can afford to chuck fighters into the recycle bin who don't fit the model.
One and done isn't as unthinkable as it once might have been.
Valentijn Overeem was signed by Scott Coker as a favor to and maybe as some incentive for Alistair Overeem to come to Strikeforce back when SC was shot-calling.
AO is gone and SC is not driving the boat these days…at least not alone he's not.
As for Coenen and Einemo, it would seem as if something else is in play here.
I wouldnt be surprised if we see a lot more of these "WTF?!" releases in the weeks to come…
I’ve been right here since day one. I don’t need your in depth analysis about the MMA world, I see what’s going on. Yes “starting” to piss me off, Dana is beginning to $hit on people simply because he can, there were always reasons that made sense, but his ego is going too far nowadyas. Maybe his mother was right about him after all.
The wrath of Zuffa zoombies!
Something smells rotten in Denmark. Alistair rejected the date because of injury. Where is the fault in that? These moves happening all at once is a power play/trip from Zuffa. I am a big UFC/MMA fan, but watching this play out in the last couple weeks has taken the wind out of my sails. This is why Hendo left to go to Strikeforce.
Wishing Bellator future success!
ST
I get what you’re saying, but both Dana White and Dan Henderson have previously gone on record as saying there was no beef between the 2, just a difference in money.
A the time Scott Coker was desperate for fighters and paying crazy money, and Dana White felt no need to ridiculously overpay guy that had lost to both Anderson Silva and Rampage Jackson.
And I post this as a longtime Hendo fan.
Randy Couture also made the mistake of getting too tied up in what other fighters/media-types/lawyers/agents/managers/Hollywood suits/ex-wives were asking of him and/or telling him about what he was supposedly worth, and he lost more than a year of his stellar career because of it.
Again I post this as a longtime Couture fan who resents that wasted time.
Couture should have known better but even Hall of Famers have judgement lapses.
Money and hype makes even the greatest of fighters and champions sometimes lose their minds.
Hopefully Hendo can work a deal with Zuffa and finish his career in either the UFC or possibly Strikeforce for as long as they’re promoting that brand…
jcohl…I like it. Thanks for the input.
ST
I wonder if this has anything to do with the amount of money Fedor and Hendo just made? Also I know Coenen was the champ, but she wasn’t that much of a crowd draw and she’s training with a camp that’s already having problems with Zuffa. I actually think this is a good idea by Zuffa and will help in the long run.
I can see more people leaving UFC/Strikeforce soon. This will help some people that aren’t ready, but have potential like Chris Horodecki. It will also help the company keep their problems down to a minimum, instead of having to deal with problematic fighters. It will show them who’s boss and maybe some will get with the program. Good luck to all the others.
That’s just more talent for ProElite and Dream.
Come one. Really? Really? No one sees the obvious? While I will never accuse any of these fighters for this, and I am not accusing now. I really have no idea, just a few close ties to the MMA world, especially here in the States. The GG camp has long been seen by certain people has a haven of ped users, and I have never seen a man such as AO be accused of ped usage without proof in my life. Again, I cannot say because I do not know. Because of the issues that camp has had with ped usage (heresay or not), it’s one of those things that the powers that be like to use as a reason to boot. My understanding is that in certain fighting circles, it isn’t even tested for….again, something I have heard and know little about. What i do know is that the GG people are under suspicion and the new ownership are the don’t ask, just go to hell type.
I just want to reiterate that i am not making any accusations here, and unless proven to me, I would never. These are just things that trickle down.
That Golden Glory/possible PED use issue is being kicked around on some of the less reputable MMA sites, but the frenZy has always tried to sterr clear of that type of “tabloid” stuff.
Nonetheless, its going to be a factor when fans discuss this, as is the possibility of a joint M-1 Global/Golden Glory event in October maybe between Fedor and Overeem.
And I’m sure Showtime would like a piece of that action as well.
Word of this might have reached Dana White, and we see his response.
At this point I’m surprised that Kharitonov and Mousasi still have jobs, but its still early…
@jcohl
From what I’ve read, Dana White got rid of all these fighters because Golden Glory refuses to do business the same way as Zuffa. They want the fighters money to go to the Manager first, instead of the Fighter. The UFC does the opposite.
I totally agree with Dana’s decision and I think that’s whats best for the company. They don’t need to deal with sketchy deals like that. No matter who you are that’s not the right way to do business.
I can see Kharitonov leaving SF very soon, but I’m not to sure about “The Dreamcatcher”. Maybe they can work something out with Gegard, since he’s not with Golden Glory. If not, he’ll be shown the door.
Good luck to everyone. ;-)