Despite a variety of news reports, Strikeforce‘s eight-man middleweight tournament is still scheduled to begin on an October Showtime card. The promotion’s CEO Scott Coker confirmed the tournament to Sherdog late on Wednesday.

The news of the tournament’s demise was fueled by the fact that the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation rejected the idea of a four-man tournament. Further supporting the idea, was the fact that Strikeforce announced a middleweight title bout between Tim Kennedy and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza.

However, Coker indicated that their intention was always to crown a new champion as soon as possible. The title bout has no effect on the tournament situation.

The current plan is to have an eight-man tournament over two events. As previously stated, the first round will probably take place in October. With eight fighters and two nights, the fighters will probably need to fight the semi-finals and finals in one night. Strikeforce done this sort of thing in the past when they hosted a one-night four-man tournament back on Nov. 16, 2007.

The possible tournament field includes Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz, former Elite XC middleweight champion Robbie Lawler, former Icon sport middleweight champion Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Pride Welterweight tournament champion Kazuo Misaki and Luke Rockhold.

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