Should the winner of the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament be crowned as the #1 heavyweight in the world?

First things first. Let’s all recognize that rankings are SUBJECTIVE.  However, I’ll use the USA Today consensus rankings for today’s piece since I used to contribute to them and I consider them to be decent.

The question at hand is, would you consider the winner of the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament to be the #1 heavyweight in the world?

Let’s take a look at who is currently ranked (before this past Strikeforce event) #1, #2, and #3:

1. Cain Velasquez has defeated ranked opponents in Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Brock Lesnar.
2. Brock Lesnar has defeated Randy Couture (was ranked at the time as a HW), Frank Mir and Shane Carwin
3. Fedor Emelianenko’s resume speaks for itself.

Of course there are not many top tier heavyweights in the world, which makes this really interesting since most guys got their ranking from defeating similar opponents.

For instance, Lesnar and Carwin both beat Frank Mir while Mir beat Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Velasquez and Emelianenko hold wins over Nogueira.  Mir and Velasquez have beaten Lesnar (although Lesnar wasn’t ranked when Mir beat him).

The Strikeforce heavyweight participants that can still win the tournament are: Fabricio Werdum (#4), Alistair Overeem (#7), Antonio Silva (#10), Josh Barnett (#11), Brett Rogers (#12), and Sergei Kharitnokov (outside top 20).

-Werdum already holds a submission win over Emelianenko (who was ranked #1 at the time).  He’ll have to beat Overeem and Silva to reach the finals, where he would then need to defeat either Barnett, Rogers, or Kharitnokov.

-Overeem holds the same path as Werdum if he is able to defeat him in the next round.

-Silva now has a win over Emelianenko and must defeat the winner of Werdum/Overeem.  Then he would meet either Barnett, Rogers, or Kharitnokov in the finals.

-Kharitnokov holds a win over Andrei Arlovski (#17) and has previously beaten Werdum and Overeem.  He’ll need to defeat the winner of Barnett/Rogers and then either Silva, Werdum, or Overeem in the finals.

-Barnett must get past Rogers and then take on Kharitnokov. After that, he would face either Silva, Werdum, or Overeem in the finals.

-Rogers must get past Barnett, then Kharitnokov, and either face Silva, Werdum or Overeem in the finals.

One thing we’ll have to take into account is guys moving up in the rankings after defeating their opponents during the tournament.

Silva will be ranked higher than #10 when the next set of rankings are unveiled for defeating Emelianenko.  Kharitnokov should move into the top 20 or so with his win over Arlovski.  If Overeem is able to defeat Werdum, he’ll be higher than #7, and so forth.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker believes that the winner of the tournament should be considered the best heavyweight in the world.  I mean, he is the promoter, so you would expect him to say that.

However, I do think it’s a legitimate argument depending on how the matches play out.  I mean, the level of competition that the winner of this tournament will face is certainly comparable to the fighters Lesnar and Velasquez have faced in their short careers.

Here’s a quick synopsis of my thoughts on each fighter winning the tourment and where I’d place them:

-I couldn’t place Kharitnokov as the #1 heavyweight in the world if he won this tournament.  I mean, you don’t see the number #25 team take out the three ranked teams and all of a sudden become #1.

-If Josh Barnett were to win the tournament, I think an argument could be made for him to be #1 considering his resume.

-Rogers got destroyed by Overeem and lost to Fedor as well.  So I don’t think I could place him #1 if he won the tournament.

-I think the argument could be made for Overeem, considering who he’d have to beat to win the tournament.

-The same can be said for Antonio Silva.

-Werdum, I’m not so sure about.  He got his head taken off by Junior dos Santos(#5) in his last UFC fight, BUT that was over 2 years ago as well.  He did defeat Mike Kyle, Antonio Silva and Fedor Emelianenko after that loss.  Given the field he will have to defeat in this tournament, I think you could make the argument for him as well if he wins.

Give me your thoughts.