What If the UFC Held a Heavyweight Tournament?

(Somehow we see this tournament going down before Strikeforce’s HW GP.)

With the current buzz surrounding the recently announced Strikeforce 2011 heavyweight grand prix, we figured we’d take a look at what kind of tournament the UFC could put on if they were so inclined.

Contrary to popular opinion, the calibre of the UFC’s HW GP would be just as good, if not better than Strikeforce’s. The only noticeable difference is that there really wouldn’t be any mismatches in Zuffa’s heavyweightpalooza.

Even if Joe Silva decided not to put the matches together that we hypothesized in order to save some of the more anticipated pairings for the sem-final and final rounds, shuffling the card around would not cause a great disparity in the calibre of opponents.

One could argue that Brendan Schaub should or shouldn’t make the cut, but considering that the UFC’s heavyweight stable also houses prospects like Stefan Struve,  Pat Barry, Ben Rothwell and Matt Mitrione, there would be no shortage of apt replacement or reserve fighters to trump Ray Sefo, Valentijn Overeem, Shane Del Rosario and Lavar Johnson.

If we had our way, both tournaments would go down and go down without a hitch and the winner from each competition would face each other in a co-promoted world championship superfight. But that’s just us being our overly optimistic selves.