Alistair Overeem wants Werdum next; says Fedor out of the picture

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"A loss is always a possibility, but naturally, I thought Fedor would beat him. It's about what the people want to see, what the organization wants and what I want. That all pointed to Fedor, but he declined to fight me last month in the May 15 show and he'd rather fight Werdum. Now he lost to him. It's changed everything. Fedor's a little bit out of the picture. He has one more fight on his (Strikeforce) contract and I don't know against who he'll fight. He might retire after that anyway. He might retire now. He's the X-factor. (Werdum) looked sharp, so all I can say is congratulations to him. I have a score to settle. I want to fight him." -Alistair Overeem

Current Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem reveals his desire to settle a previous loss to Fabricio Werdum in his next outing.

Overeem came up short against Werdum in the opening round of Pride's 2006 open weight grand prix tournament, succumbing to a second kimura. Werdum would go on to lose a unanimous decision to MMA legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in the quarterfinals.

It's unclear whether Strikeforce will capitulate to its champions wishes and grant him a shot at redemption against Werdum, but it appears unlikely at first glance.

Both Emelianenko and Werdum have expressed a strong interest in an immediate rematch and company president Scott Coker recently intimated that the fight could serve as the promotions first pay-per-view event.

It's clear that an immediate rematch between Werdum and Emelianenko would be best for Strikeforce financially, and the fight would obviously pull substantially more viewers than an Overeem-Werdum return engagement, so it stands to reason that the promotion would choice to go that route, leaving Overeem, and a heavyweight title fight, on hold for now.