Fedor lost last weekend in the first portion of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix World Championships of Fighting. If you were going to throw the perfect monkey-wrench into this tournament, a Fedor loss in the first round is the one you would want to toss. With the upset, Strikeforce turns their attention to a whole new set of problems.

What do they do with Fedor? At the same event, Strikeforce had three “Grand Prix Reserve Bouts” which all produced interesting alternates that I wouldn’t mind seeing involved should any of the remaining original participants get hurt. Scott Coker and Strikeforce are already talking about Fedor as the top replacement.

I’m sure Strikeforce would love nothing more than to see the winner of Brett Rogers and Josh Barnett break a bone in their fight. That way, they can shoehorn Fedor – who has now lost two straight to guys remaining in the tournament – back into the mix. I say let Fedor fight the big names to lose in the tournament instead. Barnett, Overeem, Werdum… plenty of options without taking away from the legitimacy of the tournament.

They have no idea when the next leg of the tournament will take place. It was supposed to be in April, but we don’t really know anymore. The problem, as usual, is Josh Barnett’s licensing. He can’t do anything in California or a slew of other states in the US. You would think they’d try to keep this thing moving. A possible show overseas has been talked about, but nothing is set in stone about any of this.

Let’s say Barnett-Rogers and Werdum-Overeem take place over the summer. You need a couple months to let those winner rest up and train. Everybody gets back in there in the fall and you’ve had Bigfoot Silva and Sergei Kharitonov sitting on the shelf for the better part of a year. This just seems like a quick 4-event tournament they should have done by the fall.

[Sherdog, MMAjunkie, Image via Getty]