Tim Sylvia signs with Strikeforce, meets Daniel Cormier at Sept. 29 event

Quote :

After a long and vocal campaign, former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia apparently is getting one last chance to make good in the big show.

Or, for now, the smaller brother to the big show.

Sources close to the event today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that Sylvia (30-7 MMA, 9-4 UFC) has signed a deal and will fight recent Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix champion Daniel Cormier (10-0 MMA, 7-0 SF) at an event planned for Sept. 29 at Power Balance Pavilion in Sacramento, Calif.

Sylvia and his manager, Monte Cox, declined to comment.

Regardless, Sylvia is now headed to Showtime for his Cormier bout.

Interestingly, Sylvia signed a multi-fight deal despite the impending close of the Strikeforce heavyweight division.

The five-time heavyweight champ has racked up three wins since a first-round TKO loss to "The Ultimate Fighter 10" veteran Abe Wagner that drastically set back his comeback. Overall, he is 7-3 since he fought Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the interim heavyweight title at UFC 81 and lost by third-round submission.

Since that fight, Sylvia's career has been a roller coaster of ups and downs. He's lost to Fedor Emelianenko by submission in 36 seconds and been knocked out by former boxing champ Ray Mercer in nine seconds. Since then, however, his only setback has been to Wagner, though most of his competition has been against regional talent.

Cormier is now recovering from a broken hand following his win over Josh Barnett in the grand prix finals, which took place in May.

Earlier this year, Sylvia vigorously campaigned for another shot in the UFC and urged his Twitter followers to do so. At one point, he even shot a video of a workout and posted it online, presumably to show he was fit enough to compete in the UFC.

But UFC president Dana White flatly rejected the idea of a Sylvia return.

"No," White then told MMAjunkie.com when asked whether Sylvia could possibly be seen again inside the octagon. "I don't even know what Tim Sylvia's done. The last Tim Sylvia fight I saw, he got knocked out by a boxer. What has he done since then?"

White, in fact, also denied rumors of a potential Strikeforce deal just this week.

A dearth of heavyweights in Strikeforce may have provided the golden opportunity, though. Cormier and Barnett were the only two heavyweights official to Strikeforce, and after Cormier outpointed Barnett, few options were apparent

source

Hmmmmm Sylvia beats Cormier.... SF HW division folds.... Tim gets one more UFC shot?

and them we all wake up from a mass hypnosis.

I don't know ... Timmy may be really motivated for his run to get back in the UFC.

What a shit fest for Cormier.
How do you beat a guy most people had ranked in the top 5 definitively, and Sylvia is your next fight. I see this being a worse matchup than when he fought Couture.

Not so fast........

http://www.mmaweekly.com/not-so-fast-dana-white-says-tim-sylvia-not-fighting-for-ufc-or-strikeforce

Heh so much for Dana staying at "arms length" from Strikeforce...

Independent Blog
March 2012

Dana White distances himself from Strikeforce

Dana White has this week been unequivocal about his intention to concentrate solely on the UFC (and not on the Zuffa owned Strikeforce promotion). White tweeted: “I’m out. I’m 100% UFC”.

Whilst it isn’t currently clear what has caused him to be so categorical, the wisdom of any decision to exclude a steer from someone as experienced and proven in the MMA world as White must surely be questioned.

Fuckin ridiculous! With HWs giving shit showings like the Kongo fight and guys looking sub-par lately bring the big bastard in to the UFC and let him show you what he has. The guy held the whole fuckin division together for a bit there... give the guy the credit he has earned and throw him in there with a one fight contract with one of the up and comers, lets see how he does. If he is boring as shit and wins don't resign him, if he loses, he had his shot that he was looking for and couldn't hack it problem solved... if he wins and looks good doing it... then we have another guy in the mix. I just don't understand what the hold up is here, I guess.....

Dana's got a bug up his ass and instead of thinking he's going on his " he'll never fight in the UFC again" I guess Timmy wasn't on Dana's dick licking list.

Chrom wrote:

Fuckin ridiculous! With HWs giving shit showings like the Kongo fight and guys looking sub-par lately bring the big bastard in to the UFC and let him show you what he has. The guy held the whole fuckin division together for a bit there... give the guy the credit he has earned and throw him in there with a one fight contract with one of the up and comers, lets see how he does. If he is boring as shit and wins don't resign him, if he loses, he had his shot that he was looking for and couldn't hack it problem solved... if he wins and looks good doing it... then we have another guy in the mix. I just don't understand what the hold up is here, I guess.....

I'm certainly no Tim Sylvia fan, but you're absolutely right on everything you said.

Why the fuck would you not sign him for at least one fight? What do you got to lose?

Triggerman99 wrote:

Chrom wrote:

Fuckin ridiculous! With HWs giving shit showings like the Kongo fight and guys looking sub-par lately bring the big bastard in to the UFC and let him show you what he has. The guy held the whole fuckin division together for a bit there... give the guy the credit he has earned and throw him in there with a one fight contract with one of the up and comers, lets see how he does. If he is boring as shit and wins don't resign him, if he loses, he had his shot that he was looking for and couldn't hack it problem solved... if he wins and looks good doing it... then we have another guy in the mix. I just don't understand what the hold up is here, I guess.....

I'm certainly no Tim Sylvia fan, but you're absolutely right on everything you said.

Why fuck would you not sign him for at least one fight? What do you got to lose?

2nd all of that. i dont see any harm giving timmy one more shot.