‘Fedor vs. Silva’ Prelims to Air on HDNet

Fedor Emelianenko | Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com

Sherdog.com confirmed the news on Friday with Strikeforce's director of communications Mike Afromowitz. MMA Junkie initially reported on the matter Friday afternoon.

The event, which will go down from the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., will serve to kick off Strikeforce's upcoming heavyweight tournament and will be headlined by the titular matchup between Fedor Emelianenko and Antonio Silva. Also featured will be a second tournament quarterfinal between Andrei Arlovski and Sergei Kharitonov.

The preliminary HDNet broadcast will air directly prior to the main card on Showtime and is expected to feature four bouts, including a pair of featherweight scraps featuring Anthony Leone taking on Josh LaBerge and Jason McLean locking up with Kevin Roddy. Also scheduled for the evening is a lightweight bout pitting “The Ultimate Fighter” alum Marc Stevens against John Cholish, as well as a welterweight affair featuring Igor Gracie taking on John Salgado.

Rounding out the all-heavyweight main card on Showtime will be three alternate bouts for the tournament. In a battle of up-and-comers, “Challengers” series standouts Shane del Rosario and Lavar Johnson square off. Meanwhile, Chad Griggs toes the line against Gianpiero Villante, and Valentijn Overeem butts heads with Ray Sefo.