This Day in MMA History: Sept. 10

On Sept. 10, 2011, two very big things happened in a Strikeforce event in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The card was titled Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov, but the two bigger fights were Daniel Cormier vs. Antonio Silva and Luke Rockhold vs. Ronaldo Souza.

Originally, Silva was expected to fight Alistair Overeem, but Overeem, who was coming off of a toe injury and was pushing for an October or November return, refused to fight on the September card. As a result, he was pulled from the heavyweight tournament and then released from the company. Stepping in was Cormier, who ended up knocking out Silva en route to winning the entire tournament.

Meanwhile, Rockhold became the Strikeforce middleweight champion when he edged out a decision win over Souza. He went on to defend the title two times before he moved on to the UFC subsequent to the Las Vegas-based promotion’s purchase of Strikeforce.