Gracie-Salgado Lined Up for ‘Fedor vs. Silva’ Undercard

Saturday, January 15, 2011 29419 A welterweight scrap between Igor Gracie and John Salgado is in the works for Strikeforce/M-1 Global “Fedor vs. Silva” on Feb. 12 at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J. The event will be headlined by the titular heavyweight tilt between Fedor Emelianenko and Antonio Silva. Also featured will be a second quarter-final in Strikeforce’s 2011 heavyweight grand prix, as former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski will square off with Sergei Kharitonov. Sherdog learned of the preliminary Gracie-Salgado bout from sources close to the matchup on Friday. Bout agreements have yet to be signed, and the fight has not yet been made official by Strikeforce. The son of family champion Rolls Gracie, Gracie has had mixed results in his MMA career thus far. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt has fought exclusively in the Northeast since he began his career in 2008. Following a decision loss in his debut, Gracie battled back with a win at Ring of Combat 22 in Atlantic City, N.J. The Brazilian again tasted defeat in his third outing, dropping a decision to Vagner Rocha at Bellator 11 in June 2009. His most recent outing resulted in victory, as Gracie submitted Chris Vorano at a Canadian event 13 months ago. Like Gracie, Salgado is a Ring of Combat veteran, posting a 2-3 record in the promotion. “Greco” made his M-1 debut in April, earning a split decision victory over Renato Migliaccio in April. Salgado limps into his bout with Gracie off back-to-back losses. After outpointing Migliaccio, the Team Energy representative returned to the ring just two weeks later at Ring of Combat 29, where he was submitted by Mike Medrano with a north-south choke. Salgado most recently fell to UFC veteran Chris Liguori by decision in November. “Fedor vs. Silva” features an all-heavyweight main card and will showcase three alternate tournament bouts, including a fight matching Strikeforce Challengers series standouts Lavar Johnson and Shane del Rosario, as well as bouts pitting Valentijn Overeem against Ray Sefo and Chad Griggs against Gian Villante.