Strikeforce's heavyweight champion, Alistair Overeem, has been pulled from his semifinal bout with Antonio Silva at Strikeforce's heavyweight grand prix. Undefeated prospect Daniel Cormier steps in to fight Silva according to tatame.com.

September 10 was the date for Overeem's bout with Silva, which apparently didn't sit well with him. Overeem states that he would be unfit to fight after taking time off from his training to nurse some injuries, particularly a damaged toe. Additionally Overeem points to threats made upon him by Zuffa if he didn't accept that date. With these factors, Overeem was ultimately removed from the bout all together.

Cormier is an 8-0 unbeaten heavyweight prospect. Noted for his wrestling skills, Cormier last defeated Jeff Monson via unanimous decision and will now face Silva in the semifinals.

"I'll change a lot of things...I already was training a lot my ground game, and now I'll train even more. He's very good in wrestling, Minotauro (Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira) already told me they trained together and he's pretty good, and I'll have to be great on my ground game to reverse that in case he takes me down and impose my game. The strategy changed completely." Silva said.

Not surprisingly, Silva is disappointed in Overeem's removal from the bout.

"I didn't understand that. If I do something like that, they would cut me immediately. If I do something like that, people would say, even him would say, that I ducked him, that I was scared and didn't wanted to fight, but I don't want to think that about him. I don't know, maybe he's injured, and I wish him a good recovery if he really is. It's kind of suspect, but I have to fight, to feed my family." Silva said.

Silva vs. Cormier is set for a September 10 Strikeforce event although the venue for the event is currently unknown.