Happy trails, Strikeforce
Gilbert Melendez is heading to the UFC, leaving Luke Rockhold as the only remaining champion in Strikeforce. With this development, 4 of the 5 Strikeforce titleholders have moved to the UFC, leaving at least 3 belts vacated (it has not been confirmed if El Nino is going to vacate his title, but what has happened so far, this is likely). Dan Henderson is getting a top level fight against Mauricio Rua, Alistair Overeem will help the UFC generate some cash in a stagnant year when he takes on Brock Lesnar, and Nick Diaz was supposed to fight Georges St. Pierre in an automatic title shot.
This basically puts the final nail in the coffin for Strikeforce. There are no more name fights to be made. Middleweight is probably the weakest UFC division; the Strikeforce middleweights are an even thinner division. If you think the final of the heavyweight Grand Prix will be a big event, the semifinals did some of the poorest numbers for Showtime’s ratings, and that event was augmented by the Rockhold vs Ronaldo Souza middleweight title fight. The live crowd was apparently 2 000. The venue has a capacity of about 13 000 for most events. Clearly, people don’t care about Strikeforce anymore.
Dana White insists that the decision to continue running Strikeforce rests fully on Showtime’s shoulders. The contract Strikeforce has with Showtime won’t expire for awhile, but clearly the UFC is picking up the UFC level talent as individual contracts expire. He may be playing coy, but it’s obvious that uncle Dana is not putting any of the considerable Zuffa marketing machine behind Strikeforce. With the WEC, the fighters were marketed as being the best in the world at the lighter weight classes. After the purchase of Strikeforce, there is no reason to put any resources behind what is effectively a minor league to the UFC.
It’s sad that things have come to this, as Strikeforce did put on many entertaining fights. Plus, they did their part in getting MMA on network TV. Being bought by the UFC’s parent company simply led to a hollowing out rather than business as usual.
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I wonder if Masvidal and Noons will make their way over to the UFC eventually. I thought it might be a fun fight to see Masvidal vs Melendez.
Thanks for your comments today, Leon.
Noons is a great striker, but I don’t think he’d last long in the UFC unless he carves out a Sam Stout-like role for himself. I don’t think Masvidal is major league level yet either.