UFC-Strikeforce Merger

[wrestlingfan]

Yes we all know back in March and April, Zuffa completely depleted their only possible competition left in Strikeforce. Now months have passed and we're reaching the semi-finals of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, and we are witnessing cross promotion fights such as Diaz-GSP, and Bisping Miller. But what if both these companies merged?

I think if these companies merged we would see alot more potential fights and a drastic increase in all Divisions quality especially the UFC HW Division. If this merger were to happen we could possibly see Women's MMA, in the UFC and possibly more tournaments. But with this merger there would be more monopoly. The only available alternatives left would be esentially Dream, Bellator, and King of the Cage, Honestly in my opinion there will get to a point when guys such as Eddie Alvarez and Hector Lombard don't have any competition and are forced to go over to the UFC, and who knows how long DREAM will last before their fights start being milked away.

King of the Cage may stay due to it being the developmental terriroty of MMA, and it's not like UFC has any interest in them.

Your Thoughts?

 

[Fizzy]

Dana will never take in WMMA. I'd put a pretty penny on that. You can barely make a top 10 in the entire WMMA and the lower portion of said top 10 fighters are atrocious. I will say though, I hear Kyra Gracie is in talks with SF. I'd pay massive bills to see her fight Gina Carano. Fight of the year for sure.

Also, Bisping/Miller isn't a cross promotion fight. Miller is a full fledged member of the UFC now as is Diaz. They have contracts and everything. Another flaw in your post is tournaments. Dana would NEVER have a tournament in the UFC and rightfully so. Look at the trainwreck that is the SF GP. Dana is to smart to do that. Dream will stay for a long time considering they're partners with K-1 and aren't a plausible threat to Zuffa and are good for Japan. Bellator will stay for a while and I doubt Lombard and Alvarez will leave unless they lose do to their championship clauses with Bellator.

My thoughts? You have many ideas of what you believe would happen even though Dana has refuted them many times. It will be years and years before we see WMMA in the UFC and there will never be a tournament. As for the merger itself, it won't happen for a while and I see no reason for it to happen. There are some talents in Strikeforce and there is no sense to fold the promotion right now. I say by the end of next year though, they will fold into the UFC. The only divisions that will gain something though would be the UFC HW division with Bigfoot, Werdum, Sergei, and maybe Barnett and Overeem, the LHW division with Roger Gracie, King Mo, Gegard possibly, and Cormier who seems to be eyeing the LHW division. Every other division is rather shallow. Sure the UFC would get Woodley and Melendez but the other divisions are very shallow.

 

[INDYjon22]

As Fizzy said, I wouldn't worry about a merger anytime soon and I really don't want to see one anyways, even though it will happen at some point. Dana does not like WMMA and I don't see him promoting it anytime soon, if ever. And tournaments will be a no go because the UFC isn't PRIDE! or Strikeforce as Dana has said countless times. I wouldn't mind seeing a tournament but that is what TUF is for after all. And yes, the Heavyweight, Light Heavyweight and possibly the Middleweight division may get stronger but the Lightweight and Welterweight divisions won't really grow all that much. The only semi acceptable fighters would be Woodley, Melendez and Thomson considering Kawajiri and Aoki have deals with Dream and probably wouldn't cross over. I mean I would love to see the SF HW's in the UFC eventually, but this merger will only really benefit the bigger weight division. Not a bad thing by any means.

 

[wrestlingfan]

Why wouldn't Dana do tournaments, It would prove well to see who's really the best in the world? And about WMMA, I don't know, Dana is warming up to it, He's starting to see it's more exciting and marketable.

 

[INDYjon22]

Why wouldn't Dana do tournaments, It would prove well to see who's really the best in the world? And about WMMA, I don't know, Dana is warming up to it, He's starting to see it's more exciting and marketable.

When did he start to warm up to it? I would love to see an article about this because as long as I have known about WMMA and Dana White I have known him to hate it. Please provide a link that I can read.

And Dana has said a few times now that he doesn't want to do tournaments. They may prove the "best" but they are time consuming and in fact don't prove the best. Also, fighters get injured to easily because of the fights they have to fight on such shortened periods of time. The risk isn't worth the reward and Dana doesn't need to worry about injured fighters when he can just have those guys on win streaks fight in contender fights instead.

 

[Fizzy]

Why wouldn't he do tournaments? Like I said, look at the GP going on right now and the trainwreck that's become. It has way to many faults and variables. Here's an idea to figure out who the best in the world is. Pit one fighter against the champion. That seems to be working out just fine. It's a giant unnecessary clusterfuck of fights that takes WAY to long to finish. The only acceptable tournament would be to have every fight in one night and no athletic commission would in their right minds sanction that. Otherwise it takes way to long.

As for WMMA, he is in no way warming up to it. He just said in a recent interview that he won't put it into the UFC and how could he? There is like, eight skilled women in the sport and everybody else is bad. Cyborg has nobody that can come even remotely close to touching her. There isn't enough fighters or demand for it to make it's way to the UFC and there won't be for many years.

 

[wrestlingfan]

When did he start to warm up to it? I would love to see an article about this because as long as I have known about WMMA and Dana White I have known him to hate it. Please provide a link that I can read.

And Dana has said a few times now that he doesn't want to do tournaments. They may prove the "best" but they are time consuming and in fact don't prove the best. Also, fighters get injured to easily because of the fights they have to fight on such shortened periods of time. The risk isn't worth the reward and Dana doesn't need to worry about injured fighters when he can just have those guys on win streaks fight in contender fights instead.

I'll see if I can provide you a link but I do remember reading ti somewhere on Bleacher Report.

Why wouldn't he do tournaments? Like I said, look at the GP going on right now and the trainwreck that's become. It has way to many faults and variables. Here's an idea to figure out who the best in the world is. Pit one fighter against the champion. That seems to be working out just fine. It's a giant unnecessary clusterfuck of fights that takes WAY to long to finish. The only acceptable tournament would be to have every fight in one night and no athletic commission would in their right minds sanction that. Otherwise it takes way to long.

As for WMMA, he is in no way warming up to it. He just said in a recent interview that he won't put it into the UFC and how could he? There is like, eight skilled women in the sport and everybody else is bad. Cyborg has nobody that can come even remotely close to touching her. There isn't enough fighters or demand for it to make it's way to the UFC and there won't be for many years.

Well I don't see how the GP has it faults. It's going just fine given. Only thing that has happened is Alistair Overeem leaving because of a training injury.

 

[INDYjon22]

I'll see if I can provide you a link but I do remember reading ti somewhere on Bleacher Report.



Well I don't see how the GP has it faults. It's going just fine given. Only thing that has happened is Alistair Overeem leaving because of a training injury.

Actually the GP is becoming a cluster fuck. It has been pushed back far to many times. The finals should have already been set, yet the semi finals haven't even begun yet. All due to SF putting other fights ahead of what should be its main focus as of right now. Now the Grand Prix will be lucky to be done by the end of the year and more likely to be finished by March next year. Unacceptable booking and scheduling on Strikeforces part. Overeem leaving also doesn't help things out at all but at least it allows the winner to fight the champion instead of turning the tournament into an even bigger clusterfuck. Also, let it be known I was a supporter of this thing at the start and have gradually grown incredibly irritated with how it has been run.

 

[Fizzy]

How long has Bigfoot been waiting to get a fight? How many different dates have been scheduled and slashed out for each event? Why was Overeem in the tournament in the first place? All this tournament did was delay the champion from defending his belt. The GP won't be over until sometime next year and Overeem won't defend the belt until late next year unless he goes to the UFC or if Strikeforce pits one of the losers against him for the belt. Overeem has what, one title defense in the past few years? Now he'll be out of action in Strikeforce for over a year unless he fights somebody who is completely undeserving or fights in a fight where the title isn't on the line. Think about that. The champion of Strikeforce won't be defending his title again for the foreseeable future yet again. It's sad.

 

[wrestlingfan]

But Overeem was in the tournament to prove why he's truly the best. Take Velasquez for first, Okay Velasquez's UFC's Undisputed Heavyweight Champion. Now websites are starting to consider Cain, rhe best Heavyweight in the world. How can that be true when all he beat, was some gatekeepers in Rothwelll, Big Nog. Kongo, and only had a credible win over Lesnar. He still has to go through Dos Santos, Carwin, Mir, to see how he fears against them to prove why he is the Best.