Rich Hansen's Take
HANSEN: A Strikeforce Flight of Fancy - From Precedent to Prescient With Fight Bookings
Jul 29, 2012 - 9:45:21 PM HANSEN: A Strikeforce Flight of Fancy - From Precedent to Prescient With Fight Bookings

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By: Rich Hansen, MMATorch Columnist

After Daniel Cormier defeated Josh Barnett earlier this year to win the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix and establish himself as an elite heavyweight fighter in mixed martial arts, one question was left hanging unanswered. Who's next? (apologies to Bill Goldberg) Since Strikeforce had seen their entire heavyweight division move over to the UFC, sans Cormier and Barnett, and since Cormier was contractually obligated to one last Strikeforce fight, and since Barnett was the only remaining heavyweight, and since Cormier and Barnett weren't going to rematch, that all meant that someone was going to need to be brought into the red-headed stepchild promotion that just wants love from Old Daddy Warbucks.

Last week, MMA Junkie reported that former UFC heavyweight champion and current MMA vagabond Tim Sylvia had signed with Strikeforce, and that Sylvia would be Cormier's final Strikeforce opponent. Predictably, the most common reaction to this news was joy outrage shock intrigue apathy. Dana White came out (so to speak) shortly after the report to say that Tim Sylvia had not signed with Strikeforce, and would not be fighting Cormier.

So again, we were left to wonder; who's next? (I already apologized to Bill Goldberg, doing so again would count as groveling)

On Tuesday night as I was doing show prep for the MMATorch Tuesday Night Livecast, for a brief two seconds the name Frank Mir popped into my little brain, but due to him being in the UFC I disregarded that thought and didn't think about it again (and go ahead, prove I didn't think of it first). At least, I didn't think about Mir vs. Cormier again until John Morgan of USA Today Sports reported that Frank Mir had signed to fight Daniel Cormier for Cormier's last fight. Cormier's fight with Mir will take place at a yet to be announced Strikeforce show in either October or November.

So now that the precedent has been set, we will of course be seeing the (almost) best that the UFC has to offer come flooding into the Strikeforce OctaHexagon to face off against Strikeforce champions Gilbert Melendez (lightweight), Nathan Marquardt (welterweight), Luke Rockhold (middleweight) and Dan Henderson Vacant Vacant (light heavyweight). After all, now that one of the UFC's most loyal soldiers is coming over to fight in Strikeforce, that means that Showtime Sports executive Stephen Espinosa will be seeing the biggest and best that the UFC has to offer in Strikeforce fights his small cadre of elite champions. Right? Right?

Okay, maybe not. Okay, definitely not. But it's fun to think about the possibilities, no? Between Melendez, Marquardt, Rockhold, and Josh Barnett (who is supposed to have one remaining Strikeforce fight), there are a ton of intriguing fights that could be made. Even though none of these fights are going to happen, let's look at the three most intriguing (hypothetical) crossover fights for Melendez, Marquardt, Rockhold, and Barnett.


Josh Barnett

Barnett supposedly has one fight left on his Strikeforce deal. The odds of him ever again fighting in the UFC seem to be thin. Pretty much, Zuffa will want to get as much money out of him as possible before they let him go to coax Fedor out of retirement.

1.) Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: For those of you reading this column who wonder why the word PRIDE is capitalized and say to yourself, "Bono didn't capitalize Pride, so why do all these UFC people do it?" Nogueira and Barnett have already fought twice in Japan for this little company called PRIDE, splitting two fights. Nogueira's on the shelf still rehabbing a broken wing, but should be ready to return soon. Nogueira's a big named special attraction fighter, and is just the type of fighter that the UFC might be willing to lend out to Strikeforce.

2.) Alistair Overeem: Despite Barnett and Overeem fighting in PRIDE at the same times, their paths never crossed due to Barnett being a heavyweight and Overeem being a rail thin flyweight (pre-horsemeat). Overeem is currently sitting on the sidelines due to a urine test showing him with an unusually high ratio of testosterone to epitesterone (read, he pissed hot) which led to him being denied a license to fight in the state of Nevada. What better way for Dana White to send a message that they're serious about cleaning up the drug culture that is pervasive in MMA by forcing him to return from whence he came against a very dangerous (and super duper clean) opponent in Josh Barnett. The odds of Barnett and Overeem being willing to submit to VADA testing like B.J. Penn and Rory MacDonald? Negative eleven billion infinity percent.

3.) Mark Hunt: The UFC doesn't want to see the Twitter hashtag #RallyForHunt come into vogue once again, so what better way to kill it off than to have Barnett mangle Hunt's arm once more, just like he did when they first fought in 2006 in PRIDE (there's those damn caps again. Someone needs to go back to the year 1983 and tell Bono that his Caps Lock button is active!).

4.) Cheick Kongo: And then after the fight, when Barnett and Cormier leave Strikeforce, Kongo can stay in Strikeforce...


Luke Rockhold

I for one think Jacare is going to beat Rockhold when they rematch in a few month time. That notwithstanding, other than Jacare there's no one in Strikeforce's once vaunted middleweight division except for one Rockhold and Jacare.

The criterion change for the remaining divisions, because the heavyweights that would go over to fight Barnett are going to Strikeforce for just a one-off fight, and then returning (presumably) from whence they came. But for 185, 170, and 155, even if this imaginary precedent has been set by Frank Mir, there's also a skosh of reality that needs to be applied here, right?

1.) Mamed Khalidov: See? He's not even under contract to the UFC at all. I'm staying in the realm of reality. For now. But Khalidov was recently in contract negotiations with the UFC, only to have his management publicly insult the contract terms as laughable. However, unlike the UFC, Strikeforce has a history of laughably lavish, contracts. So as long as Zuffa, I mean Forza management can channel their inner-Coker, Khalidov makes all the fiscal sense in the world.

2.) Mark Munoz: Munoz's name far outreaches his accomplishments in this sport, which makes him completely expendable to the UFC and their suddenly compelling middleweight division. At the same time, he'd be extremely viable to the Strikeforce middleweight division. Speaking just for myself, and for every human being ever born or yet to be born, I really don't need to see Rockhold vs. Jacare VII sometime in the year 2014. Bring Munoz over, let him get a meaningless win over Tim Kennedy, and then get him in the three man perpetual motion title machine.

3.) Jorge Santiago: We're digging outside the UFC again, because anyone currently in the UFC's middleweight division that can hang with Luke Rockhold doesn't deserve the career crushing demotion to Strikeforce. Santiago clearly can't hang with the top tier of the UFC's middleweight division, but there's no reason he should be relegated to fighting on HDNet Whatever The Hell They Call It Now, either.


Nathan Marquardt

Marquardt brings a different dynamic to the mix here. Marquardt is the best fighter in Strikeforce's remaining divisions, so the allure of fighting Marquardt might be enough of an inducement to get an elite welterweight who isn't going to sniff a UFC title shot anytime soon to see Strikeforce as something less than a slap in the face.

1.) Thiago Alves: Alves is the exact reason I wrote that last paragraph. He's got a name, he's got a long resume, and he's not sniffing a UFC title shot unless he wins like nine fights in a row, starting right now. And who exactly wouldn't want to watch Marquardt vs. Alves? I'm not an Alves guy, not even slightly, and I'd drop everything to watch that fight.

2.) Josh Koscheck: Koscheck will be fighting Jake Ellenberger on September 1. Assuming Koscheck loses that fight (he'll lose), he'll never come within 42 miles of a UFC title shot, and might not even be allowed in the same state as any future UFC Welterweight Championship fight. By now you should be noticing a trend; lots of veterans with big names and recent losses, with no shot at being in the UFC title chase ever again. If Koscheck loses to Ellenberger on September 1, that description will be next to Koscheck's entry in the next Webster's Dictionary.

3.) Jon Fitch: Nathan Marquardt is one of very few fighters who is in an exciting fight each and every time they fight. That's just the type of guy Fitch needs to be paired with (Aaron Simpson vs. Jon Fitch? Puh-leeze, just shoot me int he face with a ray-gun). Not to mention that even if Fitch wins his next five fights, he won't be getting a title fight. After all, after he lost to GSP in 2008, he won five in a row and didn't get anywhere near GSP for a rematch. Send him down and let Marquardt carry him to an exciting fight; one that Fitch could very well win, too.


Gilbert Melendez

Eventually Gilbert Melendez is going to come into a fight completely uninterested, unmotivated, unfocussed and will get himself knocked out. And while one cannot blame him for taking Josh Thomson and Pat Healy lightly, a loss is a loss and the entire world will forget he even exists after this happens. Melendez chose to re-sign with Strikeforce last year because he was comfortable being a highly paid big fish in a small pond. But now that the pond has been completely dredged, he's flopping around like he's in a Faith No More video (yes, I'm nearing 40; Shut up). Melendez needs fresh lightweight blood, and fast.

1.) Eddie Alvarez This is so easy. Alvarez is likely to be a free agent after his Bellator contract runs out in the fall. Also likely: the sun rising in the east.

2.) Eddie Alvarez Alvarez vs. Melendez was long rumoured a year or two ago, back in the dark ages Coker Era dark ages of Strikeforce. Of course it never happened, but fans are still dying to see this fight.

3.) Eddie Alvarez What? You thought I was gonna say Clay Guida?