Dana White made Jake Shields (top) prove himself when he moved from Strikeforce to UFC. Will others face the same scrutiny?
Dana White used that phrase around 10,000 times as he spoke about the continued operation of Strikeforce during Saturday's surprise announcement that a subsidiary of UFC parent company Zuffa had purchased its mixed martial arts rival.
Asked about essentially the same topic during a media conference call Monday, here's what the UFC president had to say this time:
Yeah, not much news came out of the hour-long phone call between MMA reporters and White, Zuffa chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta and Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker. We got a few fresh details -- such as Strikeforce's adopting MMA's unified rules, meaning elbows to the head of a grounded fighter are now OK -- but little of what we heard filled in any blanks from what we'd heard Saturday. "We put this together in short order," Fertitta said, "and we don't have all the answers yet."
In one case, though, having no answer was actually a step in the right direction. During Saturday's announcement in a video interview with MMAFighting.com, White was asked whether the sale might result in "superfights" between top guys in the UFC and Strikeforce. "When I say 'business as usual,' we don't co-promote," he said emphatically. "Even when we own the thing, we don't co-promote. Period."
On Monday, however, White opened that slammed door, if only a crack. When the topic of potential UFC-vs.-Strikeforce bouts came up during the conference call, he said, "I wouldn't count anything out. I wouldn't say no to anything. Listen, at the end of the day, what we want to do is put on the best fights the fans want to see. That's our job." To which Fertitta added, "If there's an interest and the fans want to see it, as Dana says, that's what we do."
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So, what fights do MMA fans want to see? Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir went on a fact-finding mission Monday night on Twitter, asking his 53,000 followers what "merger matchups" they'd be into. Several fans suggested Mir matchups -- the whole thing was Frank's idea, after all -- but much of the matchmaking involved showdowns of champions, such as Strikeforce welterweight Nick Diaz vs. the UFC's Georges St-Pierre.
Now, I'd love to see some of those two-belt bouts, too, but I don't think that's the direction the UFC will go if it makes these types of fights happen. For all the nice things White has said about Strikeforce in the last few days, I don't think he believes that any of Coker's champs are worthy of stepping right in with his belt holders. He made former Strikeforce middleweight titlist Jake Shields prove himself before getting a shot at GSP. Why would Diaz, Alistair Overeem or anyone else with a Strikeforce strap be treated any differently?
Instead, maybe we'll see a Strikeforce champ or two matched against a UFC guy who's been waiting in line for a shot at a belt. Some of these contenders-in-waiting might already have been promised their title bouts, but when has a promise like that ever carried any weight in the UFC? (Just ask Jon Fitch and Anthony Pettis.) And this final test could really nail down who's the true No. 2. A few possibilities:
Gilbert Melendez vs. Anthony Pettis: Here's your champ-vs.-champ fight. I actually would prefer to see Strikeforce lightweight belt holder Melendez fight Gray Maynard, but at this point there's no getting in the way of the runaway freight train that is Gray Maynard-Frankie Edgar III. So instead let's go with the top Strikeforce lightweight against the king of the WEC hill. Watch yourself near the cage, Gil.
Nick Diaz vs. BJ Penn: Do you really want to see Penn vs. Fitch again? We can agree to disagree on who really won last month, but isn't it pretty clear that the Fitch beatdown we saw in Rounds 2 and 3 would likely continue through Rounds 4, 5 and 6? Let's give Fitch a front-row seat so he can enjoy watching the all-around magic -- crisp striking mixed with dangerous jiu-jitsu -- that Penn and Nick would put on display. Winner gets Fitch for the title vacated by GSP when he moves up to middleweight.
Alistair Overeem vs. Brock Lesnar/Junior dos Santos winner: Could Junior stand and trade with Overeem? Could Lesnar get Overeem to the mat before he hits the canvas himself? The only problem with this matchup: Who's big enough to tell either Lesnar or dos Santos that he's not getting the immediate shot at Cain Velasquez that was promised the winner of June's UFC 131 main event?
Title eliminators aside, here are a few other possibilities for UFC-Strikeforce crossovers, which I'll categorize simply as "Why not?":
Randy Couture vs. Fedor Emelianenko: This has always been the matchup I considered more intriguing than the dreamed-of Fedor vs. Lesnar, and now that we've seen Emelianenko smothered beneath "Bigfoot" and Brock wither in the face of the fists of Velasquez and Shane Carwin, that fight holds no interest at all for me. But this fight, despite coming five or six years beyond each guy's prime, still would be fun to watch. Especially if the ref starts them in a clinch against the cage.
Muhammed Lawal vs. Quinton Jackson: This way we get to see another "Rampage" grudge match without having to sit through three more rounds of Jackson and Rashad Evans doing the fisticuffs equivalent of "I know you are but what am I?" Then again, feuds are not what the martial arts are about. So forget this one, and let's keep things respectful and civilized with ...
Dana White vs. Ken Hershman: No, of course I'm not proposing a meeting in the Octagon between the UFC president and the Showtime executive vice president and general manager for sports and event programming. I think a joint news conference would produce just as much perspiration.
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