What Does The Future Hold For Strikeforce?

I should be careful what I say, because I don't want to the Diaz brothers and 20 other Cesar Gracie team members to go thug on me, but I like every other MMA fan is wondering what tonight's Strikeforce event will mean for the promotion.

For many casual fight watchers, the event will go unnoticed since it didn't take place in the UFC octagon, but for MMA journalists it's like Christmas came twice this year. However, they certainly wont be writing much about the fights themselves. The whole night can be summed up by simply stating that wrestling dominated in unimpressive fashion, and as we all learned after UFC 112, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that is not backed up with elite level striking does not lead to an effective gameplan once the bell rings.

The night started with Gegard Mousasi vs. Muhammad "King Mo" Lawal.
Gegard, who was the Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion was favored to win this fight, and was viewed by many MMA critics to be one of the most promising fighters outside of the UFC. "King Mo" has also gained a lot of recent attention with some victories in Japan, and a viral video of him in a verbal dispute with "Rampage" Jackson. This 5 round fight showed a tired Lawal repeatedly takedown an even more tired Mousasi and absorb relatively ineffective strikes from the grounded Dutchman. Lawal won the fight by unanimous decision, and answered a lot of questions about his ability against higher level competition. Mousasi, on the other hand, will now be faced with thousand fans who will call him over-rated and undeserving of his status as a top 10 fighter.

The matchup was Shinya Aoki vs Gilbert "El Niño" Melendez.
This fight showed that Aoki has a lot of work to do in the striking department. Aoki, who is the DREAM lightweight champion, and elite brazilian jiu jitsu practitioner was dominated by Melendez in a 5 round battle for the Strikeforce lightweight championship. Aoki simply had nothing to offer Melendez on his feet, and was unable to pull off any submissions from the bottom, or even improve his position. It is possible there will be an immediate rematch in Japan for the DREAM lightweight championship, which fights under slightly different rules in a ring instead of a cage.

The main event featured UFC veteran Dan Henderson vs. Jake Shields.
The third title fight of the evening looked to be the most promising, when the heavily favored Henderson rocked Shields with a right hand dropping in the first round. Shields managed to survive the attack and made it out of the round looking outclassed. However after receiving advice from his corner to continue his attempts at a takedown, Shields came back to dominate the next 4 rounds. Effortlessly passing guard and mounting Henderson over and over, Shields showed that he is a force to be reckoned with at both welterweight and middleweight.

These three fights may have not been the most exiting to casual observer, but I really didn't mind them at all. Shields vs. Henderson was technical battle between 2 great grapplers, and still a lot better than watching Anderson Silva act like a monkey for 5 rounds. I think Shields poses a real challenge to the top fighters in the UFC and creates some very interesting matches in the Welterweight division. This leads to the question about Strikeforces future in the MMA world, and exposure in mainstream media.

Shields is at the end of his contract with Strikeforce, and had already sparked the interest of UFC president Dana White prior to his win over Henderson. Dana who has been criticized for his strict "champions clause", which limits any UFC champion from fighting in another promotion at the end of their contract, must be beaming right now. He will no doubtingly offer Shields a huge sum of money to fight in the UFC, bringing his belt with him and leaving Strikeforce without a champion, and an overpaid Henderson coming off a heartbreaking loss. Dana's champions clause may seem overly strict, but it is necessary to avoid the kind of situation Strikeforce has put themselves in. After over-promoting Henderson, Shields had already expressed his displeasure, feeling he was overlooked as the champion and was open to other opportunities following the fight.

This couldn't come at a worse time for Strikeforce, whose nationally televised card on CBS went 45 minutes over their time-slot, with all three fights going the full 5 rounds. Not to mention the giant blemish that occurred at the end of the event, when Shields was interrupted by former opponent Jason Miller during his post fight interview. Miller was met with angry Cesar Gracie team members and all chaos broke loose...



Now do I think it is as big a deal as MMA forum members are making of it... No, it's Mixed Martial Arts, not chess. When tempers flare in baseball, a fights break out, so what do you think is going to happen when things get heated when the sport IS fighting? But I have a feeling CBS executives wont be as forgiving as me. Even though most people likely changed the channel after the 4th round of the second fight, a street brawl of broadcast TV isn't the kind of image MMA wants right now. CBS may have signed on to have a controlled combat sport on their network, but they certainly didn't agree to have 10 men stomping on Jason Miller while security attempted to gain control of the situation. I'm pretty sure CBS never aired the Jerry Springer show. If I had my way the Diaz brothers, who were at the center of the chaos, would never compete in MMA again. I can't stand either of them, I think they are over-rated thugs who showed their true colors tonight. They are everything that is wrong with MMA, and give the entire sport a bad image with there Stockton attitude.

Anyway, this is my longwinded analysis of the night. I fear the worst for Strikeforce and will be starting the countdown to their demise. There is only so much money to pay Fedor and his management, and if CBS decides they are no longer interested in watching the Diaz brothers act like morons, Strikeforce will soon be asking for a government bailout.

It's a good night to be Dana White considering his biggest competition pretty much lost every fan they had. His twitter said it all... " :) "

Quotes from the fans:

Aniketos on Sherdog says: Is this really the kind of attention you want for the sport? I mean seriously?? And you wonder why a lot of sports media trash talk the sport and bad mouth it.
T Bag on The Underground says: Shields is really, really boring. I love groundfighting but man is he boring in an MMA context. Still, he's right up there with GSP as the top WW in the world. There needs to be a fight between them
LongTimeMMAGuy on The Underground says: Nick Diaz had a very slim chance of ever fighting in the UFC and giving GSP a fight. Now, after the thug fight in the cage, his chances are less then slim. I dont think we will ever see a Nick Diaz UFC fight again.