Strikeforce To Remove Heavyweight Division,Keep Women’s MMA,Gilbert Melendez Staying

[No More Sorrow]

Today ZUFFA, STRIKEFORCE and SHOWTIME officials took to a media conference call to announce the details of the new Showtime broadcast deal.

During the discussion and through fielding media questions it was revealed that once the conclusion of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix is over the winner will face one more top-10 heavyweight, yet to be announced and then the division will be removed from the Strikeforce roster entirely.

Officials would not commit to the future of the divisions fighters when asked if they would be moved to the UFC once the weightclass is closed.

The promotion has stated that they will focus on the divisions that they have more depth of talent such as middleweight, welterweight and lightweight. They did note however, that they will continue to build all divisions, including the female categories going forward but they have no further interest in building up their heavyweights.

During the call UFC president specifically noted that he is keeping the women’s divisions intact due to the outcry from fans demanding that the females get the proper attention.

White stated, “The women’s division is popular and we are going to keep it.â€￾

One of the hotter topics in recent Strikeforce business is the speculation of where the Strikeforce lightweight champion, Gilbert Melendez will fight after this weekend’s Masvidal title fight in San Diego. White also stated that if Gilbert Melendez wins this fight and defends his title he will take fight after fight under the Strikeforce banner and continue to defend his title and noted that “Gilbert is f*%king ecstatic about it.â€￾

Officials did not want to give too many specifics away on the new deal, no term for the agreement was given, but in 2012 MMA fans can expect anywhere from 6-8 STRIKEFORCE bouts live on SHOWTIME.

 

[No More Sorrow]

This also came with the new deal

Along with the news that Strikeforce has extended its deal with Showtime for several years and will continue existing as its own promotion, it was revealed today that the Strikeforce Challengers series will no longer exist.

Showtime Executive Vice President Stephen Espinoza explained that the feeder show will be discontinued, but that the fighters on its rosters will not be left to the streets. Instead, they will merge with Strikeforce proper and compete on a less regional-fighter-heavy preliminary card ahead of regular Strikeforce broadcasts on the Showtime Extreme network.

"What we've decided to do in a sense is consolidate programming," explained Espinoza (props to MMAWeekly). "We're going to have the preliminaries airing on (Showtime) Extreme, immediately preceding the televised main event, and primary undercard fights. Whether they'll be called Challengers or not is still something to be discussed."

Having featured a ton of legitimate contenders from Tyron Woodley to Sarah Kaufman, the Strikeforce Challengers Series began in 2009 as a feeder league to establish the next crop of Strikeforce contenders.

The last Strikeforce Challengers Card, Strikeforce Challengers: Britt vs. Sayers took place on November 18 at the Pearl at the Palms in Las Vegas.

 

[The Cork]

Sucks to be Josh Barnett, I guess.

 

[Troy]

No real surprise here since UFC have already started taking most of the top heavyweights already. I can see them taking a few more as well to add even more depth to the UFC heavyweight division.

 

[No More Sorrow]

I'm pretty sure the UFC already signed almost all of the remaining heavyweights that Strikeforce had in the division or they're going to be doing that within the next few days. I read about it earlier, i'll try to post the article up here in a bit.

 

[Troy]

UFC would definitely want to sign Daniel Cormier from the division but I wonder if they will sign someone like Antonio Silva or Andre Arlovski.

 

[No More Sorrow]

Arlovski wants to come back and the UFC has been signing old UFC vets lately as we've seen with Werdum and Gonzaga, so he'll probably get a contract offer if he hasn't already. Probably hear more about them signing old Strikeforce heavyweights after the New Year though.

 

[The Cork]

Arlovski is washed out and has no chin.

Bigfoot Silva, yeah I could see them signing him, he beat Fedor, afterall.

 

[Ben]

Arlovski is one or 2 blows to the head away from being a vegetable so I don't see them bringing him back.

Basically I just hope SF turns into WEC, showcase just a few weight classes( 155-205) and maybe send down some guys that are struggling in the UFC as opposed to cutting them. Barnett and Silva are really the only 2 HW that I think could make a good addition in terms of depth to the UFC.