The Strikeforce welterweight and lightweight divisions should be folded into the UFC, much like the the WEC's divisions above lightweight were folded into the UFC before the eventual absorption of the entire promotion. The reason for this is that the champions have cleaned out their divisions.
Gilbert Melendez has taken two of three from Josh Thomson and beaten Kawajiri and Aoki. Other than a possible fight with K.J. Noons that really is below his level despite its potential for entertainment, there is nothing left for Melendez. As for the other guys, Aoki's contract is up meaning he can be signed to the UFC right now and Kawajiri and Thomson are obviously on the downsides of their careers now. In addition, Lyle Beerbohm was the one prospect that Strikeforce had in this division and he has lost two straight now in short order.
As for Diaz' welterweight division, there is nobody left other than prospects. While the Daley fight was good, the previous two fights were against Cyborg Santos (the male version, just as mean, not as good as the female one) and Noons, a blown up lightweight who is returning to lightweight in his next fight. The only thing left for him is to go back to the UFC and get back to business in the Octagon. It has been awhile and Diaz has improved a ton since leaving the UFC a few years ago and he is still young (only 27, somehow). Also, he would be a fresh face for Georges St. Pierre (assuming St. Pierre beats Diaz teammate Jake Shields) to take on, something the UFC is always looking for in their eternal quest to avoid giving Jon Fitch another title shot.
The Jardine-Mousasi decision was a travesty in the highest order, but the result might be the fight we really want to see. With the draw, Mousasi likely can't be pushed into a title shot with Dan Henderson now. Instead, he needs another win (maybe in a rematch with Jardine, or maybe over former champ Rafael Cavalcante). The door has been opened for Henderson to fight Fedor Emelianenko, possibly at light heavyweight and the fight needs to happen. Neither has anything on the horizon with Fedor out of the Heavyweight GP and Henderson having no title challenger and Strikeforce likely headed towards pay per view, this fight is one of the few they have that has the potential to sell well.
Lyle Beerbohm will never be more than a journeyman. Beerbohm hasn't developed any sort of striking game at all in his young career. Without it, he's got a problem. Nobody wants to go to the ground against Aoki. It's totally foolhardy and yet, that where Beerbohm took the fight because he had no other options.
Paul Daley might want to forget about MMA and move to Kickboxing. The It's Showtime promotion in Europe likely offers bigger paydays than he will be getting going forward in MMA with no major organizations outside of the Zuffa umbrella and no reason for Dana White to keep him around at this point. Daley desperately needed to win and hold the Strikeforce belt. In addition he needed to hold it and defend it for long enough that the fans overruled Dana White's wishes and demanded he be brought back to the Octagon. He didn't and while he may get one more Strikeforce fight (Business as usual right), time is running out.
Can we please re-organize the Showtime announcing team. I actually kind of like Frank Shamrock despite all his flaws as an analyst. He really needs another strong analyst, maybe a trainer to join him in the booth (Miletich who is already on the payroll there?). That analyst is most certainly not Mauro Ranallo. Mauro is a good announcer and passionate fan of the sport, but an analyst he is not. He has been an adequate play-by-play man over the years as well. Simply put, move Mauro over to play-by-play full time and get rid of Gus Johnson and we are on to something. As for Gus, I like him, but this sport isn't his thing in the same was Al Michaels wasn't well suited to the NBA during his tenure as the top announcer there. Go back to college basketball and the NFL where you belong Gus.
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