2011 was unquestionably one of the greatest years in the short existence of mixed martial arts. The UFC has continued to grow and expand, Bellator has begun to find a stable foothold and produce stars, and Strikeforce will continue to air on Showtime, handled as a completely separate entity from the UFC, despite the fact that Zuffa now owns the promotion. Although the Japanese scene continues to struggle, MMA has caught like wildfire in the United States, and only promises to reach more households worldwide as time unfolds, which could certainly see a turn-around for promotions based in Japan.

The Strikeforce/UFC’s Continual Merger: Dana White has made it abundantly clear that Strikeforce isn’t going anywhere. However, White and the UFC have been importing some of their sister promotion’s finer talents, like Alistair Overeem, Nick Diaz and Fabricio Werdum, to name just a few. With the influx of new talent in the UFC, the depth of each division slowly swells, making for some intriguing scenarios and a pool of potential match ups that we would not be privy to if not for Zuffa’s purchase of Strikeforce. Gone are the days of champions “cleaning out the division”, there’s now plenty of new talent to factor into the equation, and it’s going to make for some truly fascinating matches come 2012.

Written By: Aiden Rudd

“When Strikeforce was purchased by the UFC’s parent company Zuffa LLC in March, Strikeforce chairman Scott Coker, has professed that it is ‘Business as Usual’ for the companies. Strikeforce was still to operate as a separate promotion, it would still co-promote with M1-Global to keep the whole Fedor fiasco from collapsing. However, 7 months later is that statement still realistic?”

With several big attractions defecting to the UFC in search of bigger fights and even bigger paydays, can Strikeforce still operate as a ‘Major Promotion’? With talent such as Nick Diaz, Jason Miller, Alistair Overeem and Dan Henderson trickling down to the UFC, the promotion’s increasingly obsolete titles are for the large part vacant. As out of the 5 male weight divisions, only two have currently got a title holder. Luke Rockhold recently defeated ‘Jacare’ Souza to capture the Middleweight title, and Gilbert Melendez, who has been documented as being unsettled at the promotion’s lack of legitimate contenders to his Lightweight title, that he is currently preparing to defend for the 3rd time in December against Jorge Masvidal.

In a world of negative news stories we wanted to write about a positive story going on in the world of Mixed Martial Arts.  I know if you are like me you are tired of reading about the national debt and ‘debt ceiling’ so here is someone that is turning negativity into positivity in his life.  So, sit back and enjoy a few minutes of a feel good story in the world of MMA.

Who wears day-glo, candy striped, multi-colored shorts for an MMA match? That has their mother really hands craft them for him? Who really adopts a fight after being introduced as “Fancy Pants”? Who did annually along with a day inside a Washington Condition Penitentiary for crimes associated with a meth addiction, got launched from that prison and won his first amateur fight just 8 days later?

The title says it all.  You punch a guy after the final horn, you should get fired.  What doesn’t Paul Daley get about that?

After the embarrassing and stupid actions Daley performed following his loss to Josh Koscheck at UFC 113, the UFC rightfully released him, and President Dana White said he would never fight for the UFC again.  With the UFC’s purchase of Strikeforce, Daley has now become a Zuffa fighter.  A fighter in which White promised to allow to finish his contract before anything will happen. 

The most popular name in women’s Mixed Martial Arts is going to make a comeback to the sport. Gina Carano confirmed that she will be coming back to the Strikeforce cage this year.

While at the Strikeforce: Fedor versus Silva event on Saturday, the 7-1 Carano was in attendance. During the evening she appeared to make the announcement of her return. An exact date or opponent has not been named at this time.

At Saturday’s Strikeforce: Fedor versus Silva event, Strikeforce was supposed to make major strides towards putting a dent in the strangle hold that the UFC has on Mixed Martial Arts. However, the result of the main event may have hampered the organization’s steps in that direction.

During the main event, underdog Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva hammered the one-time #1 ranked heavyweight for ten minutes. At the end of the second round, Fedor’s face was so badly beaten that he was forced to discontinue the fight. This is his second straight loss in the Strikeforce organization. For a man that went nearly 10 years without a defeat, this outcome was quite possibly the worse that could have happened.

MMA is a growing community and as with any growing community, news stories are occurring every day. Here are a few news bites from early in the second week of February.

Griffin, Belfort top list of UFC 126 Payouts

Saturday, February 12th marks the start of the highly talked about Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. During this tournament eight of the biggest names in the heavyweight division of MMA will square off for a chance to earn the Grand Prix Title. This weekend features what many people may consider the biggest name of them all.

Fedor Emelianenko will face off against Antonio “Big Foot” Silva. In another Grand Prix matchup, former UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski will face Sergei Kharitonov. Both of these fights will advance one fighter while eliminate the other. Strikeforce is hinging a lot of this event and needs for it to go over very well with the MMA community.

Gilbert Melendez became the second “Scrap Pack” member to resign to a multiyear deal with Strikeforce. The current lightweight champion will return to the organization along with his teammate Nick Diaz who is the welterweight champ.

At 18-2 Melendez is considered one of the top three lightweights in mixed martial arts. His resume includes impressive wins over the likes of Shinya Aoki, Josh Thomson, and Clay Guida. Due to injury he has not completed since that April victory over Aoki, but is now ready to get back into the cage. In route to his dominance, Melendez has finished 10 of his 18 victories by technical knockout while never being finished in his two losses.

Nick Diaz, Top Ten Welterweight?

In a recent article on MMAfighting.com, they announced their latest welterweight division rankings.  In those rankings, they named Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz as the seventh best welterweight in the world.  What I don’t understand is how can he be ranked so high?  I do not doubt his talent and ability because 10 times out of 10, I’d end up on my back looking at the ceiling if we ever fought.  I’m not even saying this because I don’t like him, because I am a huge Diaz fan.  I’m saying this because, since he is fighting for Strikeforce, the minor leagues of MMA in America, he isn’t getting challenged.