Again: Guaranteed money trumps virtual “potential money” every time unless you’re the kind of moron who quits a full time job to sell stuff in multi-level marketing.

Doesn’t mean all those guys would sign up, but surely some of them would.

As Jake Shields, the guy who has been taken away from Strikeforce, he does have some value. Add that value to also getting Nick Diaz, Gilbert Melendez, and perhaps 1 or 2 other solid fighters…. And very the sum of those parts do give them some worthy….

And I do hope the UFC game eventually gets moved over to EA. Of course their game could flop in terms of gameplan, but it is unlikely. Better gameplan and the UFC license makes all the sense in the world for both companies.

Mark… Please no Cruiserweight Division. It continued to be the worst idea in MMA. The Heavyweight Division has constantly been ruled by 230 to 235 pound athletes. The big guys are typically more of a liability. Lesnar is the exception to the rule….

And here’s a shocker for you: building a division that way isn’t just exclusive to the UFC: it is possible for anybody to do it. If you get a group of exciting fighters who have show stealing performances, word of mouth will eventually spread to make them respected in their weight classes and stars will be born. You can say the UFC will just immediately lure them away when their contracts go up, but you cannot say it is impossible.

Another thing about Strikeforce vs. UFC’s LHW divisions is that the UFC’s LHW division has been strong at the expense of their HW division. Most of their LHW’s could fight at HW if they wanted to, but they cutdown to 205 to be more effective. Thus far it looks like Strikeforce with Fedor and Overeem are going to go for more of a smaller HW talent pool than UFC’s current giants era for the most part. PRIDE worked that way too but you never noticed it because they had a hodgepodge of 200-180 weights all under the Middleweight banner until towards the end so you might as well not cut weight at fight at HW there. UFC could have easily split up their LHW division a little and put Liddell and others fighting at 215-220, which is why when Sylvia was champion lots of people jokingly referred to the 205 title as the real heavyweight title.

Strikeforce/CBS has an even stricter champions clause than UFC. If Shields wins the title tonight he’ll be locked up at Strikeforce for a while. By the time he’s able to fulfil his contract and sign for UFC the UFC will have signed with EA anyways (there’s 0% chsnce UFC will re-sign with THQ when EA are bidding for the license next year at renewal time). So earning the $5000 for the game now is in his best interests.

If Shields really wanted to go to the UFC anytime soon he shouldn’t have taken this title fight. This is the type of decision you make when you don’t have a real manager…

He allowed WAMMA in the building for this fight…. Despite it only being 3 rounds, Fedor/Rogers is for the WAMMA Belt… They even posed with a new belt at the press conference….

Why oh why can’t promoters have a clue?

For one, the UFC signed almost mevery prospect imaginable in the US. Then they fought each other while guys in Japan either went inactive, left the division, or lost fights. Strikeforce hasn’t signed every prospect at 205 that’s out there. In fact, they barely have any. Like, 2-3 at most. They don’t have a marquee light heavyweight anywhere on the roster. Hell, the comparison between Penn and Henderson is especially apt. Henderson’s last big win was at 185, and fighting Mousasi would be at 205. Yet, Henderson (who has competed on and off as a serious light heavyweight) would certainly be a top ten guy if he announced he was dedicating himself to that weight class today.