Compared to today's UFC roster, Strike Force was dumb to sell out

No doubt, Strikeforce had top talent...

The Ghost of Strikeforce at its peak? -- .600 win% vs UFC, 60% UFC Belts, +Ronda/WMMA
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Strikeforce fighters vs UFC: 90-61-1
(Only full-fledged SF fighters; fought on the Main Card of Major Events; e.g. Jake Shields, Fabricio Werdum, Shane del Rosario, Nah-shon Burrell)

Strikeforce Minor Leaguers: 28-37-1
SF Prelimers: 20-26-0
(e.g. Bobby Green, Yoel Romero, Quinn Mulhern, Josh Cholish)
​
SF Challengers: 8-11-1
(e.g. Bobby Voelker, Shawn Jordan, Milton Vieria)
​

Zuffaforce (post-2012 debuts): 3-11
(e.g. Bristol Marunde, Nandor Guelmino, Estevan Payan, Adriano Martins)

Strikeforce leftovers/others: 18-19-0
(e.g. Arlovski, Kawajiri, Chris Cope, Dustin Ortiz, Ron Stalling -- not directly joining the UFC after SF)

note: Since Shields>Hendo as the line of demarcation between SF/UFC
 
GSP beat their WW and MW champions.

Both Nick and Jake vacated their Strikeforce belts for an opporunity to lose to Georges.

 GSP defeated the Strikeforce WW & MW champs (Diaz & Shields);
he beat three WEC WW champs (Karo, Carlos & Nick);
and the EliteXC, Shooto and Rumble on the Rock champ (Jake Shields)
 
No they weren't. All of those guys would have eventually ended up in the UFC when their contracts with Strikeforce ran out.
 
Tonycpa said:
GSP beat their WW and MW champions.

Both Nick and Jake vacated their Strikeforce belts for an opporunity to lose to Georges.

 GSP defeated the Strikeforce WW & MW champs (Diaz & Shields);
he beat three WEC WW champs (Karo, Carlos & Nick);
and the EliteXC, Shooto and Rumble on the Rock champ (Jake Shields)
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...... ok?
 
Tonycpa said:
GSP beat their WW and MW champions.

Both Nick and Jake vacated their Strikeforce belts for an opporunity to lose to Georges.

 GSP defeated the Strikeforce WW & MW champs (Diaz & Shields);
he beat three WEC WW champs (Karo, Carlos & Nick);
and the EliteXC, Shooto and Rumble on the Rock champ (Jake Shields)
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Yeah? GSP beat everyone.

Nick Diaz = highest PPV of GSP's career
Jake Shields = 3rd highest PPV of GSP's career
 
There is no such thing as Strikeforce fighters.
 
Marketing and the UFC-only koolaid drinking noobreed fans thinking Strikeforce fighters were overrated can crushers who would be 'exposed' if they ever 'stepped up' to 'UFC-level' competition

The REALITY was very different but the ignorant/weak of mind are sucked in easily and we are at a loss with Strikeforce gone

Thinking that "the only possible way" to see X fight Y was everyone in one org was the narrowminded given other potentially viable alternatives at the time - particularly if SF got more support from fans. But they could only happen with other strong competing orgs being around.

Certainly now the UFC is the ONLY option but IMO additional strong competing orgs was overall a much better long term scenario for the MMA world

I guess the 'UFC-only' fans who hoped for total domination by the UFC completely happy as there's no going back now. Was the short term gain of seeing X vs Y worth it? Because that short term gain is over now, and now its the long term... everyone just comes in through the same old stale prospect>contender>top contender>title shot roundabout. No outside hype, no potential for tournaments, no variety of commentary, no anticipation of a hyped fighter from another org coming in, no chatter of X champion vs Y champion. Just vanilla ice cream. Forever. No wonder people think the MMA world is currently more boring.

I guess we've got reebok kit to console ourselves, if you're a fan of it, that is...
 
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Hate to break it to you chief but they really didn't have much of a choice.
 
tramendous said:
These are the stars of Strikeforce. There are currently 4 strikeforce fighters holding belts in HW, LHW, WW and Women's bantanweight titles. They had a good product and their fighters could hang with and defeat UFC fighters. Im not saying they would beat all UFC counter parts but any notion that strikeforce was second rate, was and is dumb. This is a crazy amount of star power and it leads me to believe that the UFC was just better at promoting their stars. I dont think we will see an organization like that for a while.

(sry if mis-listed/missed anyone)
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You are missing a lot of midlevel guys like Lorenz Larkin but you are right. Strikeforce had a solid roster.

I argued in here back in the day that their MW and HW divisions were stacked. I even argued that the Strikeforce Top 8 HWs were better than the UFC top 8 HWs overall for example
 
gspieler said:
Doesn't matter how good your roster is, as long as the media and general public equate MMA with UFC, they're going to promote/believe whatever propaganda the UFC puts out about their competition. A few years ago, Werdum was a UFC reject, Reem was a juiced didn't have enough credible wins to be in the UFC, and women shouldn't be doing mma altogether(all according to Dana).
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I'm always the first one to call Dana a dick too but I never heard him say anything other than REALLY wanting to sign The Reem in and around 2009 - 2011 at the time The Reem had many different avenues for income and he used them liberally.

His K-1 belt, Strikeforce and Dream championships whether he defended them or not had Dana salivating to sign him to the UFC because Reem had legitimized himself at the time. Plus he had a fuckin' awesome video series following his "adventures abroad".
 
This just prove strikeforce was second rate. With all that star power you mention and yet they were still losing money. Scott Coker imo has no backbone.
 
tramendous said:
These are the stars of Strikeforce. There are currently 4 strikeforce fighters holding belts in HW, LHW, WW and Women's bantanweight titles. They had a good product and their fighters could hang with and defeat UFC fighters. Im not saying they would beat all UFC counter parts but any notion that strikeforce was second rate, was and is dumb. This is a crazy amount of star power and it leads me to believe that the UFC was just better at promoting their stars. I dont think we will see an organization like that for a while.

(sry if mis-listed/missed anyone)

Heavyweights:

Daniel Cormier (current LHW Champion)
Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva
Fabricio Werdum (current HW champion)
Fedor Emelianenko
Alistair 'Ubereem' Overeem
Andrei 'Pitbull' Arlovski
Josh Barnett
Sergei Kharitonov
Jeff Monson

Light Heavyweights:

Muhammad 'King Mo' Lawal
Gegard Mousasi
Renato 'Babalu' Sobral
raphael 'Feijao' Cavalcante
Dan 'Hendo' Henderson

Middle Weights:

Ronaldo 'Jacare' D'Souza
Luke Rockhold
Tim Kennedy
Roger Gracie
Cung Le
Jake Shields
Dan 'Hendo' Henderson (also LHW)
Robbie Lawler (current WW champ)

Welter Weights:

Nick Diaz
Nate Marquardt
Tarec Saffediedine
Tyrone Woodley
Jason High
KJ Noons (also LW)
Evangelista 'Cyborg' Santos
Marius Zaromskis
Paul Daley
Scott Smith

Light Weights:

Gilbert 'El Nino' Melendez
Josh Thompson
Tatsuya Kawajiri
Shinya Aoki
Jorge Masvidal
Vitor 'Shaolin' Rebeiro
KJ Noons (also WW)
Gesias "JZ" Cavalcante

Women:

Rhonda Rousey current champ
Chris 'Cyborg' Santos
Marloes Coenen
Miesha Tate
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HW and MW were really their best areas. The others were meh at best that had some good fighters look great while running through their divisions. People accuse the UFC for hyping up how fighters look but the other orgs do this all the time with who they match their stars up against. It isn't a bad thing but people tend to buy this type of hype hook line and sinker all the time. If you want Diaz to look like a killer than never ever put him up against a wrestler. Brilliant. People back then were saying Diaz would kill Pierre at least until they fought.

A lot of orgs had to die (Pride/Affliction/Elite xc etc) for Strikeforce to be made. Bellator is doing the same thing now and now is the time to make their play with the UFC locking out sponsors and Bellator ready to throw down big money.

You can't throw all your money at just the fighters though. You need huge money spent on advertising. Throwing all your money at getting one fighter is also not smart and has sunk a couple promotions now. People can knock the UFC but paying based off PPV sales is pretty smart. Nobody really knows what the guys in the UFC make anyways so why complain?

Bellator can get a huge talent pool as well but they need to be smart with the moves that they make or they will be the next big promotion going under.
 
MrBoombostick said:
HW and MW were really their best areas. The others were meh at best that had some good fighters look great while running through their divisions. People accuse the UFC for hyping up how fighters look but the other orgs do this all the time with who they match their stars up against. It isn't a bad thing but people tend to buy this type of hype hook line and sinker all the time. If you want Diaz to look like a killer than never ever put him up against a wrestler. Brilliant. People back then were saying Diaz would kill Pierre at least until they fought.

A lot of orgs had to die (Pride/Affliction/Elite xc etc) for Strikeforce to be made. Bellator is doing the same thing now and now is the time to make their play with the UFC locking out sponsors and Bellator ready to throw down big money.

You can't throw all your money at just the fighters though. You need huge money spent on advertising. Throwing all your money at getting one fighter is also not smart and has sunk a couple promotions now. People can knock the UFC but paying based off PPV sales is pretty smart. Nobody really knows what the guys in the UFC make anyways so why complain?

Bellator can get a huge talent pool as well but they need to be smart with the moves that they make or they will be the next big promotion going under.
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Bolded for emphasis. How many of those stars were "homemade"?

I've never been a fan of the "home team," I have no loyalty, just what I see. SF had some great fighters, but a number of them were forged in other orgs (including the UFC and Affliction).

Do people claim Werdum as a SF fighter? Lawler? Diaz? Marquardt? Mayhem? Shields?

Hell, might as well claim KOTC as an elite organization. The UFC has survived, in the end that's all that matters. The winners write history, as flawed as that is.
 
Strikeforce and wec was my favorite mma combo to watch. I'd watch the big ufc fights of course but sf and wec consistently delivered great cards.
 
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