Luke Rockhold: "UFC hype machine discredited Strikeforce"

[Drake]

Rockhold outclassed Kennedy and it wasn't even close. He spent the whole fight on Kennedy's back. I like Kennedy and he is a solid top 10 guy but that fight was lop-sided. Kennedy did a little better against Jacare but was still in a defensive shell much of the fight.

Yup. Kennedy only won one round then the rest was all Luke.

 

[The Reed]

I didn't actually see those fights.

Rockhold outclassed Kennedy and it wasn't even close. He spent the whole fight on Kennedy's back. I like Kennedy and he is a solid top 10 guy but that fight was lop-sided. Kennedy did a little better against Jacare but was still in a defensive shell much of the fight.

The decisions themselves were perfectly fine but it wouldn't surprise me if the judges went the other way, at least in the Jacare fight. But yeah Rockholds right in that Kennedy doesn't get the appreciation he deserves, if he ever I could see him beating Mousasi, Machida or Belfort.

 

[Drake]

The decisions themselves were perfectly fine but it wouldn't surprise me if the judges went the other way, at least in the Jacare fight. But yeah Rockholds right in that Kennedy doesn't get the appreciation he deserves, if he ever I could see him beating Mousasi, Machida or Belfort.

Lol...say I didn't watch the fight then agree with skomby saying it wasn't close...

 

[skombolis]

Yup. Kennedy only won one round then the rest was all Luke.

Yeah and it was a 5-round fight obviously. Luke pretty much dominated. He didn't do a ton of damage but he won easily.

 

[The Reed]

Lol...say I didn't watch the fight then agree with skomby saying it wasn't close...

I'm remembering it differently, it's been a while. My point still stands about the Jacare fight but I'll need to see his fight with Rockhold again.

And just for the record I still don't believe you've seen either fight.

 

[Bowerman]

Here is the UFC MW top ten without the Strikeforce guys

C. Chris Weidman
1. Vitor Belfort
2. Lyoto Machida
3. Michael Bisping
4. Thales Leites
5. CB Dollaway
6. Robert Whitaker
7. Roan Carneiro
8. Tim Boetsch
9. Josh Samman
10. Rafael Natal

Had to use other sites for after #8. Without the SF guys, that is one sorry top ten. I bet if SF were still around, people would think Tim Boetsch is on-par with Luke Rockhold.

Makes me wonder how the Bellator guys would do in the UFC.

You've left out Silva and Gastelum if you are using current rankings. Silva is #11 & Gastelum is #12.

 

[Blayt7hh]

Here is the UFC MW top ten without the Strikeforce guys

C. Chris Weidman
1. Vitor Belfort
2. Lyoto Machida
3. Michael Bisping
4. Thales Leites
5. CB Dollaway
6. Robert Whitaker
7. Roan Carneiro
8. Tim Boetsch
9. Josh Samman
10. Rafael Natal

Had to use other sites for after #8. Without the SF guys, that is one sorry top ten. I bet if SF were still around, people would think Tim Boetsch is on-par with Luke Rockhold.

Makes me wonder how the Bellator guys would do in the UFC.

Not very well. If you had been following MMA for a long time when the UFC bought SF, you would have a better understanding of why. But basically SF had become the last bastion for good fighters that weren't quite a fit for the UFC. Bellator on the other hand has been B league since inception. That's fun, I love watching their fights. But they were never in a position to collect the fallouts from the demise of Dream, Pride, Elite XC and other orgs. The truth is everyone who wasn't a noob then knew that SF had a lot of great fighters, that wasn't the problem. The problem was that they didn't have enough so you had some weird mismatch fights. We weren't ignorant of it, a lot of those guys were guys that left the UFC on their own terms.

Tim and Luke were exceptions. They actually were prospects picked up and groomed by SF. No doubt there is a couple of guys like that in Bellator like Michael Chandler and Will Brooks. But as a roster invasion? It definitely would not make a splash like SF did

 

[Drake]

I'm remembering it differently, it's been a while. My point still stands about the Jacare fight but I'll need to see his fight with Rockhold again.

And just for the record I still don't believe you've seen either fight.

Not sure why... Do you think Skombolis hasn't either?

I'll admit I haven't see the Jacare fight :redface:
But i've seen the Luke fight.

 

[skombolis]

The decisions themselves were perfectly fine but it wouldn't surprise me if the judges went the other way, at least in the Jacare fight. But yeah Rockholds right in that Kennedy doesn't get the appreciation he deserves, if he ever I could see him beating Mousasi, Machida or Belfort.

Kennedy is a tough dude, strong as fuck, and a good wrestler with KO power. Definitely nobody to sleep on. He is the guy people don't want to fight because there is little upside. Not in the top 5 (but pretty close) or a big draw and yet is dangerous and might derail someone's hunt for a title shot.

 

[TheBrownRanger]

You've left out Silva and Gastelum if you are using current rankings. Silva is #11 & Gastelum is #12.

The ones on the UFC site didn't have Kelvin or Spider so I guess that's why I missed them. I'm assuming they removed Kelvin because he's going back to 170 and Spider because, well, you know.....

 

[The Reed]

Not sure why... Do you think Skombolis hasn't either?

I'll admit I haven't see the Jacare fight :redface:
But i've seen the Luke fight.

Skombolis went into detail about the fight, he seems like an honest dude. Not that you're not honest, the gif just 'triggered' me. My apologies.

 

[Drake]

Skombolis went into detail about the fight, he seems like an honest dude. Not that you're not honest, the gif just 'triggered' me. My apologies.

We good. Skomb is good peeps. I do agree with you that Tim is under appreciated. I just don't think the Luke fight was very close.

 

[TheBrownRanger]

Not very well. If you had been following MMA for a long time when the UFC bought SF, you would have a better understanding of why. But basically SF had become the last bastion for good fighters that weren't quite a fit for the UFC. Bellator on the other hand has been B league since inception. That's fun, I love watching their fights. But they were never in a position to collect the fallouts from the demise of Dream, Pride, Elite XC and other orgs. The truth is everyone who wasn't a noob then knew that SF had a lot of great fighters, that wasn't the problem. The problem was that they didn't have enough so you had some weird mismatch fights. We weren't ignorant of it, a lot of those guys were guys that left the UFC on their own terms.

Tim and Luke were exceptions. They actually were prospects picked up and groomed by SF. No doubt there is a couple of guys like that in Bellator like Michael Chandler and Will Brooks. But as a roster invasion? It definitely would not make a splash like SF did

I'd be willing to bet FW Pitbull, Straus, Curran, Warren, Dantas, Coenen (if she moved back down to 135), Held, Koreshkov, Halsey, Newton, Vassell, and Mo would do well in the UFC.

MAYBE Lashley, Shlemenko, Weichel, Ward, MVP, Galvao, Sarnavskiy, Carvalho, Minakov, Volkov, Jansen, Johnson, and Lima could be top 15 in the UFC. Not completely sold on them yet.

Couldn't really say the same on alot of the other guys, I feel like Bellator has the same thing going on like Strikeforce did where they had good top 5 fighters and it kinda drops from there.

 

[wookie brawl]

Ex strikeforce fighters now occupies 4 belts in the UFC: Werdum, Cormier, Lawler & Ronda. When strikeforce was bought out by zuffa, it meant an unification of two high level promotions, which gave the fans better high level match ups.

 

[barehanded]

It would make sense to say that UFC hype machine tried to discredit Strikeforce HWs before purchase by Zuffa. But it makes no sense to say that they did it to Rockhold who become a champion of Zuffa Strikeforce. Their MW division was not as good as HW division. They had like half of top 10 HWs and only two or three top 15 MWs. Lighter divisions were were much weaker than in the UFC.

 

[7437]

He's right, I remember seeing posts where people said Guida and Jim Miller were better fighters than Gilbert Melendez

Well Guida did bet Melendez in Strikeforce....

 

[ejazahmednit]

so now do we agree anderson's resume is full of sub par competition?

 

[Rud3bw0y]

any poster on sherdog worth a DIME knew strikeforce, wec, etc was CREAM of the crop, period.

A bunch of zuffa TARDS on the other hand, well, I can't speak for them(but I will) they thought Jim Miller was the end of be all of the LW division back in 2011 LMAO!!! need I say more LOL!

that company zuffa u try to down play brought in most of the wec top names when they got bought over in 2010/2011 kiddo

 

[Zigmeister]

This has been the UFCs gameplan for 10yrs now. First with Pride. Go find the video/presser of Dana during the buyout of Pride FC.

He says hilarious shit like "we as fighters" referring to his cardio boxing days I guess. So they basically smash and claim everybody is crap, then they buy them out...now of course Coker is back/working for the UFC basically.

They've done a great job, have to hand it to them...but Dana's methods and his pie hole have just gone about things in a less classy way often than most would like to see/hear.

Happens everyday in all sorts of industries what Dana/UFC have done, it is just his mouth in public that is the problem. Never hear the Fertitta brother's or anybody else int he org sounding so stupid.

 

[Heelhook71]

Agreed. People are fans of the UFC as org more than the fighters, which is crazy.

The UFC has improved it's position in the mainstream media. But it's definitely negatively affected the larger MMA community through its influence as well. It's helped crate culture among certain cult like fans of automatically discrediting anyone outside it's org.