Luke Rockhold: "UFC hype machine discredited Strikeforce"

[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.

 

[Mavadorov]

Well this happens every time.

Pride..
WEC..
Strikeforce..

And now..

 

[kikikhan]

Strikefarce, huh?

At least 90 of MMA "fans" bought this insult.

Disgusting.

 

[csroster]

Obviously there are top fighters who are not on the UFC roster at every given moment but the UFC consistently has the best fighters. Once promotions like Strikeforce and WEC become plump and juicy Zuffa absorbs them like Cell absorbing the Androids.

 

[Magnum1978]

Spot on.

Koolaid does strange things to the weak of mind/ignorant...

'Strikefarce'
'B-League'
'Can Crushers'
'Mismatches'
'Overrated'
'Will be "exposed" if they "step up" to the "big show"... '
'UFC-cast offs'
'Bush league'


If you refered to the SF guys as any of the above, you simply are/were the atypical Zuffa Zombie, 'Team UFC' brand loyalist sucked in by UFC hype

 

[Hugh G Rection]

Lol at some of the skewed thinking in this thread. Robbie Lawler and Werdum are 'Strikeforce' fighters?? They fought for Strikeforce, but that ain't where either of them made their name. And that's before we get to the fact that DC only has the belt because JJ is a moron.
Strikeforce had some quality fighters but people on here just love to play down the UFC and its fighters.

 

[Phanuel]

WEC/Strikeforce both had very talented rosters and both organizations were very fun to watch.

 

[tenniswhiz]

Maybe the casual fans

All the hardcore fans knew strikeforce had talent

It affects the hardcores, as well as the fighters.

Major media outlets might just throw a token champ from another promotion into the Top 10 rankings, even when that org is actually loaded with talent.
To make it to the Top 10, you gotta beat guys that are considered on the fringes of the Top 10, which can only happen in the UFC.

Hardcores often pretend they are doing some kind of scientific analysis of proof when they use "Top 10 wins" as a barometer for how well a fighter's career has gone. This is the most incredibly stupid way to analyze a great fighter's accomplishments, and it even fails to show what top competition was (and the defense of anything else being "revisionist history" is equally idiotic).
Because of the aforementioned situation, wins over guys like top fighters outside of the UFC (the outstanding group of SF fighters, the excellent WEC 155 fighters) meant less than beating a supposed Top 10 fighter in the UFC.
A win over guys like "Top 10" fighters like Evan Dunham, Dan Hardy, Patrick Cote (MW), or Brendan Schaub winds up supposedly being more significant than wins over the outstanding fighters in other organizations (that weren't Top 10, but proved that they were Top 10 all along later on).
"OMG, HE'S FIGHTING TOP COMPETITION", LOL.

Even WITHIN an organization, guys like Dan Hardy or Michael Bisping can get easier matchups and rise to ranking prominence while guys like Condit, Rory, etc, end up fighting each other and other super tough matchups outside the supposed Top 10.
Hell, look what Brock did to get a title shot. Now go look at what JDS did to earn a title shot. Brock was ranked higher than JDS when Brock had the belt, while JDS had some amazing wins on his resume.

The UFC LW division, before the WEC merger, and before the SF fighters came in, is the best example of rankings BS.
People found it laughable that the WEC 155'ers be compared to UFC Top 10 LW. Whoever was champ (Varner, then Benson) got the token #10 slot.
And it wasn't even just these orgs, there were several other outstanding LW fighters floating in other organizations.

I'm not trying to discredit BJ, GSP, or Anderson in any way, so don't make it about that.
This is about Luke's very legit point.

 

[TewPoint0]

This was so much more interesting than anything Zuffa has going on at the time. Dana and friends decided enough was enough.

 

[Mammothman]

Very good interview by Rockhold, he is totally right, a lot of top guys from Strikeforce are in the UFC top, we have 4 guys in Werdum, Lawler, Ronda, and DC holding UFC belts and huge contenderes like: Overeem, Tate, Jacare, Romero, Kenedy, Woodley, Melendez, Mousasi, etc. I really miss Strikeforce

 

[Malthian]

Newsflash! Greedy corporation attacks the product of their competitors! Zuffa drops to new corporate lows! Never ever happened before!

Oh wait...

Pepsi challenge, Burger King vs McDonalds, Hefty bags, Harley Davidson, etc, etc

 

[Ancuetas]

At the time the owners of Strikeforce sold it to the UFC, Strikeforce talent pool was on par, if not better, than the UFC.

I mock all people who were bashing Strikeforce and calling it "Strikefarce" following Dana White like the sheeps they are.

 

[igorvswanderlei]

rockhold keepin it real

 

[KeepItRealist]

It was the same situation with the WEC: The top 5 guys were mostly on par with the UFC, but all the others were KOTC quality. Although, plenty in the UFC fit that bill too.

 

[TFanatic]

This was so much more interesting than anything Zuffa has going on at the time. Dana and friends decided enough was enough.

Dana and his friends decided to sell Strikeforce to themselves?

 

[george-oli]

That should go down well with Dana.

 

[GIBLERTBAPTISTA]

"I fought Jacare, Jacare was ranked No. 5 in the world, maybe even higher at the point I fought him," Rockhold said. "And instead of giving me the credit, because I was the kid from Strikeforce Challengers who people didn't believe in, this happened a lot, they took credit away from Jacare for who he was and what he's capable of, and bumped me to like No. 10 and put him outside to like No. 15. How does that levy out?"

Dead ass right here. I remember Rockhold got no credit on here after beating jacare. It was all "Jacare's overrated".

 

[Ragnarocker]

The UFC Hype Machine has grown really strong though. They have Ronda and Conor brainwashing kids left and right.

To a degree I think Rockhold is slamming the UFC for their promotion of Conor Mc and Ronda, same as their bs promotion of SF as a second rate league. Essentially, don't believe the hype!

 

[eddymotto]

Hard to argue with Rockhold. I think that it was pretty clear at the time that SF HW was as good or better than the UFC. I will admit to being surprised how well the guys at 185 have done.

Part of it was their marketing strategy (at one point) to rely so much on a completely washed up Frank Shamrock. That was all smoke and mirrors. When an org which is already considered second tier is pushing Frank vs. Baroni it sorta make you assume that there is not a lot of talent there.

But clearly they did build a talented roster as time went on.

 

[fandangler101]

SF really made MW exciting. I loved it when Anderson was reigning, but its amazing now.