The Ghost of Strikeforce at its peak? -- .600 win% vs UFC, 60% UFC Belts, +Ronda/WMMA

[Oshime2]

The best fighters in big organizations are just as good as the best fighters in other big organizations. WEC and Strikeforce fighters did well in the UFC, just as the best from Bellator would do.

 

[LouisBolanos]

IIRC he owned part of Strikeforce, he got paid very well at the sale.

If it's about the money, he would've retired by this point like Bjorn.

Strikeforce was Coker's brainchild he built with his blood and sweat for over a decade. The UFC came, bought it, kept him there for a year just to humiliate him, and spat him out when they've had enough fun. All the SF contracts he negotiated got carried over to the UFC roster, and Coker had to contend with the Bellator scrap meat. If you don't think he's crying you're lying to yourself.

 

[kikikhan]

Strikeforce was awesome.

 

[kikikhan]

The best fighters in big organizations are just as good as the best fighters in other big organizations. WEC and Strikeforce fighters did well in the UFC, just as the best from Bellator would do.

I think so too.

Bellator is way inferior to Strikeforce though.

 

[BisexualMMA]

Inb4...

Werdum improved drastically when he got to the UFC
Reem was on horsemeat
Fedor fought a tire mechanic
Cormier was an unknown prospect
Arlovski improved drastically when he got to the UFC
Herschel Walker
All of Bigfoot's UFC wins were flukes and he was on trt
Fedor got KO'd by a mw

Well, the first two are true (first is an opinion but I share it somewhat), and Arlovski did go to Jackson's...

 

[DGT4NOW]

I bet the owners are kicking themselves for selling it.

Why?
They were losing money by the end & put it up for sale

 

[BisexualMMA]

The best fighters in big organizations are just as good as the best fighters in other big organizations. WEC and Strikeforce fighters did well in the UFC, just as the best from Bellator would do.

I agree that WEC and Strikeforce were up to the task in some weight classes.

But I think Bellator's top guys would get wrecked if paired up against their UFC counterparts.

 

[ForbiddenSun]

So Fedor is still the GOAT then

 

[MRT]

several of those "Strikeforce fighters" were UFC and/or Pride fighters before that, and then rejoined UFC (Werdum, Arlovski, Lawler).

Shields - three fights for SF - far more elsewhere
Kawajiri - ONE fight for SF - mostly a Pride and Shooto guy
Romero - ONE fight for SF

the idea that 'coming over from SF' means anything is a wee bit misleading and irrelevant.

SF put on great events though...not at all bashing that org. Many SF events were more entertaining than UFC events.

 

[Oshime2]

I agree that WEC and Strikeforce were up to the task in some weight classes.

But I think Bellator's top guys would get wrecked if paired up against their UFC counterparts.

The top LWs and FWs would likely do well. Ben Saunders had mixed results in Bellator but is doing pretty well back in the UFC. HW is so shallow worldwide it's not unreasonable to think Minakov would do well too. Not optimistic about LHW and MW though. If McGeary does anything but annihilate Tito Ortiz its gonna make the whole division look bad. Shlemenko's losses made MW look bad too.

 

[Barge]

UFC basically ran off pride stars from 06 until not that long ago, strikeforce guys all up in that top 10, WEC guys taking over lightweight.

UFC way of building guys up sucks. I like that we see competitive fights, but let them whoop a journeyman now and again, especially if they are coming off a loss. its not like UFC has a 550 deep roster or anything.

 

[DGT4NOW]

UFC way of building guys up sucks. I like that we see competitive fights, but let them whoop a journeyman now and again, especially if they are coming off a loss. its not like UFC has a 550 deep roster or anything.

If UFC did that, there would be 40 threads a month with "what is this BS?"

I would be more into that if fighters fought 3-4x a year, but with most only fighting 2x, II say make it competitive

 

[armbarforhire]

3 of the top guys in the UFC had to suffer weird circunstances for the strikeforce guys to win belts, injurys-long layoff + high altttude fight(Cain), early retirement (GSP), drugs-legal problems (Jones)

In the case of Werdum I think a fight with the long running #2 JDS could be real the trial by fire at the moment with how badly Cain looked.

I dont think Lawler style could have matched GSP like Hendricks did.

I think Cormier is the more legit of the 3 but he had to drop a weight class and already lost to Jones.

 

[charlieyahoo]

Cool post TS. Very informative. Cheers

 

[rpn453]

Strikeforce was great. I was paying $20 a month for Superchannel just to watch it (Canada).

 

[Helmut Zemo]

Werdum and Lawler are former SF fighters but they were UFC fighters first.

Werdum wasn't UFC first.

 

[Nelly]

Werdum wasn't UFC first.

I meant first before SF.

 

[BrainCandy]

How many of those dominant Strikeforce fighters came up in Strikeforce as their first org? Ronda and Cormier are their only homegrown elites that I can think of.

Strikeforce was great as a minor league. A great many guys went there from the UFC after seeing some rough stretches or came from Pride after it was dissolved. They got some wins and worked on their game, then came back to the UFC with the best set of skills they ever had.

Also, lets not forget that when Strikeforce was around, the UFC had some dominant champs in place that the Strikeforce guys weren't likely to beat. Guys like GSP, Jon Jones and JDS.

 

[gabit]

several of those "Strikeforce fighters" were UFC and/or Pride fighters before that, and then rejoined UFC (Werdum, Arlovski, Lawler).

Shields - three fights for SF - far more elsewhere
Kawajiri - ONE fight for SF - mostly a Pride and Shooto guy
Romero - ONE fight for SF

the idea that 'coming over from SF' means anything is a wee bit misleading and irrelevant.

SF put on great events though...not at all bashing that org. Many SF events were more entertaining than UFC events.

Strikeforce fighters= fighters that were under strikeforce contract when ufc bought strikeforce.

And yes the best fighters were

 

[forum poster]

Werdum and Lawler are former SF fighters but they were UFC fighters first.

And when they left I believe they were called "UFC rejects that can't compete with the best".

I wonder in 5 years from now when all of the former Strikeforce fighters are at the end of their career it will be seen as proof that it really should of been called Strike-farce.