In the case of stand-out scrapper Jim Miller, a 20-3 lightweight who headlines tonight’s UFC on FX event, it appears the latter group is onto something. Miller spoke with Five Ounces of Pain during the lead up to this evening’s affair where he offered a frank assessment when asked about his interest in moving over to Strikeforce if it meant an immediate crack at Melendez’s strap.

“Melendez is a great fighter and could come over to the UFC and jump right into the mix without a doubt. I don’t know what’s left for him over there, but I am sure they will find him some quality opponents,” Miller began on the widely respected 155-pounder before talk turned to fighting in Strikeforce.

“Even if the money was comparable I don’t think I would make the move over there,” said Miller. “Once you have been in the UFC you don’t want to go backwards. This is the major leagues of MMA. Nothing against Strikeforce, but the opportunities here are far better. More exposure, more sponsors, bigger crowds and obviously more challenging fights.”

What the future holds for Miller remains to be seen though his present focus is clearly on beating Melvin Guillard tonight in Nashville. Action starts on FX at 9:00 PM EST with prelims coming on Fuel TV a few hours earlier.

It is likely Melendez will eventually face the winner of a scheduled bout between K.J. Noons-Josh Thomson who face off in early March.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

The news of this test comes as positive results have come back claiming fighters such as 145-pound champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos and former light heavyweight champ Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal have tested positive. Both compete for Strikeforce, which is owned by Zuffa.

“We’re committed to the health and safety of our athletes and we take it very seriously,” Zuffa chief executive Lorenzo Fertitta said in an official statement on the matter. “We already work closely with athletic commissions to protect our athletes and now we’re taking it one step further. We’re going to test any potential UFC or Strikeforce fighter before finalizing their contract. This shows that we don’t want performance enhancing drugs in our sport.”

The policy, which has been retroactively dated to the beginning of the new year, means all future fighters must undergo testing procedures before they are official. UFC President Dana White added, “Our new testing policy for performance enhancing drugs only further shows how important it is to us to have our athletes competing on a level playing field.”

Lawal, a former wrestler in college, has claimed the test is false and that he has not taken anything illegal. Santos also said much the same, adding that her positive test was for a supplement given to her by her a respected trainer.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

Along with the title fight will be a lightweight bout between former Strikeforce champion Josh Thomson and K.J. Noons, a welterweight showdown between Kazuo Misaki and Paul Daley, and a women’s #1 contender bout as former title holder Sarah Kaufman battles Alexis Davis.

Howeverm despite the four fight card featuring a title-bout, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told MMAJunkie.com that, “(The main event has) not been determined. We’re still booking fights.”

Coker hopes that the Heavyweight Grand Prix final between Daniel Cormier and Josh Barnett will headline the show but that it will clearly depend on whether or not Cormier is cleared by doctors from his broken hand,  an injury he suffered in his semifinal victory against Antonio Silva. No other options were mentioned as possibilities.

PHOTO CREDIT – STRIKEFORCE

Melendez, who seemed to be a lock to follow the likes of Dan Henderson and Jake Shields into the UFC, was part of the agreement between Strikeforce and Showtime that allowed the deal to be made. Also, Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold was worked into the contract, as well, according to Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker.

“That was just a situation of the Showtime agreement,” said Coker to MMAWeekly after last night’s Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal event. “That was part of the deal, that these fighters would stay. UFC feels that they have enough challengers in their divisions now. We’re going to keep building our league and keep plugging in new fighters that aren’t for the UFC into Strikeforce. There’s plenty of fighters out there and we’re gonna keep building them.”

Rockhold will be in the main event of the first Strikeforce card of 2012, as he defends his title against former UFC veteran Keith Jardine. As for keeping Melendez, Coker was extremely pleased with that deal.

“Gilbert fought for Strikeforce in 2006. He’s one of the cornerstones of Strikeforce,” Coker said. “I’m happy that he is with us and he’s gonna stay with us.”

PHOTO CREDIT – STRIKEFORCE

Strikeforce will be sticking around on Showtime and things will be “business as usual” moving forward.

What does this mean for the world of MMA? Well, I’m glad I asked myself.

PRO: More MMA. I’m never going to complain about more MMA on my television. Unless there’s a Taylor Swift concert in town, I’ll cancel my plans to watch any MMA event. And even if there is a Taylor Swift concert in town, I have a DVR to record the event. More MMA can be a bad thing because it makes lesser events feel even less important, but as a hardcore fan and someone who covers the sport, usually from the comfort of my own home, I’m always happy when there is fighting on my TV.

CON: Fighters will want to be in the UFC and will be moved to the UFC. No matter what Dana White says about, “Strikeforce fighters will stay in Strikeforce,” we all know he’s lying. Just like when he said, “business as usual,” and then poached champions Dan Henderson, Alistair Overeem, and Nick Diaz from the organization. Fighters will be moved and they’ll want to be moved. Everyone sees UFC as the big time and they don’t want to be stuck on that second level. You really think Gilbert Melendez will stay in Strikeforce if he wins this weekend? Even if he does, he won’t be happy, because all the top lightweight talent is in the UFC. Muhammed Lawal has already expressed his interest in the UFC, as has Tim Kennedy. Dana says that Gilbert is, “very excited to stay in Strikeforce” and unless that means UFC will be sending over top talent like Clay Guida or Gray Maynard to fight Melendez, I think Dana and Gilbert might have different definitions of “excited.”

PRO: Women’s MMA has a home. Even though the talent pool isn’t all that deep, the women who compete in MMA are very talented and usually deliver exciting fights. Without Strikeforce, they would have been reduced to up-and-coming promotions or Bellator, if they decided to commit to higher women’s weight classes. With Strikeforce sticking around fighters like Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey, Cris Santos, and others will have a chance to showcase their skills in front of a larger audience. It also gives younger or mid-level female fighters a goal as they’ll see Strikeforce as the top promotion for female MMA.

CON: Strikeforce won’t have top fighters and their shows won’t seem all that important. The next major Strikeforce show (not the one this weekend) is headlined by a middleweight title fight between Luke Rockhold and Keith Jardine. You read that right. A relatively unknown Rockhold and UFC wash out Jardine will be headling a major Strikeforce event. Strikeforce shows are going to suffer from what I like to call “WEC Lightweight Syndrome.” Every time there was a big WEC lightweight fight, it never felt important because, since Zuffa owned WEC just like they own Strikeforce, we always figured the top lightweights were in the UFC and if guys like Donald Cerrone and Ben Henderson were really that good, they’d be in the UFC. Rockhold might be a good fighter, but until he’s beating the middleweights in the UFC, he’s never going to the respect that he may deserve.

PRO: Showtime is behind the promotion. If they weren’t behind them, I’m sure they wouldn’t have re-signed with them. They aired a video package on the last Strikeforce Challengers show that no one watched, highlighting some of the bright spots in the promotion, this weekend the lead-in to the event is a big boxing match between Andre Ward and Carl Froch, and preliminary fights will start airing on ShowtimeExtreme. Obviously they could do a better job promoting the organization, but as a premium network, they don’t really promote any of their shows or events on regular networks. It’s not like I see ads for Dexter or Homeland, two of Showtime’s highest rated shows, when I’m watching ESPN or even ads for Showtime Boxing events.

CON: Zuffa is not behind the promotion. We all know that any resources that Zuffa has is going towards the UFC. They’re not going to commit extra funds or man power to the organization. The Zuffa employees are already going to be working hard with the five million shows that UFC is planning on running next year, they’re just not going to be able to give a 100% effort to Strikeforce. Zuffa could do little things to make Strikeforce look important like secure a DVD deal for the organization or even purchasing ad time on networks, but they’re just not going to do that and until they do, no one should be naive enough to believe that Zuffa really committed to Strikeforce.

PRO: More opportunities for fighters to fight and get paid. Besides money mark promotions that are willing to pay guys like Ben Rothwell $250,000 to be a punching bag, Strikeforce is the second highest paying promotion out there. So with them around, it gives fighters more income and more chances to fight. UFC already has an over-crowded roster, and while I’d much rather see guys like Jason High, Tarec Saffiedine, and Josh Thomson in the UFC instead of all the TUF wash-outs they keep around, they don’t have room for every fighter in the world.

The overall theory here is that Strikeforce sticking around is good for fighters and fans, but doesn’t seem like a very smart business move.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions surrounding this deal. Dana sounded very excited about things during yesterday’s media call, but he then proceeded to give a bunch of half, non-committal answers when asked things like, “will we see UFC/Strikeforce cross-over fights?”

Stephen Espinoza, Scott Coker, and Dana all said, “Strikeforce will not be a secondary promotion,” but I have my doubts. Does anyone really think that UFC will lend Strikeforce some of their top stars or best fighters, unless those guys are fighting for a title? And lets just say that we get Guida vs. Melendez in 2012 for the Strikeforce lightweight title and Guida wins, doesn’t that pretty much prove that Strikeforce is secondary if a guy who has failed to secure a UFC lightweight title shot can win the Strikeforce belt? Or if Melendez wins and people speculate, “could Gilbert beat the UFC champion?” does anyone really think Melendez vs. the UFC champion will take place on a Strikeforce event?

Strikeforce is already eliminating their heavyweight division due to “lack of depth.” Less than a year ago we all argued whether or not Strikeforce had a better heavyweight division than the UFC. Now, by the middle of next year, they won’t even have a heavyweight division.

This is definitely a “wait and see” deal for Strikeforce, Showtime, and Zuffa, but as it stands, I’m pretty skeptical.

Now White, along with Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker and Showtime executive Stephen Espinoza, are ready to talk in a bit more detail about what’s to come on the Strikeforce front.

The trio will shed some light on the subject at 3:00 PM EST during a conference call with media and, as always, Five Ounces of Pain will be on hand to relay relevant information and interesting soundbytes back to readers.

Check out the highlights below:

Dana White

*”I’m fired up about this deal and the guys in Strikeforce are fired up about it as well. They’re very happy about this new deal.” Alludes to Strikeforce fighters fighting UFC fighters.

*Strikeforce will do away with the heavyweight division after the GP, but doesn’t say all the fighters will be moved to the UFC.

*”The women’s division is very popular. We’re going to keep it. We’re keeping one division…and Cyborg.”

*Says that Gilbert Melendez is pumped to stay in Strikeforce and will continue to defend his title in Strikeforce.

*Doesn’t commit to Strikeforce running PPV.

*Will be at Strikeforce events but Coker will run the day to day operations.

*Has a good relationship with the new Showtime regime. “If I wasn’t happy with the deal, I wouldn’t have involved myself in it.”

*Says that both companies will be looking for the best fighters in the world.

*Will look to add depth to all the divisions.

*Is excited to make some tweaks and build up Strikeforce and Showtime.

*Has no clue what the future holds as far as UFC/Strikeforce cross promoting fights.

*”My schedule next year is ridiculous.”

*Says this is a partnership with Showtime. Will look to make some changes for the better.

*”Strikeforce guys are going to be legit champions and contenders.”

*When asked about Strikeforce Fight Night bonuses, Dana says that he doesn’t know yet but is leaning towards yes.

*Hasn’t made Fabricio Werdum’s UFC return official.

*Showtime wanted the HW GP winner fight one more time on their network and that’s why it’s happening.

*Says Strikeforce won’t be a feeder league. “Watch and see what we do over the next year.”

Scott Coker

*Says the winner of the Heavyweight Grand Prix will not be the new heavyweight champion and that they will focus on the other weight classes once the tournament wraps up. “The winner of the HW GP will fight another top heavyweight and then we’ll focus on the other weight classes.”

*There will continue to be two women’s divisions.

*Will eventually crown new champions in each division.

*Haven’t determined when the 8 shows will run. Has to work everything out with Showtime’s programming.

*Looking to run Daniel Cormier vs. Josh Barnett at the end of the first quarter 2012.

*Has not determine who or when Miesha Tate will fight next. Hopes to do a fight with Ronda Rousey, who is looking to fight at both 135 and 145.

Stephen Espinoza

*Announces that Strikeforce will run 8 events next year starting January 7 with an event headlined by Luke Rockhold vs. Keith Jardine.

*All preliminary fights will be aired on ShowtimeExtreme. Due to this, there will be no more Strikeforce Challengers events.

*Would consider running Boxing and MMA events on the same night, but only if it works out. Worries about overload.

*They could extend their deal with M-1 Global but isn’t concerned about that, only focussed on Strikeforce.

*Says Strikeforce is not a secondary brand.

*”Gina (Carano) at heart is a fighter. It would not surprise me at all to see her back in MMA.”

According to Strikeforce’s Twitter account, OSP is scheduled to scrap with former 205-pound champion Gegard Mousasi on December 17 at an event already headlined by lightweight title-holder Gilbert Melendez defending his belt against ATT’s Jorge Masvidal.

St. Preux, who has won eight straight overall, is 11-4 with past victories over Antwain Britt, Benji Radach, and Jason Day. His most recent rumble took place in July where he forced Joe Cason to tap from strikes a little over a minute into their Strikeforce Challengers 17 bout.

The former collegiate football player’s opponent, Mousasi, is no stranger to having his hand raised with only a single stumble in his last twenty fights. He is 31-3-2 in his career with success against a slew of talented peers including Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Melvin Manhoef, Evangelista Santos, Denis Kang, Renato Sobral, and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza.

Though not nearly as official as St. Preux vs. Mousasi, also rumored for the December 17 card are appearances from popular female fighter Gina Carano and fan-favorite Keith Jardine.

PHOTO CREDIT – STRIKEFORCE

After more than a year on the sidelines due to contractual issues, Strikeforce female featherweight champ Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos has inked a new deal that will keep her under the promotion’s banner for at least a year and should have a date and opponent for her long overdue return to the ring in the coming weeks. Previously it was believed she would fight outside the organization as a means of staying busy.

The explosive Brazilian’s updated status was first reported by MMARants where Santos’ management added, “Cris is ecstatic to be staying under the Zuffa umbrella for another year. She would like to thank Strikeforce and Zuffa for the opportunity to prove she is the best 145 pound woman in the world.”

Santos hasn’t fought since destroying Jan Finney in June 2010 en route to earning her tenth straight victory. She has not lost since her MMA debut more than six years ago while racking up stoppages against a number of her talented peers including Shayna Baszler, Hitomi Akano, Gina Carano, and Marloes Coenen.

PHOTO CREDIT – STRIKEFORCE

News of the injury was first reported by MMAFighting.com

After an injury plagued 2009, Thomson fought three times in 2010, going 2-1 in those bouts. However, he hasn’t competed since Dynamite!! 2010 on New Years Eve in Japan against Tatsuya Kawajiri. The former Strikeforce lightweight champion put up a spirited effort but was ultimately defeated by one of Japan’s top 155 fighters via unanimous decision. “The Punk” hasn’t stepped foot in the Strikeforce cage since last October when he defeated Gesias Cavalcante by decision.

No word yet if Strikeforce will seek a replacement for Blanco.

Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov is scheduled for September 10 at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio. The event will feature both semifinal Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix bouts featuring Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov and Antonio Silva vs. Daniel Cormier. Also on the card is a Strikeforce middleweight title fight between champ Ronaldo Souza and Luke Rockhold.

News of Carano potential return was first reported by F4WOnline.com

Considered by many to be the face of women’s MMA, Carano has spent the last two years on the sidelines, choosing to pursue a career in acting over fighting. She landed a leading role in the Steven Soderbergh film ‘Haywire’ which is scheduled to be released in the United States in early 2012. The last time she stepped foot in the cage, she lost via TKO to Cristiane Santos in the first round. The bout was for the Strikeforce 145 lbs Women’s title and was also the first female fight to headline a major event.

Ready to return to action, Strikeforce and Carano announced that she would be competing at the June 18 event in Houston, Texas against Sarah D’Alelio. Despite passing the commission’s medical tests, Carano was pulled from the event after her personal doctor deemed her unable to compete for unknown reasons. Carano will try again to get back to competition at the end of the year. No opponent has been scheduled.

Along with the return of Carano, the December 17 Strikeforce event will feature the lightweight title fight between champion Gilbert Melendez against challenger Jorge Masvidal.

*PHOTO CREDIT – ESTHER LIN/STRIKEFORCE*

Strikeforce officials have confirmed both bouts.

Coming off a TKO loss to Dan Henderson back in March, “Feijao” looks to bounce back and earn another crack at 205 title. The Brazilian won the title in August 2010, defeating “King” Mo Lawal in the third round by TKO. A training partner of UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and having never gone to a decision in his career, you can expect Cavalcante to come out looking for the finish.

He may have his hands full with Romero though, a freestyle wrestling stand out who took silver in the 2000 Olympic games. Like his opponent in September, Romero has never been to a decision, winning all four of his professional MMA bouts by (T)KO.

After competing against heavyweight Antonio Silva in his last fight, Kyle welcomes a drop back down to his natural weight of 205. On the cusp of a shot at the title, the American Kickboxing Academy fighter was forced to pull out of a scheduled fight for former champion Gegard Mousasi earlier this year with a broken hand. Finally healed and ready to fight, Kyle will look to continue his climb up the light heavyweight ladder.

To do so, he must first defeat the undefeated de Lima, who is coming off a victory over Paulo Filho. With no losses in eight fights, “Pezao” has only been to a decision once in his career, finishing six opponents by (T)KO and one by submission.

Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov is scheduled for September 10 at the US Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio. The night will be headlined by the two Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Semifinal fights as Daniel Cormier faces Antonio Silva in the co-main event while Josh Barnett goes toe to toe with Sergei Kharitonov in the evenings feature fight.

*PHOTO CREDIT – ESTHER LIN/STRIKEFORCE*

The former Strikeforce heavyweight champ sat down with HDNet’s “Inside MMA” where he discussed the circumstances surrounding his newfound free agency.

“I was promised personally by Scott (Coker) that the second round of the Strikeforce Grand Prix was going to be held in October,” Overeem began when asked about his adamant opposition to fighting a month earlier as was eventually requested of him. “Well that all changed. I heard about two-and-a-half weeks ago that they wanted to change the date to September 10.”

“The reasons are unknown,” he continued before speculating that the decision may have been related to the UFC holding other events in October and attempting to avoid competing against their own programming.

Overeem went on to explain injuries he’d suffered against Fabricio Werdum in June prevented him from training, a fact he relayed to his bosses only to be told he would be removed from the tournament if he wasn’t able to compete when required. Then, after again communicating his inability to properly prepare for his quarterfinal fight against Antonio Silva, the Dutchman said the “threat” changed to him being dropped from the roster entirely.

“I said, ‘Well then go ahead and cut me,’ and they went along and cut me.”

Questioning whether he’d made his decision hastily, “The Demolition Man” opted to see a doctor and make sure the damage was as bad as he believed. It turned out things were actually worse when an X-Ray revealed a broken rib requiring an additional month of recovery time (documented on video).

“The strange thing is Strikeforce they cut me…but they didn’t ask me for any medical evidence. I don’t know what they were thinking. Maybe they were thinking I was bluffing or something. I don’t know.”

Answering to critics who felt he may have been using his injuries as leverage in contract negotiations, Overeem quickly dismissed the notion though admitted it would have been a “golden situation” to be in the Grand Prix final without a deal in place. He also revealed the extension he was originally offered to stay involved an exclusivity clause meaning he would no longer be able to compete in K-1 or DREAM.

The conversation ended with Overeem expressing his interest in eventually fighting in the Octagon, alluding to Junior dos Santosand Cain Velasquez as opponents he’s interested in facing, but saying he didn’t know if it would ever happen at this point.

PHOTO CREDIT – STRIKEFORCE

As FiveOuncesOfPain.com reported weeks ago, the loser of this past weekend’s headlining fight between “The Last Emperor” and Emelianenko ended up losing the fight by first round TKO courtesy of Henderson’s big right hand after a back and forth battle for the majority of the round.

Despite no longer being part of the Strikeforce organization, Fedor’s manager and M-1 Global Director of Operations, Evgeni Kogan stated that Fedor has a contract with the television company Showtime, which also carries live M-1 Global events.

Fedor’s future is still up in the air. Following the loss to Henderson, he said he would leave his future in, “God’s hands” but when pressed, said he still wanted to fight, but would first be taking time off to return home to Russia to spend time with his family.

*PHOTO CREDIT – ESTHER LIN/STRIKEFORCE*

“Cung is going to fight in Strikeforce,” Coker explained in a conversation with MMAJunkie after this past weekend’s “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson” event while adding he hoped Le would agree to compete at a yet-to-be-announced December show.

“At some point, when we have more crossovers in the future…but right now, nothing’s changed,” Coker continued.

The news appears to have come as a surprise to Le himself who responded through his Twitter account by publicly agreeing with a fan who said staying in Strikeforce would be akin to wasting the rest of his career.

Le has only fought once a year since 2008 due to a growing film career with his last bout coming in June 2010 against Scott Smith where he stopped “Hands of Steel” with a kick to the body. Prior to the performance he’d gone 6-1 in MMA after an undefeated run as a kickboxer.

PHOTO CREDIT – STRIKEFORCE

Here’s a woman who won her opportunity to compete for a title almost a year ago, only to have it given to someone else after she was sidelined with an injury. After nearly a year away from the cage Miesha returned and gave an outstanding performance to win the Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Championship. There can be little doubt that this will be one of the greatest moments of her mixed martial arts career.

Will any of it matter in a year’s time? Will there still be a women’s division in Strikeforce next summer? Will there still be a Strikeforce next summer?

We don’t know much about the deal that Zuffa made to acquire Strikeforce this past March, but we do know that part of the deal includes finishing out the myriad of contracts Scott Coker and Co. had signed over the years. Hence the now hilariously ironic phrase “business as usual,” repeated over and over during Dana White’s announcement of the sale. The idea he was pushing was that Strikeforce would continue to operate as a separate unit while the UFC did their own thing. Zuffa would own the two top MMA organizations in the world and pretend that they had no control over Strikeforce.

The problem is that everybody knows how this story ends. Strikeforce as an MMA organization is living on borrowed time. They have contracts with broadcasters and fighters and those contracts need to be honored, but once that business is done it would be foolish for anyone to believe the Strikeforce will live on as a separate brand in this sport. Every other MMA promotion that has been purchased by Zuffa has ceased to exist sooner or later.

The end is nigh, but nobody wants to look at the crazy guy on the street holding the sign. The promoters, the fighters, the fans and the media want to continue acting as though Strikeforce is a real promotion with a real future. Why?

The Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion took three years to defend his belt only to eventually be released by the organization over the weekend. Their lightweight champion recently spent a year on the sidelines waiting for the company to line up a challenger (and he has no current fight scheduled). They also left their other women’s champion on the sidelines due to a lack of challengers, then spent no time or effort towards building new opponents for her. Their middleweight belt has been abandoned almost as many times as it’s been defended.

The championships of Strikeforce already had little value beyond the metal and leather they were made of before the Zuffa purchase, and unfortunately that value has all but evaporated now that the more prestigious UFC titles are just an arm’s length away.

This leads us to former Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz. He had eliminated all challengers within the Strikeforce welterweight division, and at the same time he was hungry for bigger fights with better paydays. He started running some reports that he was going to try his hand at boxing, but this was merely leverage to get what he really wanted: a shot at UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre.

Diaz does have the valid point of having no big money fights left in Strikeforce, but now that one champion has jumped ship to the UFC how long can it be before other title holders start to want the same kind of treatment?

It’s not just champions either. Former Strikeforce poster boy and current B-movie star Cung Le has publicly stated that he will not be coming back to Strikeforce, and if he does make a return to MMA it will only be for the UFC. Jason “Mayhem” Miller was snatched up by the UFC shortly after the sale and will soon be seen as one of the head coaches on The Ultimate Fighter. Several other contracted Strikeforce fighters have taken to calling out guys under the UFC banner.

It’s clear that most of the fighters are ready to move on to the brighter lights and bigger paydays of the UFC, but there can be little done in the face of those aforementioned pre-existing contracts. Strikeforce is obligated to deliver so many events for Showtime, fighters are guaranteed so many fights, and of course certain fighters have their special allowances written in. Diaz had a clause that allowed him to box, and without it who knows if he would have gotten the fight with GSP?

The point I’m making here is that while Strikeforce can continue to put on entertaining events (as they did this past weekend) I will continue to watch. However I refuse to pretend that those belts Coker is wrapping around fighters’ waists have that much value beyond the shiny precious metals so carefully arranged on their surface.

I’ll leave you with this question that I posed on Twitter this past Saturday night: If Tarec Saffiedine were to be offered a shot at the Strikeforce Welterweight Championship or a pre-lim spot on a UFC PPV, which one do you think he would pick?

PHOTO CREDIT – STRIKEFORCE

The jaw-dropping news came via a report on HDNet’s “Inside MMA” where injuries were cited as the reason for his release with a reference also made in regards to the Dutchman’s refusal to fight in September as part of the promotion’s World Grand Prix semifinal round.

Overeem exits Strikeforce with a 4-0 record including wins over Vitor Belfort, Brett Rogers, and Fabricio Werdum. His last appearance under the Strikeforce banner came in June against Werdum where he outpointed the submission artist in a lackluster result to what had previously been billed as a “must see” heavyweight fight.

While his MMA future is unknown, one certainty for the 31-year old appears to be an October date in the Netherlands as part of a United Glory kickboxing event. Overeem has also expressed interest in trying his hand (or hands as they case may be) in boxing.

PHOTO CREDIT – STRIKEFORCE

The upcoming “super-fight” was one of the numerous things Coker, who was recently demoted without explanation and has since reassumed his role as Strikeforce head, discussed with press at today’s sit-down.

Also mentioned was the organization’s intention to air five preliminary fights attached to their June 18 event through HDNet such as J.Z. Cavalcante vs. Justin Wilcox and Jorge Masvidal vs. K.J. Noons.

Additional items gleaned from today’s gathering include the company’s plan to hold all future Strikeforce Challengers shows at The Pearl in Las Vegas starting after an already-scheduled July 22 event and the likelihood of champion Nick Diaz sticking with Strikeforce rather than crossing over for a historic showdown with UFC welterweight title-holder Georges St. Pierre.

The possibility of a Strikeforce stop in Las Vegas was first reported by ESPN.

No bouts have been targeted for the July date. However, the event should be labeled Strikeforce Challengers 17 with Strikeforce Challengers 16 already scheduled for June 24 in Kent, Washington, and will undoubtedly feature a nice blend of potential-laden prospects and skilled veterans given the general format of the Strikeforce Challengers series.

New of the 8-2-1 Blanco’s signing was first reported by Sherdog though no date or opponent for his North American debut was mentioned.

The 27-year old will add a necessary layer of depth to Strikeforce’s lightweight division and should be right at home alongside promotional peers like Josh Thomson, Justin Wilcox, and of course champ Gilbert Melendez. Blanco is currently riding a six-fight winning streak including a victory over Strikeforce’s Rodrigo Damm a year ago and has earned seven of his eight total wins by way of TKO.

PHOTO CREDIT – SRC

News of the rumored rhubarb was first reported by MMAWeekly where sources were quoted as saying the bout had been verbally agreed upon by both sides and was being targeted for Strikeforce’s upcoming event on June 18 in Dallas.

Cavalcante made a name for himself in Japan under the K-1 banner where he scored a number of memorable wins including TKOs of Nam Phan, Vitor Ribeiro, and Hiroyuki Takaya. He has also claimed success over game adversaries like Rani Yahya, Michihiro Omigawa, and Bart Palaszewski, and was in the “Top 5” discussion until being slowed by injuries from 2008-2010.

Though Wilcox may lack Cavalcante’s experience and name recognition, the 11-3 grappler has notched victory in ten of his last eleven match-ups featuring impressive performances against David Douglas, Shamar Bailey, the aforementioned Riberio, and most recently Rodrigo Damm who he beat by way of TKO in April.

Strikeforce’s summer stop in the Lone Star State should be packed with entertainment, as Wilcox and Cavalcante join a line-up already highlighted by the second half of the Strikeforce World Grand Prix with Alistair Overeem taking on Fabricio Werdum and Josh Barnett back in action against Brett Rogers. Fan-favorite Gina Carano is also scheduled to fight Sarah D’Alelio at the event, plus former light heavyweight champion Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal will mix it up with Ovince St. Preux in hopes of earning a shot as winning his belt back.

PHOTO CREDIT – STRIKEFORCE