The final Strikeforce event will take place on January 12th with the “Strikeforce: Marquardt vs. Saffiedine” event.
There are several Strikeforce fighters that are expected to make the transition, including possible immediate title fights for fighters like Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez and Strikeforce Heavyweight GP winner Daniel Cormier. UFC President Dana White did mention that there were variables in play that could affect things of that nature.
Cormier has to decide if he wants to stay in the heavyweight division now that his teammate and training partner Cain Velasquez recaptured his UFC heavyweight title by defeating Junior dos Santos on Saturday night. Also, White mentioned that former WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis would have a compelling case for a title shot should he beat Donald Cerrone in his next fight. Pettis was supposed to receive an immediate title shot when the WEC/UFC merger came to fruition, but that never happened and he lost his UFC debut against Clay Guida. A win over Cerrone would be his third consecutive win in the UFC, plus he’s the last guy to defeat UFC lightweight champion Ben Henderson and always has the “Showtime Kick” in his back pocket for marketing purposes.
Cormier has been playing with the idea of moving down to the UFC light heavyweight division. He’s one of the smaller heavyweights at under six feet tall, and could probably make the cut of around 30 pounds to make the 205 pounds weight limit with his wrestling background. However, Cormier must first get past Dion Staring on the final Strikeforce event next month before making the transition to the UFC. If he gets past Starling, he could be next in line to fight the winner of the Jon Jones/Chael Sonnen fight that will take place in April should he move to the light heavyweight division.
However, White said that not all Strikeforce fighters would not receive an invitation to the UFC after the final Strikeforce event.
“What’s happened to those guys over in Strikeforce is terrible,” White said. “It’s really bad what happened to them over there, and it makes me sick. I should probably sit down with all of them, but anybody that fought in Strikeforce, I apologize for everything that’s gone on over the last eight months, and I’m really disgusted by it.
“It’s disgusting what’s happened to those guys over the last eight months. It’s bulls***, and it won’t happen again. That s*** is over now.”
White did say that Strikeforce welterweight fighter Nate Marquardt would “probably” make the transition over to the UFC whether he won or lost against Tarec Saffiedine. The former UFC middleweight title contender was cut from the UFC as he failed to receive medical clearance as one half of the UFC on Versus 4 main event.
It’ll be interesting to see who’s able to make the transition to the UFC and where they’ll fit into the UFC puzzle. Who from the Strikeforce roster will you most look forward to watching in the UFC?
Stay tuned to ProMMAnow for more UFC/Strikeforce coverage.