It was announced on Wednesday that former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir would be moving to the Strikeforce cage to square off against the Heavyweight World Grand Prix Champion Daniel Cormier (via Josh Morgan of USA Today).
Mir is coming off a loss in a UFC title fight against Junior dos Santos, where he was TKO’d in the second round. Prior to that, he had won three straight over Mirko Cro Cop, Roy Nelson and Minotauro Nogueira.
Meanwhile, Cormier is undefeated at 10-0 and recently won a unanimous decision over Josh Barnett to be crowned the GP champ.
With the announcement that Mir will fight in Strikeforce, he has become the first UFC fighter to cross over and fight there.
Could there be more of this to come?
Obviously, this wouldn’t happen in the heavyweight division, as the heavyweight division in Strikeforce will be absorbed into the UFC after both Cormier and Barnett have their final fights, but I think it could happen in the lightweight division.
Another fight that was recently announced was Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez facing off against Pat Healy.
Melendez is considered by some to be the No. 1 lightweight in the world, is considered by many to be in the top three and is considered by most to be in the top 10.
Healy is not and is nowhere near that.
Meanwhile, the UFC has a lightweight title fight coming up as well, at UFC 150 between Benson Henderson and Frankie Edgar.
This fight is a rematch of their UFC 144 bout, which saw Henderson walk away with the unanimous-decision victory and leave Edgar in a kind of limbo.
Dana White wanted Edgar to drop down to featherweight, but Edgar wanted a rematch with Henderson. The two went back and forth on the issue for weeks until Edgar was granted his rematch.
If Edgar loses again, he could move over to Strikeforce and fight Gilbert Melendez.
If he really doesn’t want to drop down to featherweight, but he knows he won’t get another shot at a UFC title, a fight against Melendez would make sense.
He’d get to stay in the lightweight division, he’d be facing a fighter who many consider to be a top opponent and he’ll get a chance to wear a belt again.
Then Melendez would get some legitimate competition, and we’d get to see how good he really is.
Tim McTiernan is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. For the latest news on everything MMA, follow him on Twitter @TimMcTiernan.
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