Matthew Ryder | UFC Betting Sites - The Best MMA Online Bookies

Leaving Gilbert Melendez in Strikeforce Is an Awful Idea

This is just stupid. Seriously. It is. You have the consensus No. 2 lightweight in the world under contract, you can put him on the biggest stage in the world and have him fight a champion whose legend seems to grow with every gutsy performance, and yo…

This is just stupid. Seriously. It is.

You have the consensus No. 2 lightweight in the world under contract, you can put him on the biggest stage in the world and have him fight a champion whose legend seems to grow with every gutsy performance, and you’re not.

There’s not even really a good reason. You’re just…not.

What, specifically, does this opening pertain to, you ask?

Why, Zuffa’s unwillingness to move Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez to the UFC, of course.

The fact of the matter is that Melendez is as good as anyone in the world, a pound-for-pound talent who is far ahead of the pack in his current surroundings. People only clamour to see one fight on his ledger of possible opponents: UFC champ Frankie Edgar.

Since Melendez really emerged as the best 155er not fighting in the UFC, people have wanted to see him in the Octagon. They’ve wondered how he’d do against Edgar, or Gray Maynard, or BJ Penn or whoever the hot ticket was in the weight class at the time.

It was all fantasy, though. There was no way Melendez would fight in the UFC because he was locked in elsewhere, and that was that.

Fans had to live with it. As a promoter, so did Dana White.

Except it isn’t fantasy anymore.

Zuffa owns Strikeforce, and by extension they own Gilbert Melendez. They could put him in the Octagon with a hungry bear if they wanted to, provided they got the bear under contract and he got licensed.

They’re just electing not to.

Tell me that, in 2009, if someone had said “in three years, Zuffa will own Strikeforce, have Gil Melendez under contract, have the option to bring him to the UFC, and just won’t” that you wouldn’t have called that person an idiot.

Exactly. You would have. Actually, Dana White himself would have called that person an idiot, so you’re not alone.

There are reasons for Melendez staying put, sure. With a new Showtime deal in place, Zuffa wants to operate in good faith, so they’re trying to limit the star poaching they did throughout 2011.

Melendez, a well-spoken fighter who can be marketed on results in the cage and personality outside of it, is the perfect face for the “other” brand of MMA under the Zuffa umbrella. He’s also likely to get some fresh meat in the form of UFC castoffs that the company wants to keep in the fold for various reasons.

Still, are any of those good reasons to keep Melendez out of the UFC?

No, they’re not.

Keeping Gilbert Melendez in Strikeforce isn’t helping anybody. It doesn’t legitimize that brand, because the UFC already snatched up the rest of their stars; taking a stand now is being a little bit pregnant.

Take them all, or take none. If Melendez is still there, so too should Nick Diaz, Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, and arguably Dan Henderson.

All it does is make Melendez unhappy that he’s not where he wants to be, makes fans unhappy that they can’t see the lightweight title fight they really want, and makes the world see what a hypocrisy the handling of the situation has been from the start.

For years, the UFC has marketed itself as a place where the best fight the best. Right now, that’s not the case, and it won’t be until Gilbert Melendez gets his chance.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 141: Alistair Overeem Ready for UFC Spotlight after a Crazy 2011

A crazy year is about to conclude for Alistair Overeem, fresh face to the UFC and the man who will oppose Brock Lesnar in the main event of UFC 141. The former DREAM, K-1 and Strikeforce champion will make his UFC debut against a former champion. Many …

2011 was eventful for Overeem for a number of reasons. After winning the K-1 Grand Prix and DREAM heavyweight titles only a few weeks apart in December 2010, Overeem ended up not being paid by K-1 before DREAM fell into financial ruin itself.

Shortly thereafter, Strikeforce was sold to Zuffa. While participating in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, Overeem was released seemingly out of the blue. He ended up on the outs with his management, dropped them, got re-signed by Zuffa to a UFC contract and agreed to fight Lesnar instead of waiting for a guaranteed title shot.

After accepting the Lesnar fight, Overeem found himself in the midst of a legal battle with his former managers, and also got word that his mother was sick back in Europe. Having just changed camps and moving from Holland to Las Vegas, he had to return home to tend to her—just in time to miss a drug test and subsequently almost go unlicensed for the fight.

To say the least, it’s been quite a run for the man they call “The Reem.”

“It’s been a rollercoaster ride,” Overeem said during a media call that Bleacher Report MMA sat in on. “It started maybe a year-and-a-half ago, after the Brett Rogers fight. I was in Japan to do media, it was a crazy time. Every day doing television shows, all the media attention,” recalls Overeem.

“Come back for the Strikeforce GP, injury before [fighting Fabricio] Werdum, after, then back and to the UFC. I can only thank my team, they’ve been a rock. They’ve taken away all the headaches, my thanks and gratitude goes out to them.”

For all the hurdles, and all he’s thankful for, Overeem says he’s more focused than ever and is ready for the biggest stage in MMA.

“The UFC is huge, but the thing for me is that the bigger the fight is and the more people that come to watch, the better I perform. I’m feeling good mentally and physically, I’m sharp. I’m sparring with wrestling guys, I’m ready.”

In Lesnar, he’ll face a man who can match him physically, but is grossly different stylistically. While Overeem will look to win exchanges standing, Lesnar is likely to utilize his superior wrestling to be successful. It could be as simple as who gets the fight where they want it to be first. Overeem says he’s ready for a fight that will go anywhere.

“People tend to look at the last couple of years—even then I had a couple of submissions—but I’m an all-around fighter. My striking got better because of K-1, and I prefer a knockout over a submission. I can’t talk about [my training], but I’m a well-rounded fighter.”

Regardless of where the fight ends up, its Overeem’s focus to become the UFC heavyweight champion and capture a centrepiece for a mantle that’s already quite full.

“The UFC title is missing from my collection. That title is missing. That’s the only thing that’s left to achieve.”

He’ll get the chance to move towards filling that void on December 30.

Matthew Ryder is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand from a UFC 141 media call.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 141: 7 Reasons Donald Cerrone Can’t Overlook Nate Diaz

Before the big guys take centre stage at UFC 141: Lesnar vs. Overeem, two of the scrappiest men in the lightweight division will get to do their thing when Donald Cerrone takes on Nate Diaz. Many are picking Cerrone, who is currently riding a remarkabl…

Before the big guys take centre stage at UFC 141: Lesnar vs. Overeem, two of the scrappiest men in the lightweight division will get to do their thing when Donald Cerrone takes on Nate Diaz. Many are picking Cerrone, who is currently riding a remarkable hot streak, to handle the Stockton native.

However, there’s plenty for “Cowboy” to worry about. Things like:

Begin Slideshow

UFC 140 Results: How Tito Ortiz Will Be Remembered

A leopard can’t change his spots. That’s likely the first thing I’ll tell anyone in 15 years who asks me about Tito Ortiz. Sure, he’s calling himself “The People’s Champion” these days, but he’s “The Huntington Beach…

A leopard can’t change his spots.

That’s likely the first thing I’ll tell anyone in 15 years who asks me about Tito Ortiz. Sure, he’s calling himself “The People’s Champion” these days, but he’s “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” to anyone who’s watched him for more than two fights, and that’s what he’ll be best known for.

In an era when his sport was essentially in the dark and needed a guy to sell tickets, it was Ortiz who did.

When the sport was evolving and no one knew whether striking or grappling was best, it was Ortiz who melded the two together to build on Mark Coleman’s invention of ground-and-pound.

At a time MMA needed a heel, a guy people loved to hate, Ortiz was there to flip them off and them beat them up afterwards

That’s how Ortiz will be remembered.

Ortiz has become an interesting figure in modern MMA. Gone are the days of a young fighter fuelled by his own brash machismo, now replaced by an aging veteran who remains competitive if often unsuccessful. He gets the business side of things, has repaired a ruined relationship with his employers and seems to genuinely love his fans.

Those are all aspects of his personality that will be remembered too.

It’s probably fair to say that Ortiz has been shaky in the last few years. He’s never had a “gimme” fight in his career though, and he always comes to fight.

If you’re like me, you probably get tired of him reminding you of that fact every time he’s in the cage, but he’s not wrong. Even still, 1-6-1 is nothing to write home about.

Truly, that won’t be what people remember about Ortiz. It’s remarkable to think that a fighter could finish his career on such a slide—at best he’ll win two of his final nine fights should he get a retirement bout and actually win it—and be recalled for the greatness that came before it.

But that’s what Ortiz has earned. At a time when MMA was a niche sport at best, he transcended it and was a face that people knew in sports, not just in his sport. That’s pretty remarkable, and hopefully he can appreciate it when his time comes.

His fans certainly will.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 140: 5 Reasons It’s Too Soon for Jon Jones to Move to Heavyweight

His massive frame and destructive tendencies at 205 lbs pegs champion Jon Jones as a guy on the move to the heavyweight division over the past year or so. While he makes no qualms about the probability of it happening, there are also plenty of reasons …

Here are five reasons why.

Begin Slideshow

UFC 140: How Mark Hominick Will Destroy the Korean Zombie

Technique. It’s not even a big argument or a hard question to pose, that of how Mark Hominick is going to demolish the Korean Zombie, Chan Sung Jung. It’s about technique. Going into UFC 140 in Toronto, Hominick will be making his return to…

Technique.

It’s not even a big argument or a hard question to pose, that of how Mark Hominick is going to demolish the Korean Zombie, Chan Sung Jung.

It’s about technique.

Going into UFC 140 in Toronto, Hominick will be making his return to the cage for the first time since a spirited title tilt with featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo made him into a star. The soft-spoken Canadian became a cult hero that night, fighting through a vicious beating early to almost snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in the final round. He never took a backward step the entire night.

A lot has changed for him since then. He’s had a daughter. His coach and good friend passed away. He’s been adjusting to being a bigger name in the sport.

He began pushing for a fight with Jung almost immediately after the Aldo loss, smartly identifying the Zombie as a target that has a name but doesn’t match up well with him. Perhaps on account of his performance against Aldo and his newfound fame, the UFC was apt to give him the fight he wanted.

The reason the fight works for Hominick is that he is a technical marvel when it comes to kickboxing. Watching him operate in the cage is poetry in motion, slick in-and-out movements that set up combinations that only the very best are able to counter.

Jung is not.

They call the man the Korean Zombie for a reason, as he plods forward like an extra on The Walking Dead, arms outstretched and fists flying. He stalks his opponents, often eating tremendous punishment in an effort to get inside and start throwing leather. He’s gotten more intelligent recently, but you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Jung is who he is.

So what the fight becomes is a lock to be exciting, and also a chance for Hominick to show he’s still relevant at 145 against a big name that shouldn’t be a great threat. As Jung shuffles forward, Hominick will blast him with combinations and then make distance before setting up to repeat the process.

It should truly be a clinic in breaking down an opponent with strikes, and The Machine will be the one administering the medicine.

So as these two men enter the cage to do battle, expect two things: fireworks, and Hominick to look good. He knew what he was doing when he asked for this fight, and Jung—as lovable as he is—will have trouble with the plucky Canuck.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com