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.
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