(Vierra is standing third from the right in the black gi, next to Cesar Gracie. / Photo via MixedMartialArts.com)
Following the conclusion of UFC on FOX 7 on Saturday, many die-hard fight fans switched their dials to Showtime to watch the WBA light-middleweight title fight between rising boxing star Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez and Austin Trout. Though Trout arguably won a majority of the early rounds, the fight’s “open-scoring” system revealed that the judges were in the bag for Alvarez from the beginning. When the match was over, the scores came back unanimously for the 22-year-old ginger: 115-112, 116-111 and a completely batshit 118-109 from judge Stanley Christodoulou. As usual, we MMA types used the opportunity to take potshots at boxing’s endemic corruption.
Alright, so get a load of this shit: Late Saturday night, Ben Henderson’s brother pointed out that Wade Vierra — the dissenting judge in Henderson’s split-decision win over Gilbert Melendez — is a “Master Instructor” for the GracieFighter network, and runs a Cesar Gracie affiliate school in Roseville, California. Considering that Melendez is a well-known Cesar Gracie product, the conflict-of-interest alarms should have been ringing for the California State Athletic Commission, and Vierra shouldn’t have been allowed to judge the fight. But the CSAC didn’t catch it, or didn’t care, or hey, maybe they were in on it. Either way, Bendo’s special night was put in jeopardy.
When judging controversies happen in MMA, fans usually chalk it up to ignorance rather than corruption. But when ignorance from MMA judges and commissions is allowed to exist indefinitely, that is corruption — it’s a corruption of the sport’s legitimacy, even if nobody’s directly profiting from it. Obviously, the UFC lightweight title fight was so close that Vierra’s 48-47 tally for Melendez was much more defensible than Christodoulou’s 118-109 for Canelo. Still, the incident gave the UFC event an appearance of commission malfeasance that reflects very poorly on the promotion and the sport in general. (Was somebody paid off to allow Vierra a spot on the judges’ table? Or is the CSAC just that inept?)
It’s a good thing Henderson won. Otherwise, we might have had a scandal on our hands.
(Vierra is standing third from the right in the black gi, next to Cesar Gracie. / Photo via MixedMartialArts.com)
Following the conclusion of UFC on FOX 7 on Saturday, many die-hard fight fans switched their dials to Showtime to watch the WBA light-middleweight title fight between rising boxing star Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez and Austin Trout. Though Trout arguably won a majority of the early rounds, the fight’s “open-scoring” system revealed that the judges were in the bag for Alvarez from the beginning. When the match was over, the scores came back unanimously for the 22-year-old ginger: 115-112, 116-111 and a completely batshit 118-109 from judge Stanley Christodoulou. As usual, we MMA types used the opportunity to take potshots at boxing’s endemic corruption.
Alright, so get a load of this shit: Late Saturday night, Ben Henderson’s brother pointed out that Wade Vierra — the dissenting judge in Henderson’s split-decision win over Gilbert Melendez — is a “Master Instructor” for the GracieFighter network, and runs a Cesar Gracie affiliate school in Roseville, California. Considering that Melendez is a well-known Cesar Gracie product, the conflict-of-interest alarms should have been ringing for the California State Athletic Commission, and Vierra shouldn’t have been allowed to judge the fight. But the CSAC didn’t catch it, or didn’t care, or hey, maybe they were in on it. Either way, Bendo’s special night was put in jeopardy.
When judging controversies happen in MMA, fans usually chalk it up to ignorance rather than corruption. But when ignorance from MMA judges and commissions is allowed to exist indefinitely, that is corruption — it’s a corruption of the sport’s legitimacy, even if nobody’s directly profiting from it. Obviously, the UFC lightweight title fight was so close that Vierra’s 48-47 tally for Melendez was much more defensible than Christodoulou’s 118-109 for Canelo. Still, the incident gave the UFC event an appearance of commission malfeasance that reflects very poorly on the promotion and the sport in general. (Was somebody paid off to allow Vierra a spot on the judges’ table? Or is the CSAC just that inept?)
It’s a good thing Henderson won. Otherwise, we might have had a scandal on our hands.
When Nick Diaz starting lobbing accusations of negligence at his own team during the UFC 158 post-fight press conference last month — a team that prides themselves on a wolfpack-like sense of loyalty if nothing else — we initially wrote it off as little more than the fleeting words of a man grasping at straws to save his MMA career. Nick’s attitude regarding his most recent retirement only drove this notion home. That being said, it was hard not to at least speculate that Diaz’s longtime coach/manager/muzzle, Cesar Gracie, could be at least partially responsible for the Stocktonian’s ongoing troubles over the years. Dana White seemed to agree, calling Gracie “a dick” who “plays bullshit games.”
And indeed, it appears that even the members of Team Cesar Gracie are starting to grow tired of his shit, as it was recently announced that former lightweight title challenger Nate Diaz has left the team — managerially, at least — for greener pastures (via MMAMania):
According to a report from Ariel Helwani on Tuesday’s (April 9, 2013) edition of “UFC Tonight” on FUEL TV, the Stockton, Calif., native has enlisted the management services of Mike Kogan, who heads Real Talk Entertainment, representing notable names such as UFC heavyweight Roy Nelson and former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammed Lawal, among others.
When Nick Diaz starting lobbing accusations of negligence at his own team during the UFC 158 post-fight press conference last month — a team that prides themselves on a wolfpack-like sense of loyalty if nothing else — we initially wrote it off as little more than the fleeting words of a man grasping at straws to save his MMA career. Nick’s attitude regarding his most recent retirement only drove this notion home. That being said, it was hard not to at least speculate that Diaz’s longtime coach/manager/muzzle, Cesar Gracie, could be at least partially responsible for the Stocktonian’s ongoing troubles over the years. Dana White seemed to agree, calling Gracie “a dick” who “plays bullshit games.”
And indeed, it appears that even the members of Team Cesar Gracie are starting to grow tired of his shit, as it was recently announced that former lightweight title challenger Nate Diaz has left the team — managerially, at least — for greener pastures (via MMAMania):
According to a report from Ariel Helwani on Tuesday’s (April 9, 2013) edition of “UFC Tonight” on FUEL TV, the Stockton, Calif., native has enlisted the management services of Mike Kogan, who heads Real Talk Entertainment, representing notable names such as UFC heavyweight Roy Nelson and former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammed Lawal, among others.
As noted by several sources currently reporting on Diaz’s defection, Nate will still train with Cesar and friends, but that will be where their professional relationship begins and ends moving forward.
While we imagine that most sane people would recognize that Nate is simply protecting his best interests (don’t worry, we’ve got you covered), if his brother thought Team Gracie was being neglectful before, just imagine how they’re going to treat Nate now that he’s essentially deemed them too incompetent to continue managing his career.
It wasn’t surprising to see Cesar Gracie fire Caio Terra for helping nemesis Carlos Condit, but it was sort of odd that Gracie had so little to say about it. Never one to shy away from calling someone out, it was strange to see Cesar post a half-assed rant on Facebook about the firing and be done with it. Fortunately, he was asked to address the firing on this week’s edition of The MMA Hour, and by the time he shows up on the show, he does not disappoint.
“He must be happy, because this is literally the most publicity he’s ever received. ” Gracie remarked. “He a jiu-jitsu guy, he doesn’t have any kind of MMA anything.”
We reacted the same way.
It wasn’t surprising to see Cesar Gracie fire Caio Terra for helping nemesis Carlos Condit, but it was sort of odd that Gracie had so little to say about it. Never one to shy away from calling someone out, it was strange to see Cesar post a half-assed rant on Facebook about the firing and be done with it. Fortunately, he was asked to address the firing on this week’s edition of The MMA Hour, and by the time he shows up on the show, he does not disappoint.
“He must be happy, because this is literally the most publicity he’s ever received. ” Gracie remarked. “He a jiu-jitsu guy, he doesn’t have any kind of MMA anything.”
“Being the champ at 125 (pounds) with the gi pretty much makes him a formidable force at a teenage girls’ pajama party, or something like that. It’s not a loss to us whatsoever in the MMA scene. Honestly, he’d never won anything before he came on our team, so he should be thankful. You know, people like that, they here come from Brazil, they’re a dime a dozen down there. Trust me. They’re all over the place, these little dudes running around and they’re pretty good at jiu-jitsu. He comes out here in what, 2007, 2008, something like that, and he’s won all his world championships since he’s been on the team. And his first opportunity, he goes and does something stupid like that.”
Gracie then attempts to explain his point to Helwani by using his favorite sports team in an analogy, and although the explanation works well in theory, the fact that Helwani’s favorite football team is the Buffalo Bills just makes everything come off as a cheap pop.
“You’re one of the owners of the Buffalo Bills, or whatever, and you find out the Buffalo Bills’ coach is going to another team to train them and give them the playbook. What happens to him? What does the Buffalo Bills’ owner do when he finds out one of his coaches is going to go do that? Guess what? He’s terminated. He’s immediately terminated and there’s not even a discussion.”
Clearly Cesar Gracie has not watched a Bills game since the early 1990s, but I digress.
Gracie also addresses the fact that most fighters – even his own fighters – temporarily train with different camps in order to switch things up.
“It doesn’t make us bad people, but we’ve got to terminate people like that. We want people that we can rely on. And honestly, I’ll be honest with you, this particular situation, it’s not something that I’m that upset about. If we wanted Condit to lose a fight, we would send him Caio Terra. I’ll tell you why, that’s not even a dig. Caio Terra doesn’t understand anything about MMA. He’s never done any training for it or anything. You can not win a fight with the IBJJ jiu-jitsu rules.
Condit would have done much better, he did great by the way, but he would’ve done much better had he just listened to his other coaches, (Mike) Winkeljohn and those guys, and not sat there and tried to set up some complex submission attempt from the bottom while he was getting punched in the face. That’s what lost him the fight, really.”
And just for good measure:
“I heard [Terra say], ‘The Diaz brothers didn’t call me.’ It’s like, dude, what? Who are you? You’re promoting the Diaz’s and Jake Shields? No, they promoted you. They went on YouTube and helped you out with your videos. They did all this stuff for you to make a name for yourself. They taught you the leglock game because you were getting tapped out all the time when you got down here, and now you’re winning these tournaments and everything because of training with guys like the Diaz’s. And the first opportunity [you get], you give him a little bit of money, you put a camera in his face, the guy’s got like a Napoleon complex, and bam, all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m in the news. I’m with Ariel Helwani talking about it. Cesar’s pissed.’ I’ve turned the page, man. I’ve already replaced the guy. I’ve got better people in already. It’s nothing, so if we can get past [it], get over it, whatever, that’s it.”
To recap everything: Terra is a force to be reckoned with at a teenage girls’ pajama party, but he’s an easily replaceable coach who showed no loyalty to the gym that taught him the leglock game by training Condit – even though Condit lost because he was listening to Terra’s advice. Oh, and he also has a Napoleon complex.
Everybody gather around and break out your tinfoil hats, because it’s conspiracy time.
The above clip comes to us courtesy of Inside MMA, who recently held interviews with both the lightweight number one contender Nate Diaz and coach Cesar Gracie, who is beginning to sound like little more than an omnipresent entity whose soul (get it? SOUL? I should really be getting paid more for this gold) reason for existence is to echo whatever a Diaz brother manages to mumble out between bong rips.
From what we could decipher, it appears that both Nate and Cesar have finally caught on to the longest running screwjob in MMA history: The judges vs. The brothers Diaz. Gracie was able to see through the bullshit and was the first to bring this to light, stating:
I’ve never really seen a close decision where the nod was given to the Diaz’s. If it’s close, they’re going to lose. I don’t know why, maybe the judges don’t really care for them that much; they’re brash.
While we were initially content to play Team Cesar Gracie a song on the world’s smallest violin, upon doing a little research (I KNOW RIGHT), we actually stumbled across a plot so thick and intricate that not even Nicolas Cage could unravel it in a series of increasingly shitty kids movies, so join us after the jump if you think your puny Earthling brains can handle it.
Everybody gather around and break out your tinfoil hats, because it’s conspiracy time.
The above clip comes to us courtesy of Inside MMA, who recently held interviews with both the lightweight number one contender Nate Diaz and coach Cesar Gracie, who is beginning to sound like little more than an omnipresent entity whose soul (get it? SOUL? I should really be getting paid more for this gold) reason for existence is to echo whatever a Diaz brother manages to mumble out between bong rips.
From what we could decipher, it appears that both Nate and Cesar have finally caught on to the longest running screwjob in MMA history: The judges vs. The brothers Diaz. Gracie was able to see through the bullshit and was the first to bring this to light, stating:
I’ve never really seen a close decision where the nod was given to the Diaz’s. If it’s close, they’re going to lose. I don’t know why, maybe the judges don’t really care for them that much; they’re brash.
While we were initially content to play Team Cesar Gracie a song on the world’s smallest violin, upon doing a little research (I KNOW RIGHT), we actually stumbled across a plot so thick and intricate that not even Nicolas Cage could unravel it in a series of increasingly shitty kids movies, so join us after the jump if you think your puny Earthling brains can handle it.
The Official Nate Diaz/Ben Henderson UFC Conspiracy Theory
The brothers Diaz have a combined lifetime record of 6-12 when going the distance. 6 +12 = 18. 18 is the number of professional wins Benson Henderson will have if he manages to defeat Nate Diaz at UFC on FOX 5 in December. In their professional careers, the brothers Diaz have only fought twice in December and both fights have gone the distance: Nate was able to score a UD over Donald Cerrone at UFC 141, and Nick was the victim of a controversial decision loss to the Japanese-born Kuniyoshi Hironaka at the Japanese-born promotion Shooto’s Year End Show 2002.
This brings the combined record of the Diaz brothers in December to 1-1. Remove the dash from 1-1 and you get 11. Subtract 11 from 18 and what do you get? 7. Now add that to the 2 brothers Diaz and you get 9. As in 9/11.
As the first Zeitgeist film proved without a shadow of a doubt, 9/11 was not an act of retribution carried out by Muslim extremists, but was in fact an incredibly orchestrated event carried out by the government — and specifically, former Texas governor/president George W. Bush — in order to cause mass fear and generate support for the war on terror, thus producing massive economic gains for the top parties involved. UFC President Dana White is an unabashed supporter of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a failed bill proposed by Republican Texas governor Lamar S. Smith that aimed to expand the United States government’s control of copyrighted intellectual property, and would have given the government the power to shut down entire websites for infringing property on just a single web page. This proposed law was considered by many to be an extension of The Patriot Act, which was signed into law by George W. Bush in a response to…9/11.
Ergo, Dana White, who had just purchased the UFC along with the Fertitta brothers in January of 2001, used his ties with George Bush and therefore the government and agreed to turn a blind eye to the events of 9/11. For this, Bush agreed to have his longtime friend and fellow Republican John McCain back off the anti-UFC bandwagon just long enough for the UFC to get the ball rolling. The UFC would return the favor by throwing their undying support behind both The Patriot Act and SOPA (which would increase government control of media and limit our ability to steal borrow UFC content), knowing that if their fans could be brainwashed into buying clothes as atrocious as this, they would pretty much support anything. More money for the UFC, more control for the gov’t. It is no coincidence that to this day, DW credits John McCain as being the guy “who started the UFC.”
So where do Bendo and the brothers Diaz come into all this? Hold onto your butts.
Nick Diaz‘s first professional fight was on August 31st, 2001. Add those numbers together (8 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 1) and you will get 15, the exact number of losses the Diaz brothers have combined. 15 is also the precise amount of time in minutes in which the brothers Diaz have lost nearly all of their decisions.
Ben Henderson, on the other hand, is half Korean. The bad guys in the Red Dawn remake were infamously changed from Chinese to North Korean in the editing room due to the fact that China has quickly become one of the most lucrative markets for American movies, whereas North Korea is all but completely devoid of foreign influence. North Korea, coincidentally, has been locked in border disputes with China for ages now. And what sport, pray tell, has begun to broadcast pay-per-view events in movie theaters? THE UFC, THAT’S WHO. Who recently held their first ever event in China? THE UFC, THAT’S WHO. Ben Henderson is also one of only two fighters of Korean decent to win a belt in the UFC. Who was the other? B.J. Penn, who is fighting on the same card as Henderson and Diaz and appears to be in better shape than we ever thought possible.
Do you get it yet? Henderson and Penn are sleeper-cell fighters, sent by the North Korean government under the close surveillance of Dana White and company in an effort to showcase the dominance of (North) Korea, all the while using DW’s ins with China to set them up for the ultimate double-cross. In return, the UFC will become the one and only form of foreign media to grace the North Korean market. North Korea will in turn invade America, then China, and after inevitably defeating both of us, the UFC will therefore become the only form of media. Period. 24/7, all day, every day.
Being the conspiracy theorists that the brothers Diaz are, they clearly stumbled upon this as children before joining the UFC in an attempt to thwart Dana White’s efforts, knowing that, if they were to become champion, they could expose White for the snake in the grass he truly is. However, being that judges can be bought and sold nowadays, DW made sure to metaphorically cut them off at the pass and ensure that they would never win a close decision in the UFC. After screwing Nick Diaz out of the chance at UFC 143, tainting his urine sample, and ushering him into a hasty retirement, the UFC set their eyes on his little bro.
So after they threw Nate to the wolves in three consecutive bouts and were unable to stop him, the UFC rigged the second Henderson/Edgar fight in order to ensure that the (half) Korean grappler — a grappler being the ultimate foe of a Diaz –remained champion long enough to put an end to Diaz’s run once and for all. Diaz was given his title fight, but unfortunately, it will come on December 8th, just 9 days shy of the 1 year anniversary of Kim Jong-il’s death, which was revealed by the North Korean government on December 19th, 2011. Add in the 0 chance of victory Nate Diaz has if his fight goes to a decision and you get 9/11/2001.
If, no, once Henderson secures a controversial split-decision over Diaz at UFC on FOX 5, it will set into motion a chain of events that ends in the destruction of the very freedoms this country was built upon: Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness — the very same freedoms the brothers Diaz have been trying to protect for as long as they’ve existed.
(Diaz, seen here preparing the only gameplan that hasn’t been thwarted by Anderson Silva in the octagon yet. And no, that’s definitely not a hash pipe next to the dartboard. Props be to MiddleEasy.)
Nick Diaz may be a shortsighted, virulent, pot smoking, press conference-skipping delinquent who didn’t go to college for buying houses, but damn it, we can’t help but love the guy’s “take on all comers” attitude when it comes to fighting. Blame it on the increased popularity of the sport, the ridiculous string of injuries, or whatever you want, but suffice it to say, the Diaz mentality of accepting fights is a fading one. It seems we can’t go a day without hearing that so and so turned down a fight with this guy, or that this champion will maybe fight this one under a ridiculous set of circumstances, and honestly, this prima donna nonsense has all but completely quelled our interest in seeing the “superfights” we would have killed for just a couple months ago.
But before you jump down our throats, we (or at least I) do not blame Georges St. Pierre for turning down the Anderson Silva fight. Because like GSP said, there are still several viable contenders in his division and he is just coming off an 18 month layoff. Plus, if Anderson wants to fight the smaller man, he should pony the fuck up and drop down to his weight class. And since Silva is (for whatever reason) dead set on fighting a smaller opponent next, Cesar Gracie recently threw Diaz’s name into the fold as a potential future opponent, because why the hell not at this point:
We’re pushing for the GSP fight. That’s what we’re going to push for, GSP or Anderson Silva. That’s the two fights that interest us the most, and that’s the one’s we’re going for.[Silva’s] people are into it. We’re into it. The fans, I think, would be into it. We’ve got convince Dana about it now. Obviously the fight that makes sense to them, and I don’t disagree, is Anderson-GSP, and like I said, I would watch that fight. That would be great to watch. But let’s get real. If GSP just absolutely says no, then what? You can’t make a guy fight. That’s the thing. And Anderson, if they want to promote a superfight and if the stars align, I think Nick would be into it.
(Diaz, seen here preparing the only gameplan that hasn’t been thwarted by Anderson Silva in the octagon yet. And no, that’s definitely not a hash pipe next to the dartboard. Props be to MiddleEasy.)
Nick Diaz may be a shortsighted, virulent, pot smoking, press conference-skipping delinquent who didn’t go to college for buying houses, but damn it, we can’t help but love the guy’s “take on all comers” attitude when it comes to fighting. Blame it on the increased popularity of the sport, the ridiculous string of injuries, or whatever you want, but suffice it to say, the Diaz mentality of accepting fights is a fading one. It seems we can’t go a day without hearing that so and so turned down a fight with this guy, or that this champion will maybe fight this one under a ridiculous set of circumstances, and honestly, this prima donna nonsense has all but completely quelled our interest in seeing the “superfights” we would have killed for just a couple months ago.
But before you jump down our throats, we (or at least I) do not blame Georges St. Pierre for turning down the Anderson Silva fight. Because like GSP said, there are still several viable contenders in his division and he is just coming off an 18 month layoff. Plus, if Anderson wants to fight the smaller man, he should pony the fuck up and drop down to his weight class. And since Silva is (for whatever reason) dead set on fighting a smaller opponent next, Cesar Gracie recently threw Diaz’s name into the fold as a potential future opponent, because why the hell not at this point:
We’re pushing for the GSP fight. That’s what we’re going to push for, GSP or Anderson Silva. That’s the two fights that interest us the most, and that’s the one’s we’re going for.[Silva’s] people are into it. We’re into it. The fans, I think, would be into it. We’ve got convince Dana about it now. Obviously the fight that makes sense to them, and I don’t disagree, is Anderson-GSP, and like I said, I would watch that fight. That would be great to watch. But let’s get real. If GSP just absolutely says no, then what? You can’t make a guy fight. That’s the thing. And Anderson, if they want to promote a superfight and if the stars align, I think Nick would be into it.
Of course, there are several outside factors that come into play when addressing the likelihood of this fight, the least of which being Cesar’s statement that “he thinks Nick would be into it.” Because let’s be real, no one knows what is going through Diaz’s mind. Ever. (Author’s note: I imagine it’s something like this).
Another deterring factor in this potential “superfight” (which isn’t really a superfight at all, quite honestly) would be that of Dana White, who completely shot the idea down when discussing it with Bleacher Report:
Nick Diaz makes no sense. I know that it sounds fun ‘YEAH! Throw Nick Diaz in there!’ But if you really look at the thing, Nick Diaz just lost to Condit. You know what I mean? … at 170 so that gives him the opportunity to move up to 185 and fight the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world? In what f*cking universe does that make sense?
All good points Dana, except for the fact that mere weeks after making these statements, you did the exact same thing with Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen, then declared that “fun fights are OK” when discussing Anderson Silva vs. Stephan Bonnar. So to answer your question: This universe, I guess.
I’m not saying Diaz should be rewarded for his past transgressions, but then again, when he appears to be the only guy willing to fight an invincible killing machine like Silva, how long can you turn him away? WILL SOMEONE JUST LET HIM BANG, BRO?!
Strikeforce lightweight champion Gil Melendez‘ coach Cesar Gracie recently told Tatame that his fighter is still injured, not “training hard,” and will not fight on what many assume will be Strikeforce’s final event in January. “I think he never recovered from the shoulder injury and will not be able to fight in January,” Google Translator tells us that Gracie told the Portuguese outlet.
Melendez already pulled out of a no-win title defense against Pat Healy and, though we have no doubt he is still battling injury, has to also realize that other than the purse he’d get for fighting, he would be risking far more than he might gain by fighting one last time in the doomed organization. If Strikeforce is dissolved while Melendez is the champion he will almost certainly, at long last, be brought into the UFC fold.
Should he lose, he might still be brought over but if he is, he would be worth far less and would probably have a longer route to a UFC title shot. As Strikeforce champion, Gilbert could always make a claim for an immediate or close-to-immediate title shot under the “let’s unify this thing” type of argument made most recently and successfully by his teammate Nick Diaz.
We’ve loved Strikeforce for a long time but if it is going to continue to hobble along like this, we can only hope that the UFC figures out a way to shut them down and absorb the fighters asap.
Strikeforce lightweight champion Gil Melendez‘ coach Cesar Gracie recently told Tatame that his fighter is still injured, not “training hard,” and will not fight on what many assume will be Strikeforce’s final event in January. “I think he never recovered from the shoulder injury and will not be able to fight in January,” Google Translator tells us that Gracie told the Portuguese outlet.
Melendez already pulled out of a no-win title defense against Pat Healy and, though we have no doubt he is still battling injury, has to also realize that other than the purse he’d get for fighting, he would be risking far more than he might gain by fighting one last time in the doomed organization. If Strikeforce is dissolved while Melendez is the champion he will almost certainly, at long last, be brought into the UFC fold.
Should he lose, he might still be brought over but if he is, he would be worth far less and would probably have a longer route to a UFC title shot. As Strikeforce champion, Gilbert could always make a claim for an immediate or close-to-immediate title shot under the “let’s unify this thing” type of argument made most recently and successfully by his teammate Nick Diaz.
We’ve loved Strikeforce for a long time but if it is going to continue to hobble along like this, we can only hope that the UFC figures out a way to shut them down and absorb the fighters asap.
