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Strikeforce to UFC: A list who should brought over

2K views 19 replies 12 participants last post by  osmium 
#1 ·
Below is a list of the Strikeforce current roster. I have excluded the female division.

Who do you think should be absorbed by the Ufc and who should look for work elsewhere?

Obviously the HW's, LHW's need some fresh blood, the MW's could still use a boost.

The WW's and LW's are the most stacked in both organizations but there are several fighters who could add some new match-ups to the middle of the division.

An idea to bring some of these lesser known fighters from Strikeforce with a decent record to be brought into the mainstream would be take 16 WW's and 16 LW's and make them have a "win and your-in" and then run a TUF-Strikeforce with 8 WW's and 8 LW's. Winner's get a new 6 fight contract.

Obviously the Marquardt's, Woodley's, Melendez'ssss, and such should just come over right away.

Heavyweights (265 lb, 120 kg): 3 fighters

Name Strikeforce record (MMA record)
Daniel Cormier (C) 7–0 (10–0)
Josh Barnett 2–1 (31–6)
Dion Staring 0–0 (28–7)

Light Heavyweights (205 lb, 93 kg): 9 fighters


Name Strikeforce record (MMA record)
Mike Kyle 3–3–1 (1) (19–8–1 (2 NC))
Ovince St. Preux 6–1 (12–5)
Rafael Cavalcante 4–2 (1) (11–3 (1) )
Gegard Mousasi 3–1–1 (32–3–2)
Gian Villante 3–2 (10–3)
TJ Cook 1–2 (12–5)
Virgil Zwicker 1–2 (10–3)
Guto Inocente 1–0 (6–0)
Yoel Romero 0–1 (4–1)


Middleweights (185 lb, 84 kg): 16 fighters


Name Strikeforce record (MMA record)
Luke Rockhold (C) 9–0 (10–1)
Robbie Lawler 3–5 (19–9 (1 NC) )
Ronaldo Souza 6–1 (16–3 (1 NC) )
Tim Kennedy 5–2 (14–4)
Lorenz Larkin 4–0 (1 NC) (13–0 (1 NC) )
Adlan Amagov 3–1 (10–2–1)
Derek Brunson 3–1 (9–2)
Roger Gracie 3–1 (5–1)
Lumumba Sayers 2–2 (6–3)
Anthony Smith 2–1 (17–8)
Trevor Smith 2–1 (10–2)
Keith Jardine 0–2–1 (17–11–2)
Keith Berry 0–3 (12–10)
Yancy Medeiros 2–0 (9–0)
Nate James 1–1 (13–8–1)
Benji Radach 0–2 (21–6 (1 NC) )


Welterweights (170 lb, 77 kg): 17 fighters


Name Strikeforce record (MMA record)
Tyron Woodley 8–1 (10–1)
Roger Bowling 4–3 (11–3)
Tarec Saffiedine 5–1 (13–3)
Bobby Voelker 4–1 (24–8)
Nah-Shon Burrell 3–1 (8–2)
Quinn Mulhern 3–1 (18–2)
Nate Moore 2–2 (8–3)
Jason High 3–0 (16–3)
Jordan Mein 2–1 (25–8)
Chris Spang 2–1 (5–1)
Tyler Stinson 1–2 (23–9)
Kazuo Misaki 2–0 (25–11–2 (1 NC) )
Jorge Santiago 2–0 (25–10)
Brian Melancon 1–1 (6–2)
Nate Marquardt (C) 1–0 (32–10–2)
Yuri Villefort 0–1 (6–1)
Ryan LaFlare 0–0 (6–0)


Lightweights (155 lb, 70 kg): 22 fighters


Name Strikeforce record (MMA record)
Josh Thomson 10–3 (19–5 (1 NC) )
Gilbert Melendez (C) 11–1 (21–2)
Billy Evangelista 7–2 (1 NC) (11–2 (1 NC) )
James Terry 6–4 (11–5)
Justin Wilcox 5–3 (1 NC) (11–5 (1 NC) )
Pat Healy 6–1 (28–16)
Ryan Couture 5–1 (5–1)
Caros Fodor 5–1 (7–2)
Jorge Masvidal 5–1 (23–7)
KJ Noons 3–3 (11–5)
Bobby Green 4–1 (19–5)
Matt Ricehouse 4–1 (6–1)
Jorge Gurgel 2–3 (14–8)
Conor Heun 1–3 (9–5)
Joe Duarte 2–1 (10–3)
Isaac Vallie-Flagg 2–0 (13–3–1)
Estevan Payan 1–0 (13–3 (1 NC) )
Mizuto Hirota 0–1 (14–5–1)
Chad Leonhardt 0–1 (9–3)
Michael Bravo 0–0 (7–3)
Adriano Martins 0–0 (23–6)
 
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#2 ·
Barnett, DC, Feijao, Mousasi, Rockhold, Jacare, Larkin, Kennedy, Gracie, Marquardt, Saffiedine, Woodley, Melendez, Healy, Thomson, Masvidal, Noons, Couture and Green. Would love to see Jardine back but he needs to retire.

But, most of all get Nate back in the UFC, St. Pierre/Condit vs. Nate is probably the fight I wanna see most after Machida/Hendo.
 
#3 ·
I would like to see Jordan Mein have an opportunity as well, but he would fall into a TUF situation,

GSP will avoid a fight with Nate
 
#11 ·
Didn't realize how many fighters were on their roster. I think SF should have went with a lean philosophy and do four major shows a year with the female division being the marquee show.

It's going to be an uphill battle for all SF fighters. The UFC already got who they wanted; The Reem, Diaz, Shields, & Cung. Big Foot was just a bonus.

Sad to see SF go. It was a solid organization that got picked apart by the UFC. That's business for ya.

Only one man is still missing. Can anybody guess...haha...
 
#12 ·
I'd shorten the list considerably:

HW:
Daniel Cormier
Josh Barnett

LHW:
King Mo
Mousasi
Feijao
Mike Kyle
OSP

MW:
Rockhold
Jacare Souza
Roger Gracie
Tim Kennedy
Lorenz Larkin
Robbie Lawler
Anthony Smith
Derek Brunson

WW:
Marquardt
Woodley
Mein
Misaki
Saffedine
Jared High

LW:
Melendez
Healy
Josh Thompson
Masvidal
Hirota

Women:
Randamie
Yamanaka
Rousey
Tate
Kaufman
 
#14 · (Edited)
I think some of the lists are way too long, and people aren't realizing they aren't really just inheriting all these guys.

You have to figure they aren't going to do that many more shows next year. Where will all these fighters fight? You would have to make some other cuts first, many of them. A lot of the fringe guys won't be added right away. There is nothing wrong with going to a small show and accumulating wins and experience.

A lot of these guys will be on call for injury replacements though.

I think some people will be disappointed when one of those bigger names isn't added. I bet the UFC won't sign them all. Barnett and Mousasi come to mind. Barnett because Dana doesn't like him much and he is a roider. Mousasi because he may follow Fedor's footsteps and fight in Japan or try K-1. He may be stubborn.

Marquardt is a another that...who knows?
 
#15 ·
The original post contained a list of the entire Strikeforce roster, not who I thought should come over.

I think Rastaman's list of 25 men could be cut to 20 or 16 spread over the 5 divisions...
 
#18 ·
I think it should be divided into three categories, contracts, try-outs, cuts. The thing of it is, it's pretty dumb to take the number three organization in MMA and just cut loose an entire pool of prospect's. Fighters develop and just because they don't have a huge name today doesn't mean that a year or two from now they won't be top ten/top twenty guys. The UFC is great when it comes to can't miss blue chippers like Jones, Macdonald, Silva, Dos Santos and Mcdonald but you can't just run the league on one to two prospects, you need diversity and TUF ain't the program it once was. Also Zuffa's been triming the fat from this group for the past two years so their should be little to none guys ready for departure.

No brainer contract guys are clear
HW - Cormier (1), Barnett (2)
MW - Rockhold (3), Jacare (4), Gracie (5), Larkin (6), Anthony Smith (7)
WW - Marquardt (8), Woodley (9), Saffiedine (10), High (11), Mein (12), Santiago (13)
LW - Melendez (14), Thomson (15), Healy (16), Masvidal (17), Green (18)
LHW - all of them, because the UFC is going to need to replace all the guys in this division who are retiring in the next two years. Even if some of these guys suck they can function as enhancement talent because todays glorified punching bag is tomorrows MW contenders (Sonnen, Stann, Boetsch)(27).

Try-Outs
MW - Kennedy, Jardine, Lawler, Amagov, Medeiros, Sayers, Trevor Smith
WW - Bowling, Spang, Moore, Mulhern, Voelker, Burrell, Villefort, LaFlare
LW - Evagelista, Noons, Couture, Wilcox, Fodor, Ricehouse, Gurgel, Duarte, Vallie-Flagg, Payan, Hirota, Leonhardt, Martins(28).
-That's 14 fights, though it should be more like 25 as in some cases (WW) those guys could face the lower end guys in the division. Either or you could work those fights in a season(3/4) of events.

Cut
MW - Radach, James, Berry
WW - Stinson, Misaki(retired), Stinson, Melancon
LW - Terry, Heun, Bravo(10)
 
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