MMA News and Views- Strikeforce champions, Nate Diaz

Strikeforce apparently is trying to compete directly with the UFC nowadays, or at least so Dana White says.  Come to think of it, if Dana White thinks you’re competing with the UFC, you might as well be, because he’s already started the war, with or without you…thus, the counter-programming and snarky comments in the media and his ever-popular video blogs.  But I digress…let’s talk about one thing that Strikeforce needs to start making happen if they ever want to compete whatsoever.

What I’m talking about is having marketable, recognizable champions that defend their titles.  Simply put, the situation with Strikeforce’s champions right now is awful.  You have champions who haven’t defended their belts in over a year, or in the case of heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem, have never defended their titles at all!  Contrast that to the UFC, where the champions are almost always the most marketable fighters in the promotion, and are expected to defend their titles at least three times per year, barring injury.

So, Strikeforce apparently has gotten bold about dictating when their fighters are supposed to defend their titles, and went so far as to say that they expect their champions to defend “at least twice per year”.  Wow.  A whole two times per year?  Listen, when your company is trying to build brand recognition and you have only a handful of big names, most of whom are champions or likely will be in the future, you need them in the cage as often as possible, doing what they do best.  The UFC understands that, which is why they don’t put up with fighters not defending titles because of entertainment commitments, injuries, or suspensions.  Even six months on the shelf will usually result in another fighter walking around with an “interim” title while the UFC waits on you to be ready.  (Of course, there are regular breaks between defenses for the ludicrous reason of building title fights off of “The Ultimate Fighter”, but that’s a rant for another time)

It does seem like Strikeforce is headed in the right direction, as they have become more aggressive in awarding interim titles when the true champion can’t or won’t fight.  Still, why does Josh Thomson have what is effectively one-half of the lightweight championship when all he did was get injured while trying to do his job, and meanwhile champs such as Cung Le haven’t defended in ages because they just don’t feel like fighting and would rather do throwaway action films? 

Perhaps it’s also time for Strikeforce to stop handling their fighters with kid gloves.  If you want to fight for a title, you need to commit to being a fighter, and if that changes, you should be stripped.  It may seem unfair to take a title away from someone who never lost it in the cage, but it’s also unfair to have fans and contenders waiting in the wings while you film “Tekken” (or in the case of Overeem, while you fight several times in Japan).

Nate Diaz: Spike TV’s Favorite Fighter?

I couldn’t help but notice when Nick Diaz’s latest fight was rumored (against Gray Maynard at UFC Fight Night 20) that he has fought a lot of times on Spike TV.  So, my curiosity got the better of me, and I checked up on it.  Sure enough, if the fight with Maynard goes down as rumored, Diaz will have fought nine times on Spike TV (counting his fight to conclude “The Ultimate Fighter 5” out of ten career UFC fights, which is really pretty intriguing. 

Is there some sort of reason for this?  Is it really just random?  That’s hard to believe, considering that there are about two pay-per-views for every free show on Spike TV.  Whatever the case is, Diaz’s friends and family must be pleased to be able to watch Nate fight for free every few months, right?

by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Alistair Overeem, Dana White, Gray Maynard, Nate Diaz, Nick Diaz, Strikeforce, UFC