THE CHANGING FACE of the UFC’s global brand was epitomised last weekend by the appearance of Dana White at Strikeforce’s live event in San Diego.
Sitting ringside with the organisation’s logo proudly stamped on his t-shirt, White had much to savour as he witnessed a great night of action while getting a close-up look at how his one-time rival put on a show.
It marked a huge turnaround for the UFC president as he has had a lot of run-ins with the show’s partners Showtime and M-1 Global. Despite these differences White has always maintained that he’s had a cordial relationship with Strikeforce’s CEO Scott Coker which enabled them to strike a deal on the merger.
A good deal for Zuffa and the fans
Zuffa look to have done a good bit of business if the action inside the Octagon last weekend is anything to go by.
Nick Diaz and Paul Daley’s fight only lasted 4:57 but is already being touted as a contender for fight of the year. In a back and forth encounter Daley floored Diaz early on only for Nick to shake it off and get back to his feet.
In the following exchanges Diaz seemed to be gaining the upper hand before being tagged again with Daley’s explosive left hook which left him with his back on the canvas and Daley on top. Weary of his opponent’s ground game Daley backed off, allowing the fight to continue standing and inadvertently handing the advantage back to the welterweight champ.
Diaz caught Daley with a body shot that buckled him and as he feel to his knees Diaz swarmed all over him until the referee stepped in, somewhat controversially, with 3seconds left and awarded the fight to the American.
Despite the bad blood between the two in the run up to the fight, both to put it aside when they met in a restaurant after the fight. Who said bromance was dead?
The stand-out performance of the night came from the reigning Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez as he demolished Tatsuya Kawajiri in the first round with a devastating display of punches and elbows.
His demonstration of fast and powerful striking and deadly killer extinct will no doubt make the newly formed UFC Lightweight Division stand up and take notice, and this fight has proved once and for all that the depth of the fighter roster at Zuffa’s disposal is deep and scarily competitive.
This is why he is so feared.
Elsewhere on the card Gegard Mousasi looked to have done enough to have overcome the ever game Keith Jardine but yet again the judges delivered a head scratcher of a result as they scored it a majority draw.
It was mixed news on the future matchup front as Anderson Silva looks certain to face Yushin Okami in the UFC’s long awaited return to Brazil in August this year pushing back the expected fight with GSP. It does make some sense though as St. Pierre has stated that he wanted time to put on the necessary weight so the fight could happen towards the end of the year.
One fight that looks to be getting the go-ahead is Fedor and Dan Henderson. Fedor’s management this week confirmed that discussions had taken place over the possible matchup between the two. Henderson said that wanted to challenge himself by taking on “The Last Emperor” and the bout “made sense” coming off the back of Fedor’s previous two defeats.
