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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Back in October, UFC President Dana White talked often about the UFC's plans to bring in Gilbert Melendez as soon as they could. But as negotiations moved forward to renew Strikeforce's deal with Showtime, Melendez became a key component to getting a deal done, and he'll now be in the organization for the foreseeable future.
After Melendez successfully defended his title again on Saturday night, defeating Jorge Masvidal by decision, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker explained that keeping Melendez, as well as Middleweight Champ Luke Rockhold, was key to getting the deal with Showtime renewed.
"That was just a situation of the Showtime agreement," Coker said (via MMAWeekly.com. "That was part of the deal, that these fighters (Melendez and Rockhold) would stay.
"UFC feels that they have enough challengers in their divisions now. We're going to keep building our league and keep plugging in new fighters that aren't fighting for the UFC into Strikeforce. There's plenty of fighters out there and we're gonna keep building them."
Penick's Analysis: While it makes sense that Showtime would not have wanted to keep a completely cleaned out organization, they're still getting mostly scraps of what Strikeforce had been anyway. Obviously Melendez is worth more to Strikeforce and Showtime than he is to the UFC when they have their homegrown fighters, but this still means that the conversation of who is the best lightweight in the world will continue to leave Melendez on the outside. Without him fighting the UFC's top fighters, there's no way to argue in his favor, and it's unfortunate right now that he's not going to be seen in the Octagon.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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