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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
While Gerald Harris' 3-1 record in the UFC makes him an attractive acquisition to any MMA organization, he won't be seen in the Strikeforce cage anytime soon.
Speaking with Ariel Helwani at MMAFighting.com, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said they won't be looking to bring Harris into the organization.
"I talked to my guys about it, actually, they talked to me about it," Coker said. "I watched the fight [against Falcao], I didn't know how to judge it. Then they told me about his background and his past and things you are telling me now, that this guy is a tremendous athlete (who) has a ton of potential and just had bad showing or fought very cautious to try and win the fight.
"The only thing right now is we are really committed to the fighters we have under contract now and I want to make sure these guys get in the mix two or three next year. That doesn't mean we can't revisit with him, but for right now, I would say that I want to take care of the roster we currently have."
Strikeforce's next event is this Saturday, live from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Mo.
Penick's Analysis: I'm very much on board with this line of thinking from Coker, and it's commendable that he's not looking to just snatch up any fighter on the market. Harris is a good fighter, but like Coker said, there are guys on their roster that they want to take care of. When there have been a number of guys on the roster who have publicly complained about not getting fights often enough, Strikeforce doesn't need to be bringing in more guys onto the roster. Hopefully they follow through and can get their guys already under contract into the cage more often in 2011. Besides, for Harris, it's probably better for him to take a fight with a local promotion, get a win and get back to the UFC rather than get himself tied up under a multi-fight deal with another major organization.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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