UFC
Dana White on Strikeforce Champ Gilbert Melendez - "If I have to yank him over here then I'll do it"
Oct 5, 2011 - 5:45:32 PM Dana White on Strikeforce Champ Gilbert Melendez - "If I have to yank him over here then I'll do it"

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in Chief

UFC President Dana White hasn't quite yet made a decision on what he wants to do with the lightweight division following Saturday's title fight between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, but on Wednesday he reiterated his desire to bring over Strikeforce Champ Gilbert Melendez.

"I don't have a clear vision," White said in a media scrum following Wednesday's UFC 136 pre-fight press conference (transcribed by Matthew Roth at MMANation.com). "There's so many guys that are so talented that we need to make a fight and get somebody to be a contender or bring Melendez in and make that fight right away."

Melendez has a fight scheduled in Strikeforce against Jorge Masvidal this December, and Masvidal said this week in an interview with MMAWeekly.com that he believed the fight was still on. However, White made it clear that if it came down to it, he would take Melendez over to the UFC whenever he felt like it.

"We're still trying to figure this whole thing out," he said. "I don't like to speak about Strikeforce that much because I'm not involved in it and I'm not the one doing it. I've purposely taken myself out of that situation. We'll see what happens. I have to run my business so if I have to yank him over here then I'll do it."

Penick's Analysis: It has made sense from the time Zuffa purchased Strikeforce earlier this year that they'd want to bring over the top guys in each division. For years there have been fighters making their names outside of the confines of the UFC, gaining spots in the rankings because of their accomplishments against a lower level of competition overall than their peers in the Octagon. Bringing over almost all of those fighters with claims at the top of each division allows for the UFC and the fighters themselves to prove their own points.

If Melendez can come into the UFC and capture the title in an immediate unification bout, he'll have proven what he's said out loud many times, that he is indeed the best lightweight in the world. At the same time, if he should be defeated by whomever the UFC Champ is when that fight gets booked, it will be another fighter finding out just why everyone has considered the UFC's top fighters to be the best in the world. It's the right thing to do for the UFC, though it again means the expediting of Strikeforce's demise as a higher level promotion.

If Showtime options more years on the television contract for Strikeforce, it will be on the network in name only, as it will almost assuredly be turned into a strictly feeder league to the UFC. That could work, but it won't be what Strikeforce had come to be over the last couple of years. That organization is already gone, and the shifting of Melendez to the UFC will be one of the final pieces to be put in place to cement that point.