If Jake Shields manages to pull off an upset for the ages at the end of the month, Cesar Gracie’s fight team will have accomplished one of the biggest months a fight team can pull off. This past weekend Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez didn’t just defend their titles successfully. They didn’t just win in dramatic fashion. They didn’t just get finishes in fights that plenty of people had doubts on whether or not they would win. They stopped the two of the best fighters in their weight class and cleaned out the relatively shallow talent pool of Strikeforce, respectively.
Both Paul Daley and Tatsuya Kawjiri were Top 10 fighters in their division, the best possible opponents that Diaz and Melendez could face that are currently under contract to Strikeforce. With multiple title defenses apiece, the two are looking down on some relatively uninspiring fights. One can discuss Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva having effectively cleaned out their divisions, but there is still a deep enough talent pool to keep them occupied with first rate competition for some time. Not so for the Cesar Gracie products.
Diaz is probably looking at Tyron Woodley, a welterweight version of Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis. Woodley isn’t ready for this caliber of fight Diaz brings. He’s a couple years and a dozen fights away from being someone who could be considered a top 25 welterweight in his division. But he is probably going to get it because he’s the best opponent available now that Daley is out of the picture for the time being. One imagines that Diaz at this stage of the game is light years beyond what Woodley could reasonably handle. He is the best welterweight outside of anyone fighting in the UFC currently.
The best available opponent of note for Melendez is K.J Noons, who took Diaz five rounds in 2010 but came away with a decisive defeat and a broken hand. After Kawjiri, and without the possibility of a co-promoted fight against Bellator champion Eddie Alvarez due to the Zuffa buyout, Noons is probably the best opponent available outside of a rematch with Aoki. One imagines that won’t be anything more competitive than their first fight or a fight against the pro boxer.
With uninspiring fights, and an overwhelming percentage of fans wanting to see Strikeforce and UFC fighters collide as soon as possible, now is the time for the duo to join their teammate Jake Shields in the flagship Zuffa MMA promotion and see if they can justify their inclusion in nearly every Top 10 weight class and many pound for pound lists. With a deep talent pool, both guys have years of quality fights available.
Diaz and GSP is the matchup that would be the most intriguing, if only to see how he could fair after his teammate takes on the champion. Both are cardio machines and a five round war, if GSP walks away from Toronto still the champion, has the potential to be the fight of the year. Martin Kampmann would make it a stand up war, Diaz and Diego Sanchez would be a fun rematch. Thiago Alves could be a fun match. B.J Penn has the same style as Diaz but with a more power oriented boxing game. Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch would test the often suspect takedown defense of Diaz and so give him a chance to prove that he had learnt from his failures during his previous tenures in the UFC. One imagines that the trash talk between Koscheck and Diaz would be worth the price of admission alone.
Melendez is the fighter who everyone in the UFC’s lightweight division would be chomping at the bit for. With the title picture currently filled with Jim Miller, Anthony Pettis and Clay Guida all in the mix for the winner of Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, Melendez has three fights right there that would test him out. If he’s the #1 lightweight in the world like he thinks he is, George Sotiropolous, Sean Sherk, Melvin Guillard and Dennis Siver would all make for some terrific fights. Melendez needs to fight the best and fight them now.
While Dana White and company will most likely get these two into the UFC sooner than later, this weekend is the perfect time to transition the other two high profile fights in the Cesar Gracie camp into the UFC. The Octagon is the proving ground for the best in the world, or so they say. Now is the time to see if two of the best Strikeforce has to offer can hang with the world’s elite. I think they can, but now is the time to go from thinking it to knowing it.
