http://mmajunkie.com/news/15884/strikef ... t-time.mma
While Strikeforce made major waves with the recent announcement that it would co-promote with Russia's M-1 Global organization, that's not the only formal partnership the California-based organization has created.
Following this past Saturday night's "Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg" event in San Jose, Calif., Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker welcomed DREAM event producer Keiichi Sasahara to the post-event press conference.
The two shared the stage briefly, and Coker described a vision for the two organizations that included co-promotion and fighter exchanges for events both in the U.S. and Japan.
"In Strikeforce, we're committed to putting on the best fights that we can," Coker said. "They have a lot of great fighters in DREAM, and we'll be able to test the best fighters in Strikeforce against the best fighters in DREAM. Hopefully we'll be in Japan doing a co-promotion in relatively short time."
Sasahara said his company was happy to send Mitsuhiro Ishida and DREAM "Super Hulk" tournament fighter Gegard Mousasi to "Carano vs. Cyborg," and he hopes to continue sharing high-quality fighters between the two organizations.
"For this event, we have sent Ishida and Gegard Mouasi as fighters from Japan and DREAM," Sasahara said through an interpreter. "Not only these fighters, but we would like to send our champion-class fighters – and if Strikeforce will allow us, Strikeforce's champion-class fighters will come to Japan."
While neither Strikeforce nor DREAM can compete with the depth of talent present in the UFC, by pairing together the alliance can create some very intriguing matchups.
"I'd love to get (DREAM lightweight Shinya) Aoki to come here and fight Josh Thomson or Gilbert Melendez," Coker said. "I'd like to see Melvin Manhoef fight Robbie Lawler.
"There's some amazing fights that we can put together, and that's a reason we did this. As a martial arts promoter and as a fan of martial arts, you go, 'What would happen if this guy fought this guy?' Now we have the opportunity to do it, so we're excited."
Coker said he was also targeting a bout between Jason "Mayhem" Miller and Jake Shields – a bout that could potentially serve as Strikeforce's promised interim middleweight title fight.
"The thing about 'Mayhem,' he's fighting in Japan and his contract allows him to fight in Japan with DREAM, but he also has a contract with Strikeforce," Coker said. "You will see him in Strikeforce, and whether he's fighting for DREAM or for us, 'Mayhem' Miller vs. Jake Shields, we're trying to put that fight together."
Of course, DREAM was also trying to put together a third meeting between Miller and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza. Coker said it wasn't completely determined how things would finally work out.
"Maybe 'Jacare' vs. 'Mayhem,'" Coker said. "'Mayhem' is an interesting character, and we're looking forward to having him fight."
Similar to the deal Strikeforce struck with M-1 Global to bring heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko to the organization, the promotion's partnership with DREAM doesn't appear to place it in any financially perilous or restrictive positions. Sasahara simply called the deal "an alliance" that "will allow fighters to go back and forth."
Allowing the potential for fights throughout the roster of both promotions will potentially allow a wide variety of new contests to be arranged and fighters to stay busier than they otherwise may have been.
Of course, first the plan must all be finalized.
"[Saturday night] it was Ishida fighting [in Strikeforce]," Coker said. "Maybe we'll send one of our fighters to Japan to fight in DREAM. It will go back and forth.
"All the details of the matchmaking or who would do what when we eventually do a co-promotion, those details haven't been worked out yet."
Some great fights are possible with this arrangement. Let's toss around some ideas about other fights we would like to see.
From the article:
Aoki vs. Melendez
Aoki vs. Thomson
Manhoef vs. Lawler (sick!)
Miller vs. Shields (that would be cool for the interim MW championship)
Jacare vs. Miller (doesn't really count, but I'd still like to see it again)
other ideas:
Hansen vs. Melendez
Hansen vs. Thomson
Jacare vs. Shields
Zaromskis vs. Diaz
Sakurai vs. Diaz (wasn't that fight supposed to happen already?)
Jacare vs. Filho (do they train together?)
Le vs. Manhoef
It's too bad that Dream's LHW division sucks, because Strikeforce desperately needs someone decent to fight Mousasi. Maybe they can build someone up while Mousasi is doing the Super Hulk tournament.
Where this will really help is the LW division. Dream has a bunch of very good LWs, like Aoki, Hansen, JZ, Kawajiri, Ishida, and Alvarez (maybe...wasn't sure whether or not to include him), while Strikeforce really only has Thomson and Melendez.
Anyone else have ideas?
