Strikeforce CEO Wants To Unify Titles With DREAM

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During a conference call on Wednesday, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker talked further of working closely with Japans DREAM promotion to make fights happen by unifying titles.

“I think that one of the reasons why we made the alliance is so we can see some of the best fighters of Dream fight the best fighters of Strikeforce. Unifying those title belts, I have no problem with that. As a fan and as a company, we would definitely like to pursue that.”

Unifying titles sounds to be a good idea but as Michael David Smith points out at FanHouse.com, there is “not a single weight class in which Strikeforce and Dream both have one champion who can fight the other champion.”

Here is a breakdown of the DREAM and Strikeforce titles.

    Featherweight
    Dream: Bibiano Fernandes Strikeforce: None

    Lightweight
    Dream: Shinya Aoki Strikeforce: Josh Thomson/Gilbert Melendez

    Welterweight
    Dream: Marius Zaromskis Strikeforce: None

    Middleweight
    Dream: None Strikeforce: Jake Shields-Jason Mayhem Miller winner

    Light heavyweight
    Dream: None Strikeforce: Gegard Mousasi

    Heavyweight
    Dream: None Strikeforce: Alistair Overeem

With the two working more closely together we could see top contenders from one promotion challenging for a title but that could be a long way off. The closest title unification fight could come at lightweight but that will be a long way off also. Shinya Aoki is set to defend his title against Tatsuya Kawajiri on New Year’s Eve, and Strikeforce will need to unify its own lightweight belt by matching champion Josh Thomson with interim champion Gilbert Melendez.

Once both promotions have their houses in order with champs filling all weight categories, fans will be treated to some very exciting events when the unification bouts occur.




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