Cormier and Melendez win, but left with major questions

After their incredible performances this past Saturday night, the question has to be asked. What is next for champions Daniel Cormier and Gilbert Melendez? It’s a question that faces every high-tier fighter on the Strikeforce roster.

For Melendez, it has been a highly debated topic. Many consider him one of the top, if not the top, lightweight fighter in the world. He’s on a seven-fight win streak and has successfully defended the Strikeforce lightweight title five times. Leading into his last two title defenses, he was posed the question if he was looking past his opponent. Both times he shot down any possibility of not being mentally prepared.

His performances in those bouts have been that of a champion with nothing to gain, but everything to lose. Rather then “release the inner beast” as Melendez put it after his victory over Thomson in San Jose, Gilbert played it safe and fought a somewhat conservative fight. He said it himself, “I’ve got nothing to win. I’m in a lose-lose situation.”

Looking at the Strikeforce roster, there isn’t a viable opponent for Melendez that brings intrigue or eyes to the promotion. The best thing Strikeforce and Zuffa can do is make a push to sign Eddie Alvarez. Alvarez, a former Bellator champion, is 23-3 and coming off an impressive TKO victory over Shinya Aoki.

It sounds bad to say this, but it could’ve been best for Melendez to drop the title thus making a move to the UFC much easier. However, that could diminish his worth as a lightweight contender.

When it boils down to it, Zuffa and Strikeforce’s biggest concern is to bring in a worthy opponent for Melendez because until then it’ll be difficult to sell him as a world class lightweight and main event attraction.

Before his Grand Prix victory over Josh Barnett, very little thought was given to Cormier’s path after this Saturday night. He was considered the underdog in his fight, but after a dominant unanimous decision victory it vaulted DC up the heavyweight rankings. He was seen as a top-10 HW, but the way he defeated Barnett there’s a possibility he could be top-3.

However, with almost all of the top heavyweights in the world calling the UFC home there’s not much left for Cormier to prove in Strikeforce. After defeating Barnett, there isn’t a highly touted contender left for DC. The likelihood of Cormier leaving for the UFC isn’t probable as of this moment since he has one fight left on his SF contract, plus he suffered a broken hand and will be out for several months. Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker and Cormier have said that the best-case scenario is for DC to fight once more before the end of 2012.

There are few highly touted heavyweight prospects that aren’t currently under the Zuffa umbrella. Strikeforce could go several ways with DC. They can have a rematch between DC and Barnett, they can give an up-and-coming heavyweight a shot at the title or bypass DC’s final fight and allow him to leave for the UFC.

Strikeforce and Zuffa have a lot on their hands with Cormier and Melendez. It might be a while before either can fight again, but when they do it’ll be interesting to see what approach they take.

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