Tsk, tsk.

Paul Daley? Really, Strikeforce?

I know the No. 2 fight promotion in MMA is desperate to sign big names after:

(a) Poster girl Gina Carano got knocked into 2012 by Cyborg Santos
(b) Poster boy Fedor Emelianenko lost to Fabricio Werdum
(c) Poster boy No. 2 Dan Henderson lost his Strikeforce debut
(d) The man who beat Henderson, Jake Shields, now fights in the UFC

But Strikeforce and, more specifically, CEO Scott Coker are ready to sell their souls. It doesn’t matter that the rumored six-fight deal with Paul Daley isn’t official, or that Daley is reportedly weighing his options. That Strikeforce has indeed made him an offer shows a serious lack of integrity.

Love him or hate him, Dana White has plenty of integrity. He banned BJJ master Renato Sobral for deliberately holding a submission too long; he threatened to cut his best fighter, Anderson Silva, should The Spider fail to show proper effort in his next bout. And, most recently, he cut Paul Daley after the British welterweight sucker-punched Josh Koscheck following the final bell of their bout. The UFC doesn’t tolerate classless behaviour.

By courting Daley, Strikeforce believes it’s improving its standing, getting closer to the UFC. It’s not. Welcoming a dirty cheap shot artist only confirms that Strikeforce is a second-rate promotion.

Given some of Strikeforce’s other recent incidents, it shouldn’t come as much surprise that it had no problem signing Daley. Look at the dirty brawl that happened between Jake Shields’ camp and Jason “Mayhem” Miller. What about the unsafe, one-sided beatdown between Muay Thai monster Cyborg and Jan Finney that had the fans booing? Or the promotion refusing to give event tickets to Shields while he was their middleweight champion?

The UFC can breathe easy. Strikeforce won’t come anywhere close to challenging it unless it learns some integrity.

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Sometimes I wish I wasn’t in my own head so much.

During a wild UFC 115 a few weeks back, I should’ve been standing up and cheering as I watched Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic flash some surprising BJJ and choke out Pat Barry. The win, in theory, added to Mirko’s legend. He fought back after being knocked down twice in round one, beat the brash Barry to a pulp, won using an unexpected method and even engaged the crowd when he asked Dana to “not be stingy” and award him Submission of the Night Honours.

But I had a bad feeling trickling down my spine – the same feeling I had watching Forrest Griffin fight Anderson Silva. In the end, I didn’t think the Griffin/Silva fight was fixed. It was bizarre, but I think Griffin just had a mental breakdown.

So what, then, of the Cro Cop/Barry fight? Reasons why it may have been fixed:

1. Barry is broke. He openly discussed living off ketchup packets before he finally had his MMA breakthrough and beat Antoni Hardonk in his last fight.

2. Cro Cop has been a huge disappointment in the UFC to both fans and himself. No one could deny how exciting his latest win was for the UFC. The notion of Cro Cop being relevant in the outstanding heavyweight division tickles us pink. But everyone knew before the fight just how important a Cro Cop win was.

Reasons why it wasn’t fixed:

1. Pat Barry LOVES Cro Cop. Barry grew up with a poster of Cro Cop in his room. He idolizes the man. It’s possible that he just couldn’t stand the thought of finishing off his favorite fighter in brutal fashion after dropping him in the first round. That certainly robs the fight of some credibility – but it’s not as bad as the fight being fixed.

2. Barry was hurt badly. This theory actually isn’t a theory. Barry broke both his hand and his foot in the first round.

It’s that last point that makes me breathe a big sigh of relief. I wasn’t particularly upset about Barry letting Cro Cop back up – they were both clearly having a blast and Barry probably just wanted the striking battle to continue. But the fact that Barry threw so few strikes in the last two rounds made me nervous. Knowing that he was hurt seems to eliminate the notion of Barry being on the take.

My final prognosis: a weird fight that still gives me a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach and a lesson learned for Barry, but I don’t think the fight was fixed.

MMA Gym Toronto, North York, Brampton, Etobicoke, Markham, Mississauga, Oshawa, Peel Region, Pickering, Richmond Hill, Scarborough, Thornhill, Vaughan, Woodbridge, York, York Region Ontario Canada.