Comparing the UFC and Strikeforce Heavyweight Divisions
Added on Sep 22, 2010 by Bill Jackson in
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On a recent episode of Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett talked about his recent signing with budding MMA promotion Strikeforce and the competition in their heavyweight division.
“I’d say it’s a pretty super, incredible division, honestly. If you take our top four or five [heavyweights] against the top four or five in the UFC, hell, we have more wins than they even have fights,” said Barnett.
Whether you favor one promotion over the other, you can’t say Barnett isn’t stating a fact there.
Barnett went on to say, “The UFC, I think they’re not really in a spot where they need to acquire anybody. It’s probably better for them to just take a newbie and make him look great than to actually have to deal with great fighters.”
While that is certainly up for debate, you can’t deny that Strikeforce is a collection of many names we have known for years in this sport, while the UFC heavyweights all made their bones within the last couple years in the octagon. When looking at the two divisions, it seems to boil down to experience vs. athleticism.
But, instead of me painting broad generalizations over a group of unique athletes, let’s simply compare the facts.
Top four UFC heavyweights: Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos, Shane Carwin
Top four Strikeforce heavyweights: Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett
Combined record of top UFC heavyweights: 37-3
Combined record of top Strikeforce heavyweights: 107-22-1 (11 of those losses come from Overeem, most of which were at light heavyweight.)
Longest career of top UFC heavyweights: Shane Carwin Oct. 14, 2005
Longest career of top Strikeforce heavyweights: Josh Barnett Jan. 11, 1997
Shortest career of top UFC heavyweights: Brock Lesnar June 2, 2007
Shortest career of top Strikeforce heavyweights: June 16, 2002
Ages of top UFC heavyweights: Lesnar 33, Velasquez 28, Dos Santos 26, Carwin 35
Ages of top Strikeforce heavyweights: Overeem 30, Werdum 33, Emelianenko 33, Barnett 32
Biggest wins of top UFC heavyweights: Randy Couture, Frank Mir, Fabricio Werdum, Shane Carwin, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mirko Cro Cop, Ben Rothwell, Roy Nelson, Gabriel Gonzaga
Biggest wins of top Strikeforce heavyweights: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mirko Cro Cop, Randy Couture, Aleksander Emelianenko, Brett Rogers, Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia, Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Silva, Alistair Overeem, Gabriel Gonzaga
MMA accomplishments of top UFC heavyweights: UFC heavyweight champion
MMA accomplishments of top Strikeforce heavyweights: Pride heavyweight champion, UFC heavyweight champion, Pride heavyweight GP 2004 winner, Pride open weight GP 2006 runner up, Strikeforce heavyweight champion, Rings heavyweight champion, WAMMA heavyweight champion, King of Pancrase
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