Mousasi quits M-1 !!! opens the door for the UFC!!

Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, Gegard Mousasi has parted ways with his management team at M-1 Global, a decision that could open the door to a potential blockbuster switch to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Speaking via an email sent to Sherdog.com, Mousasi said:

“After careful consideration, I have decided that it is in my best interest to part ways with M-1 Global. During the time I spent under their wing, M-1 Global, as a promoter and management company, allowed me to achieve many great things. I appreciate all they have done for me. My management is being taken care of by someone close to me.”


Mousasi was very public in his criticism of his management following the signing with Strikeforce last year, saying the deal hadn’t been done for the benefit of himself. A fight against top rated American, “King Mo” Lawal seems to be the most logical set for the Armenian, with April the most likely timing for the fight

http://mmabay.co.uk/Story%2010167.html

great news i would love to see him in the ufc alot of great match ups for him there now if only fedor would leave them aswell

Great I hope Fedor follows suit.

Fedor is a part owner of M-1 ,or at least thats my understanding. So he's much less likely to leave as it would mean selling his stake, which is probably making him a tidy profit.

Postive move by Mousasi he will get a better pay day in the UFC, would he trouble the big shots in the LHW division? Could freshen it up a little!! Good news!

Definitely capable of beating Machida. I reckon he can beat any LHW's the UFC has to offer.

Why!!!!!!!!...can't Fedor just screw M1

I'm hopeful he stays with strikeforce. There's some good fights for him there. He's still got a few fights with them I think. I think that MMA needs Strikeforce to grow and get stronger. A UFC monopoly would be bad for the sport.

i agree with anfield

I don't

Personally I don't think the sport has grown very much since the death of pride. UFC ppv figures aren't up a huge amount other than the cards lesnar is on and interest in europe, asia and africa hasn't grown. The UFC aren't interesting in growing th sport, all they want to do is increase their revenue and IMO in the long run they will do more harm than good.

"I'm hopeful he stays with strikeforce. There's some good fights for him there. He's still got a few fights with them I think. I think that MMA needs Strikeforce to grow and get stronger. A UFC monopoly would be bad for the sport"


Strikeforce would have a tough time convincing Mousasi to sign another contract, there is just not many top 205ers left outside UFC.


I understand what you are saying about it being bad for MMA to have a monopoly, but it is great to have almost all the best in the division in one organisation.


He has said in the past his goal is too join the UFC and see out his contract with Strikeforce, i assume his decision to leave M-1 is too get him to fight the best at UFC. Although he does have some boxing and Grand prix comitments coming up.
But i think he has 2 fights left on his Srikeforce contract, is that right?

Competition breeds success, everyone knows this.

Mousasi would be dumb to move to the UFC until the competition completely dries up. he is on CBS right now! a win on CBS is one of the best things possible for raising a fighters stock.
Also he will be participating in the DREAM tournament, i can't see him siging to the UFC until late this year.

Strikeforce will let him fight at HW as well as LHW and they'll let him fight in japan and in europe and let him box and pretty much do what he wants. UFC won't.

Is it only the M-1 co-promoted events that are on CBS?

I just remembered, that someone posted on the GSP-Mousasi training thread last week, that Dana probably sent GSP on an undercover mission to get Mousasi to join UFC.

I guess George is already working his magic on Mousasi. Who can resist that french accent.

if they sent Sexyama, you would see Mousasi on his knee, begging Dana to let him join....

Suprise Suprise It was Payne that said it

"Dana has sent GSP on a recruiting mission I think


Mousasi seems like he is making the transition to fight and train in the US full time and I can't see Strikeforce hanging on to him for to long as they don't have the fighters to keep him active.
If this story about him wanting to finish his MMA career by 30 is true,then he isn't going to want to wait around for Strikeforce to build up their LHW roster before he tests himself against the top guys"

Hendosrighthook... you seem completley sold on him, Mousasi has some poor preformances in his career, Still kind of resent the Upkick win against Jacare! (You know what I think of Upkicks as it is!) Babalu was a good win but Soko has looked shite.. I think he is about top 5 or 6 or werever we rank him though at this age. Id imagine Nog, Machida, Shogun and Evans have enough to beat him. I think Bones would possibly beat him too if he can get through Vera.

Still I think he would make a splash in the UFC Lhw devision and could certainly be a contender, I dont see him as Champ for a while yet, Machida or Shogun would make him look bad, He didnt exactly walk through Soko, he was in trouble a few times whith Failed TD's I think he wouldnt get away with that against Shogun or Machida, they looked on a level above anyonewhen they fought.

Anyway Anfield and Chesty who are potential opponents? Im not one for UFC having a monopoly on the sport but if they have 90% of the good fighers in a devision and all the top ones thats were I want a good guy to end up. Realistically they have a monopoly on 2 devisions, Welter and Lightheavy.

Machida, Ramapge, Shogun, Evans, Arona, Franklin, Forrest, Lil Nog, Couture etc.. the massive fights are there for him in UFC.

Outside UFC to be fair you would see himstruggle to look for opponents, King Mo is a legit top Lhw now in my books but he has beat Babalu and Soko already, Id strugle to think who he would fight after them... Minowa? In all honesty why not? Minowa is 200lbs at the Mo is is a Lhw, he beat Soko too and won the Tournament that Mousasi didnt want to get Fucked up my Roiding Super Hulks!

Minowa, Stanislav Nedkov if he isnt signed to an exclusive contract, Filho if he could test clean and wanted to fight in the US, at Lhw... He is out of options outside UFC IMO. Lhw is were UFC have the biggest Monopoly on a devision (far moreso than Ww I reckon) Even Chuck vs Tito winner is probabally better than anything outside UFC.

King Mo, Filho, Arona hasn't finalized with the UFC yet, Hendo of course is the big one. You know Jacare wants a rematch! And then there's the HW's. Werdum and Big Foot would be good opponents for him. There's 7 fights that they could make. And we don't know who the next fighter to up and leave the UFC will be.

For his career its absolutely the correct thing to do right now. After King Mo, there is not enough competition for a 24 year old world class fighter apporaching his prime. In the UFC he faces the best competition in his weight class in the world and for his position in the sport thats where he needs to be.

I say it doesn't really hurt strikeforce or the development of MMA in general, yes competition is great but Strikeforce can survive without him. Mousasi isn't even a big draw so financially it doesn't hurt them. It does hurt there already thin LHW roster but thats fine, other emerging talents will come up. For me I think Srikeforce need to show they are a real threat to the UFC by stripping Mousasi of his title and more importantly cancel the fight with King Mo. From a selfish point, I hope that doesn't happen because I want to watch that fight but Strikeforce can't afford for Mousasi to beat him, go to the UFC as only a top 5 fighter, they need to make sure King Mo looks as unstoppable as possible. Possibly a fight with Hendo later on but if its clear he is leaving by then, it would be a stupid move to put that fight together.

So back to Mousasi, he won't leave to a lot later on because he still has a few fights. He has King Mo coming up and he will be part of the DREAM LHW GP, that will keep him active for a good while, keep him in shape and increase his ability as a fighter.

Intresting to see how he does in the UFC. Machida, Shogun, Evans, Lil Nog, Rampage, Jones, Davis, Bader, Franklin all make for some good fights.

Strip him for what? He's not said he's going to the UFC. He's just changed management. It could just mean that he doesn't want to give away such a large percentage of his fight purses anymore and is getting his Dad to be his agent.

Two fights left in Strikeforce, and the Dream LHW tourney and some boxing stuff. Mousasi is tied down til next year. Strikeforce have shown they are willing to pay top dollar to Fedor and Hendo. Aoki is on his way. It all depends on what Mousasi wants to do. If he wants to be part of a growing company and try and entice fighters to come fight him then he needs to stay with Strikeforce/Dream. As i said, there are 5 fights in Strikeforce for him, plus two possibles. And i would expect at least one more big name to be out of the UFC by the end of the year, possibly two.

rudeboyben84 wrote:Hendosrighthook... you seem completley sold on him, Mousasi has some poor preformances in his career, Still kind of resent the Upkick win against Jacare! (You know what I think of Upkicks as it is!) Babalu was a good win but Soko has looked shite.. I think he is about top 5 or 6 or werever we rank him though at this age. Id imagine Nog, Machida, Shogun and Evans have enough to beat him. I think Bones would possibly beat him too if he can get through Vera.

Still I think he would make a splash in the UFC Lhw devision and could certainly be a contender, I dont see him as Champ for a while yet, Machida or Shogun would make him look bad, He didnt exactly walk through Soko, he was in trouble a few times whith Failed TD's I think he wouldnt get away with that against Shogun or Machida, they looked on a level above anyonewhen they fought.

Anyway Anfield and Chesty who are potential opponents? Im not one for UFC having a monopoly on the sport but if they have 90% of the good fighers in a devision and all the top ones thats were I want a good guy to end up. Realistically they have a monopoly on 2 devisions, Welter and Lightheavy.

Machida, Ramapge, Shogun, Evans, Arona, Franklin, Forrest, Lil Nog, Couture etc.. the massive fights are there for him in UFC.

Outside UFC to be fair you would see himstruggle to look for opponents, King Mo is a legit top Lhw now in my books but he has beat Babalu and Soko already, Id strugle to think who he would fight after them... Minowa? In all honesty why not? Minowa is 200lbs at the Mo is is a Lhw, he beat Soko too and won the Tournament that Mousasi didnt want to get Fucked up my Roiding Super Hulks!

Minowa, Stanislav Nedkov if he isnt signed to an exclusive contract, Filho if he could test clean and wanted to fight in the US, at Lhw... He is out of options outside UFC IMO. Lhw is were UFC have the biggest Monopoly on a devision (far moreso than Ww I reckon) Even Chuck vs Tito winner is probabally better than anything outside UFC.

I suppose I may be getting ahead of myself, but I see the potential for him to be that good. clearly he won't just breeze in and beat Machida like that. But I think he would, after a few fights against top opposition.

I wonder what Fedor thinks of all this? Isnt Aleks also against M-1?

There have been reports before that Mousasi and a few others were not happy with M-1, so this does not come as a total shock.


Yeah just because he is not with M-1 anymore doesnt mean he can go to UFC tomorrow and sign with them, he still has comitments with Strikeforce and Dream. However M-1 was the hindrance in allowing Mousasi to join UFC , and with Mousasi comments about wanting to fight the best in the UFC and one quick look at the rankings does suggest Mousasi joining the UFC after all his comitments are done, is very much a possiblty.

Yeah Hendo, for sure I think he can be a top fighter in UFC... I wonder if he will still train with Fedor if he leaves M-1? I wonder how many fights on his Strikeforce contract... I dont know if he has any commitments to Dream

With regards to Aleks yeah he did badmouth M-1 he doesnt like the way they do business. Aleks is becoming the biggest Waste of tallent in MMA. For a guy who looked like he was going to give Barnett a beatdown when he was younger than me he really is wasting his time recently. I dont buy into all these blood infections etc.. I think its all internet rumours, but I wonder what the fuck he is playing at. Id see him walking right into a fight with Werdum/Bigfoot/Rogers and having a good chance of winning, surely he isnt getting paid more fighting in these small shows against unknowns.

Ye sorry I got carried away. I should have pointed out that they should do that when it comes to the end of his contract and there is very little chance of him staying. He still has a contract with SF and he will finish that, but after than we will see.

2/3 fights left at SF as far as I know... Theres fuck all for him at SF, then again were all looking past King Mo... Mo is a beast.