So I am sick of hearing the Strikeforce crowd say that their fighters are the best in the world. 

Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez are great fighters. But they are not the best in the world.

My point is not to be controversial for the sake of a fight, although if you are reading this you obviously love a fight. My point is more subtle than that and to understand it I need you to consider an analogy: What if I told you that I could take the worse team in major league baseball and make them look like gods? What if I could make them look absolutely unbeatable? Well, I can do it. All you have to do is slow down the pitches crossing their plate by 8 or 9 mph on average. All of a sudden, these guys who were the worst in their league are crushing pitches and hammering balls over walls.

Here is the really interesting thing: The vast majority of fans in the stands cannot tell the difference between a ball at 84mph and one at 93mph (or 103 for that matter). Sure the pitching coaches can, as can most of the professionals. But the fans, they dance in the seats, pound their chests and revel in the God-like status of their ball club. They cry, "We rule!" "No one can touch us!" "All hail, the new dynasty!"

Every serious observer of MMA has respect for Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez. Now, admittedly, Nick Diaz is hard to like because he seems constitutionally incapable of presenting himself in any manner besides that of the high school pothead picking fights after school. I mean, wow, at some point you are supposed to leave that silliness in your school locker. But respect for his fight game? Oh, yeah. He is a great fighter. His boxing is impressive, even if he is the king of the pitter-pat. And his Jiu-jitsu is of a caliber to make even black-belts fear. Melendez is of similar impressiveness. He is fast and powerful and attacks with some of the smoothest combinations in the game. Most importantly, he is an intelligent, tactical fighter.

But are these two fighters getting slow pitches across the plate? I say, most definitely.

Paul Daley has one powerful weapon, his vicious standup. He is a threat nowhere else. He is a one-trick pony. Who in the UFC would Nick Diaz have to beat in order to be considered the best in the world? Well, how about Condit, Penn, Koscheck, Alves, Fitch, and GSP; any one of which would be an awesome fight. Moreover, I would bet that neither Fitch nor GSP would lose a round to him (although neither would knock him out). Melendez's opponent, Tatsuya Kawjiri, is a talented fighter, but he is like a slightly slower pitch crossing the plate. Until Melendez fights Frankie Edgar, Gray Maynard, even Kenny Florian or BJ Penn, we won't know if he is best in the world. He may be the best, but first finish those guys. Hit the best pitching in the world, and then let's see.

Perhaps I am wrong. I think the perfect test of my theory would be, say, Jake Shields versus GSP.

In the meantime, consider this: Keith Jardine gets cut by the UFC but picked up and promoted in Strikeforce. That is like getting cut from the New York Yankees but picked up by the Tri-City Dust Devils. (Okay, that isn't completely fair,...