Strikeforce champions, Gilbert Melendez and Luke Rockhold, will both be staying in Strikeforce as a part of the recent Showtime-Strikeforce deal according to mmaweekly.com.

UFC president, Dana White, has voiced his desires in the past to bring Melendez into the UFC as quickly as possible. If he had done so, Melendez would be joining Nick Diaz, Jake Shields, Dan Henderson and Alistair Overeem as former high profile Strikeforce fighters now fighting in the UFC.

However as Scott Coker, Strikeforce CEO, revealed, Strikeforce's recent resigning with Showtime prevents any transitions involving Melendez or Rockhold in the immediate future.

"That was just a situation of the Showtime agreement. That was part of the deal, that these fighters (Melendez and middleweight champion Luke Rockhold) would stay," Coker said.

Melendez recently defended his Strikeforce lightweight title in a five round war with Jorge Masvidal, winning via unanimous decision. His next title defense will be in Strikeforce as well.

"Gilbert fought for Strikeforce in 2006. He's one of the cornerstones of Strikeforce. I'm so happy that he is with us and he's gonna stay with us. I feel that he is still the No. 1 lightweight in the world. I'm proud to say that he's our champion," Coker said.

Rockhold is the current Strikeforce middleweight champion who is set to defend his title against former UFC fighter, Keith Jardine, at Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine on January 7, 2012.

"We're going to keep building our league and keep plugging in new fighters that aren't fighting for the UFC into Strikeforce. There's plenty of fighters out there and we're gonna keep building them," Coker said.