Last night it was reported that Strikeforce Middleweight champion Luke Rockhold will defend his title against “The Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine on Saturday, January 7th.

The news was met online with an avalanche of ellipses and “wait, what?”

Rockhold won the Middleweight title from Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza in September. Jardine was a contestant on the second season of “The Ultimate Fighter” and is most famous for knocking out Forrest Griffin in 2006 and defeating UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell by split decision in 2007. After the latter upset, he went 1-5 in the UFC and was let go after a loss to Matt Hamill. Jardine’s most recent outing was his debut for Strikeforce, where he fought Gegard Mousasi to a draw.

If you’re wondering how any of that entitles Jardine to a title shot, you’re not the only one.

But this is the Strikeforce Middleweight Title we’re talking about. That’s not meant to be a knock against Rockhold, a very talented Top 5 Middleweight with strong finishing skills and a lot of depth in his game. But he, especially as champion deserves a better quality opponent.

But that’s the problem with Strikeforce: outside of its Heavyweights, their divisions are anemic. As a result, you’ll see guys like Jardine (and in some cases fighters coming off a loss!) getting title shots.

The thing to understand is that Strikeforce started out as a regional promotion that went national after some high-level signings and its deal with Showtime. Over the last few years they’ve built a roster that, on paper, looks pretty solid to the hardcore MMA fanbase. But its stars are littered across several divisions, meaning that it’s had no shortage of superstars but few fights that could draw an audience outside of its niche. As a result, it has worthy champions who don’t have challengers; in particular Nick Diaz, Luke Rockhold, and Gilbert Melendez, each of whom is a legitimate Top 5 fighter in their respective weight divisions. It wasn’t a problem when the goal of the promotion was, by its own admission, to put on entertaining fight cards.

Now that they’re owned by Zuffa, though, there’s going to be increased scrutiny over its matchmaking and it will face more questions as to its legitimacy and relevance.

In my mind there’s three options. One is to simply absorb guys like Rockhold into the UFC so that they can get the opportunities (and paydays) they deserve. The second would be to simply do away with the title belts and put the focus on having entertaining fight cards. Some might balk at that idea since there’s a prevalent belief that championships are a requisite for any fight promotion. But if MMA can learn anything from professional wrestling, it’s that a title is meaningless and doesn’t add a cent to an event’s live gate if it’s not perceived as relevant, let alone prestigious.

The third option, which is only viable if the UFC plans on keeping the Strikeforce brand and promotion operational in the long-term, is to restructure its roster from the bottom up and start scouting regional promotions for talent. This would, naturally, create the perception of Strikeforce as the UFC’s farm system. Realistically, though, that’s already the case. And being perceived as a breeding ground for UFC fighters is better than its current reputation as a promotion treading water while Zuffa figures out what to do about the Showtime contract.

I’d love to see them go with the third option. Not only do I think it would make Strikeforce’s divisions and fight cards more competitive and intriguing, but it would also make the UFC itself better by weeding out fighters who look great on paper until they’re put at a level they’re not mentally or physically prepared for and wash out. Strikeforce also already has, to an extent, some of the infrastructure required to make this happen. After all, Rockhold himself emerged from their “Challengers” series, which sought to do the sort of thing I’m suggesting they do with the promotion as a whole.

Regardless, something has to be done, because as much as I like Keith Jardine, him as a challenger for a title simply doesn’t cut it.

That represents a significant drop from the previous WEC televised card in January, which was headlined by a Lightweight Title bout and the return of featherweight and perennial WEC drawing card Urijah Faber after a seven month lay-off. The only other card in the last two years to do worse numbers was last December’s WEC 45, which had no star power other than former Lightweight champion Donald Cerrone, a minor star in the promotion’s weakest weight class, who was just coming off a decision loss to Ben Henderson.

The sudden drop has had several folks speculating what this means for their initial foray into pay-per-view this April and if, in the grand scheme of things, this means the sky is falling on the promotion.

Former WEC Bantamweight champion Miguel Torres

The answer is no. Well, not yet at least. The WEC does have problems, but they extend far beyond a poor rating on Saturday night.

WEC 47 had a lot working against it. For one, most of the audience was largely unfamiliar with the two fighters competing for the Bantamweight title. Bowles had yet to prove that his knockout of Miguel Torres was anything more than a fluke. His challenger, Dominick Cruz, was a viable challenger statistically but had only fought on television once in the last three years. Anticipation and buzz for the fight was almost non-existent.

The WEC had also heralded the card behind fights featuring Jens Pulver and Miguel Torres, but they represented problems as well. Pulver had once been a draw for the promotion due to his association with the UFC and an exciting series of fights with Urijah Faber. He also went into the event coming off five consecutive losses, and most simply did not buy him as a viable challenger in a stacked featherweight division. The return of Miguel Torres did present some opportunity to bring in viewers, but despite his efforts he does not have the following or star power of someone like Faber.

Beyond the lack of star power, the card was also a victim of timing. It came on the heels of the aforementioned pay-per-view venture, which had both promoters and the viewing audience looking past the event and towards the showdown between Faber and Jose Aldo in April.

The real problems in the WEC lie in places other than the poor number they drew in Saturday, and the fallout from the events of the card itself should yield greater concern than its ratings: it resulted in the retirement of Jens Pulver, the demystification of Miguel Torres, and yet another brief Bantamweight title reign ended unexpectedly. Those three fights alone have placed the WEC in a conundrum: it now finds itself venturing into an uncertain pay-per-view market while it’s hemorrhaging star power.

In terms of its drawing power, the Bantamweight division is a relative no-man’s land. It’s seen a sudden surge in talent that has resulted in parity at the top of the weight class. What’s good for competition, however, can be bad for business.

Revenue in combat sports is made by and thrives on consistency. As an example, the UFC’s biggest draws at the moment are its most dominant champions: Brock Lesnar, Georges St. Pierre, and Anderson Silva. Fans need to believe that a challenger could potentially usurp the champion in order to maintain interest, but a title switching hands too often results in the perception (whether accurate or not) that it’s a wide open field and any number of fighters could become champion on any given night. As a result, the fighters in the division gain the respect of hardcore fans and analysts while the value of the title they’re vying for is diminished in the eyes of the casual viewer.

Featherweight Urijah Faber is still the WEC's most proven drawing card, but for how much longer?

That leaves the Featherweights, and in particular former champion Urijah Faber, to carry the weight of the promotion on their backs. Needless to say, if Faber wins the title he’ll re-establish himself as the flag-bearer of the division and the WEC as a whole. A loss against such a worthy opponent will not hurt his reputation as a fighter, but after two losses to Mike Brown will definitely hurt the WEC’s ability to push him as a major star.

In addition, WEC is going into its first pay-per-view while losing momentum as a promotion. Some place the blame for the significant drop in overall viewership over the last several events squarely on the Versus/DirecTV debacle. However, that argument requires we ignore the fact that WEC 46 in January drew 640,000 viewers. That matches (and in some cases even beats) the higher-profile cards WEC presented while still airing on DirecTV, while none of the previous three cards topped 420,000 viewers. The success of that particular event is directly attributable to the presence of Urijah Faber on the card and further evidence of his value.  If Faber were to lose to Aldo in convincing fasion, it’d be a disaster for the promotion.

New Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz may be the future of the promotion.

The only potentially positive outcome would be Jose Aldo as the promotion’s version of Anderson Silva: a nigh-untouchable striker whose exciting knockouts make him worth watching no matter who he’s matched up against. WEC also has a charismatic and potentially bankable Bantamweight champion in Dominick Cruz, so long as he can string at least two successful title defenses. If he can do so, the WEC will have an even bigger star at 135 than it had with Miguel Torres.

I personally would like to see the WEC succeed, as I truly believe it’s provided the best fight cards of the last three years and is the most consistently entertaining promotion in the world. Unfortunately, they’re not going to be a priority for parent company Zuffa (which also owns The UFC) and as a result they have few options in terms of resources and fighters. It’s almost unfair to expect a promotion to succeed when it’s restricted to two relatively untested weight divisions and a third weight division with an already shallow talent pool subject to raiding by the UFC.

The MMA industry is uncertain terrain for any promotion. Even the UFC – the most recognizable brand name in the sport’s history – finds itself serving at the whim of circumstance; the various injuries and re-shuffling of cards last Fall testify to that fact. In that sense, the WEC’s predicament isn’t unprecedented, nor is it hopeless.  But the events of the last several months have increased the pressure to perform well in its inaugural pay-per-view outing.