ZUFFA 's Release of 3 Golden Glory Fighters, and Why It's Both Good and Bad

Many of you know by now of the news causing quite the buzz today, but for those of you who are unaware, let me give you the short form of it:

ZUFFA LLC., the parent company of both the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Strikeforce, released Valentijn Overeem, former Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion Marloes Coenen, and UFC 131 Fight of The Night co-winner Jon Olav Einemo, who impressed many but still came up short against Dave Herman.

Now this draws up some conflicting issues in yours truly.

On one hand, it would be understandable to release them after losses, as Jamie Varner and Chris Horodecki were released from ZUFFA, despite setbacks in the WEC.

Also, some would argue that Valentijn Overeem is past his prime—some may even question if "The Brovereem" even had a prime—while others point to Dana White's conspicuous opinions of Women's MMA as a motivation to let Coenen go.

However, Einemo's case specifically, as well as an argument or two for Coenen and Overeem, have caused doubts about the myth that Alistair Overeem's release last week had nothing to do with these three releases.

What does that mean?

Einemo was creating arguably one of the most exciting back and forth heavyweight fights in MMA history before he got finished by Herman, and both guys got the Fight of The Night bonus out of it.

Einemo did what he was supposed to do and made his attempt to try to finish Herman before Herman got the TKO, much like UFC 124 when Mac Danzig knocked Joe Stevenson out when Stevenson had Danzig hurt and tried to finish him off.

Coenen tapped out to Miesha Tate, but that was the first time since fighting Cris Cyborg that Coenen lost in a title fight, so even if Dana White wasn't going to create a women's bantamweight division or a women's featherweight division, one loss should not have been a basis for a release, especially since the fight was pretty closely contested.

Overeem may not have as strong an argument, except to give credit to the brother of The Reem, but the closest thing to one is Overeem's 1-1 record.

He got thrown into the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix from the onset and never got much of a chance to prove that he could be an elite heavyweight despite a loss to Chad Griggs.

Of course, if it's true that Golden Glory fighters can still fight in the UFC, then that's good news, as Golden Glory does having exciting youthful prospects who might one day reach the peak of the mountain in the UFC.

Right now, though, there is a definite issue here.

The releases themselves might be as everyone has fed to me—they may in fact be strictly business and not personal—and therefore fans of Golden Glory might have nothing to get bent out of shape about.

However, let Dana White convince us to trust these releases as business before we buy what he and his associates will likely sell to us.