He said, he said.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, certain Strikeforce fighters like Gilbert Melendez, Luke Rockhold and Ronda Rousey are blocked from signing with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) because of ZUFFA's contract with Showtime.

According to UFC President Dana White, he's full of crap.

That was the long and short of it when the Las Vegas fight boss took to The Underground to defend his position against Meltzer, who has a history of jawing with White over ZUFFA related issues, including FOX ratings. Once again, the leader of the fight world claims the aforementioned report (read it here) simply isn't true.

"idk wtf melzers problem is! Has this guy lost his mind? That is absolutely not true! Dave has lost his mind!! Now he is just making sh*t up."

He even said as much to our own Geno Mrosko.

White shocked the mixed martial arts (MMA) world back in March 2011 when he revealed that ZUFFA was the proud new owner of what was widely considered the world's number two fight promotion.

While both Strikeforce and UFC continue to operate as separate entities, most of the MMA community was expecting an inevitable merger, much like the one that dissolved World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) earlier that year.

Then came a brand new contract with Showtime.

The UFC was still able to end up with some top-shelf talent, including Dan Henderson, Nick Diaz and Alistair Overeem, while others like Rockhold, Melendez and Rousey stayed behind. So what contract clauses exist that allow some fighters to stay and some to go?

Depends on who you ask.