On the 12th March 2011 a huge event in MMA shocked all of us fans. Yes, to what many 'hardcore' fans seen as a nightmare event Zuffa, the owner of the UFC, confirmed the purchase of Strikeforce. This was about as out of the blue as the Pride deal and many analysists believe this is a more important deal.
Strikeforce had in my humble opinion been working on slowly growing on casual fans. The Strikeforce Heavyweight tournament got a lot of attraction from fans who hadn't really watched Strikeforce before along with the great Fedor Emeilenko signing with the promotion post Pride and Affliction. Talks of having events in Japan, a market Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker knows very well was very much talked about and looked likely it would happen late 2011/ early 2012. The UK also looked a very likely market to go into too if Paul Daley won his title fight against Nick Diaz on April 9th and now there is a chance the fight won't go underway.
Back to the bigger question anyway. Is the purchase of Strikeforce a good thing for MMA? Lets firstly look at the pros in the situation. The purchase of Strikeforce could mean seeing some big superfights go ahead. The biggest superfight which could take place has to be Allistair Overeem vs Cain Velasquez/ Junior Dos Santos. Personally JDS runs through Brock Lesnar due to Brock not being able to take a punch. If 'The Reem' fights either Velasquez or JDS this has the potential to be a war and will definatley be one of the biggest Heavyweight clashes of all time! Both Velasquez and Dos Santos are great strikers, with JDS being the better, and Cain Velasquez having a great all round game yet JDS has too. Another Heavyweight title fight which would be awesome to see would be between two legend who in my point of view are in the top five of the best of all time: Randy Couture vs Fedor Emelienko. Two MMA legends without any doubt from anyone, this was a fight which broke down a few years back. Maybe these two are both past their prime however this could be a huge PPV seller. Other superfights such as Gilbert Melendez vs Frankie Edgar or Gray Maynard, GSP vs Nick Diaz and dare i say Dan Henderson fighting whoever the UFC Lightheavyweight champion looks really realistic with Hendo having one fight left on his contract.
Additionally, Zuffa owning Strikeforce also means that Strikeforce now has the ability to grow. Dana White has stated that Strikeforce will be 'business as usual.' With Strikeforce being contracted to the American T.V channel 'Showtime' for to my knowledge at least a year and a half, Dana White has said and in practise he honours contracts. Dana has said that Scott Coker will carry on running Strikeforce and with the promotion through PPV's to advertise Strikeforce along with the Fertitta's money behind the project this could make the brand huge. Take Strikeforce's April 9th card, Nick Diaz vs Paul Daley. Diaz vs Daley is a very anticipated fight in the MMA world due to Nick Diaz's fantastic boxing, aggressiveness and not taking most fights down were he could win with ease vs Daley's power and precission in his striking could make fireworks. Gilbert Melendez fairly unknown to casual fans (or Zuffa Zombies as the great Bloodstain Lane would say) is fighting Japenese sensation Tatsuya Kawajiri a very well rounded fighter who is overlooked upon by Shinya Aoki. Aoki himself will be making his second apperance on the card. His debut against Melendez wasn't the best however should pick up the W via submission.
However Zuffa buying Strikeforce has cons too. With Strikeforce eliminated, Bellator only just getting a T.V deal and Japenese MMA in a very unstable situation (finances along with the tragic earthquake) Zuffa vertually owns MMA. This means that fighters in the UFC will be fighting even more cautiously in my opinion. Fighters such as Jon Fitch who have been criticized for not being offensive enough could find themselves fighting for a very low some of money. Fitch himself won't be released as he is too talented to have a three fight losing streak. Yet say a regular 170lber who earns $8000 plus $8000 win bonus gets cut there is vertually nowhere to go for them. Bellator is the best option with it being now the second biggest brand in MMA. We could see wrestlers who chose to have stand up wars go back to their bread and butter and become boring so they don't become unemployed. Don't get me wrong the most important thing to a fighter is getting the win however it's the fans who make sport at the end of the day. This is where Dana White and the UFC go wrong. Vertually now if you lose three fights on the bounce, which could turn into two could lead to being cut from the roster.
All in all this deal could be good for MMA. However the deal from Zuffa will be pointless if they don't make thhe superfights: you still have two separate companys still competing. The monopoly idea from Zuffa I believe could kill MMA, hyperthetically speaking but if we do see the big superfights such as Allistair Overeem vs Cain Velaquez would be amazing but think about it, is it really worth having that one big fight to watch most fights being a wrestling match instead of a MMA fight- I think no.
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