Memo to Showtime and Zuffa: It’s time to let Strikeforce go.
Please, release this talented group of fighters from MMA purgatory. Because that’s what Strikeforce, once nipping at the heels of the UFC for the sport’s supremacy, has become.
Cancelled events. Uneven and inconsistant scheduling. Poor promotion.
Those are just three of the things these fighters are suffering through.
UFC president Dana White has said it a million times. When these athletes are in their prime, they want to fight as much as possible. That’s what gets them paid, what puts food on the table for their kids.
This isn’t happening in Strikeforce. For the second straight month, a Strikeforce card, scheduled to air Nov. 3, was scrapped. To make matters worse, most of the fighters found out through a press release — not from their bosses. Unacceptable.
This is all falling apart and, sadly, it all started in March 2011 when Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, purchased Strikeforce.
Since White uttered those infamous three words – that Strikeforce would be “business as usual” – the UFC has poached the company’s heavyweight champion (Alistair Overeem), middleweight champion (Jake Shields) and light heavyweight champion (Dan Henderson). All of them have headlined major UFC pay per views since coming over.
You can’t blame the UFC for wanting all the top talent in the world under one umbrella. The UFC is an incredible brand, bigger than any one fighter. UFC is synonymous with MMA. The common person knows UFC, but wouldn’t know what you meant if you said “MMA.”
But Zuffa only went halfway. Instead of just folding Strikeforce into the UFC last year, it was left blowing in the wind like a punch-drunk journeyman waiting for the referee to step in and stop the fight.
Showtime, which has aired Strikeforce since it became an MMA promotion in 2006, wants to stay in the MMA business. Maybe Zuffa wants to keep its contract with Showtime so a competitor won’t jump into bed with the premium cable channel. I can’t imagine Showtime is happy with the inferior product it has gotten and its refusal to air the last two cards because of injuries to main-event fighters is evidence of that.
No one is saying a word about Strikeforce’s future. There was a report earlier this month on AXS TV’s “Inside MMA” that the company was all but done. That has not been confirmed and higherups from Strikeforce, Showtime and Zuffa are not talking about it.
Strikeforce’s contract with Showtime is reportedly up early next year. Meanwhile, CEO Scott Coker is promising a mega-card in January featuring heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, middleweight champ Luke Rockhold and lightweight titleholder Gilbert Melendez. Those three would all be stars in the UFC.
He also told MMAFighting.com that women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, one of the biggest names in MMA, and welterweight champion Nate Marquardt could also be competing.
If so, it would be an incredible night of fights. Let’s hope, for the sake of everyone involved, it’s also a going-away party for Strikeforce.