Strikeforce Pre-Zuffa: At the start of the year, Strikeforce moved from being the number three promotion in the US to the much revered number two position, thanks to the UFC’s absorption of World Elite Cagefighting. But it was a distant number two, due to the UFC’s total dominance of the MMA scene in the country. Since the promotion’s inception in 2006, they had started to slowly expand the number of shows they had run, peaking at 15 in 2010 with 8 main shows and 7 Challenger shows, a number which Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker appeared content with. They had also begun to expand their reach and number of fights, running in areas they had not previously visited and notably broadcasting on CBS on the back of signing Fedor Emelianenko. Their roster began to expand to include some the best fighters in the world that weren’t signed to Zuffa, and crowned champions in five men’s and two women’s divisions. As 2011 started Strikeforce certainly looked like a growing promotion, and the announcement of the 2011 Heavyweight Grand Prix made it appear that they were willing to do something different to stand out from the UFC, which had abandoned the tournament format years before. Behind the scenes there were some conflicts of interest emerging though; seeing that TV could only get them so far, Coker wanted to push Strikeforce onto PPV, while their financial backers were looking to offload the promotion. If he wanted to keep his vision alive, Coker would have to find a buyer for the expanding promotion.
Enter Zuffa: From what we can now tell, there were two serious offers on the table to buy Strikeforce in March 2011. One was from Pro Elite, the parent company of the ill-fated EliteXC promotion, who were looking to re-enter the MMA market, and one from eventual buyers Zuffa, who saw the promotion as an ideal means to expand the number of shows they could run and the number of fighters under the organisation. When the sale was announced by Dana White on March 12th 2011, believed to be several hundred million dollars but never officially announced, he was adamant that things would be business as usual for both Zuffa promotions, including signing Coker to a Zuffa contract. With the current PPV world leader behind them, the future of Strikeforce certainly looked bright at the end of March 2011, with Coker’s dream of PPV looking more likely than ever.
Zuffa’s Asset Stripping: Despite claiming business as usual, things changed rather rapidly for Strikeforce in the days following the Zuffa purchase. In a bid to run the company the way they wanted, Zuffa released all of Strikeforce’s office staff, aside from Coker, and installed their own team made up of ex-WEC employees. Over the following six months to the end of September 2011, Zuffa made changes to the promotion and moved fighters to the extent that Strikeforce no longer resembled the promotion they had purchased in March, resulting in the star power which would have carried them on PPV being long gone. Nick Diaz, the last Strikeforce Middleweight Champion, was the first to move to the UFC, relinquishing the title in the process, thought this as more to prevent him boxing as his Strikeforce contract had allowed. He was followed by Alistair Overeem, who was released from his Strikeforce contract when he revealed he would not be entering the semi-finals of the Heavyweight Grand Prix due to an injury which would prevent him from training in the run up to the event. Overeem relinquished the Strikeforce Heavyweight Title in the process, and many of his Golden Gloves team were shown the door at the same time, including former Women’s Bantamweight Champion Marloes Coenen after Zuffa refused to deal with the group directly after contract disputes. Overeem has since signed with UFC and faces Brock Lesnar in December. Dan Henderson, the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion, following his win over Fedor Emelianenko also left the promotion and title behind to head back to the UFC. At one point Gilbert Melendez, the Strikeforce Lightweight Champion was also rumoured to be UFC bound, though that idea right now seems to have been dropped.
In addition to loosing most of the Champions, Strikeforce has also lost more star power this year too. Jake Shields had already left the promotion before the sale to Zuffa, but others, including Cung Le and Jason Miller, have since moved to the UFC. Furthermore, Zuffa’s termination of Fedor Emelianenko’s contract after his third straight loss rid the promotion of perhaps the biggest name ever on their roster. As it stands now, Strikeforce has virtually no named, well known fighters in its ranks, as well as having three out of five of their men’s titles are vacant, with all of them looking to stay that way. Things clearly don’t look promising for the future of the promotion.
The Future: Based on what we know, what does the future hold of Strikeforce as a promotion? They have a show lined up for December with two title fights, and into 2012 most are expecting the finals of the Heavyweight Grand Prix around February, pitting Daniel Cormier against Josh Barnett in the finals, though the winner doesn’t look likely to be named the new Heavyweight Champion. Beyond that, the decision is out of Zuffa’s hands. Showtime, which airs the Strikeforce events, has the option to renew the agreement with the promotion through 2014, once it expires in February next year. If they do renew, Zuffa will have no choice but to keep promoting the brand to the tune of up to 16 events per year. However, with the asset stripping into the UFC that has been done, most are predicting the end of the TV agreement, and in turn Strikeforce. If this happens, the group will have gone from being a growing number two promotion in theUS to dead in just 12 months.
