UFC Buys Strikeforce Breaking News: Officially Announced
By Sean Farrell
Ultimate Fighting Championship executives this morning have officially announced the purchase of Strikeforce. In today’s official announcement, UFC executives reiterated the two fight promotions will operate independently.
UFC Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said the longtime kickboxing and MMA promoter of Strikeforce, Scott Coker will continue to run day-to-day operations for the organization.”We’ve long admired Scott Coker and the Strikeforce business he launched and developed,” Fertitta stated. “We feel that together with Scott, we can continue to build both Strikeforce and the UFC. We intend to operate Strikeforce as a separate business much like we did with the WEC for many years. We look forward to working with Scott Coker and the entire Strikeforce and Showtime teams to continue to provide quality content for mixed-martial-arts fans.”
The UFC purchased WEC in 2006 and ran the organization until this past December, the UFC phased out the WEC’s heavier weight classes and only featured bantamweights and featherweights exclusively in its sister promotion. But, with poor ratings, uneven pay, and calls for uniting the talent, the UFC merged with the promotion and moved most of the fighters to the UFC in recent months and cut the remaining just like they did to PRIDE FC.
According to this morning’s announcement, there “are currently no plans to bring Strikeforce fighters to the UFC,” and are planning building the existing roster, which features a variety of developed talent, proven vets,top international acquisitions and even some UFC vets, most of whom left the organization on bad terms like Paul Daley and Josh Barnett.
However, fans already are in a frenzy over the possibility of seeing fighters such as Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz, lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez, light-heavyweight titleholder Dan Henderson, heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem and other notables such as Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in the UFC. Those fighters will fulfill the terms of their existing Strikeforce deals, but UFC President Dana White has suggested they eventually could be signed to the UFC with some UFC fighters also heading to Strikeforce. Basically they will gut Strikeforce like PRIDE FC and all entry level talent will be placed on the secondary Strikeforce once current deals are up. “We have worked hard to make mixed martial arts the fastest growing sport in the world,” White stated. “We’ve spent countless hours getting this sport regulated and taking the octagon all over the world. Acquiring the Strikeforce assets allows us to continue to develop this sport into a global force.”
Terms of the deal still were not disclosed. Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment, a company that co-owns Strikeforce along with Coker’s West Coast Entertainment business, is believed to have sold Strikeforce for somewhere in the ballpark of $30 and $60 million dollars. Scott Coker spoke briefly stating “This is an important day for the sport of mixed martial arts,” Coker stated. “We are excited to work with Lorenzo Fertitta, Frank Fertitta, Dana White and everyone at the UFC on the quest to make MMA the biggest sport in the world. Fans can continue to expect quality Strikeforce shows, and we look forward to giving our athletes an even broader platform on which to perform.”
The Strikeforce fighters have done a lot of reflecting over this weekend, following the UFC’s buyout of its promotional home, they are very optimistic about the potential of being aligned with the world’s biggest fight promotion. However, it remains unclear about the long-term future of the California-based promotion, and some fighters and industry professionals are concerned about the fate of a company taking a turn for the worse like PRIDE FC as Strikeforce and PRIDE have been the only credible competition to the UFC ever.
But despite a few mixed feelings, most fighters agree that their job remains the same, regardless of who signs the checks. Their job is to put on a good show.
“As a fighter, that’s the great thing about it,” former Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh Thomson said “You don’t worry about the business side of it all. You worry about going out there and performing.”
According to UFC president Dana White, Strikeforce will make a few changes in the look of the event and how the shows are run backstage, there will also not be meddling in the matchmaking process or the acquisition of talent, and fighters will serve out the remainder of their contracts under the Strikeforce banner. “It is literally business as usual,” White said.
Several fighters said the additional marketing hype machine brought by the UFC could be a boom for Strikeforce, which has often struggled to separate itself from their counterpart promotion among casual fans of the sport. “If anything, it will help out Strikeforce,” said former welterweight contender K.J. Noons. “The UFC are a good company. I don’t think it’s a negative. I think it’s a positive.”
Then there’s the possibility of UFC fighters joining the ranks of Strikeforce, White said, which would deepen the ranks of all its divisions. There are bigger potential upsides in fight purses, sponsorships and performance bonuses with UFC now owning Strikeforce so the fighters well the good fighters should benefit greatly. There is also stiffer competition for better fights, bigger crowds and the respect that comes from working for the biggest MMA company.
“It excites me,” said Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, who recently earned the biggest victory of his career by upsetting Fedor Emelianenko in the opening round of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix. “The UFC is the No. 1 event on earth. The best fighters in the world are there. I would love to fight there. I’d love to fight Brock Lesnar and send him back to pro wrestling because I don’t accept the fact that [he’s] ranked No. 2. It’s not personal; I don’t know Brock. It’s just professional.”
But for those who have already fought in the UFC, the buyout raises concerns about the bargaining power of those who’ve left the big show for other opportunities in the first place. MMA legend Dan Henderson, did so more than a year ago and signed a more lucrative contract with Strikeforce than what the UFC had offered. After an unsuccessful bid for the promotion’s middleweight belt, he won the light-heavyweight title earlier this month on March 5th by knocking out Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante at Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson. He has only one fight left on his current contract and was expected to begin negotiations for a new one when news of the sale broke. “I don’t know if it’s the greatest thing to have everything under one roof again like it was when they took over PRIDE,” Henderson said. “It’s just a concern. Hopefully things work out right. Obviously, I’m concerned for myself and future contracts, and also about other fighters, as well. It’s tough for these guys to get paid well, especially if there’s no competition.”
That’s a primary concern echoing throughout MMA by those tasked with overseeing the careers of those who step in the cage. With the gap between regional shows and “the big leagues” now greater than ever, some have developed a logical fear that it may be tougher over the long term for many fighters to make a decent living. Some, in fact, are pissed off with Strikeforce for giving up its independence. “(Strikeforce CEO) Scott Coker did what would be in his and his family’s best financial interest,” said Cesar Gracie, who manages welterweight champion Nick Diaz. “At the end of the day, he makes a few million bucks, and he’s a happy camper. Is it going to be good for the fighters? We’re going to wait and see.”
Many questions remain about the direction Strikeforce will take in the next year, the promotion has events scheduled for April 9 and June 18 and has approximately three years remaining on its TV deal with Showtime. But the horrid relationship between the UFC and Showtime has raised questions of whether that deal will hold up much longer, yet alone the length of the current deal. So far there has been no comment on the game-changing deal from Showtime, and It seems as if they are scrambling for answers. White said there’s a need for more Strikeforce events and that the promotion has developed a following that’s valuable as the UFC continues to expand across the globe.
The fighters can all agree on one another thing and its pretty vital, they need the work just like everyone else in America now a days “Bigfoot” said it best when he said “I fight for my family,” Silva said. “I love to fight and I need to fight, so I’ll fight any place and anybody.”
With that mind set the merger seems irrelevant but from Paul Daley’s standpoint it is quite the opposite. As I reported yesterday Daley may be pulling out of his April 9th title fight since the purchase of Strikeforce (Daley was banned from the UFC for sucker punching Josh Koscheck after their bout) and is considering a return to BAMMA in his native United Kingdom.