UFC Shocker: Strikeforce Change Shakes MMA World
By Sean Farrell
Strikeforce has never made it to Pay-Per-View on its own accord, but that could change under its owner Zuffa, LLC.
UFC President Dana White today said the finals of the eight-man Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix might be worth a $44.95 price tag. “Yeah, I think so,” White said when asked about the putting the event on Pay-Per-View.
Both White and UFC executive and co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta said it’s too early to sign off on certain issues that could arise from the sale of the California based Strikeforce, such as folding Strikeforce fighters into the UFC or superfights between promotional champions, which were previously stated as not going to happen and like I said it will eventually.
But, the heavyweight grand prix, the tournament that put the Strikeforce heavyweights above the UFC’s in many minds is now the UFC’s business. The eight-man tournament kicked off in February and is scheduled to continue with opening-round matchups on June 18 in Dallas.
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker previously said the grand prix would help his promotion enter the pay-per-view market and possibly return to CBS sometime this year. That prediction no doubt was heavily in part because of the success that followed the heavyweight grand prix’s first event, which featured Fedor Emelianenko and Antonio Silva that set Strikeforce and Showtime a new record in ratings with a peak of 1.1 million viewers during the event.
But the promotion seemed to hit a speed bump when it delayed the tournament’s second opening-round event originally set for April 9th but has been moved to June 18. Coker, however, said it was to capitalize on the success of the first event.
Since the buyout, there was speculation by many that the tournament’s delay may have been because Coker’s pending deal with the UFC, which is the current international king of any and all Pay-Per-View. Coker denied this for being the reason for the delay when he stated “That was a decision that was made way before this thing was inked. So it had nothing to do with it, and really, it had more to do with finding the right location for the heavyweight tournament. Once we found Dallas as a venue, we notified the fighters, and they were all OK with it. [The UFC purchase] had nothing to do with it.”
The second event on June 18th, 2011 features the other two quarterfinal matchups featuring Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum and Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers. Silva and Sergei Kharitonov earned passes to the semifinals with wins over Emelianenko and Andrei Arlovski, respectively at the previous event.
Coker said the tournament finals could take place in December, though nothing is set in stone especially with Zuffa LLC now owning the right to do as they please, which they are definitely taking advantage of and wasting no time as they have made 2 significant changes in less than 24 hours of the official sale.