It's my (uninformed, completely amateur) opinion that in a year, we will not see Strikeforce anymore as a major promotion. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Challengers series stick around as a "feeder league" to develop talent, but Scott Coker better get his resume ready...
1. Fedor/Hendo - The most recent event may have done more to doom Strikeforce than to retain it. Fedor has long since been SF's trump card; the best heavyweight fighter in the world, and one who (it seems) would never sign with the UFC. The Last Emperor's presence on the roster meant Strikeforce could stick around - regardless of who he fights, both hardcore and casual fans want to see him fight. Enter Dan Henderson. After Hendo's devastating KO of the former Pride champ, Fedor's reign at the top, and chance of being a dominant heavyweight, is done for. In addition, Henderson's contract is up and his chances of being signed to the UFC seems pretty good.
2. Overeem F's up the Tourney - Regardless of the reason, the Strikeforce Heavyweight Tourney is now missing its number 1 seed. With Overeem bowing out of the Grand Prix, the winner has no bragging rights to speak of, even if the title is on the line for the winner. Now that Overeem is out of Strikeforce completely, the winner will never be able to prove that he is Strikeforce's biggest, baddest fighter. instead of a consensus, number 1 heavyweight, the tourney will spark a bunch of "what-if's". Once the tournament is over Strikeforce will have a champion, but one that didn't beat the former champion to do so. That's never good for an organization's credibility.
3. Nick "MFer" Diaz - Love him or hate him, Nick Diaz is 2 things: talented, and entertaining. He puts asses in the seats and he finishes fights. With the success he's had fighting all around the world, Diaz has a ton of credibility. By leaving his welterweight championship to fight GSP, Diaz proved that Strikeforce is the number 2 promotion. With one of their biggest superstars crossing over, Strikeforce has no claim otherwise. Now that Diaz has set that precedent, others will undoubtedly follow.
4. There's no one left - Who is going to carry the Strikeforce flag? They have no Heavyweight Champion, no Welterweight Champion, a Light Heavyweight champ who was fighting at 265 (207 to be fair...) and may be UFC bound, and a Middleweight champion who is relatively unknown in the States. Gilbert Melendez may be an exceptional fighter but the level of competition he has in the Strikeforce Lightweight division won't get casual fans to order Showtime just to see him fight. So who is left after the Grand Prix is over? Brett Rogers is probably back to selling tires, Barnett doesn't fight consistently enough, and Bigfoot doesn't have the charisma to sell a fight. When the WEC was absorbed into the UFC, they had more top draws than Strikeforce does now, especially if Hendo returns to the UFC.
5. The UFC wants a TV deal Really, why bother keeping Strikeforce around? When Dana White said it would be "business as usual" in Strikeforce-land, what he meant was "business as usual...as long as we're still making money." In any successful organization, profitability comes first - and the Fertitas and White are very smart businessmen. White has made no secret of the fact that he is aggressively shopping a favorable network TV deal. If they absorb all of the top Strikeforce talent, they would have 95% of the top fighters in the US (sorry Eddie Alvarez), and thus, a lot more bargaining power. And with the UFC's deal with Spike running out soon, the time has never been better.
The X-factor here is what kind of contract Strikeforce has with Showtime. Lorenzo Fertita stated the deal, originally signed for 3 years, now goes into 2014. Showtime controls a number of factors into the events (production, announcers, broadcasting, etc). However, they don't control the fighters and the fighters' contracts. Showtime presumably has an "out" in their contract if they aren't happy with Strikeforce. If the UFC extracted all of the top talent from the organization, it wouldn't take too much convincing to buy out the remaining years of the contract (or to have Showtime to just cut ties with the organization completely).
Wed Feb 15, 2023 6:42 pm by 
Calendar
