Strikeforce Is Dying And I Don't Care

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Jonathan Snowden argues that the UFC's purchase of their rival Strikeforce prevented us from seeing another epic MMA meltdown. Now Strikeforce is dying slowly, ignominiously, and even its biggest fans can barely muster the energy to care.

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Oct 18, 2011 - Most MMA promotions go out in a blaze of glory. Proverbial guns firing wildly, they take out bystanders, business partners, and t-shirt magnates in magnificent moments of self destruction. Think Josh Barnett's drug screening coming back hot at Affliction. Think Pride falling to pieces in the wake of a Yakuza scandal. Think EliteXC going under after disastrous allegations of bout tampering and questionable judgement.

Now Strikeforce is dying, too. And thanks to a timely purchase by Zuffa, the UFC's parent company, we won't ever see the last frantic months before doom was inevitable. We will miss the Fedor Emelianenko-Kimbo Slice superfight that someone would have eventually thought of in a dark and desperate moment. We will miss the two month period they would have hired Paul Heyman to run the company. His aggressive attacks on Dana White and the UFC would have been sights to behold. In short, we miss all the fun.

Strikeforce is dying - and I don't care. It's happening slowly and before our very eyes. First Alistair Overeem and Nick Diaz were taken into the UFC's loving embrace. Dan Henderson and Cung Le soon followed. The Heavyweight Grand Prix, an event that with the right promotion was helping a sinking ship find its sails, was made irrelevant, diminished by the purchase of Strikeforce, lack of attention, and careful talking points distributed to the MMA media masses.

What's left of a promotion that was finally finding its way on Showtime. Now it's B-shows on pay cable that few discuss and essentially occur in a vacuum at the Palms in Las Vegas. Strikeforce is dying - and I don't care. I always enjoyed their shows, the spectacle, the fights seemingly designed with specific outcomes in mind. The fearless way they employed action fighters - unapologetically featuring warriors like Waachiim Spiritwolf who let it all hang out for $2000 and a beer or two. All that is gone, lost in Zuffa style matchmaking. The last link back to the world of Art Davie and the early UFC's has been severed. And I'm okay with it.

That's what surprised me the most. I thought I'd miss it more. Instead, life has filled the void. It turns out, the UFC promotes more than enough MMA for any sane person to watch and enjoy.

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While now I really dont care since the promotion lost alot of guys and the GP turned into meh, i did enjoy watching Fedor, Hendo, Werdum, Overeem, Barnett, Mousasi, Shields, AA, Sergei, Babalu, Shields, Melendez, Bigfoot, Noons, Diaz, Daley, Le, Cyborg, etc fight basically for free the last couple years.

That article made me happy and sad at the same time....

Triggerman99 wrote:

That article made me happy and sad at the same time....

this....

It funny how some folk get all weepy about the demise of other MMA organizations. For a country that has totally and completely embraced the tenets of capitalism it should be all so very clear.

Not enough fans ... paying enough dollars ... to keep the business viable...

End of story.

Just look at the UFC as a large carnivore feeding off the corpse of its defeated foes.

If it didn't work like this Chuck Norris would still be relevant and we would be watching the Vipers win the IFC again... or the Manic Bunnies ... or whatever they were called.