Strikeforce gets a new TV deal

horsemeat

http://mmajunkie.com/news/26560/strikeforce-and-showtime-announce-new-deal-with-eight-events-and-televised-prelims.mma

contracts renewed.

Hard to see the point in this anymore tbh, the shows they're putting on are fairly low key, (although this weekend should be good).

gutted cause I really think Gilbert is the no.2 lightweight , bendo no.1 in my eyes. some great fights if they brought him over to ufc.

Think dana's just keping it going to keep bellator further down the ladder. (althought come 2013 bellator could start to expand once they get on spike)

Professey Chin

Heavyweight division being cancelled after the GP, no more Challengers events, Womens division is staying according to tweets Ive seen about this

MrStuffins

The Great Chinholio wrote: »

Heavyweight division being cancelled after the GP, no more Challengers events, Womens division is staying according to tweets Ive seen about this

Strikeforce will probably end up effectively being "UFC Challengers".

Imagine if jardine won the MW belt? Jaysus!

SevereMMA

Looking forward to seeing Cormier, Barnett, Werdum, Big Foot in the UFC.

It really beefs up the UFCs Heavyweight division

Xlami

To be fair I think this makes a lot of sense, Strikeforce needs another year to be phased out. I'm not gonna say I've watched every minute of the Challangers card but from what I have seen they've done an excellent job of developing young talent. Guys like Derek Brunson, Caros Fodor, Lorenz Larkin and even more established guys like T-Wood, Safferdine and OSP. My point is these are incredible prospects in the sport of MMA, had the UFC put an end to Strikeforce, the UFC would have had to either sign these guys where they might not be ready for yet or else release them to other organisations. But now they have another year to develop and ensure they're ready for the transition to the UFC. I wouldn't be objected to Strikeforce continuing on as a feeder organisation but at the same time I see the cons of that.

DrPhilG

Read a few comments from Dana on the subject of womens MMA recently, basically he still claims (rightly) that women's MMA is nowhere near deep enough to survive in the UFC, but that if SF had closed down then female MMA would have died off.

Then I read this interesting comment on Bloody Elbow;

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/12/16/2640462/strikeforce-round-table-was-keeping-strikeforce-alive-good-for

I think Zuffa is using this as a bit of an experiment: how will this wider network at their disposal combine together to create an even meaner Zuffa machine? With the concentration on women's MMA, I wonder if they're not looking to attempt a cash-in on the biggest female mixed martial arts fight ala UFC 48, I mean, WEC Aldo vs. Faber. To what degree can female MMA sustain itself when the gate is tallied, and the buyrates come in?

I thought Nason was crazy for a second with his post the other day, but then it made perfect sense: like the WEC, Zuffa was looking to corner the market on the lighter weights. They've already done that. With female MMA, here's yet another market to potentially own. This may seem like a gamble on the surface until you consider that other organizations with the funds to take over something like female MMA, and do it on a stage like Showtime's don't have access as long as Zuffa still has a deal with them. It's Zuffa doing what they've always done: maintaining market dominance.

Interesting point and I wonder if he's right?
When the UFC took over the WEC, they continued it as a separate promotion. Then in time the heavier classes folded and they concentrated more on the lighter guys, mainly BW, FW and LW. Once these fighters had gained prominence they moved the new divisions into the UFC and folded the WEC.

Is the same plan on the table for Strikeforce? They have already done the first 2 steps, decided to continue it as a separate organisation and are folding the HW division. There are some solid fighters in Strikeforce but who apart from Melendez is really a top of their division superstar? So aside from him, they could easily continue with their other divisions (same way Condit, Sonnen etc continued in the WEC) but also concentrate on growing women's MMA to the point where it has enough depth in just 1 or 2 divisions to make it into the UFC and then fold Strikeforce like they did the WEC.

Could be good for Irish MMA, Aisling Daly is our highest ranked fighter although I think she's at 125lbs which SF doesn't have (yet).