It seems that Zuffa is doing everything they can to close down the Strikeforce as soon as they think it is time to. They are doing what they have done before with Pride and ECW. Even though keeping Strikeforce as lower league of UFC, where they could build up younger fighters and then bring them to UFC might seem like a great idea to many fans of the sport, Dana White and Fertitta brothers are good businessmen, it seems that somewhere behind the closed doors of Zuffa decision has been made to close down the Strikeforce. When? By the time Strikeforce’s contract with Showtime runs out, and it will happen soon, might be a good guess.
To understand what Zuffa (owner of UFC) has been doing, one should look at the list of the fighters who have left Strikeforce to join UFC. Strikeforce Welterweight champion at the time Jake Shields, their number one contender Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller and finally, possibly best fighter under the contact with Strikeforce – Nick Diaz who will face number one pound for pound fighter in the world Georges St-Pierre for the UFC Welterweight title in UFC 137 this October.
What is more, they have fired every fighter who was managed by the Golden Glory management team. Dana White said that he is not happy with the way Golden Glory requires the fighter money to be paid to the management team first. Amongst the fired fighters there was Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem. This conflict not only messed the whole heavyweight class up, but possibly ruined their heavyweight tounament, the only thing that lately seemed to go right for Strikeforce. One of the fighters was Marloes Coenen, she has just lost her title to Miesha Tate, it brings a lot of problems to the female competition in Strikeforce as Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos Strikeforce Women’s Featherweight Champion cannot find a worthy opponent for more than a yearnow. But what does UFC or Dana White care, they have many times stated that they are not interested in Women’s fights.
With Fedor Emelianenko being almost not relative any more after his three fight loss streak, does Strikeforce still have world class fighters, fans would like to see fight? The answer is a weak yes. There aren’t a lot of interesting fighters left. The fighter on the top of the list is of course Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez, but looking at the way Zuffa has treated Strikeforce after the big deal, it is only a question now when Melendez moves to UFC. Dan Henderson’s contract has just ended and Hendo has made it clear that he is interested inrenewing his contract with Strikeforce. Paul Daley as everybody probably knows will never come back to UFC after what happened after his fight with Josh Koscheck. Tyron Woodley might be the last very interesting fighter under the Strikeforce wing.
So yes, what seemed to be an amazing promotion one year ago, is now turning in to an almost dead show. And we shouldn’t be surprised, it did happen before. Dana White said, and I quote: ”Business as usual”.
Why so businessness!??
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