ZUFFA PURCHASES STRIKEFORCE

LAS VEGAS -- In a transaction that will forever change the mixed martial arts world, Zuffa, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has purchased its top competitor, Strikeforce.

UFC president Dana White spoke exclusively about why the historic purchase happened, the terms of the deal, what this means for the Strikeforce brand and fighters and much more.

SHIT THE FUCKING BED!

I look forward to reading Anfield's reaction to this.

Shit the bed.
BIG news.

Actually, now i've calmed down and its sank in, what exactly will be different? Dana specifically states there'll be no superfights and it'll just be "business as usual"... I'm confused


However, now Zuffa owns Strikeforce, will M-1 still be allowed to co-promote with them, or will this be the final nail in Fedor's coffin?

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/mma/post/2011/03/zuffa-buys-strikeforce/1


With the purchase, Zuffa now controls the contracts of almost every fighter in the USA TODAY/SB Nation consensus rankings, other than a few athletes in Bellator Fighting Championships and a handful of Japanese competitors at lighter weights.

Nothing changes for the brands in the near term, White said. Strikeforce has a deal to run several events this year on Showtime, a network that White has publicly disparaged often.

Zuffa co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta can handle any dealings with Showtime, White told MMA Fighting.

"Lorenzo can go over there and deal with Showtime," White said. "I'm sure the last time Showtime wants to see is me show up at the doorstep and go over and start having conversations."

The fighters in Strikeforce will continue to fight for that organization and deal mainly with Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker, White said. Although UFC can help Strikeforce grow and tweak the operation, for now there will be no crossover between the brands as far as sharing fighters, he said.

"We won't be doing any superfights," White said. "Even when we own it, we don't co-promote, period."

In addition to Showtime, several individuals tied Strikeforce have had antagonistic relationships with White over the years, including fighters Josh Barnett and Fedor Emelianenko, and TV announcer Frank Shamrock. Coker will continue dealing with all of Strikeforce's personnel, White said.

"There's a lot of guys on that side of the table who don't like me," White said. "I don't want to make anybody feel uncomfortable over there. ... If we didn't own the company, you wouldn't see me hanging out at a Strikeforce event, and you probably won't see me at one now that we do."

Although Strikeforce has established itself as the undisputed No. 2 brand in mixed martial arts behind UFC, it's a very distant second. Forbes estimated UFC's revenue at $250 million in 2008; Coker expects Strikeforce to generate as much as $30 million revenue in its current fiscal year, he told the San Jose Business Journal in January.

Fedor v Couture
Nick Diaz v GSP
What happens with Semtex?
Overeem v Lesnar

The possibilities, best news all year!!!

What happens regarding the strikeforce HW tourney?

They say there won't be any superfights.

I think the opportunity to make $$$ will be too tempting to the Zuffa brass.

Hopefully I'm right.

I'm disapointed after watching the interview, basically Zuffa has signed Strikeforce and that is that, no other dealings, no title unification fights or no fighters coming over to UFC, simply UFC will be run by Dana and Strikeforce will still be run by Coker, the only thing that has changed is that Strikeforce's profits will now go to Zuffa. I'm hoping that Dana just said this to calm things down a bit, hopefully about a year down the line when things like the Heavyweight GP and certain Strikeforce fighters contracts are up, things pick up a bit and we see the likes of Overeem and Melendez in the UFC. I think because of what happened when UFC bought Pride and most recently with the UFC-WEC merge, we all expected Strikeforce to now become non-existent and everyone go to UFC, but it looks like it'll just remain UFC as one promotion and Strikeforce as the other.

I'm not sure whether or not that is good or not, I suppose with certain fighters such as Dan Henderson, Paul Daley and Josh Barnett all having problems with Dana, it allows us to still see them fighting for a premier MMA promotion in Strikeforce. Plus with all the M-1 stuff it still allows us to see Fedor. Hmmmm, I don't know what to make of this. I just want to see the best face the best. I think it's fair to say that within 3 years, Strikeforce probably won't exist and will be part of UFC, but i'd like to think that it won't take as long as 3 years, and that maybe within around a year all we'll be seeing Strikeforce's best in the UFC.

Basically SF is now the new WEC.



Zuffa = MMA.

Here is Dana announcing the deal.

http://www.mmabay.co.uk/2011/03/12/blockbuster-news-zuffa-purchase-strikeforce/

redmeanie77 wrote:Basically SF is now the new WEC.

I think you've summed it up best there.

Been drinking all day and came home to this... wow! Shit! this is great, either MMA went down the road of the WAMMA route and the best fought the best or all the tallent ended up in one place.

Sengoku and Dream are on deaths doors and SF has been bought over so this is great, all the tallent is under one roof...

I havnt heard the full interview but the possibility of the best fightign the best is great no matter your thoughts on UFC or Zuffa.

I'm fucking shocked! Quite unbelievable news and I had no idea such a thing was even being discussed.

This could be a brilliant thing for the sport, Dana said he needs more talent in order to expand into international markets. This is a great thing for SF as well, they now have enough money behind them to expand as well.

As of now, super fights aren't really in the picture because both companies still have major fights to be made within there own company. I wouldn't be surprised if after Diaz-Daley the WW division gets merged with the UFC, or if Diaz moves to the UFC, and some lower level WWs like Lytle and Hallman head to SF. Other than that, I think everything is going to remain the same, at least for now.

Massive news, Still shocked.

Not really sure about this. Monopolies in any business aren't the best for consumers. Sure, we may see some bigger fights but we are gonna have to pay for them. Probably not so good for the fighters either. No competition in the wage market will mean a take it or leave it approach from Zuffa, alienating some fighters.

There are a lot of positives and negatives so I am going to sit on the fence for the moment and see how it pans out but I really have my doubts as to whether this is in the best interests of MMA as a sport.

this all depends on what involvement Dana will have. It could be the death of MMA or the beginning of something brilliant. Dana owns a small part of the UFC. He has no ownership of Zuffa and is merely another employee so his statement that "we" own it is laughable.

Now, if Dana continues his role with the UFC and Coker continues to run Strikeforce with Zuffa putting equal backing into both and the Fertittas doing what they do, then this is great news. The Fertittas are great for the sport. It's Dana that's the problem. As long as he has no involvement then things are going to be exciting. If he is allowed have a say in Strikefoce then the sport will suffer.

There is a train of thought that Dream are next on Zuffa's list and that Strikeforce will be merged with them and shifted to Japan as the new Pride with the odd show in California where they're the number 1 MMA org.

What the fuck,this is crazy big news.

if somebody had said this was happening last week,I'd of thought they were off their heads.

WOW......just WOW

Ever the pessimist, I am shocked by this, and MMA will soon be UFC! I think this is a bad thing.

I was gonna eloborate, but I'm a bit , surely now Zuffa have their mitts on Strikeforce it'll mean PPV's in the UK, fighters being paid shite because they have nowhere else to fight,and what are they gonna do with Hendo??

Well for the short term being, its unknown whats going to happen. But in the long term look at what happened when Zuffa bought Pride and WEC. Same thing is going to happen.


No way, will dominant guys in SF not fight the champs in UFC, as fans will be putting too much pressure to see the fights.


When they bought WEC, they had to make them use lower weight classes. And get the talent from higher weight classes.

I agree with meanie and i reckon the most likely time for them to join together would be at the end of the HW tourney. The marketability of a fight between the winner o that and the UFC champ would be too much for zuffa to pass up

There's really no comparison between this and other purchases.

WEC were struggling to survive and were a very small company when Zuffa bought them.

Pride was dead when Zuffa bought them.

Strikeforce are growing and going from strength to strength and didn't need to be taken over so Coker has done so from a position of power. His interview will be more telling than Dana's. It's very possible that he's secured guarantees in this deal which will make Strikeforce even bigger.

sorry to tell you, but this is VERY BAD NEWS for pretty much everyone...unless you own shares in Zuffa.

the fans
- so with only one major MMA company promoting fights there is much less insentive to improve the product, its a common saying that competition breeds success...and the success is based on the fans being more interested, less variety will put people off MMA...myself included.
if anyone remembers WWF merging with WCW i think the product got less interesting after this.
especially since we wont be seeing any superfights.

the fighters
- the lack of competition between promotions is bad news for fighters aswell, UFC can essentially pay fighters what they want to becuase...well where else are they going to go?
Also what about fighters like Joachim Hansen who talked bad things about the way Zuffa run their business...Hansen will probably never have another big fight.

Josh Barnett is going to be pissed aswell (no pun intended)