ZUFFA PURCHASES STRIKEFORCE

A fighters union and a transparent, meritocratic system for fighters to earn their way to the UFC have suddenly become vital to the integrity of MMA as a sport.

Actually Hellboy should go to bellator, they have decent FW division.

It will be interesting to see how M-1 does on Showtime.

Strikeforce will be assimilated when their contract with Sho is up. If Showtime back M-1 with half the cash they were spending on SF, that would make them the de facto No.2 MMA org.
Could see them potentially profiting big from this. I doubt Showtime will want to drop MMA completely from their portfolio, and M-1 already has their foot in the door.

I think this is great news for us fans,for Strikeforce and their fighters.


I wouldn't be surprised to see Strikeforce and the UFC both eventually leave Spike and Showtime,then as well as paying for PPV's,we will also be paying a subscription fee to get ZUFFA TV.

payneNglory1 wrote:







I think this is great news for us fans,for Strikeforce and their fighters.


I wouldn't be surprised to see Strikeforce and the UFC both eventually leave Spike and Showtime,then as well as paying for PPV's,we will also be paying a subscription fee to get ZUFFA TV.

how is it better for the fighters or fans? (if we arent seeing superfights)

im not condemning this purchase or whatever...i cant predict whats going to happen so just wait and see.
but i dont understand how you can say its great news for fighters and fans.

JoshGrossESPN:

The UFC/Strikeforce split is all about contracts. Once they're fulfilled with Showtime, I'm told a WEC type merger is planned.

Maybe there will be ShoUFC?

Its not good for the fighters at all, as this is a very deliberate move by Zuffa, to take away barganing power of the fighters which previously to this day had never been higher as fighters can negotiate deals between SF and UFC.

Now that has been completely taken away, and fighters will still be severly underpaid in comparison to the rise of the sport and money being made from it. Zuffa is making a ton of money. But just look at the fighters salary from biggest mma organisation which broadcast PPV's. There are guys there earning like 10,000 or less there. While Zuffa are selling a million PPV's.

The lower the pay of fighters, the higher chance of a fighters union being formed.
Zuffa are not going to lower the pay scale any lower than it is now, they don't want to risk antagonising their fighters. Just the threat of a fighters union will always keep the pay reasonable.

The guys making $10K were not subjects of a bidding war between the UFC and Strikeforce anyway, this won't affect them.

Yes but with less competition, and UFC constantly buying out rival promotions, fighters pay will be under control by Zuffa for a prolonged period, and it wont increase in correlation with growth of the sport.


Those $10,000 guys, would be on more, if WEC (pre-Zuffa), SF, Affliction, pride etc were still around to this day.



MMA is getting bigger and bigger, huge money is being made that is not filtering down to the fighters because of the monoply by Zuffa.

Until Coker speaks and we know the full details and long term plans then it's hard to say whether it's good or bad for the fighters and the fans.

This purchase is completely different from any of the previous purchases so I don't think they can be used as a basis for judging this.

Josh gross is a moron.

Problems are starting already, this is what Paul Daley said about the news:

"Business as usual, what if i dont wanna fight for DANA WHITE/ZUFFA?......Dana white bans me for life from the UFC, Then buys STRIKEFORCE, and thinks im still gonna be EASY and fight on one of the most anticipated fights of the year (vs Diaz)? Which will no doubt make ZUFFA/Dana White money. Daley vs Diaz still on?.....Someone better holla at my manager real quick."

JoshGrossESPN:

The UFC/Strikeforce split is all about contracts. Once they're fulfilled with Showtime, I'm told a WEC type merger is planned

.

So in that sense it does sound good for the fans, because eventually we will get to see the super fights we want like Overeem/Velasquez, Melendez/Edgar, Diaz/GSP ect.

How this works out for the fighters though, I'm not sure. I'm sure the top guys like Overeem will get paid handsomely but who knows when it comes to the rest of the roster.

We also don't know whats going to happen to SF after the contracts are all done with. Are they going to keep it the same, make it a b-league or as someone suggested merge it with Dream and become Pride II, with most of the shows in Japan?

Also people are overlooking the fact that with another major MMA company possibly tied up, the likes of Titan, MFC and especially Bellator could begin to grow and attract more and more good fighters. Bellator is a well run company, and in the future could end up in the position SF did.

Hendo made a hilarious comment about it on a radio broadcast i was listening too.

it was something like "Dana must really have a crush on me, as he bought pride to get me, and now he bought SF just to have me back". HAHA

It was funny when he said it anyway.....

I've updated the original post and included the interview with Dana so for those who haven't seen it yet then it's there.

Can not believe It just come home I'm gobsmacked never seen this coming hate to sound melodramatic with Japan MMA more less finished (on a big scale not talking Shooto, DEEP or The Outsider) MMA has more less became Ultimate Fighting.

redmeanie77 wrote:

Hendo made a hilarious comment about it on a radio broadcast i was listening too.

it was something like "Dana must really have a crush on me, as he bought pride to get me, and now he bought SF just to have me back". HAHA

It was funny when he said it anyway.....

Hendo is quite a funny guy. People don't give him credit for it but he's got a good sense of humour.

The UFC can only support a finite amount of fighters, especially having recently added weight classes. As people come in at the top, people will have to leave to make room. So in a sense they will always have competition.

its not really competition if its just UFC rejects.

anyways Dana said since they are going into alot of new areas and holding much more events that they need more high level fighters....i think the UFC roster will certainly grow.

If Daley beats Diaz

And werdum beats overeem and then fedor beats overeem for the belt,

And just say Barnett wins the grand prix,

then there's 3 Strikefoce champs and the grand prix winner that don't want to fight in the UFC.

On the plus side, zuffa finally has the number 1 hw and number 1 lw in the world under contract.

Ye but I think it's pretty safe to assume that Daley and Barnett would never have fought in the UFC again anyway. After watching the interview, it seems like the UFC and SF are staying (for now anyway) as separate promotions where bidding wars will still happen. If it was up to Dana, the likes of Daley and Barnett would be screwed right now, but as he mentioned about 50 times in the interview it's just "business as usual". Whether Daley or Barnett stay or leave SF is completely down to Coker. They will never go back to the UFC and I seriously doubt Hendo or Fedor will end up there either. There going to stay in SF until there contracts are up, and that stage they will either retire, renegotiate a new deal or find another company.

I could see the likes of Melendez, Jacare, Overeem and possibly Diaz and Werdum going/going back to the UFC at some stage though.

The only thing that I can really understand now is that the UFC will use SF to help break them into international markets while the UFC will give SF a lot more exposure. For both companies it looks like a win-win.

Hendo has said he would fight for UFC, its just Barnett and Daley Dana doesnt want in the UFC. I actually if i was Zuffa i would not have Barnett anywhere near my promotion. Look at what happened to affliction and now after signing for SF without even fight for them yet. The guy is a jinx.

They wont copromote with M-1 in the past and they certainly wont now, that Fedor'a value has dropped. I think first order of business for Zuffa will be seeing how they can break free from M-1 as soon as possible.


Question is though, where do the fighters go? Bellator? Whats the story with Dream?? If that goes under which looks like happening, there is nothing else out there of note.


And even if Bellator or someone else do get bigger and able to challenge UFC in the future, whats to stop Zuffa from buying them out aswell??


This is a pretty signiifcant deal for the future of MMA.

When did Hendo say that mate?

http://www.mmabay.co.uk/2011/03/12/dan-henderson-admits-he-was-shocked-at-zuffa-buy-out-open-to-working-with-dana-white-again/



The title of the article threw me off alittle, the qoute doesnt actually say he's definetly going to fight for Dana. Just that theres no hard feelings.


Apologies, i read it late last night.

cheers for the link mate