The UFC purchases Strikeforce

[Dademo]

First it was PRIDE, then the WEC. Now add Strikeforce to the list.

UFC president Dana White today announced in an interview with MMA Fighting that Zuffa, LLC, the parent company for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has purchased Strikeforce.

Terms of the purchase were not immediately disclosed, but White characterized the franchise as "a good deal."

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) learned of the deal Saturday morning, though request for comments by both UFC and Strikeforce officials went unanswered.

White said under the terms of the purchase, Strikeforce talent will remain on the promotion's roster for the time being, though UFC fighters could potentially make their way into the organization.

"Strikeforce is going to continue to run business as usual," White told MMA Fighting. "There's contracts in place. These guys are on Showtime. Strikeforce pulls good ratings for Showtime. I think Showtime is happy with them. All those contracts will be honored. These guys are going to remain Strikeforce fighters.

"Could guys from the UFC leave and end up over in Strikeforce? Yeah."

Showtime officials also declined to comment on the transaction when contacted by MMAjunkie.com.

Similar to Zuffa's retention of World Extreme Cagefighting executive Reed Harris following the 2006 purchase of his company, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker will remain on with the company.

White ruled out the possibility off cross-promotion "superfights" featuring fighters from both promotions and said current fighter contracts, broadcast deals and business partnerships will be unaffected.

Damn I am speechless right now. More comments from me on the way, but wow.

 

[TheGoldStandard]

I'm not really sure how I feel about this. I'm like Dademo I'm pretty speechless.

 

[Troy]

Did not expect to read this headline for at least a couple of years.

Massive purchase and once again UFC have taken out all competition in MMA. I like how they are going to continue to run seperately for some time, or at least until all previous contracts are settled, but eventually we need to see some Strikeforce fighters in UFC. Some of the heavyweights would be good to add into an already strong division. Will we finally see Fedor in the UFC?

 

[Deezy]

I was agast when I read this story, I guess Showtime doesn't dole out the cash needed for a company to continue. Let's see, EliteXC now Strikeforce. Maybe it's best to stay off that network.

Without Strikeforce, which small org is going to be the default best MMA league out there. Because the Blue elitists need to jump on someones nuts. Which would make Bellator the new Pride and whatever.

If the UFC is not going to merge with Strikeforce, which will eventually happen. They should keep it as a feeder system for prospects and people on the way to being cut. Which would make it a good mix of Ryan Couture's and Brandon Vera's.

I think Dana White does this to piss off the mongoloids who troll MMA websites. Better finish that fucking tournament.

 

[Dademo]

I think what some don't understand is that Strikeforce is basically going to be what the WEC used to be to the UFC. I think when all the contracts are done with Strikeforce they will merge with the UFC. It's going to be weird to see Strikeforce events advertising UFC events and so on.

 

[Deezy]

It should stay as a seperate entity in my eyes, because it's better for the fighters to stay under the Zuffa umbrella before they hit obscurity, people like Keith Jardine, Houston Alexander and James Irvin could've been relegated to Strikeforce before hitting the obscurity circuits of Shark Fights et al.

Plus the fact that DREAM is dying too, they will need another place to put all these new fighters who are going to be coming over from Japan, since Japanese MMA is almost dead.

 

[Dod Draper]

Saw this headline a little earlier (haven't been monitoring wrasslin'/MMA news over the weekend) and thought it was some satire article.

Massive move from Zuffa. This latest one basically means that they have an absolute stranglehold on the MMA landscape. They can keep fighters' pay at the same level without ever worrying that they'll lose them. It was easy enough for them prior to this buyout, now it's way beyond easy for them.

Sucks that we have to wait a couple of years to see any form of merger though.

 

[TheGoldStandard]

I know they said Strikeforce is going to be its own seperate company. What about Paul Daley? He was banned for life from UFC and now Strikeforce is somewhat owned by UFC. This whole thing leaves a lot of questions about the future of UFC and Strikeforce.

 

[Deezy]

It's in Paul Daley's best interest to just keep his mouth shut and fight Nick Diaz, which he isn't doing by the way.

 

[Purple PuNk]

UFC Buys STRIKEFORCE

I am surprised there has been no thread or discussion on this already, but earlier this week Dana White made the move and bought STRIKEFORCE.

In a lot of ways it makes sense, I mean why not? When it came to competition WEC was probably the closest thing to anything challenging UFC in terms of popularity and star power. It has been awhile since STRIKEFORCE has been notable, and although they have strong divisions it just does not seem that the up and ups within STRIKEFORCE knew what to do with them.

Still this also means that UFC essentially has a monopoly on MMA in North America.

Discuss.

 

[Troy]

There was a thread on this already, about five threads down, so I have merged the two together.

Strikeforce's first event under the Zuffa banner is coming up soon. Does anyone think that ratings will be higher since Zuffa now own it and because they have been advertising Diaz vs Daley on UFC events?

 

[Dademo]

There was a thread on this already, about five threads down, so I have merged the two together.

Strikeforce's first event under the Zuffa banner is coming up soon. Does anyone think that ratings will be higher since Zuffa now own it and because they have been advertising Diaz vs Daley on UFC events?

Scott Coker has mentioned that Zuffa promoting the event both on Twitter and at their events has increased ticket sales. So you have to assume the ratings will be higher.

 

[Purple PuNk]

I checked the MMA section.I guess not good enough. Thanks Troy!