More On The Fedor/Strikeforce Deal and DreamForce Global...

Scott Coker unveiled some of the announcements that will be coming on Thursday to MMAWeekly:

The talent exchange between the promotions will be exclusive.

"If we want to get Japanese fighters, we would work exclusively with Dream, and Dream would work exclusively with us, and M-1 as well," said Coker. "M-1 will be part of this too."

He said Mitsuhiro Ishida, who first fought for Strikeforce last September and will rematch Gilbert Melendez after lightweight champion Josh Thomson withdrew due to injury, was the first commitment to the new deal.

Future fights he looked forward to seeing included Fedor Emelianenko vs. Sergei Kharitonov, Robbie Lawler vs. Melvin Manhoef, and the American debut of Shinya Aoki (asked how Aoki would do without his trademark pants, Coker said, "that’s a good question. People are going to have to tune in to Showtime to find out").

More after the jump...

People will either see this as two completely different things a huge positive for Strikeforce or a huge negative for DREAM.  One vier,  is that DREAM must be really desperate to actually agree to something like this, which could be partially true since Sengoku is breathing down their necks and knocking on TBS's door for the TV contract.  If we recall, TBS really wants Ishii on network TV, but Ishii signed with Sengoku, so TBS proposed a merge or partnership between both Japanese promotions, which Sengoku has initially rejected.

TBS now airs DREAM, but this rating is about 10%. TBS executive are not satisfied with this result. So they are interested in SENGOKU (TBS men do not know diference between DREAM and SENGOKU!) ISHII SATOSHI, judo goldmedalist is superstar,so they hope big rating by ISHII.

So, DREAM send proposal letter to SENGOKU stating that DREAM wants do business together....

But, SENGOKU's top manager KOKUHO TAKAHIRO does not believe DREAM (he criticize that the SUPER HULK TOURNAMENT is different from our road).

Now, it is pretty obvious that Fedor signing an non-exclusive American contract was crucial to DREAM, since they could use Fedor to fill the void left by the failure to sign Ishii.  Some sources were even mentioning that FEG may have helped Strikeforce bridge the gap between Strikeforce's offer and M-1's asking price, though Scott Coker denied the claim.

Despite a well-placed source outside Strikeforce who on Monday said the Japanese promotion had helped bridge the financial gap between Emelianenko’s asking price and Strikeforce’s offer, Coker said the two are unrelated.

The other rumor going around was that CBS may have played a roll in getting Fedor to sign with Strikeforce, but that rumor was shot down by CBS, giving all the credit to Strikeforce and Showtime.

Kelly Kahl, Senior Executive Vice President for CBS Primetime TV, said he "wouldn’t rule out" a Strikeforce show on CBS late this year. He said his network had no direct hand in the Emelianenko deal, but stood to gain from it with options the network held to broadcast Strikeforce events.

"This was, quite frankly, a straight Strikeforce deal," he said. "I don’t believe anything was represented on the part of CBS. Strikeforce and, I would assume, Showtime, get all the credit."

Coker addressed what this would mean for Strikeforce and MMA fans worldwide:

As for the multitude of other fights possible with the alliance, Coker said it was a good time to be an MMA fan.

"I think it’s important, because as a fan, I think they’re going to get some amazing fights that would not happen if the alliance wasn’t created," he said.

Scott Coker recently mentioned to Sherdog that the Fedor Emelianenko contract and compensation package was very complex due to domestic and international licensing clauses and stipulations.

"The compensation package was very complex," said Coker. "As you can imagine with Fedor, there’s foreign rights issues, licensing rights issues, sponsorship issues, domestic television issues, the (video) games –- there are a lot of things that are going to make up the piece of pies because with Fedor, there’s international revenue stream that come into play rather quickly."

Vadim comments on why they were able to sign with Strikeforce instead of the UFC.

We took a long look at Strikeforce as an organization to work with. I have long been aware of Scott Coker, he was a good man and worthy partner in the business.

...

Joining M-1 Global and Strikeforce will entail a strong union.  We have established relationships with TV channels in Russia, Europe and Asia, among them - the major American television networks - CBS and Showtime. Our joint tournaments will be broadcast on these channels. This is a big step in the development of MMA. 

...

Fedor will become even more popular in America. Strikeforce has an advantage over TV coverage of the UFC, which shows on Spike TV. That audience is about 50-60 million, with Strikeforce, the CBS television audience is 115 million.  Fedor will be popular for the whole world, and we will be able to continue the development of hybrid arts.

More news will be presented by Strikeforce and M-1 Global on Thursday's press conference:

Strikeforce has just sent out an e-mail indicating that the organization will be holding a media conference call for Thursday (11AM PST) at which time it is expected to address, in further detail, the Fedor Emelianenko signing. In addition to Fedor and Scott Coker, Vadim Finkelstein will also be present on the call.

Jacare Signs With Strikeforce

DREAM MW and grappling standout Jacare has signed with Strikeforce. as reported by GracieMag:

Ronaldo "Jacare" de Souza, 29, is the latest of Strikeforce’s hired hands, as discovered this Tuesday by GRACIEMAG.com.

The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt will fight in the middleweight category and make his debut on a special evening for world MMA, most likely October 25: the same day Fedor Emelianenko too will make his Strikeforce debut. Neither of the two have an opponent defined for the show, which should take place in Fresno, California.

The next show for the organization that looks to be America’s number 2 will take place August 15.

The October 25th show in Fresno could be a HUGE show from Strikeforce, M-1, and DREAM, potentially having Fedor versus an opponent to be named later (Rogers is scheduled to appear on this show), Shields vs Jacare for the Interim MW title, and the addition of other high profiled Strikeforce fighters.

Also, don't be surprised to see fighters like Mayhem Miller, Takanori Gomi, Andre Galvao, Jason High, and others making their Strikeforce debut soon.