Strikeforce Channels King of the Cage: Fans Treated to an Amazing Show

I hope they can keep this up. A 420k-ish gate is nothing to scoff at, and you’d have to think the show was profitable. A lot of people didn’t see the reasoning in running this show 10 days before the Fedor card, but I think they’re forgetting that this was originally supposed to be Mayhem/Lawler, which makes sense in that market.

I don’t think they have to. They are, as a friend said, a super fight promotion. Why pretend to have divisions and titles and crap? There aren’t enough guys for it. Book the best fights you can and fill the undercard with crazy scraps. Like this…

Listening to idiots who want a “narrative” is going to put them out of business.

Oh, I enjoyed all the fights. I’m just saying, I didn’t wake up this morning thinking anything was particularly memorable.

You might have a case there. I might be a bit spoiled lately with the amount of riches in sheer numbers of good fights, that my level of expectations has gone up a notch.

based on KOTC & GC tapes and DVD’s. At that point in my fight watching life the last kind of guy I wanted to watch was Joe with his straight up repetitive takedown, scoot to cage, GnP game. I’ve developed into a fan of his over the years but during that period I really could not stand watching the guy fight.

That part was irritating.

They should try to hire Logan Stanton to do those interviews!!

If Dana won’t do it I will gladly watch her on Strikeforce.

Mauro gets on my nerves more and more each time I see him. I am forced to see every week too. He does a throw to the Bellator cards that we Canadaians get a day late. It sucks.

Not only do we have to watch Bellator a day late but we are also subected to Mauro. :(

Duh, what I meant was last nights card wasn’t some major revelation. Its just the way things have always been with this org.

The mascot looks like a ripped Bas Rutten

Heavyweight: Fedor/Overeem
LHW: King Mo/Mousasi
MW: Jake Shields, Jacare, and a surprising amount of depth
WW: Nick Diaz, okay he’s not a washout but was a UFC mainstay
LW: Gilbert Melendez

Strikeforce has cultivated or found some top-end talent that have no connections to the UFC

“UFC washout” is a pointless derogation when you consider that the UFC would love to have Thomson, Diaz, Lawler, Henderson, Arlovski, Werdum, Babalu etc… at their preferred price point of course. And hell, most of them didn’t even wash out in the first place, they left on contract disputes and disciplinary action.

Scott Coker comes from a kickboxing background and Strikeforce is aired on a boxing platform, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that his cards are booked somewhat like kickboxing and boxing cards. The boxing sensibility is represented by the no-name prelim cards, but the main cards usually resemble a good K-1 or It’s Showtime card, only with MMA fighters. Yes, they will bring in overseas standouts with little fanfare and throw them right in with the domestic stars. In the future it might behoove them to build up those imports with showcase fights first, but the immediate payoff in the form of super fights is part of what I like about Strikeforce. They fill the main card of their flagship events almost exclusively with fights between stars, veteran contenders and young fighters with championship potential. They’re also working hard to build up their own crop of prospects and homegrown talent, but those fights mostly happen on the Challengers cards. Over time, the continuity from one big fight to the next in each division will only improve.

I’m not sure exactly when “relevance” became a rhetorical weapon in MMA (probably during the EXC days), but the constant potshots at Strikeforce are without merit. Their big fights are as relevant as anything, even if they aren’t generating the same kind of revenue as the big UFC fights. Sure, some of the matches they put on don’t carry a lot of meaning in relation to their title pictures, but the same applies to about 80 percent of UFC bouts as well. Considering Strikeforce probably doesn’t make even 1/10th the annual revenue the UFC makes, I think they do a great job of making world class fights on a regular basis.

That would be interesting.

Its still a big player in the minor leagues. These promotions are important for bringing young talent up.

Great info, I can also say, Strikeforce gives their smaller local guys tickets to sell as well. Deal is, you sell tickets at a discount to your friends/family/locals, you get a cut of all the tickets you sold. I love that for the smaller pro’s out there, not the biggest paycheck, but you can rack up some extra cash and helps the organization fill the seats.