Former WWE star Dave "Batista" Bautista has told TMZ that the potential deal he'd been negotiating with Strikeforce for the past several months is dead due to the purchase by UFC parent company Zuffa. Other than featuring backyard brawler Kimbo Slice on a season of The Ultimate Fighter and a live fight specials on Spike TV and one Pay Per View, Zuffa generally avoids booking blatantly "freak show" matches that have been a staple of other promotions like Pride FC, EliteXC and Strikeforce.

"We were (negotiating) but UFC bought them out and never said anything to me about it. So it’s dead in the water. I'm disappointed. I was talking to a couple other federations but I really had my heart set on Strikeforce and I thought we had a deal. Real disappointed. (It) didn't break down until they sold out. I just had no idea, nobody ever said anything, Scott Coker never said anything to me. We had a deal on the table and we were just trying to fix a few things and the next thing I know they got bought out. It is what it is."