As Inside Fights first reported early this morning, Strikeforce owner Scott Coker has completed a deal to purchase the assets of and several fighter contracts from EliteXC.
The fighter contracts will be a sticky situation, and Michael Rome over at Bloody Elbow (one of the best mixed martial arts blogs on the planet) sums it up nicely:
Sources inform Bloody Elbow that a number of fighters waived their right to renegotiate and agreed to transfer their contracts over to Strikeforce as part of the closing of the deal. However, a significant number of fighters chose not to take that position, and will now either renegotiate with Strikeforce or attempt to find somewhere else to fight.
Among those that are not waiving rights to renegotiate are fighters that Zuffa is interested in. Zuffa only has direct interest in a small number of fighters that were contracted to ProElite. These fighters include Gina Carano, Jake Shields, and Robbie Lawler. I can confirm that Robbie Lawler is actually negotiating with Strikeforce, which means he is not a part of the group that chose to waive its rights. I have no confirmation on the intentions of Shields or Carano, but it is almost certain that Carano has not waived rights to renegotiate or look elsewhere. Zuffa interest in Gina is higher than ever now, and her contract at ProElite was outrageously low considering her value.
I’ve reported on several occasions that Zuffa is highly interested in three people from ProElite: Gina Carano, Jake Shields and Robbie Lawler.
Carano is an interesting situation, because eight months ago there was no interest in her whatsoever from Dana White and Joe Silva. After seeing the legitimate numbers she drew, however, it became pointless to try and deny the fact that Carano is a star and would be a big draw for the UFC or WEC. And it doesn’t matter that the women’s talent division is shallow in 2009, because she only has to fight three times a year at maximum, and people don’t tune in to see her in competitive fights — they tune in because she’s a star. I think the Zuffa team has realized that it’s a bit shortsighted to overlook her now, because she’s a fantastic building block for the future of women in the sport (if there’s going to be one).
Unless Zuffa has a change of heart (which I don’t see happening), this news probably signifies the end of the MMA career of Kimbo Slice, or at least the North American portion of it.
UPDATE: Strikeforce has also secured a television deal with Showtime. More details to follow.
Here’s the full press release from Strikeforce:
LOS ANGELES, CA. — In a transaction signaling the dawn of a new era in the world’s fastest growing sport, world championship mixed martial arts (MMA) organization Strikeforce®, has acquired certain fighter contracts from ProElite, Inc, the parent company of former Strikeforce ® co-promoter, Elite Xtreme Combat (EliteXC).
Strikeforce® also acquired other specific assets of ProElite, including a library of EliteXC events, which were distributed live on either CBS or Showtime Networks.
“This is a tremendous development that will bolster the Strikeforce® roster and allow us to produce even more competitive matchups between top fighters,” said Scott Coker, Founder and CEO of Strikeforce®. “Some of these athletes have been on the sidelines for a while now and are eagerly waiting to return to competition. We look forward to providing them with the opportunity to do so in the next few months.”
Strikeforce® and EliteXC joined forces to deliver the first live SHOWTIME PPV® MMA event, “Shamrock vs. Baroni,” on June 22, 2007. In the headlining contest, former UFC middleweight champion and MMA legend Frank Shamrock submitted knockout artist Phil “The New York Badass” Baroni in the second round, where upon Shamrock became the first Strikeforce® World Middleweight Champion.
On March 29, 2008, the two promotions collaborated once more to deliver a live telecast on SHOWTIME® featuring one of the sport’s most anticipated showdowns – Shamrock versus undefeated world kickboxing champion Cung Le. In a battle that has since been proclaimed “Fight Of The Year” by critics, Le seized the Strikeforce® middleweight crown by pouring on a relentless offensive and fending off Shamrock’s counter attacks before breaking the defending champion’s arm with a hard roundhouse kick. Shamrock retired from the bout after the third round of a five round match.
A martial arts promoter for over 23 years, Coker has gained widespread acclaim among industry colleagues and the media, including Rolling Stone magazine, Yahoo! Sports, and The San Jose Mercury News. Coker elevated his 14-year-old Strikeforce® organization to become a major player in the World’s fastest growing sport. Strikeforce’s® inaugural MMA event hosted a capacity crowd of 18,265 at San Jose’s HP Pavilion on March 10, 2006. The live gate figure also broke the then all-time record for attendance at an MMA event held in North America.
EliteXC burst onto the MMA scene with “Destiny,” the first live, SHOWTIME®-televised MMA fight card in history, on February 10, 2007. Held at Southaven Mississippi’s DeSoto Civic Center, the main event pitted Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert, Renzo Gracie.
The promotion made history again by bringing, for the first time, a live MMA event to the CBS Television Network on May 31, 2008.
