Last year it was EliteXC, this year it’s Strikeforce.
It is ironic that the promotion that purchased the assets to last year’s next big thing in the MMA world happens to be this year’s next big thing in the MMA world. But that is exactly what Strikeforce is at this very moment, not on par with UFC (not even close), but a new face past the Indy scene in the MMA world.
With the first post-Pro Elite buyout show in the books for Strikeforce, they may have actually benefitted from Josh Thomson injuring himself at the last minute and Frank Shamrock getting tagged for three rounds by another young and talented fighter. Because of Thomson’s injury, Gilbert Melendez was made to prove he deserved a rematch for the title he lost to Thomson last June (Melendez’s last fight until the April 11 Strikeforce show) and Nick Diaz got the career launching win via a near two round domination of Frank Shamrock in a fashion that even Cung Le didn’t pull of in his fight with Frank last March. Melendez’s win and subsequent challenge to Mitsuhiro Ishida—the first man to beat Melendez—should give Melendez another fight to adequately prepare for Thomson and with another win would make the Thomson fight the main-event of a Strikeforce HP Pavillion card instead of the semi-final, as it was positioned on the April 11 card.
Scott Smith may have stolen the show on April 11 however with a fight of the year candidate against Benji Radach that would’ve been a decision loss for Smith until he knocked Radach out with under two minutes to go in the fight. Smith and Diaz are now penciled in for the June 6 Strikeforce card in St. Louis that has Robbie Lawler/Jake Shields right above it. Smith now has two knockouts in as many fights and has not had a fight that would be designated boring for the last two years, during which time he’s managed four wins by TKO or knockout within the first minute and ten seconds of a round with three of those coming in the first thirty seconds of a round and two of the four have been in the first thrity seconds of the fight Smith was in. Also taking into account the excitement of the two fights Smith had with Robbie Lawler in EliteXC last year, this is a guy that Strikeforce wants to try and push as far as he can go because at only 30 years old and with a 15-5 (1 NC) career record, Smith looks like one of the most underrated MMA fighter in the U.S.
The Pro Elite deal was tactical by Strikeforce because UFC could’ve come in and swept everything up, but they didn’t; partly because they have their own roster overfill and are running enough shows as it is. This allowed Strikeforce to come in and make the deal since they were the only Indy MMA fed with enough to make the deal happen and actually do something with the assets; in other words, what would Affliction have done if they had made the deal? Strikeforce has sensible people heading the operation and matchmakers that have rarely failed to create a good-looking card on paper for their shows. And in case you’re wondering what I mean by sensible, here’s what I mean: Strikeforce was around a full year more than EliteXC as of the end of operations for EliteXC and up until that point Strikeforce only had their snug little late-night slot on NBC and had only run two shows out of sixteen outside of the state of California and of the sixteen shows, eight were at the HP Pavillion; in other words, baby steps. This was a company that seemed content at being California’s MMA promotion and an Indy promotion overall, and why shouldn’t they have been happy and content with that position? They were making great paydays off of Frank Shamrock’s fights and were still doing good enough business in all other shows that there has not been a single word about money troubles or turmoil within the promotion.
The deal is Strikeforce’s play to become the #2 in the U.S., something they basically did just by buying the Pro Elite assets. There is no promotion in the U.S., or the world for that matter, that is able to regularly draw the fans that UFC does. However, Strikeforce has California and despite never drawing close to the same numbers without Frank Shamrock on the card as they do with him fighting, they still have drawn good numbers within California and the only shows that have drawn bad numbers were shows either outside of California or shows exclusively with lesser known talent on the card for that very reason. The fact that neither of the first two post-Pro Elite shows for Strikeforce are in San Jose does say a lot about Strikeforce’s opinion on expansion, and with the women’s MMA world in their grasp, a few star names, and a roster full of talented and entertaining fighters, there’s no reason why this promotion wouldn’t at least attempt to expand. Even if it doesn’t work, they’ll still have California.
Expansion also has to do with the fact that Strikeforce now has its largest audience ever. Yeah they had NBC, but the Showtime dates and possible CBS broadcasts has widened Strikeforce’s audience exponentially by virtue of the number of new fans the promotion will now have. The numbers for EliteXC on CBS last year weren’t that bad, even though UFC programming on Spike met or passed some of those totals multiple times, but the fact that people tuned in to a national T.V. broadcast of MMA is a good thing. Taking into account that Strikeforce has a more simplified and down and dirty approach to presenting their product, I’m not forecasting or foreseeing Strikeforce having any of the problems or facing any of the criticisms that Gary Shaw and EliteXC had to after each of their three CBS shows last year. I view Strikeforce as a much more professional MMA promotion than the one they bought and it should transfer onto T.V. just fine.
The keyword here has been more; more fans, more fighters, more T.V. time, more matchmaking possibilities, more everything. While nobody will be threatening UFC’s #1 spot in the MMA world any time soon, it is safe to say that in the U.S., there is a legit #2 and they base their operations in California.
