Announced officially by Dana White in a recent interview with Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting, (which can be seen here) ZUFFA LLC, the parent company of UFC, has officially purchased Strikeforce.
When asked why the purchase was made, White responded “As we grow and continue to expand, we need more fights. Let’s face facts. Strikeforce is a brand that fans have come to like and enjoy the fights that they’re putting on. So it made sense to us.”
The current plan seems to be Strikeforce as a separate company, much like how WEC was a separate company after ZUFFA bought the company in 2006. “Strikeforce is going to continue to run business as usual. There are contracts in place. These guys are on Showtime. Strikeforce pulls good ratings for Showtime. I think Showtime is happy with them. All those contracts will be honored. These guys are going to remain Strikeforce fighters” White expressed how he has no interest in dealing with executives from Showtime. “Lorenzo can go over there and deal with Showtime. I’m sure the last time Showtime wants to see is me show up at the doorstep and go over and start having conversations.” White continued on about how it is a possibility that fighters could leave UFC and go to Strikeforce.
