MMA Fans, unless you've been hiding under a rock or something for the past day, have seen the biggest announcement in the sport since....the purchase of Pride. With the news yesterday that UFC's parent company, Zuffa, has bought its biggest competitor, Strikeforce on Saturday. With UFC President Dana White saying it will be "business as usual" for the California based promotion, and the nix on "superfights" for the time being, It leaves me to wonder a few questions for the new conglomerate.
4) How many ego's can Dana White exactly handle? - Nobody is disputing that this guy is (amongst being a lot of negatives) a leader. He took the UFC out of its "dark age" doldrums and with a little help from his friends, into the promised land. He can talk the death out of a microphone and he can promote a sheep fighting a hyena. But with people like Cung Le, Gina Carano and of course Alistair Overeem and Fedor amongst his newly acquired talent, all guys that not only fight in MMA but on their time and each with their own agendas, can White somehow show these guys that there's nothing more important than fighting? We'll see.
3) Will there be modifications to the cage? - When they purchased the WEC, Zuffa scrapped the "hexagon" cage for a mini-octagon and concentrated on the lighter classes from (135-155). With this purchase, Strikeforce has much larger fighters with their own hexagon cage. I'm not saying it will be another mini octagon, but expect them to experiment with the 6 sided cage, given Zuffa's creativity.
2) Is Showtime now the home for all things Mixed Martial Arts? - We've seen Zuffa make various deals with Spike and Versus. Those deals are really hampered due to the "creative control" clause which might have allowed Zuffa to keep a grip on things production wise, but seriously hindered the amount of airtime they get. Showtime is a premium cable channel, where creative control is not only a right but a privilege (shows like "Sons of Anarchy" & "Dexter" would never be able to air on NBC). With not only Strikeforce and the UFC, M-1 Global is also airing a card on the channel March 25th. The late 80s and early 90s had HBO dominate combat sports coverage with their boxing. MMA is now the combat sport of choice, and Showtime is taking clear steps to dominate that programming.
1) Will we finally get to see Randy vs. Fedor? - Okay, its not exactly the match we would have wanted in 2008, where "the best heavyweight in the world" title would have clearly been crowned. But, White has said guys from the UFC could leave and end up in Strikeforce in his interview regarding the purchase yesterday, and its no secret that the former UFC heavyweight kingpin and Hall of Famer has wanted this fight for years (remember, he left the promotion in 2007 and was gone for a year just to get an opportunity for it). Fedor has wanted this fight as well, and its also no secret this guy is still a draw (his fight with Bigfoot Silva peaked with 1.1 million viewers on Showtime, a record for the channel. In comparison, the last UFC on Versus only drew 650,000 viewers). Before people gasp at the question, remember this : Randy was at "Henderson vs. Feijao" earlier this month, and according to various sources was "shocked" at Fedor's loss to Bigfoot. Also remember, the last 2 times we got a former Pride Champion vs a former UFC champion in the cage, we were treated to 2 classics : Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva (2007 fight of the year) and Couture vs Noguiera.
Until next time, fight fans.
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