DFW: "Strikeforce's Future Depends on Showtime"

Strikeforce's Future Depends on Showtime, Says Dana White, but Deadline Looms

By Ben Fowlkes



DENVER -- Near the end of Wednesday's UFC 135 pre-fight press conference, a particularly insistent fan decided he didn't need the microphone in order to grill UFC president Dana White about the future of Strikeforce's women's division, of which he seemed to be an ardent supporter. What would become of the female fighters, he inquired, after Strikeforce...well, you know.

"After Strikeforce what?" White shot back. Though really, he didn't need to ask. He understood the unstated assumption as well as anyone in the room, and the sheepish grin on his face said as much.

"Are you assuming that we're going to shut Strikeforce down?" White asked, as if it was the first time he'd heard the idea.

To hear White tell it, it's not a question of whether Zuffa wants to continue to operate the lesser-known organization it acquired last spring. Instead, he insisted, it's up to Showtime, which broadcasts the fights on its premium cable network.

"Who knows what's going to happen? The way this thing works is, it depends on Showtime. The ball's in their court. They need to decide whether they want to keep Strikeforce around or not," White said.

Of course, with the UFC picking off Strikeforce champions left and right, it seems as though White isn't giving Showtime a lot of reasons to keep the flagging organization alive.

Former Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem and former welterweight champ Nick Diaz both have UFC dates in the near future, and vacant Strikeforce titles in their wakes. The UFC also recently signed Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Dan Henderson to take on Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at UFC 139 after "smooth" contract negotiations, according to White, and the stakes for Hendo are indeed big in his return to the Octagon.

"It would be tough not to give the winner of [Henderson-Rua] a title fight," White added. "After Rashad [Evans]."

But while Strikeforce continues to play out its Showtime contract, White doesn't seem terribly interested in following the action. He claimed not to have seen the most recent World Heavyweight Grand Prix event, which got very little hype from Zuffa or Showtime, and received dismal ratings after drawing a paltry live crowd. Showtime reportedly has an option to extend the Strikeforce contract, but White added there was a "deadline" for the network to decide by.

"It depends on whether they seriously want to stay in the business, the mixed martial arts business," White said, before hinting that he thought Strikeforce had signed a bad deal when it aligned itself with Showtime.

"Everybody that comes into this business thinks that pay-per-view or free TV is the holy grail, the answer to everybody's problems. Bulls--t. Either of those two things will put you out of business. You get into a bad deal with one of these companies, and the next thing you know you're $30 million in the hole."

It's comments like that that have many in the industry assuming it's all just a matter of time before Strikeforce disappears for good. With the Showtime contract expiring soon, and with ratings worse than ever, it seems unlikely that the cable network would want to continue to air an organization that is rapidly losing its few stars to the UFC.

And maybe that's the whole point, even though White won't confirm or deny it.

"I'm UFC, man," he said. "I'm all UFC and you guys know that. I wanted nothing to do with this thing. And it's not like I'm Showtime's best friend. Lorenzo [Fertitta]'s much nicer than me. Let Lorenzo go deal with that."

Haha...

I might quietly throw the towel in here...though I think Dana isn't being honest about the big picture goals of a supplementary brand. This sounds bad.

Zuffa is gonna retain the legitimate top 20 prospects and the feasible revenue generators. They have no reason to care about a feeder leagues because that is essentially what all other promotions are spending their own money being now and they have no reason anymore to be concerned with who is on what TV channel they are not themselves on because of that.

Dana White quoted one of my posts.

KingsOwn19 wrote:

Dana White quoted one of my posts.

One of your posts? That shit was all me.

But then again, it didn't take a genius to figure this out.

Still think SF moves to a new network in the end.

I hope showtime sticks with it but like the story said

"Of course, with the UFC picking off Strikeforce champions left and right, it seems as though White isn't giving Showtime a lot of reasons to keep the flagging organization alive."

I was SHOCKED by this news

MMAEYES wrote:

I hope showtime sticks with it but like the story said

"Of course, with the UFC picking off Strikeforce champions left and right, it seems as though White isn't giving Showtime a lot of reasons to keep the flagging organization alive."

"I'm all UFC and you guys know that. I wanted nothing to do with this thing. And it's not like I'm Showtime's best friend."

captain organic wrote:

"I'm all UFC and you guys know that. I wanted nothing to do with this thing. And it's not like I'm Showtime's best friend."

Well he makes it seem like Lorenzo wants SF and is the one who wanted to buy it so isn't he Dana's friend? All that statement says to me is "hey me and Lorenzo never intended for them to last"

MMAEYES wrote:

captain organic wrote:

"I'm all UFC and you guys know that. I wanted nothing to do with this thing. And it's not like I'm Showtime's best friend."

Well he makes it seem like Lorenzo wants SF and is the one who wanted to buy it so isn't he Dana's friend? All that statement says to me is "hey me and Lorenzo never intended for them to last"

And at first I thought it was crazy to buy Sf, and then quickly disband it. Seemed like alot of $$$ just to pick up some fighters, while killing the main top competitor. Especially if they lost the Showtime contract, which appears to be the case.


but given the hype that already has been generated for Diaz vs Penn, and Reem vs Brock, I have changed my tune.

And as long as they keep the vast majority of the fighters,(and thereby not allowing showtime to pick up with a new org where SF left off) I think the purchase, coupled with the SF disbandment is still a pretty shrewd move.

Zuffa looks at the deal with Showtime as a bad deal from their perspective. If Showtime wants to up the money Zuffa will keep Strikeforce there. It will be hard for Showtime to up their money when the stars from the organization keep heading to the UFC.

Primetyme199 wrote:

Zuffa looks at the deal with Showtime as a bad deal from their perspective. If Showtime wants to up the money Zuffa will keep Strikeforce there. It will be hard for Showtime to up their money when the stars from the organization keep heading to the UFC.

Zero chance of showtime upping the $$$ or even keeping status quo in terms of payouts.

And that was not a bad deal, that is Dana talking shit. In 2 years time, SF was built from nothing to semi-UFC competitor on that deal.

All I know is Bellator will be on SPIKE and I will own Wolfs sig!

OU wrote:

All I know is Bellator will be on SPIKE and I will own Wolfs sig!

Looks like it's headed that way. Just a matter of when.

Isn't happening in 2012

bobbitt15 wrote:

Isn't happening in 2012

The bet has no expiration. My day will come and I will own that sig.

bobbitt15 wrote:

Isn't happening in 2012

It can if Zuffa buys back the library from Spike.

Primetyme199 wrote:

bobbitt15 wrote:

Isn't happening in 2012

It can if Zuffa buys back the library from Spike.

Which is very possible. 50-50 chance IMO.

Primetyme199 wrote:

bobbitt15 wrote:

Isn't happening in 2012

It can if Zuffa buys back the library from Spike.

Ariel interviewed Dana yesterday and he said they are definitely not buying the library back and there will be no other promotions on Spike in 2012. He was pretty pissed off about the Bellator prelims being on Spike as well

bobbitt15 wrote:

Primetyme199 wrote:

bobbitt15 wrote:

Isn't happening in 2012

It can if Zuffa buys back the library from Spike.

Ariel interviewed Dana yesterday and he said they are definitely not buying the library back and there will be no other promotions on Spike in 2012. He was pretty pissed off about the Bellator prelims being on Spike as well

oh well if Dana White said it then I must take that statement at face value.

OU wrote:

bobbitt15 wrote:

Primetyme199 wrote:

bobbitt15 wrote:

Isn't happening in 2012

It can if Zuffa buys back the library from Spike.

Ariel interviewed Dana yesterday and he said they are definitely not buying the library back and there will be no other promotions on Spike in 2012. He was pretty pissed off about the Bellator prelims being on Spike as well

oh well if Dana White said it then I must take that statement at face value.

Well it does seem like a decision that he would be in charge of making

Regardless, why would the UFC pay to get their library back so Bellator could go on Spike? Let Spike play old UFC shit. Who cares

Because spike WILL use those as counter programming.