Zuffa (UFC) Buys Strikeforce – Details and Fighter’s Reactions
By Dave Carpinello
Zuffa LLC, owner and operator of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has agreed in principle to purchase Strikeforce. UFC president Dana White confirmed the news in an interview with MMAFighting.com. White stated that the UFC and Strikeforce will continue to operate as separate organizations and that all fighter contracts will be honored by Zuffa, the UFC and Strikeforce.
Here is a breakdown of the deal according to Dana White:
– It is possible UFC guys could crossover into the Strikeforce ring but in general it will be “business as usual”.
– Strikeforce will keep its women’s MMA division and the UFC still has no plans to have female fighters compete under the UFC banner.
– Scott Coker will be staying on in his current role as head of Strikeforce.
– Fedor Emelianenko will continue to be a Strikeforce and Showtime fighter.
– The UFC is not going to co-promote with Strikeforce and there are currently no “superfights” planned.
– The Strikeforce and Showtime deal runs for approximately another two years and White stated that Lorenzo Fertitta will be handling any deals with Showtime.
– When the Strikeforce contracts expire the fighters can negotiate with either the UFC or Strikeforce.
UFC Purchase of Strikeforce – Fighters & Trainers Reactions:
Miguel Angel Torres – “Buying Strikeforce is like Tony Montana killing Frank & taking his business in Scarface.”
Paul Daley – “Business as usual, what if I don’t want to fight for Dana White and Zuffa? Dana White bans me for life from the UFC, then buys Strikeforce, and thinks I’m still going to be easy and fight on one of the most anticipated fights of the year (vs. Diaz)? Which will no doubt make Zuffa and Dana White money, Daley vs. Diaz still on?”
Krzysztof Soszynski – “I am shocked and very surprised. For the UFC it is a great move and they basically have a monopoly. We will have to see if this works out for the fighters.”
Tito Ortiz – “Congratulations to the UFC taking over and dominating the MMA world. Congrats Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta! Business is done right when you do it!”
Hermes Franca – “I think this is great, Dana White has been in the business for a long time and he knows exactly what he is doing. In the general will be more MMA fights! What I mean is, I believe this is really hard for the UFC, release a fighter after a fighter lost twice, because the UFC has so many fighters under contract, the other side is so hard to a fighter to fight under the pressure. He doesn’t know if after the fight if he will still have his job or not. Now I believe the pressure on both sides goes down a little bit and they are going to be able to fight more and maybe the champion of each organization will be fighting each other.”
John Alessio – “My mind was officially blown today! UFC purchases Strikeforce! Wow, first it was PRIDE and then WEC and now Strikeforce, UFC shows once again its dominance!”
King Mo – “I’m ready to fight! I care about fights, not organizations. I don’t care if the UFC bought Strikeforce. Coker is still my boy. I just want my check after I fight. Y’all make it seem like Jordan came out of retirement”
Joe Lauzon – “The Zuffa/Strikeforce thing, Strikeforce is running like nothing happened. It’s not a merger or anything like that. Still two separate companies.”
Paul Bradley – “One thought – Confused.”
Mike Reilly – “I have always been a big Strikeforce fan. I have enjoyed the shows, the production and of course loved working with the entire team from Coker on down. But I have also enjoyed working with Zuffa. While the two are very different in many ways the bottom line is both organizations give fighters amazing opportunities to fulfill their dreams and to be professional athletes. Nothing in this new arraignment will change that. I also think this will work out great for Strike Force fighters. The one down side to being with Strikeforce is sometimes the organization did not step as boldly as they might for fear of angering the “Big Dog.” Now that Strikeforce is part of the Big Dog’s pack I believe we will see them flex their promotional muscle more and become bolder and better organized.
Strikeforce has always been seen as the affable organization while UFC is more organized, business driven. If you can combine Coker’s affable nature and his ability to work with, partner with and get along with anyone and the UFC’s Marketing Machine I do feel the sport will achieve global expansion. I think there is the ability for our sport to grow to the size of the NFL or MLB. Instead of producing 4 millionaires a year it could produce 500. Every major city could support 6 to 8 major events a year.
I think people fear the monopoly aspect. That having one big player will limit competition for athletes and lead to fighters getting less pay and fewer opportunity. However most major industries biggest growth spurts come when there is an expansive monopoly and one major player can drive the growth. When industries stop growing you see the mega-giants crumple and break apart. We are in a growth period in the sport. The cut throat competition we have seen with Elite, Affliction et al, did more to stymie growth especially in the main stream.
In the end I think this will be positive for the sport over all. The UFC currently is synonymous with MMA so it makes sense they are the ones who need to drive the ball forward; adding the SF team does that. Certainly there are concerns that Zuffa and Co will be able to maintain relationships. Some have labeled the UFC as “Un Fucking Cooperative;” however at the end of the day the UFC will make business decisions. For the most part these decisions have been positive for the sports and the athletes. Currently there are 10,000 young fighters whose dream is to one day fight for the UFC, if this helps make those dreams come true then I’m all for it.”
Michele Gutierrez – “It sucks that female fighters future is in the hands of Dana White.”
Cung Le –“UFC will corner the MMA market now. MMA will be as popular as the NFL in shorter amount of time.”
Andy Main – “I am not surprised, Strikeforce has two or so years left. The UFC will slowly take all of the top guys and either make Strikeforce the B-League or just shut it down. The only thing Strikeforce had going for them was the guys on their roster that are arguably ranked #1 (Overeem, Melendez & Diaz). This is the UFC’s way of making they’re champ and divisions undisputed #1 while also gaining some more fans. Brilliant!”
