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Defending Strikeforce’s matchmaking in booking a rematch between Cung Le and Scott Smith; Update: Ratings for Fedor fight
By Zach Arnold | June 29, 2010
MMA Junkie: Fedor vs. Werdum Strikeforce event drew around 500,000 viewers
A passage from a late night Monday Observer radio show that I’m sure will garner some reaction. There were many MMA-related topics discussed on the show but I chose this one because it best reflects the mood of a lot of the online MMA fans about Strikeforce.
A reader e-mailed in and asked why Strikeforce books a lot of rematches and has trouble making stars by having an undercurrent where if a big name loses to a lower level name that there is a propensity to immediately want to have the big name get their win back right away. Read the passage and then I’ll give my response at the end of it.
Also discussed on the Observer show was Dave’s idea of booking Anderson Silva vs. Mauricio Shogun instead of Anderson Silva vs. GSP because he feels it would be a fairer fight due to weight issues. He also believes Anderson/Shogun could draw 900,000 PPV buys. He also believes that Josh Koscheck has a better shot of beating GSP than Chael Sonnen does of beating Anderson Silva in Oakland this August.
Now, the passage about Strikeforce’s matchmaking:
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “This person says: does Strikeforce does not care about making stars? That’s the only explanation I can think of as to why Cung Le/Scott Smith went to an immediate rematch.”
DAVE MELTZER: “I do not understand any controversy over Cung Le fighting Scott Smith. It boggles my mind. When that was over, I mean to me it’s like what is the most logical match to do when that was over and it’s a rematch because Cung Le is the draw and that’s what people don’t understand. Scott Smith is not a draw, OK? So what, you’re going to put Scott Smith against who, Robbie Lawler? They’ve already fought twice anyways. You’re going to put Scott Smith against Tim Kennedy? No one will care. You’re going to put him against Trevor Prangley? You’re going to put him against Melvin Manhoef? None of these matches would mean anything. The only match Scott Smith could do that would mean anything is Cung Le, OK? And conversely, Cung Le who is a draw, what match could he do right now that people would be interested in? Frank Shamrock, who’s now retired? Or Scott Smith? Those were the only two. So therefore, you’re pretty much the best match for both guys is each other and the first match was one of the best matches of last year. All leading to the fact that there was no other match to make and I… I think some people like, I mean there’s so many rematches in boxing and I’ve asked, because I’m not a boxing message board guy, but I’ve asked like do boxing fans complain and it’s like, no, boxing fans love rematches. Somehow in MMA when you book rematches, there’s something wrong and you’re a bad booker. Yet, in UFC, if you look at all the rematches, invariably the second match outdraws or draws equally to the first. So why is a rematch a bad idea? So, anyway, I don’t know, you may have a different opinion but when Cung lost to Scott Smith the first thought I thought of is, man, I want to see a rematch, and that’s what they delivered and that’s what the people wanted and they had another good match, so what was wrong with that?”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Well, I immediately argue that they should do Fedor/Werdum II before anything else, but his argument here is more along the lines of when an underdog beats a big name, he’s saying why not let them ride that out as opposed to immediately doing a rematch to try to let the big name get their win back?”
DAVE MELTZER: “Because for the underdog, he’s still a smaller star and being in a big name gives him the rub from being in with a big name. I mean, if Scott Smith fought Tim Kennedy, Scott Smith goes down even though he won the fight and even if he beats Tim Kennedy he still doesn’t up because Tim Kennedy is not yet a star, either. So I mean, who exactly is there? Fights Melvin Manhoef and gets like taken apart and destroyed or somehow wins, it doesn’t matter because Melvin Manhoef’s not a star in this power. Who else do they have at 185, I guess he could fight, he’s already fought Nick Diaz. We already know what happens there. You know, and that wasn’t good as a fight as the Cung fight. So, I mean, you look at, besides the thing is… you know, I mean, Scott Smith, how much you know realistically because Scott Smith beat Cung Le, he’s still limited because he’s Scott Smith. How big a star can Scott Smith be? He’s a big star as he could possibly be because he had some great come-from-behind finishes and even then he’s not that big of a star. And it wouldn’t be, he can’t be a top, top guy anyways. You know he really, you know, if he fought Cung 10 times, he’s losing 8 or 9 of them and so for him the best thing was a rematch. For Cung Le the best thing was for a rematch because you rehabilitate him. For the fans the best thing was a rematch because you want Cung Le on a San Jose show in a match that means something and that was clearly the match that would mean more than any other so, I don’t know. I just thought that like I thought booking that match was like a complete no-brainer and then like afterwards I see people complaining and it’s like, again, if you’re going to complain, come up with like a better scenario that’s going to sell more tickets in San Jose or mean more on Showtime and you know, I don’t think there is one for either guy.”
The issue with Strikeforce and their matchmaking that frustrates so many fans is how sudden it is and how there never seems to be any sort of continuity from show to show. There’s no rhythm. They just put on shows and book some fights.
The big issue I had with the Cung Le/Scott Smith II fight is that they made this a fight where the loser would not be in the 185-pound Middleweight tournament. How is that fair to Scott Smith given that he won the first fight? He gets the upset win, then loses the second match, and he’s the one on the outs while Cung Le, who Scott Coker wants in the Middleweight tournament, doesn’t want to be in the tournament at all and is happy being an occasionally active fighter? It’s that kind of stupidity that drives the fans nuts. Plus, it’s hard to get behind a guy like Cung (a point made by Jordan Breen and Sherdog radio crew) when his message to the fans is that fighting is not his first love any more.
The other argument that Dave makes is that Cung’s the best draw in terms of booking an opponent for Smith. True enough, but the fight was only announced less than two weeks before the show happened. It’s not like there was ample time to build it up right. Plus, as Dave noted himself, Strikeforce is drawing less and less local fans for their San Jose shows now, so Cung’s ability to draw a lot of local fans is somewhat fading. Again, Dave noted this himself, Strikeforce is now viewed by the locals as a promotion that’s no longer local, so booking someone local like Cung Le isn’t going to have the same impact that it did in the past.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 32 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Meltzer has been doing a bad job lately in his analysis of MMA.
This is not pro wrestling. You don’t book immediate rematches when there is no controversy in the first fight.
In PW, a guy loses on one PPV, comes back to avenge the loss on the next and it makes a great story line.
In MMA…. Which is real…. Cung Le avenging his loss still has many fans thinking about his first loss. He can’t erase that in the mind of the fans with a rematch. Heck, the first GSP/Serra fight is still on peoples minds when they make predictions on future GSP opponents.
Always move forward in MMA booking. That is a cardinal rule that SF breaks way too often!!
Of course the GSP/Serra fight is going to be on their minds. Not because he destroyed Serra in the second fight, but because he lost by KO. You can’t book GSP’s fights in a way that people are just going to forget that.
Immediate rematches are fine. Its built more stars than retarded their growth. Is anyone here complaining that we got Shogun/Machida II? Couture/Rizzo II? Belfort/Couture III? I guess the UFC must be straight dumb to have just set up Penn/Edgar II instead of that Edgar/Maynard rematch everyone has been jonesing for.
Couture/Belfort 2 was a freak injury thing. And both Couture/Rizzo 1 and Machida/Rua 1 were close controversial decisions.
Strikeforce is booking immediate rematches on definitive finishes.
Big difference. And you know that. The UFC didn’t give immediate rematches to Koscheck/Thiago or GSP/Serra.
Penn/Edgar II wasn’t definitive? How about Tim Sylvia/Andrei Arlovski III? Does the excuse that the division was weak come into play?
Cung Le dominated a fight and got caught at the end with a punch. How that greatly differs from Couture/Rizzo I in terms of potential “controversy” or fan discussion, I’m not really sure. Its just a front. The UFC is as willing to do it as anyone.
Penn/Edgar 2 hasn’t happened yet.
And Arlovski/Sylvia 3 was part of a trilogy. Still different then giving an immediate rematch after their first fight that was definitive. Nice try, but another bust.
It’s booked and signed. Obviously the UFC fully intends to do it. Apparently intention counts for nothing?
Part of a trilogy, LOL. So if they do Smith/Le III its okay?
Over 60% of the people who saw Penn/Edgar thought Penn won. 100% of the people who saw Le/Smith 1 thought Smith won.
And as for the trilogy it was the 3rd leg of it. They didn’t do an immediate rematch between the first 2 fights.
I love that you keep creating qualifiers here to disallow UFC rematches from being mentioned. I guess the same goes for Shamrock/Tito III, since it was a “questionable stoppage” or whatever. Hilarious.
Apparently only the UFC can use smart business motivation to book rematches. Strikeforce shouldn’t, because it doesn’t build the 45 way.
I like immediate rematches.
But I didn’t see the need for an immediate rematch between these two guys.
Meltzer says who was there for Cung Le to fight. I say Melvin Manhoef. Two guys with accomplished kickboxing backgrounds, one with a lot of power in speed, one with great technique. Seems like a great fight to me.
Smith vs. Kennedy would have been prefect. Tough veteran vs. prospect(somewhat anyway since he’s not young). Prangley vs Kennedy was ok but I would have rather seen Smith against him.
Cung Le was the draw? Cung Le would have been a great draw against most others. A rematch after both had one more fight would’ve been better IMO.
So Cung Le fights Manhoef, who’s honestly a more dangerous fighter to him than Smith is. What is the payoff there? How is that “looking forward”? Same with Smith/Kennedy. Kennedy wins and….what, precisely? He beat a guy the level of which he’s already defeated?
The funny part is that this is all a lead in to a tournament. You know, “focused booking”. LOL
There’s a couple things I disagree with here. One: Is it that Cung Le isn’t the same draw that he was a year or two ago because Strikeforce isn’t a local organization when Cung Le hasn’t fought outside of San Jose, or it because Cung Le lost a fight? The illusion of invincibility is a big draw.
Two, and I’ve argued this time and time again: the “narrative” so far as Strikeforce is concerned cannot work. Period. They are about to lose their middleweight champion to the UFC: How do you put that in the context of some overarching storyline for the organization? You can’t.
For all the mistakes they make and things they do I disagree with, “building a narrative” is my biggest peeve, which I should additionally note is about the most empty complaint on the planet. This talk of “flow from show to show” is totally made up – what is the flow from the TUF Finale to UFC 116? An interview segment? None of the fights people care about at 116 are in any way affected by a single fight on the Finale show, all of which are basically irrelevant at this moment. Did PRIDE flow show to show? If so, how? Because the same pro wrestlers had their asses handed to them every time?
PRIDE absolutely did have flow from show to show and so does the UFC, but PRIDE moreso. Whenever you went to a PRIDE show, you had your matches, they advertised a calendar of upcoming events, they previewed coming attractions, and everything was laid out. Yes, PRIDE had a lot of bizarre cancellations and last-minute changes, but they largely had 3-to-4 fights set up for a show and went from there.
With Strikeforce, who can possibly tell you what their upcoming schedule is? Hell, they don’t even know because there’s constantly chaos as to what buildings are booked three months from now.
Flow has nothing to do with narrative but it has everything to do with laying out what’s next and giving fans a sense of certainty. There’s no certainty at all with Scott’s promotion.
Strikeforce advertises a calendar of upcoming events also. Its right there in black and white on the TV screen. More often than not they have a match or two listed along with the date of their next event. But PRIDE, the company that would book top ten fighters in matches on a week’s notice – they had a great narrative? Really? Maybe with pro wrestlers and freakshows. Generally Strikeforce books their freakshows with plenty of advanced notice.
There is no certainty because there can’t be any. How tough is this to understand? Its not different than demanding “certainty” from KOTC in 2002, or from DEEP right now. And its mindblowingly myopic: what is “certain” about the UFC’s booking and promotion of Liddell/Franklin? What is the narrative there? How does it fit into some storyline for the promotion? You can make up any shit you want to, but you can do that same exact thing for Strikeforce.
I’m glad you brought this up.
Let’s take PRIDE or even K-1 (yes, even them) for example.
Their biggest yearly show was on NYE. In the case of PRIDE, they would operate as follows:
– Set up things for the Spring starting in January.
– During April, set up themes for the Summer. This would be both some matches and also some themes. PRIDE constantly had themes, whether it be title matches or tournaments, already laid out months in advance. In Japan, you have to book most buildings at least six months out and while you can cancel a booking, it’s very hard to get a building on short notice. Almost never happens. So everyone in the media and the fans know what is coming up 4-6 months in advance as far as tournament themes and who’s listed for what and so forth.
– By mid June, the promotions are already sketching out preliminary plans (A, B, C) and sending out feelers to top talent (like Rickson, Royce) as to what could be done for 12/31. Plus, the heat up begins for a big August show.
– By late August, the promotions have a good idea of what they want to do.
– By early September, the TV networks that pay out the money are finalizing initial plans and getting Dentsu or other big ad agencies started on selling advertising. Even for lowly Sengoku last year, they had announced Yoshida/Ishii by mid-September because they had to get the ad agencies going with a match or two to sell.
– During November, preliminary sketches for the Winter are set and the heat-up for NYE picks up.
And the cycle repeats itself.
You can’t possibly tell me that Strikeforce has the same kind of promotional stability and discipline as what the other major promotions in the past have had.
For one, Strikeforce isn’t really a “major promotion”. That is the great fallacy here. People compare them to the UFC and demand they abide by their rules, but they are clearly not a major promotion. Their talent is, in general, a step down from the upper echelon. That’s not to say it isn’t “UFC level” because that is a very wide net. But they, like Sengoku (who has no direction at the moment) and DREAM (ditto, really) aren’t point towards anything because they can’t be. Their top stars are constantly ready to jump ship should the opportunity arise. How many PRIDE champions left the promotion with the belt like Jake Shields is? Can we name even one?
Going back to the talk of year end shows: You’re not exactly diverging from what I just said. Strikeforce is not going to be given the luxury by the MMA media of building up a Yoshida/Ogawa type freakshow bout. The fights with meaningful fighters were generally messes. Look at Cro-Cop on New Years. Fedor on New Years. Its easy to feed guys complete cans to get them to New Years and build a fight, but Strikeforce doesn’t really have that luxury unless they decide to build themselves around Cung Le, Herschel Walker, and Gina Carano.
Alan, what are you talking about? Even if there’s no one interesting on the TUF Finale, all the guys that win are moving up the ladder. There is no ladder in Strikeforce – just a mess of occasionally useful ‘big names’ and a bunch of people on the challenger shows going nowhere fast. Fights are booked with no foresight into how it affects divisions and what can be done down the line with the winners and losers. That’s the hight of ‘no flow’ / shitty narrative.
“The ladder” is a construct in your mind. It doesn’t exist. As a dude watching this as long as you have, it is incredible to me that you have not realized that sooner.
Let me further explain this before I get some dumbass response. Look at UFC 115 as a point of reference re: “narrative”. What did the main event mean? Well, nothing, because neither man is good enough to be a serious title challenger and everyone knew it going in. So its a stupid fun superfight between two names.
Evan Dunham won and “moved up to ladder”. To where? Up? Sideways? How many rungs? There are no rungs. You imagine them. Title shots are given out if Dana likes you enough. Will he always like Evan Dunham? Will Evan Dunham stay or defect when his contract is up? Is that part of the narrative? Or do we leave it out in this case for the sake of telling a story to yourself about how meaningful the fight is? That is what I thought.
Ben Rothwell vs. Gilbert Yvel. Why bother?
Paulo Thiago vs. Martin Kampmann: Yes, I can guess this one. Thiago wins and MOVES UP THE LADDER. If Kampmann wins, he MOVES DOWN THE LADDER. Did I guess correctly? I bet I did. Problem: Thiago wasn’t moving up the ladder anyways because he speaks Portuguese and is ugly. Kampmann got the honor of being fed to Jake Shields at UFC 120 (probably). Did it really mean anything? In 3 years, will we look back at that fight and discuss it’s great pertinence to MMA? Barring a miracle run by either guy, neither of whom seems to be able to build up a sustained run against top names, the answer is no. The narrative? It was just another fight.
Le is obviously a special example.
A hometown favorite with a few fights left in his career.
If the fight he wants is smith, give it to him.
If its a fight that sustains or raises his status, give it to him.
I dont think its as applicable or a good idea either in the Fedor/Werdum situation though.
Keep Fedor down and Werdum up a little extra long, maybe a year.
Lord knows Fedor/M1 doesn’t mind making everybody else wait when it suits them.
I think the fundamental flaw in the logic is, that if you keep building the fight around the “stars” and not building up the guys that beat them, you’re left with nothing when that star is gone.
Meltzer states that Cung Le is the star, and that Scott Smith is not a star and booking him does nothing.
As a great example of this, look at Rashad Evans. Who was Evans? The boring LnP wrestler coming off of TUF that nobody really cared about. But the UFC took the time to bring him up and promote him, and when he beat one of their stars (Liddell) they started treating HIM like the star. Now Evans was part of one of the biggest fights this year, and also held down an anemic card in January pretty much by himself.
The guy’s a draw now. That’s building stars.
Strikeforce has said they want to build their own stars, but they tend to rely on guys who are already famous from somewhere else and just ride that as long as they can. Nobody in Strikeforce now is famous for what they’ve done in Strikeforce, except for maybe Lady Cyborg.
Start showing undercards. Start believing in your up and comers. Start booking prospects and letting us know WHY we should care about them. Tell us about what they did as an amateur, where they train, what respected trainers/fighters think of them coming up. Hell, look at the following Cain Velasquez has already. It’s not that hard. I find it hard to believe that Coker & Co. don’t realize this, but it’s like they can’t be bothered.
If they don’t change something soon, they’re about a year and a half away from having no stars left.
Scott Smith is never going to be a star. Why invest in someone like that?
Nobody in Strikeforce now is famous for what they’ve done in Strikeforce, except for maybe Lady Cyborg.
Gilbert Melendez? Cung Le?
Scott Smith is just one example, they aren’t investing in ANYONE.
Cung Le is arguable…he brought a big following with him when he came into MMA in the first place, and I haven’t really seen that following grow since he’s been in Strikeforce. Gilbert Melendez is actually a decent example that I overlooked, although he really broke out in popularity based on what he did in Japan, and not Strikeforce – Playboy Mansion.
The primary issue is though, they want to protect their aging stars at the cost of completely diminishing their young up and comers. They’re likely going to do Fedor-Werdum II, and then what? Fedor has a high likelihood of both winning that fight and retiring or leaving Strikeforce shortly thereafter. Now they’ve stopped Werdum’s momentum and lost Fedor. They did it with Shields-Hendo too….they knew Shields was on his way out, put him in a big fight and basically completely derailed their hot new free agent. I won’t even get into the misguided idea that Henderson was going to bring in huge ratings.
Strikeforce right now has a few fun guys who can’t put together a win streak (Lawler, Scott Smith) and champions with no contenders (Melendez, Diaz). Rather than spending the last few shows building up contenders, they’re just pulling fights out of their ass and trying to bank on someone else’s notoriety (like bringing in popular guys from DREAM) and expecting it to end up a ratings blockbuster.
Cung Le isn’t argurable. His big following came from Strikeforce promoted kickboxing shows. Melendez hasn’t been in Japan in what, 5 years?
The primary issue is though, they want to protect their aging stars at the cost of completely diminishing their young up and comers. They’re likely going to do Fedor-Werdum II, and then what?
One of them versus Overeem. You know: The guy they were building Saturday night?
They did it with Shields-Hendo too….they knew Shields was on his way out, put him in a big fight and basically completely derailed their hot new free agent.
They tried to take the belt off him with a tough challenger. Nothing new. UFC tries to give guys ugly Ls on the way out all the time.
Strikeforce right now has a few fun guys who can’t put together a win streak (Lawler, Scott Smith) and champions with no contenders (Melendez, Diaz). Rather than spending the last few shows building up contenders, they’re just pulling fights out of their ass and trying to bank on someone else’s notoriety (like bringing in popular guys from DREAM) and expecting it to end up a ratings blockbuster.
Aoki is a better fighter than anyone Strikeforce can build in the course of the next 3 years. Really. It would take them years to build a guy from scratch to be as highly ranked and thought of as Aoki, and the odds that they’d be successful with them clearing all the hurdles they’d have is crazy low. When you’re complaining about that because you want a worse match in terms of ratings, we’re entering bizarro world where MMA fans don’t give a shit about fights and get hardons imagining Dana White yelling at guys.
Admit it when your beat Alan.
Your whole rebuttal was nonsense, and half arguments that basically reiterated points jason made.
So they weren’t and aren’t positioning Overeem as a future opponent for Fedor or Werdum? Cung Le hasn’t fought most of his career on Strikeforce kickboxing shows?
I love that internet fans only want matches between highly ranked contenders on a situational basis: IE when convenient to make arguments. That is truly incredible.
as a quick example…
They do Werdum-Fedor II. Fedor wins. Fedor leaves Strikeforce for another org, or retires.
Who the hell wants to see Werdum-Overeem after Werdum just lost? It’s this “all our eggs in one basket” sort of planning that kills me about Strikeforce.
I’m not saying that it’s a bad idea to do the cross promotion superfights for the short term, but then you need to fill out those cards with other interesting fights.
This last Saturday is a great example. They basically booked 4 squash matches to try to showcase their stars that were ALREADY popular. It just so happens that Werdum won the fight he was supposed to lose, so odds are they have Werdum get back in there to lose like he’s supposed to. What did we gain? We saw Cung Le win like he was supposed to (knocking Scott Smith out of the MW tourney that Cung doesn’t particularly want to be in…) Cyborg win like she’s supposed to, Thompson win like he was supposed to, and Werdum shocks the world.
So build on it! Werdum is happy to stay in SF. Go have him fight Overeem. And on that card, show some fighters who we haven’t seen too much of! Don’t fill the entire card with “pretty popular guy vs. guy that he should beat easily”.
There’s a huge happy medium between booking cards full of evenly matched nobodies and cards full of your star vs. nobody, with absolutely no backup plan for when nobody wins.
As far as Hendo, the HUGE difference you see in how UFC promotes events is that UFC’s fights are almost always Win/Win for UFC. Frankie Edgar beats BJ Penn for the title? No problem. If Brock loses on Saturday, they’ll use it to make Shane Carwin into a superstar. They won’t just say “uhhh ok so uhhh BROCK VS. THE NEXT CHALLENGER NOW!” They structure their contracts so if a guy is fighting for a title they’re not leaving immediately after and taking their belt to another org.
Strikeforce needs to face reality…
Fedor is looking more and more to be in the twilight of his career
Dan Henderson has 1-2 good years left, tops
Cung Le is on his way out
Frank Shamrock is now gone
Robbie Lawler and Nick Diaz both seem to have one foot out the door
King Mo has literally no challengers at all in that division. They honestly put on a fight at 185 with the winner hopefully fighting for the 205 belt, despite him saying he would not fight the 205 champion?
Nick Diaz, again, absolutely no challengers. He’s probably going to have change weight classes for his next fight.
Melendez? Well hopefully they make that Bellator co-promote happen, because watching Thomson beat up a scrub isn’t helping fill out the division. Knowing how Coker seems to love rematches, maybe he’s building towards a third fight.
Say what you will about UFC, but they generally have a pretty efficient model. 1-2 “headline” fights, and the rest of the fights are to develop fighters coming up in the different divisions. Strikeforce would rather end a show an hour early than show me what their up and comers are doing. How am I supposed to get interested once all of their UFC/PRIDE retirees move on and they haven’t bothered to show me anything that their in house talent can do?
Gilbert Melendez and an almost retired Cung Le does not a fight organization make.
They do Werdum-Fedor II. Fedor wins. Fedor leaves Strikeforce for another org, or retires.
Who the hell wants to see Werdum-Overeem after Werdum just lost? It’s this “all our eggs in one basket” sort of planning that kills me about Strikeforce.
Things go badly any number of ways in MMA as far as planning goes. Was Rashad/Thiago Silva a suitable replacement for Rampage/Rashad? Buyrates say it wasn’t. Does Rampage having a fit over money figure into the space of the “narrative”? Do fights like Rampage/Jardine or Franklin/Wanderlei Silva really have some effect on this imagined overarching storyline in the UFC? No, they don’t.
This last Saturday is a great example. They basically booked 4 squash matches to try to showcase their stars that were ALREADY popular.
Its not as if its the exclusive property of Strikeforce to build contenders in that manner. For them, its worked successfully in the past too, back when people were riding their jock as a “great regional promotion”. You can apply “narrative” to any of that crap. Can Josh Thomson continue to re-establish himself in the lightweight class by taking on a tough journeyman in Pat Healy? That might sound stupid, but its no less so than any made up “storyline” about Dos Santos/Yvel that someone could produce to make that fight sound relevant.
So build on it! Werdum is happy to stay in SF. Go have him fight Overeem.
What if Overeem wins and holds up Strikeforce re: pay and fights in K-1? OH NOEZ KIDZ NARRATIVE. MY BEAUTIFUL STORY.
Stop making up these retarded ass storylines in your head. Grow up. Its just fucking cagefighting.
Frankie Edgar beats BJ Penn for the title? No problem. If Brock loses on Saturday, they’ll use it to make Shane Carwin into a superstar. They won’t just say “uhhh ok so uhhh BROCK VS. THE NEXT CHALLENGER NOW!”
They would be crushed if Carwin won the title. Zero people are buying the PPV this weekend to see Shane Carwin, exciting as he may be in the ring. Their response to Penn losing is to book a rematch. Gee, sounds familiar. And then if Penn wins, will he move up in weight as he was threatening to again? But what about the lightweight NARRATIVE?????
Say what you will about UFC, but they generally have a pretty efficient model.
I’m not saying anything about the UFC’s model. It obviously works. I’m telling you that if Strikeforce decides to spend craploads on prospects to fill out undercards, they’re going to go bankrupt. It isn’t an option for them. They can’t just copy exactly what the UFC did to make money because they operate in a different business model (reliant on premium cable money over PPV). That’s what it is.
The big question you haven’t answered here, Alan, is what is Strikeforce going to do when they run out of steam with their current crop of stars?
They aren’t building up anyone new, and most of their big draws are getting close to retirement or jumping ship. Are they supposed to just rely on UFC castoffs and Japanese imports forever?
They may very well sign UFC fighters away. They might get prospects from Bellator, who’s gonna have piles of contracts. Better Bellator spends the money to make them legit than they do. Look, Strikeforce didn’t rise to prominence “building stars” or some other hokey bullshit you’ve been fed along those lines. They became a promotion everyone loved by putting on events no one watched except suckers buying tickets.
What everyone wants them to do gets them taken off Showtime, has zero guarantee of success, and would probably bury the company in a much shorter time frame.
Brilliant idea, put Anderson Silva vs another fellow Brazilian and ex-training partner. That ALWAYS makes for a great fight!
Who does Tim Kennedy have to beat to get respect??? He kills Nick Thompson then ranked #10 by mmaweekly, then undefeated Zak Cummings 200-1 punch count who had beaten x UFC Terry Martin …then UFC vet Trevor Prangley rnd 1` sub…. He has only 2 losses in carrer. Been active in Military last 8 years with fights on 3-5 weekks and still beat Dante Rivera, Ryan McGivern and others…Give me a break! He’s ranked 15 by Fightmatrix # 3 in strikeforce behind shields…..He deserves more respect!
Agreed 100%, Kennedy is a solid fighter and instead they’re pushing guys like Cung Le who are only vaguely interested in fighting.