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No Middleweight tournament for Strikeforce? Plus Brock/Cain date finalized
By Zach Arnold | July 9, 2010
Sherdog says that there will be a title match between Jacare and Tim Kennedy. But, just because there is a title match doesn’t mean that a tournament should be ruled out — at least if you believe what Scott Coker said last week.
However, if there is no tournament, that to me indicates that they couldn’t get 8 guys to commit to fighting at 185 pounds. If there really isn’t a tournament at the end of the day, that is a red flag about this promotion. Middleweight is the division they have the best chance of making something big happen and if they can’t do an 8-man tournament…
The headliner of the 8/21 Houston event is King Mo vs. Feijao. Headlining a building the size of the Toyota Center?
Strikeforce isn’t the only August show in chaos. Now WEC won’t have Urijah Faber on the WEC 50 card for mid-August when they run in Las Vegas.
Oh yeah, let the Paul Daley/Bellator rumors begin. For the record, the word from Paul’s camp is that he has not signed any deal and that the report was false.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
1) A straight up Middleweight Title fight is the best option for Strikeforce. Much fewer moving parts to mess up. However, they do look like fools for talking about putting on this big huge tournament, and then quickly just turning the title hunt into 1 fight.
2) Seems like there is a trend for Strikeforce fighters to avoid title fights. Coker has shown a willingness to use the championship clause in his contracts. Fighters are smartening up and now just avoiding trying to get titles.
3) Faber being off the WEC card is a huge loss. I wonder if the knee problems are stemming from his loss to Aldo. The fact that it doesn’t require surgery…. And even simple knee problems these days typically require arthroscopic surgery at the very least… Makes me question the real extent of this injury.
4) I am really looking forward to Lesnar/Cain. I hope the undercard on paper is more respectable then the UFC 116 one. Then again, they have so many available fighters for the 2nd half of 2010, that I think it will be hard not to stack some of these cards.
5) I would be surprised if the 3rd season of Bellator isn’t their last. Doesn’t matter who they sign really. Any logical investor will be able to see that Bellator is at a dead end in terms of TV deals and attendance. Them going after Daley is pretty pathetic after what he pulled. No organization should be touching that guy for a year. And isn’t he going to be suspended soon? It would be a complete fail on the part of the A/C if he is not.
45-
I was inclined to agree with you about the UFC 116 card on paper before the show but with how many good fights there ended up being on that show, I honestly could care less about matches with specific names that advance artificial rankings. I’d much rather have fight styles lined up where two guys go out there and entertain doing what they’re best at.
It seems like the last few times a card has looked good on paper it ended up being really boring. It’s the ones that seem underwhelming in advance that tend to deliver for some reason.
“Fighters are smartening up and now just avoiding trying to get titles.”
I’m still waiting for the a guy to show up for a title fight and miss weight on purpose so he can’t get stuck with the belt if he wins. He gets the upside of adding a big name ‘W’ to his record and avoids the downside of being locked into a champions clause.
3rd season of Bellator their last… Are you a
retard? They went from ESPN Desportes to FSN and outside of local sports are probably their highest rated show. Even the UFC casuals I know have watched a couple Bellators. They are probably growing even faster than Strikeforce right now. Especially after they put on the show of the year with the last Joe Warren card.Bellator has been putting out a very entertaining product, but I am not sure that has translated to a profitable one. No matter how good their shows are, if they aren’t making any revenue off them, their days are numbered.
Hopefully, they find a way to monetize what has turned into a very solid product.
Rebney has historically been full of shit, and the odds are excellent that he still is.
With Brock/Cain in Oct and GSP/Kos in December, UFC might have a chance at breaking a million buys 4 times in one year.
Where Bellator money’s came from? Mafia? Where?, anibody can survve the mess of three season’s like bellator, and still signing fighters with big names.
I hear they are paying to Megumi Fuji a lot?
Someone knows the fighters payroll of Bellatore?
put down the crack pipe
The Faber injury sucks but it could be worse … it could have happened before a Sacramento show rather than a Las Vegas show.
That would be a death blow to that show.
If Daley does sign with Bellator, I hope the match him up with Askren immediately. Nothing I love more than watching a one-dimensional striker with a big mouth get wrestleraped.
Pretty excited to see Lesnar/Velasquez get booked so quickly. Seeing either guy string together 3 fights in a 12 month period would be pretty fantastic at this point, so I’m hoping we don’t see any more injuries, illnesses, contract renegotiations, etc.
Seconded. Lesnar-Velasquez will be great. Crossing my fingers there aren’t injuries.
The thing with an 8-man tournament is that you have seven guys coming of a loss by the time it’s finished. So who fights the winner?
Having an established champion at least gives a tourney winner someone to fight, but then why hold a title bout and a tourney in close proximity? It’s just confusing to the majority of fans, especially as Strikeforce doesn’t have the TV or media presence of the UFC to constantly shove their champion’s situations down peoples throats.
You only have seven guys coming off a loss if it is a one-night tournament. In a multi-card tournament, the guys who get bounced in the first round can put together a couple of wins and the guys who get bounced in the semis can also get another fight in before the tournament is over.
Where are they putting all these wins together before the tourney is over? The monthly Strikeforce cards on Showtime/CBS? Oh no, wait, there aren’t any.
Strikeforce fighters aren’t complaining of a lack of fights because the promotion has a bloated roster like the UFC.
Besides, the word is that SF canned it (for now) because they couldn’t get the AC on board for a one-nighter.
The last thing I heard was that they were doing the tournament IN ADDITION TO the Kennedy Jacare fight. Tournament to determine a legitimate #1 contender to the winner of the current top of the heap.