UFC vs. Strikeforce, the War Is On
Saturday, August 8th, 2009
The UFC’s quest to secure the rights to Fedor Emelianenko was a failed one, as indicated just days ago by UFC president Dana White. Strikeforce saw an opportunity to take advantage of such a situation, and succeeded in doing so.
Strikeforce made the announcement on Monday, letting the public know that top heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko would be fighting under the Strikeforce umbrella going forward, with the expectation that his first fight will take place within the next 90 days. Both Fedor and Strikeforce stand to benefit from this arrangement.
Emelianenko is pleased due to Strikeforce’s willingness to allow M-1 to co-promote the fights; this was the deal-breaker with UFC due to Dana White’s unwillingness to allow this. Strikeforce gets a major name in the MMA world, and adds instant credibility to the brand with Fedor’s involvement, not to mention a virtual guarantee of an increase in viewers. UFC and Strikeforce Set to Go to War
M-1 can only bring good things to the table for Strikeforce. Always outpowered by UFC, the household name in the industry, the cooperation of M-1 should help Strikeforce to gain strength in the MMA world. With UFC’s alliance with Affliction, Strikeforce really had no choice but to give things a shot with M-1.
For Fedor, he has the opportunity to ply his trade in front of a national pay-channel audience, not just a PPV crowd that is wary of plunking down $40 just to see him. The opportunity for exposure – especially if Strikeforce can work the CBS angle – has certainly increased for him. Not as much potentially as if he inked with the UFC but still better than a few months ago.
It will come down to competition and for Strikeforce to be aggressive in signing talented heavyweights to challenge Fedor. There are some intriguing names for him to match up against (Alistair Overeem, Brett Rogers and perhaps Josh Barnett), but Strikeforce needs more talent in that division to create some legitimate challenges for what could be a dominated weight class within the next year.
And yes, even UFC wins by this signing. Fedor will stay fresh in the public eye which will help keep him a constant question and annoyance to White and the rest of the UFC brass. And what happens when White gets annoyed? He gets angry and even more aggressive in making his product that much better.
And that’s not all. White will most definitely have some words for Strikeforce. While the relationship has been friendly on the surface in the past, things are about to get ugly from here.
