Is Strikeforce Gambling With Their Future With Heavyweight Grand Prix?
Added on Jan 07, 2011 by John Petit in
7 Comments
As I reported here on Sports Betting World, Strikeforce has announced an 8 man heavyweight tournament to take place throughout 2011. In my opinion this is a risky idea, especially when you consider that for the first time they have a legitamate heavyweight division that looks like a real division.
I have been receiving tweets (twitter.com/scream13) about how I am UFC/Zuffa “shill” because I have said I don’t think the tournament is a good idea. So let me set this straight right now. I like Strikeforce; I think some of the fights they have made make complete sense, but I think they are unnecessarily rolling the dice by hosting this tournament. I have even gone as far as to say that they may even be rolling the dice on their whole organization, I think its unlikely, but if enough things go wrong I think it could affect their viability. Yes, some of these assertations are definitely “what ifs,” but you need to ask yourselves these questions before you decide to act on such a grand scale.
The first thing that needs to come up is the inclusion of Josh Barnett. Josh isn’t even licensed to fight right now, and most commissions will not even a consider a fight with him until he cleans up the issues he currently has in California. Josh tested positive for Performance Enhancing Drugs, for the third time, and pretty much blew off the CSAC for a year and a half and not dealing with it. Strikeforce President Scott Coker is on record as saying, he has found 4 commissions who will license him. That, my friends, is commission shopping, and it’s a bad idea. The key word there is found. Just look at the last time Strikeforce went to Texas, it was a circus with the reffing and judging, and it took away from the event. Even though there were people who were on the card who had tested positive for PED’s in the past, no one on the card was tested. Also, lets not forget that the last time Josh tested hot, it lead to the implosion of Affliction’s fight promoting days. If any of the cards in the tournament, and it could happen in multiple places, turn into a circus it will affect the integrity of the whole tournament.
Some will say Strikeforce has already devalued their Heavyweight belt, and the belt doesn’t matter. They say this because Alistair Overeem has defended his belt once since winning it more then 3 years ago, and the guy Overeem beat was coming off of a loss. As of right now, we don’t even know for sure if the belt will be on the line in these fights. Coker has said he is unsure if he could put the belt on the line because it’s left up to the commissions. I am pretty sure it’s up to the promoter if its a championship fight or not, but I think it’s because he isn’t sure if they can have 5 round fights that aren’t for the title. (NOTE: Coker, If you weren’t commission shopping, you could do this tournament in Las Vegas, because they already allow 5 round non-title affairs.)
Now we come to Alistair Overeem. Overeem is the current Strikeforce champion, and I am happy he is fighting because we will actually see him against solid heavyweights. The bad news is what if the tournament gets extended beyond the 8 months they have planned? Is Overeem going to run off to do K-1 for another 4 months? Also, what happens if Overeem wins his first fight but is injured? Does this mean that the belt will no longer be in the tournament? And speaking of the belt, if he isn’t walking into the tournament defending his belt, does he then fight the winner of the tournament for the strap? A tournament he was possibly eliminated from? Strikeforce is in a weird spot because of Overeem’s choices. Had Overeem been defending his belt, it would be easy to make the tournament with out him, and have the winner fight him. This isn’t the case. If they sit Overeem out, it will be almost another year before he sees a title fight.
We know things go wrong in the fight promotion game no matter how big or small you are. If these problems start to pile up, who knows what consequences Strikeforce will face. When they held the Middleweight tournament, it made sense because Jake Shields vacated his strap to go to the UFC. Right now, they have a logical championship fight to make, as well as a number 1 contender fight. It really seems like they are creating drama, and it’s just unnecessary. There are obvious signs of Showtime being involved in the fight room, and that’s one of the mistakes of which we already know the consequences.
No one thought one positive drug test would sink a promotion, and it did. Strikeforce is NOT as established as the UFC is, and if the biggest fights Strikeforce can make turn into a circus and they produce bad ratings, I don’t expect Showtime to continue to work with them. I think the risk is bigger than the reward, and if this completely falls apart the backlash could be dire.
7 Comments
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January 7, 9:44 pm
this article is written to please zuffa..hey zuffa zombie listen.. this Tourney is a great move by strikeforce, every MMA outlet is talkin bout them every mma fan is talkin bout them.. n before they were just minor league n now I bet Dana white is havin sleepless nights.
as far Barnett, you r dead wrong!! how without ny info you said most of the commissions wont license Barnett..??? FYI Coker has already contacted 4 commissions and they have given Barnett a green signal. Even California commission are ready to give him license if he can sit in a hearing. so I think you dont do your research n talk outta your arse! I stopped reading your article after barnett line.
up yours hater!!
January 8, 2:29 pm
I am going to disagree with ‘vick’, the article is pretty much right on.
Strikeforce has already bet on Fedor, and lost… when they are picking up the scraps from the UFC, and those guys are beating the best in Strikeforce, it proves that Strikeforce is the minor leagues.
The other issue with this tournament is that if Fedor loses in the first round, his value is gone. His value is down right now, and another loss will kill it.
The rub on Fedor is that he never fought the best, when they were still the best. He always fought the ‘best’ years after their prime. On paper, he has beaten a “who’s who” of the MMA world, in reality, it is more of a “who was” list…
January 9, 12:43 am
if only 4 will license Josh, that means about 45 won’t. Thats why I said most. If you think Dana is having sleepless nights over a HWT tourney, you probably don’t know that much about MMA.
Thanks for the comment.
January 9, 3:07 am
It seems your making situation bigger than they really are. There is no risk if barnett can’t fight there are other hw’s that can replace him. The gran prix is really just a bunch of fights that would’ve happen anyway,so ever fight will go off with no problems barring a injury. Strikeforce & showtime knows what they are doin dude. You or searching for reasons to end sf that really don’t exist. Who cares if dana isn’t losing any sleep cause that’s not the point. The point is coker is putting together a tournamant that has captured everybody attention & as long as sf continues to to grow they will keep idoits like you & dana mad at the world.
January 10, 7:26 am
You raise good points John, don’t listen to this Vick person.
You’re spot on about Barnett- it requires Strikeforce to have events in certain places just so he can fight, which is ridiculous. One fighter is forcing them to have a whole card in one of 4 states?
The most logical decision for me was to have a 4, not 8 man tourney for the belt- Overeem v Barnett/Kharitonov, and Werdum v Fedor. Then you get the rematch, plus a very marketable final. Can’t understand the decision to make it an 8 man tourney. One half of the draw is stacked, and the other is weak by comparsion.
January 10, 1:49 pm
I feel this Grand Prix is one of the coolest things Strikeforce actually offer.
The whole heavyweight belt on the line thing is kind of weird, hopefully Overeem defends his belt all 3 times but it’s definitely going to be tough…
Other than that, the fights are very solid.
I’m calling Overeem, Fedor, Kharitonov, and Barnett for the quarterfinals.
January 10, 6:09 pm
Accusing your readers of not knowing much about MMA because your opinion is different is a great way to have the whole world no longer read your articles. You are the Affliction of mma blogging.