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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
When Zuffa purchased Strikeforce in the spring of 2011, most felt it was only a matter of time before they closed up shop and brought the best fighters from that organization into the UFC. After a tumultuous couple of months with injuries, that finally may be coming to fruition.
Strikeforce lost several big names in 2011 to the UFC, with Nick Diaz, Dan Henderson, and Alistair Overeem all being brought over. Then, when they restructured a deal with Showtime for 2012, the heavyweight division was folded as well, save for two fighters.
That left Strikeforce with a small amount of headliners capable of topping their shows on Showtime, and because of that they were forced to cancel an event in September. They may have to do the same with their Nov. 3 card after losing Frank Mir, Luke Rockhold, and Sara McMann as well. With that event in jeopardy of not going through, rumors began swirling of the organization's impending demise, and AXS TV's Inside MMA program reported just as much on Monday night. Said the report:
"'Inside MMA' has heard from multiple sources that the relationship between Strikeforce and Showtime may be coming to an end. We are being told that the November 3 event is in serious jeopardy, and there's a strong possibility that Showtime will no longer broadcast Strikeforce events. This could very possibly signify the end of the Strikeforce brand. Strikeforce was purchased by Zuffa in March of 2011. We have yet to receive any word from either Showtime or Strikeforce as this development continues."
MMAFighting.com reporter Ariel Helwani took to Twitter with the following in response:
"Re: the Strikeforce rumors, according to a Showtime official in the know, as of tonight, 11/3 and beyond is a go for them. They said they would be 'beyond shocked' if that show & the promotion were shut down. Zuffa had no comment. Business as usual, I guess."
For now, nothing is official, and we won't know for sure until an announcement is made by either Showtime or Zuffa, but where there's smoke there is oftentimes fire.
Penick's Analysis: Obviously we don't have an official announcement, but it would only make sense at this point. Strikeforce is devoid of big names to carry eight events a year on Showtime. That's why Ronda Rousey headlined twice in 2012, Luke Rockhold headlined twice in 2012, and Daniel Cormier is scheduled to headline twice in 2012. The other event was supposed to be headlined by Gilbert Melendez - who would have also headlined in May were it not for the Heavyweight World Grand Prix. That's really what they've got. So when Melendez gets hurt, Cormier's opponent gets hurt, Rockhold gets hurt, and Rousey doesn't have an opponent, they've got very little to work with. For Showtime, there's only so long that they will take a lack of names on the network, and it might be time to pull the plug, then try to bring something else, if anything, in for MMA on their network.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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