Roundtables
ROUNDTABLE: Reactions to Zuffa's plans on moving Strikeforce to pay-per-view in July - Hansen, Amadi, Carter, Pelkey and Penick
Apr 18, 2011 - 9:55:47 PM ROUNDTABLE: Reactions to Zuffa's plans on moving Strikeforce to pay-per-view in July - Hansen, Amadi, Carter, Pelkey and Penick

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What are your thoughts on Zuffa moving Strikeforce to pay-per-view in July?

RICH HANSEN, MMATORCH COLUMNIST

Well, if the pay-per-view market isn't saturated already, we're about to see if adding Strikeforce pay-per-views will meet the saturation point.  Pretty soon most hardcore fans are going to pick and choose which events they want to see, and once that happens it'll be difficult to get those people to start buying all pay-per-views again.

JASON AMADI, MMATORCH COLUMNIST

Because Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez just fought this month, July would probably be too quick of a turnaround for them, so title fights might be out of the question. So we're probably looking at a card headlined by Dan Henderson taking on Fedor Emelianenko. That is a fight that will titillate hardcore fans, but it doesn't have nearly the luster it would have had Fedor not been handled so decisively in his last outing.

The real point of interest is whether or not this event hurts the first UFC pay-per-view headlined by bantamweights.

ALVIN CARTER, MMATORCH SPECIALIST

Strikeforce was going to give this a try at some point.  This could be a good move in trying to signal that the Strikeforce product is on par with UFC's.  This could work well if Strikeforce does end up running separately, and even better if they are swallowed completely into the UFC brand.  By uplifting Strikeforce's brand the eventall unification bout wills be a bit more sellable, and the former Strikeforce fighters will gain some credibility to newer fans who hear that "Gibert Melendez was the former Strikeforce Lightweight Champion."  The effect would be similar to hearing that a fighter was in Pride.

MATT PELKEY, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
 
I think a co-promoted pay-per-view with M-1 and Strikeforce is in Fedor's somewhat recently signed contract. I doubt Zuffa really cares what kind of buyrate this potential pay-per-view does. They're more concerned with checking it off of their "to-do" list and being one step closer to fulfilling all of their obligations to Strikeforce contracted fighters.

JAMIE PENICK, MMATORCH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

My thinking's along the lines of Matt's, where it's quite possible that Emelianenko's got a contractually obligated pay-per-view fight, and a bout with Dan Henderson makes sense to put on pay-per-view. With the next two heavyweight grand prix fights taking place a month before, and Nick Diaz looking to strong-arm things with his threats of leaving for boxing, Gilbert Melendez might be the only champion on the Strikeforce banner available to defend his title, which could work for a pay-per-view card. It's not an event that is going to do big money, at all, especially when Fedor has lost two straight and is the likely headliner. He's never drawn more than 100,000 on pay-per-view (or 150K, depending on which numbers you go by for the Affliction shows), and this would do that type of number at a maximum. The plan is probably just to test the waters and see what kind of response they get, and then move forward with the next phase of whatever they've got planned for Strikeforce as a brand. Basically, I don't think we'll be seeing multiple Strikeforce pay-per-views in the near future.