Strikeforce: The Four biggest obstacles stopping them from fully competing with the UFC
Posted on August 25, 2010, 10:57 AM by Daniel CassidyFirst of all, I want to make this perfectly clear. I am a big fan of Strikeforce. Sure, they may not have the same wealth of talent, or put on as good cards, but they have spirit, and a desire to overcome the odds and actually challenge Dana White and the UFC. But, there is a lot of problems currently going on over there, ones which need to be addressed very soon, before it kills the company. This is merely a look at where the company has to improve upon, to stay where they are.
The Fedor Problem:
This is a major issue. Fedor, a fighter I have loved watching since i first discovered MMA way back when, has just lost. While real fans like myself will still keep the faith, the problem is that casual fans lose interest when a fighter loses. Not only this, but with Fedor's loss, he also lost much of his mystique. No longer is he the God-like Russian warrior feared around the MMA world, but now he is "the guy who got tapped out by a UFC reject" to casual fans. Strikeforce invested so much in Fedor, and while his fans want to see him fight again, the truth is, many buy into Dana White's stories about how overrated he was, and have already lost interest.
The Heavyweight Division
Strikeforce is lucky enough to posses a few very good Heavyweights, but seem to make strange match choices. The prime example is Fedor vs Rogers.Brett Rogers gets the chance to fight Fedor Emilianenko, and loses. Following this, instead of Overeem vs Fedor, considered by many to be the greatest Heavyweight ever, Scott Coker decides Fedor will fight Fabricio Werdum .While Fedor vs Overeem would have made perfect sense, given Overeem's status as the Strikeforce HW Champion. Instead, Stikeforce awards Brett Rogers a title shot, despite his last fight being a loss to Fedor. Overeem promptly dismantles Rogers. Now, Strikeforce should be giving Werdum, who went on to defeat Fedor, the shot against Overeem, but instead settled on a rematch between Werdum and Fedor. This effectively removes all relevance from the Strikeforce HW title, instead almost making Fedor the title. Now, Alistair Overeem is expected to fight Big Foot Silva, a decent opponent, but Overeem is way out of his level. With Fedor's loss, Strikeforce should have made Werdum vs Overeem for the belt, and Fedor vs Big Foot.
Top fighters keep losing:
In the UFC, if Anderson Silva, or Georges St. Pierre, or even Brock Lesnar were to lose, fans will watch to see how they climb back to the top, or indeed fans will still stay with the promotion because for every big fighter who falls, a new one emerges. In Strikeforce, most recently so many of their biggest fighters have lost. King Mo, Bobby Lashley, Dan Henderson, Robbie Lawler, Gegard Mousasi, Fedor Emilianenko, and Andrei Arlovski have all picked up losses in their last outing. While this might not seem such a large number, a lot of these guys, especially Henderson and Fedor, cost the company seriously large amounts of cash, and were expected to bring plenty of new fans to the organization. With both losing in their last outings, where both of their opponents were strong underdogs, this has hit Strikeforce big time. As sad is it is to admit, Bobby Lashley is arguably their biggest problem. His defeat to the relatively unknown Chad Griggs will cost Strikeforce a lot of WWE fans, curious to see how he fared in real combat.
Lack of build-up for the new talent
Strikeforce currently has quite a few well established group of fighters among their ranks. While this in itself is great, the company does not seem intent on building up new fighters. They only seem willing to invest time and promotional work in those the fans are already aware of, instead of new guys. Take the recent LHW bout between Strikeforce's Golden Child King Mo and Rafeal "Feijao" Cavalcante. Going into the fight, very few fans were familiar with the Heavy handed Brazilian. Leading up to the bout, most of Strikeforce's PR work was aimed at King Mo, making him the star of the show. Going into this fight, very few people expected Mo to lose, due to the expectations placed upon him by his bosses. But, on Saturday night, Feijao caught Mo big time and delivered and epic third round then a KO. Now fans don’t really know the guy carrying the Light Heavyweight belt. While real fans are aware of him, the loudmouth King Mo was a self-marketing self hype machine.
In my eyes, these are just four of the things holding Strikeforce back. The most important thing to remember is that Strikeforce, compared to the UFC, is still in it's infancy. The company must learn to walk before they run. Make no mistake; Strikeforce is not just another EliteXC. In a few years time, Strikeforce will be a major force in the MMA world, provided they build up on their up and coming fighters, and will have a very bright future.
Comments
i think their biggest problem is that they dont have bruce buffer...
This a very good article.Dan
strikforces HW division is easy to understand! lose and you get a title shot
I think that Strike force is doing a great job with their cards but yes they need to fix some things before they can compete with the UFC but even tho I will keep watching their cards.
I don't think they will ever compete with the UFC unless they get a lot more quality fighters. I still like it though and will still watch.
I think one of SF main problems is Scott Coker....
i agree, Strikeforce has so much potential , but they dont have the people to exploit . they have good fighters but they lack to promote them
they keep it safe and promote the ones who are already know.
the Heavyweight division is very good, way better than the UFC had 2 - 3 years ago.
just a few months ago all their Champions look legit.
Overrum , Mousasi , Shields , Diaz , Gilbert
while all this fighters would probably lose to the UFC champions
they are still very talented , and we can see this because the UFC got Jake Shields as soon as they could.
the problem is with the desicion of the fights they make, making them look like a joke and a non serious promotion.
i believe they Could compete with the UFC in just a few years if they play their cards right. but the way i see it now. they dont stand much of a chance. i would like to have another option to watch MMA beside the UFC like the time when PRIDE was around.
One more big problem for Strikeforce = they didn't have their fighters steroid tested for Strikeforce Houston.
They throw their top fighters easy opponents. If they stop being their fighters' bitches and give them hard matchups, that would solve most of their problems.
On the contrary, I felt that even though they were established fighters it was still an upset for Lashley and Mo to lose. I think they problem here is these guys were tired of being looked over, they saw the writing on the wall and went for broke to show their worth, and it paid off.
You tell me they throw their top fighters easy opponents, but somehow their top fighters keep losing? Give me your reasoning please.
Strikeforce as an organization suck plain and simple sure they have good fighters and put on good fights i'm mma crazy so i pay attention regardless of ho awful showtime runs them BUT seriously they get a marked 4/10 for marketing their fights.
3/10 for developing their own stars
1/10 for making fights that actually lead to something else bigger
they pretty much suck and i don't see how they are gonna be a major force like Mr Cassidy thinks
Yeah I have to agree. They will only become big when they set an order and stick to it.
Managerial incompetence is the biggest obstacle.
scott coker is a complete retard. and M-1 is just a bunch of money hunggry russians lol
that has nothing to do with it. he lets M-1 bully him around, he cant make one decision without them. it was his awful decision to co promote with a company based on 1 fighter. and he says things in a interview and takes it back in a diffrent interview. let me tell you something, if coker is such a genius he would not have had rogers fight for the title after he lost to fedor. and instead of fedor fighting for the title, he fights werdum. also he treated one of his best fighters like shit and lost jake shields.
but your right lol hes a bright guy..... ors hes a retard trying to make a buck.
i love when people loose a argument to me on this website then get mad at me and then talk about weed like it offends me lol
this isnt D.A.R.E and your not my mom, therefore me smoking pot isn really a insult lol sorry man didnt mean to hurt your feelings
he didnt even give shields tickets to a strikeforce card he was supposed to watch. then didnt even feature him in the commerical with dan henderson.
Its true... I know, sad... But true.
yea shields himself..?
this is him in a interview with BJ Penn.com
“[Strikeforce] They certainly didn’t treat me like a champion. I went up there thinking that I was the champion, didn’t have any tickets and wasn’t able to get in. Finally one of the Showtime guys was able to get me in and then Scott Coker had some tickets for me but they were way way way up in the stands where I barely could see and I was really surprised because I didn’t realize that is how Strikeforce treats their champs. …They obviously wanted Henderson to win from the beginning and they were a little upset about that but I guess they just got mad at me for winning.”
(:
how can someone weak a comment like that? is it because you are saying the truth and they are angry about or what?
nope the weaked it because its innaccurate. unless Dana could see the future. Shields wasnt really on danas radar until he beat henderson. when he won taht fight thats when SF knew he was going to leave
Awesome response man. I love UFC but Dana and his gang are the mob.
they shud hav primetime & vidz blog..
Nice article man!I agree with all your points and would like to add one: the management of the organization! As other posters said, the co-promotion with M-1 hurt them big time. Spliting the profits of a event just because of one fighter is absurd, no wonder they cant make a deal with the UFC. They need to make a staked PPV card, make Fedor fight Overeem and start taking the belts and all the fights more serious, no more King Mo or Dan Henderson promotional bullshit, as an MMA fan I feel "disgusted" with the hype created around some fighters and the blatant disregard for others...