Strikeforce agree Japanese PPV Deal
Posted on January 20, 2011, 09:36 AM by Daniel CassidyIn an excellent business move for the California based promotion, Strikeforce today announced they will now air PPV's in Japan. The company confirmed they had reached a deal with the Japanese SkyPerfecTV company, who will broadcast events beginning with Strikeforce: Fedor vs Silva on February 12th.
The move shows the company intent to make good on their own promises of global expansion. Since showcasing Shiya Aoki's fight with Gilbert Melendez, Strikeforce already garnered some interest from the The Land of The Rising Sun. Fighter's on the promotion's roster also include the likes of Josh Barnett, Fedor Emilianenko, Nick Diaz, Josh Thomson and Alistair Overeem, all of whom have already fought and are highly popular in Japan.
SkyPerfecTv were founded in 1996, and is best known in the US for broadcasting PRIDE during it's hey day. With JMMA seemingly on a decline, Strikeforce could have struck gold with his deal. Most recently, On New Years Eve, Dynamite!! took in several million Japanese viewers, which would be highly beneficial to Strikeforce as they try to compete with the UFC.
With this new TV deal, as well as promises of hosting overseas events, Scott Coker's company could be planning a Japanese event in the near future. With their Heavyweight tournament about to start, Coker and co. could find difficulty in getting Josh Barnett licensed to fight in America, and combined with his popularity, Japan could be ideal in the future for Strikeforce.
Source: Fighters Only
Comments
Go Strikeforce !!!
So why did I buy Showtime? Are we only going to get Strikeforce Challengers now on Showtime?
Or am I confused? PPV only for Japanese and Showtime for us?
strikeforce is going to beat the ufc in less than 1 year, because ufc hw division is weak compare to strikeforce, plus dana is a selfish coward. go strikeforce be the 1 mma promotion.
I enjoy watching SF more then UFC but if they ever get bigger then the UFC it will not be for a long time
It will take at least 3 years of perfect decision making to even catch up to the UFC.
They make money of Japan since Fedor, Barnett, Werdum, Kharitonov and Overeem are still popular and well-known in Japan.
This is good news. I believe a competitive Strikeforce is good for MMA and good for the fighters.
Strikeforce has a great HW division, but they need to fill out their other divisions. Strikeforce needs to take a page from the UFC, and market their fighters better--let the fans get to know the fighters. Maybe a Strikeforce TUF competition?
"Party on dudes" ... (Bas Rutten)
SF rullzzz
So what's the over/under on White trashing this within the next 24 hours?
White probably has Sonnen on it already ... he will pop his little molerat head out tomorrow and belch out some garbage i'm sure.
yea chael is danas bitch, he already said somthing bad about overeem/k1 on mma live once
awesome move by coker and strikeforce! not only does this broaden their fanbase but it will generate much needed revenue for JMMA.
So, do some of you still think SF will fold in under a year?
Great news for MMA. I like UFC but find DW unbearable. I hope UFC entertains cross promotion again like it used to. Maybe if strikeforce becomes equal in size and popularity they will. And then fans will get to find out who the best in the world really is.
I agree that SF has to do more marketing and promotion. More aggresive. They have an excellent HW division to start with.
In time Dana's douchebagness will catch up to him and Im really happy to see SF doing well and moving forward. Im sure Dan Henderson has a smile on his face.