UFC Purchases Strikeforce

[Konan]

MMAJunkie.com


UFC president Dana White announced today in an interview with MMA Fighting that Zuffa, LLC, the parent company for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has purchased Strikeforce.

"Strikeforce is going to continue to run business as usual," White told MMA Fighting. "There's contracts in place. These guys are on Showtime. Strikeforce pulls good ratings for Showtime. I think Showtime is happy with them. All those contracts will be honored. These guys are going to remain Strikeforce fighters.


"Could guys from the UFC leave and end up over in Strikeforce? Yeah."

[The Mac]

heres the full story lol


First it was PRIDE and then the WEC. Now add Strikeforce to the list.

UFC president Dana White today announced in an interview with MMAFighting.com that Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has purchased Strikeforce.

Terms of the purchase were not immediately disclosed, but White characterized the transaction as "a good deal."

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) learned of the deal Saturday morning, though requests for comment to both UFC and Strikeforce officials went unanswered. Officials are expected to announce the deal early next week.

White said under the terms of the purchase, Strikeforce talent will remain on the promotion's roster for the time being, though UFC fighters could potentially make their way into the organization.

"Strikeforce is going to continue to run business as usual," White told MMAFighting.com. "There are contracts in place. These guys are on Showtime. Strikeforce pulls good ratings for Showtime. I think Showtime is happy with them. All those contracts will be honored. These guys are going to remain Strikeforce fighters.

"Could guys from the UFC leave and end up over in Strikeforce? Yeah."

Showtime officials also declined to comment on the transaction when contacted by MMAjunkie.com.

Similar to Zuffa's retention of WEC executive Reed Harris following the 2006 purchase of his company, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker will remain a part of the company and will run day-to-day operations. Coker's West Coast Entertainment company and Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment, which runs the NHL's San Jose Sharks and the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., previously owned Strikeforce.

White ruled out the possibility off cross-promotion "superfights" featuring fighters from both promotions and said current fighter contracts, broadcast deals and business partnerships will be unaffected.

White suggested the primary motivating factor for the purchase was to acquire new talent as Zuffa LLC continues its global expansion. However, White also insisted that Strikeforce will continue to operate as an independent entity, right down to negotiating for fighters' services.

"That's a separate business that has their own income," White said. "They have their own budgets and everything else that they do. They have they're own television deals. If they're that interested in acquiring (a fighter), it's no different than it was before."

White later clarified that fighters such as Paul Daley and Josh Barnett, whom the UFC boss has publicly condemned for various reasons, would be free to negotiate with Strikeforce under the terms of the new deal.

[Swinny]

Wow. I sure as hell didn't see this coming. But it's a good deal because Strikeforce needed some change, no doubt about that, and under new ownership hopefully it can step it's game up. Seems like it will basically be the new WEC then, owned by the UFC but run separately, just with different weight classes.

[Konan]

what about the tournament??????? are they gonna merge????+ i used to watch strikeforce and wec because they were free now we get to pay 60 $ everytime we wanna see nick diaz or overeem or fedor???

[Swinny]

what about the tournament??????? are they gonna merge????+ i used to watch strikeforce and wec because they were free now we get to pay 60 $ everytime we wanna see nick diaz or overeem or fedor???

Did you not even read the article to posted? lol. Nothing much is going to change. The tournament will stay in place, all the events will stay in place, and they will remain on Showtime.

[Konan]

lol sorry abt that

Competition is good for the brands. UFC and Strikeforce, each one was trying to be better than the other.
Although they say they are gonna keep Strikeforce the way it is, in the near future they are probably going to merge or dissolve it...

I think mma fans would be best served with more competition, different ideas going on. Just like Strikeforce Grand-Prix, something UFC never had, it is something different.

[Swinny]

Yeah, competition is good, if it's real competition, but the way I see it the UFC and Strikeforce were like WWE and TNA. Strikeforce was nowhere near on the level UFC was. I agree that there's definitely some good ideas that Strikeforce has, like the heavyweight tournament and having a women's division, but that will all still continue, at least for the time being, but I think overall the change will be good for them. I don't seem them merging any time soon, but I definitely could see it happening some day, when the contracts with Showtime and everything run out.

[Travicity]

Holy shit lol!

[aoessand]

all i hear is fedor vs capitan fuckn america! fuck yaaa!!!!!

[The Mac]

i think right now dana is sayin all the right things, but no way in hell is he gonna let strikeforce operate how it does now, he is gonna at least take over the booking because coker was ruining SF with it, put silva in charge of them to, but no way will SF be around for much loner imo

[Konan]

Why does the UFC wants to always monopolize the mma market..Somethng has to happen to put a stop to these jerks who think own the world.

[The Mac]

pro elite was Gonna buy SF and run it into the ground like they did elite xc so ufc saved SF imo

[Swinny]

i think right now dana is sayin all the right things, but no way in hell is he gonna let strikeforce operate how it does now, he is gonna at least take over the booking because coker was ruining SF with it, put silva in charge of them to, but no way will SF be around for much loner imo

Yeah, there definitely needs to be some changes made. I think they'll run until their contract with Showtime is up, not sure when that is though, and then I figure you'll see them fold and merge into UFC... and hopefully we'll see some champion vs. champion fights. GSP vs. Diaz, Cain vs. Overeem, Edgar vs. Melendez? Yes please. Although the championships may have all changed hands by then, still would be great to see.