UFC starts to feel it as “Strike-farce” gains steam
I can’t help but go back in time a little bit and recall Dana’s comments about Strikeforce being a joke and calling it “Strike-farce”. All comedy aside, we really believed Dana when he said this and that Strikeforce would just be another minor league club. However, for a club that Dana claims to not be much of a threat the UFC is certainly acting like it’s one. Just recently it has announced that it will be putting on a two hour special in response to the Fedor/Rogers fight that will be happening on CBS. It is quite clear that UFC does not want to go quietly on this and wants to steal as many viewers away from the Fedor fight as possible. It doesn’t even end there, just yesterday reports have stated that negotiations between the UFC and Henderson have stopped with Dana White citing that Hendo was simply asking for too much money. It’s is very possible now that Hendo may move to Strikeforce if they can afford them. I wouldn’t even put it past CBS to chip in some to help make that deal.
So what does this all mean? The short answer is, the UFC is starting to feel the heat. The long answer is a bit more complicated. The UFC has not been in this position for a long time. While Pride did not officially collapse until 2007, many argue that they were no longer any threat after 2004-2005. So it has been almost 5 years where the UFC has not had to be in a competition mode against any other clubs. They were able to make their deals and air their fights without much concern. However that has all changed since Strikforce got its hands on Fedor. That deal gave Strikeforce a large amount of legitimacy and forced the UFC to start looking at the matches that Strikeforce would be putting on. With Rogers sick knockout of Arlovski, MMA fans are pumped for this match as some think Rogers has the best shot at taking down the last emperor. As a result UFC is trying to throw whatever it can to try and stay in the spotlight. They are already behind in terms of network TV, they know this. Ergo they have to leverage Spike TV as much as they can while they are playing catchup.
It gets even worse when you consider how the deal with Henderson has played out so far. If Hendo can be bought by Strikeforce, this will mark the second major fighter that Strikeforce was able to lure away from UFC. If this trend continues, the UFC may have to start considering paying fighters more than what they are worth. This was something that the UFC did not want to have happen. This is what happens in a world of good competition. In a monopoly the value of something is what it is literally worth since there is no threat of an alternative. However, in a world of competition the value of something is merely the interpretation of what everyone else around it thinks it’s worth. Henderson has a decent following and Strikeforce knows this. They may determine that Hendo is worth the money for the name alone if nothing else.
In my opinion the next few weeks are a key stage for Strikeforce. They are in a position to gain a severe amount of momentum. If they close the deal with Henderson and the November 7th fight is a success, then they will be able to ride that wave for a good amount of time while they begin to make moves on the UFC. Before we know it, other big name fighters will be able to make similar moves to that of Henderson, and if that happens the UFC will go from just feeling the heat to outright shaking in their boots.
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