Strikeforce bought out by zuffa!

It won't happen as the UFC doesn't allow fighters to be built in their promotion. What they're hoping for is to simply pick the success of fighters in other promotions. Problem now is there are no promo's significant enough to pick that talent from.
If said fighter for example Duffee doesn't comply then he's banished to some small hall show essentially never to be seen again.
With that much talent fighting for space in a packed promotion like the UFC there's bound to be a massive cull of fighters unless the UFC has the revenue to maintain its profit margins by putting on more shows. Either scenario though is unlikely as they're struggling badly to build stars.
In some respects this may be a coup for DREAM. As if Puji can raise the necessary capital and fighters transition to DREAM then the UFC making a dent in Asia - which has always been a non starter - could very well be over. Japanese fans just don't like the UFC brand. This though is a BIG IF. Especially taking into consideration the state Japan is in plus the recent earthquake.

 

I dont think the UFC are gonna cut the fighters worth building a promotion over. It will be mainly the likes of Dolloway and Efrain. And anyone who wants to jump ship and have decent enough lawyers to get them out of the contracts, well Roger Huerta is a good example of how that pans out. Not imposable, but highly unlikely imo And the Overeems & Barnetts of the world are not really long term prospects. Might be a coup for DREAM as you said though

 

DREAM is a massive IF. The Japanese have zero interest in the UFC. But because DREAM and K-1 are loosing TV, fans, and revenue by the bucket load only co-promotions - as they did with NYE - and a fresh injection of capital will help.
But this is a tall order to the point of being largely improbable. There's no way Dana will allow his major stars to defect unless he offers more cash. No other organisation can match the UFC for anything. They have a complete stranglehold on the sport.
So i dont see how that one gets off its feet unless there's a massive influx of fighters very quickly into DREAM.
This may be plausible though because of the co-promotions and clauses allowed for fighters to fight elsewhere in SF and if SF is truly business as usual ( again highly unlikely until contracts start to expire or require renegotiation ).
All very speculative but the landscape has changed dramatically. So much so that its almost impossible to see a positive outcome of any of this other than a massive windfall for Zuffa and the sport and its fighters getting shafted.

The worst part of this all though is i see no real breeding ground for future stars in this sport. I personally think MMA as we know it is done. Because the UFC is gambling off the success of SF's current stars who have all built their resumes elsewhere. Now that there is no genuine competition and no where for fighters to make a name for themselves you've just killed the "real" life blood of this sport.
The UFC have been trying to build stars for sometime now. They've failed with the TUF product which in reality has produced little other than marketing gimmicks with no real dependable quality talent or stars of the GSP ilk. That talent is bound to dry up now that there is no other options.

 

JMMA has always thrived with home grown stars supplementing the foreign fighters on the cards. so hopefully they will find a new Sakuraba type. And that of course is a big IF aswell.

 

3 hopes of that happening. Slim none and Bob.
Ishii was the best man for that job. The Japanese HATE him. Aoki also isn't up to the task despite playing a good heel. Japan just needs fighters. As long as they continue to have none as well as no money DREAM is dead.
FEG's own president Sadaharu Tanikawa has gone on record publicly saying DREAM and the K-1 are dead. Will the UFC step in and buy that too?!!?!

 

I think they'll be content to let it die on the vine. Aikyama and Okami are hardly in a postilion to help the UFC expand into a market hostile to its product already. And If a home grown promotion is failing in Japan then the UFC will see no money in it and already seem to be looking to exploit the vast market in China. So losing a penny to gain a pound in other words with regard to the Asian market

 

Japan is a dead zone for MMA. No point in speculating what might happen when we know that nothing will happen. The best they can hope for now in Japan is a handful of small shows with bantamweights who earn 10k and maybe one big show a year if Dynamite ever comes back.

 

Id wager a good bet 2010 was our last Dynamite. Its done. If the K-1 is dead then DREAM is positively finished. Good night and god bless FEG.
Kick boxing goes back to obscurity and MMA dies a slow death in under a decade.

 

I still think there's enough 'Zuffa Zombies' to keep the UFC going. But as for MMA I'll be looking back at these years as the glory days and be posting in some Classic MMA forum using the immortal line 'In my day....' like in the ESB Classic now

 

You mean you don't do that already?

I am VERY glad though that i was witness to MMA's formative years. Can you imagine if we never got to see the Coleman's Kerr's CC Nog Fedor Wandy etc in their formative years in this sport?
Would have been a travesty to have seen an organisation like Zuffa pulling all those strings for their own gain. Im afraid ALOT of fans have missed out and dont actually realised what they've missed. Oh well im sure the UFC will play some more PRIDE and SF reruns when business is slacking...

 

Well I caught up with it in hindsight got into MMA around 05 Randy v Chuck & AA v Timmy 2. Then went back and watched UFC 1 with Royce Gracie, and that led to watching Rickson in PRIDE...IM doing it already haha
But I am glad that for me MMA didnt start with Griffin v Bonnar

 

The problem with that fight was it did for ALOT of fans. You had Joe Rogan screaming this fight was equivalent of Hagler Hearns live on air. Really Joe? Really? Iv seen better scraps at the Circus Tavern. There was nothing mixed martial arts about that fight at all. It was a school yard brawl. Both went on to become stars in the UFC. ****ing tragic.

 

Prediction: 5 years from now ZUFFA will be in serious financial trouble as they will blow through tons of money on ridiculous foreign ventures while at the same time over-saturating the North American PPV market.

Only one successful MMA promoter in the entire sport? Good luck with that MMA...I mean UFC.

 

I don't think that will be the case. I see their demise simply because the sport is bound to dwindle and contract because there is no competition. Where do the new stars come from? As they wont come from the UFC as the organisation is too competitive to allow that? They cant capitalise on other success's because guess what there are none!
The UFC are quite shrewd as to "how" they spend their money. I don't think they'll blow it on foreign investment unless they know there are guaranteed returns.
Because the UFC is primarily a US phenomenon that's very unlikely.

 

They already spent tons on the UK/Australia/Germany and they will spend more on Brazil and if they are really stupid go to places like Japan, India, China etc (Dana said again in a recent interview).

The problem is that besides some strong live gates they can't sell those shows on PPV due to timezones, lack of media coverage for N.A. and in terms of the local market they might maybe convince UK and Aussie fans to buy PPVs in very small numbers but they can't sell local PPVs in the other countries. Look at all the money they spent on the UK and what do they have? 1-2 max successful B shows off PPV and a crappy TV deal in the UK.

Dana's answer to everything is to spend money. Why even buyout Strikeforce and Pride for millions when nobody really cared for them on the whole? Dana lucked out to be in the right moment at the right time. Now we will really see the ZUFFA business acumen. If they really want to dream big like they talk about they will have to spend.

All that and the 15 or so PPVs they will run in the US will dwindle the audience and like you said they have struggled to build new PPV stars. So far they needed to buy the competition to make stars.

The UFC has established the same niche hardcore fanbase that boxing and pro-wrestling has, so they will always be around for the hardcore fans. But I really think that they will burn out the mainstream fan. Same thing happened to boxing in the 90's. I can see the casual fan saying 'MMA is dead' in the next decade, same line they use for boxing today.