MMA Universe

MMA Junkie reports the payroll from Saturday’s Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov totaled $942,000. The Ohio State Athletic Commission released the payroll information on Monday.

Via MMA Junkie:

Josh Barnett: $150,000 (no win bonus)
def. Sergei Kharitonov: $100,000

Daniel Cormier: $100,000 (includes $50,000 win bonus)
def. Antonio Silva: $100,000

Luke Rockhold: $50,000 (includes $25,000 win bonus)
def. Ronaldo Souza: $70,000

Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal: $85,000 (no win bonus)
def. Roger Gracie: $80,000

Pat Healy: $17,500 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
def. Maximo Blanco: $13,000

Mike Kyle: $44,000 (includes $22,000 win bonus)
def. Marcos Rogerio de Lima: $5,000

Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)
def. Yoel Romero: $10,000

Jordan Mein: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos: $20,000

Alexis Davis: $6,000 (includes $3,000 win bonus)
def. Amanda Nunes: $7,500

Dominique Steele: $5,000 (includes $2,000 win bonus)
def. Chris Mierzwiak: $3,000

Payout Perspective:

The Heavyweights each receive 6 figures Saturday. I include Cormier since he received his $50K win bonus in addition to his $50K base. This likely is due to the fact he was an originally an alternate. Also, no win bonuses for Barnett or King Mo.

Its interesting that attendance and gate were not reported, when its usually announced after every other event. From the looks of the event on television, it did not seem like there were many in attendance which is a shame since this was a very good night of fights. If you are to believe some reports, there was poor attendance and Strikeforce comped many tickets. With a hefty payroll, it had to be a big money loss for Zuffa.

With the report of Cormier out with a broken hand, will Zuffa wait for him to recover to finish the HW Grand Prix or will there be a substitute to finish off this once good, now ill-fated idea. As many speculate, Strikeforce folding seems as imminent as Bellator moving to Spike. As Alistair Overeem, Jason Miller, Nick Diaz and Cung Le have left the promotion for one reason or another, each has emerged in the UFC. It seems like a matter of time before all Strikeforce fighters are folded into the UFC.

LA Times reports that Alistair Overeem has signed with the UFC and will be taking on Brock Lesnar on the December 30th NYE show being held in Las Vegas.

“Brock is a big name, a dangerous guy, and this is a dream matchup,” Overeem told The Times on Tuesday, just after signing a standard UFC fight contract in the office of Chairman Lorenzo Fertitta. “Brock’s a big guy, an exciting wrestler with his takedowns.
…
“I want to see this fight myself. Overall, I’m a different fighter. A striker, athletic, big. These are going to be two big trucks going at it on a collision course.”

�

VIDEO:

�

Payout Perspective:

Some notes from the announcement:

- The fight will be a 5-round non-title bout (PPV event). Overeem was stripped of the Strikeforce HW Title when he was released from Strikeforce just a few weeks ago.

- Alistair Overeem signed a multiple-fight standard contract, which means he is exclusive to the UFC and will not be allowed to participate in Kickboxing or Golden Glory events.

- It is expected that the winner of this bout will challenge the winner of Cain Velasquez vs Junior Dos Santos for the HW title.

- Overeem was offered a title shot against the Velasquez/JDS winner but Overeem didn’t want to wait that long.

- This event will take place on a Friday night, outside of the norm for the promotion who usually holds PPV events on Saturday nights.

- The UFC was looking to run the NYE show from Abu Dhabi this year from that same Friday night, but instead moved the event to Las Vegas on that same day.

- Yesterday night, the UFC announced that they would be heading back to Japan on February 26, 2012 and would be holding their event at Saitama Super Arena, which will be configured to seat 20,000 fans.  Alistair Overeem would be be one of their biggest draws if they could get him on that card along with “Kid” Yamamoto and Yoshihiro Akiyama to name a few.  Yushin Okami could also be used, but will have to bounce back after a crushing defeat to Anderson Silva in Brazil at UFC 134.

- With the addition of Lesnar vs Overeem, the UFC will most likely host a 1 million PPV buy event this year.  The last time they went through a year without hitting one was back in 2007. Last year, the UFC hosted 3 1 million PPV buy events, two which were headlined by Brock Lesnar.

Sherdog.com reports that Affliction and M-1 Global have settled its two year old lawsuit. The federal lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles, California, was set to go to trial this October.

Fedor Emilianenko and M-1 Global’s attorneys filed a Notice of Settlement in late August informing the Court that the parties involved in the lawsuit had come to an agreement. The papers filed noted the settlement and requested to vacate all pre-trial deadlines and the October trial date.

As you might recall, this lawsuit stemmed from the failed Affliction PPV, “Trilogy.” More background info is here.

Also, J.R. Riddell of Sherdog.com provides a synopsis:

 [Fedor and M-1 Global's] complaint alleged that after Josh Barnett refused licensure by the California State Athletic Commission because of a reported positive stroids test, Affliction breached its contract by refusing to promote the third and final fight called for under their “Fight Agreement.” They claimed Affliction did not undertake “all reasonable efforts” to find a fighter to replace Barnett…

One of the claims made by M-1 was that Affliction was trying to repair its relationship with the UFC and no longer wanted to promote its third PPV.

The lawsuit saw key figures in MMA deposed including UFC head Dana White, at the time Strikeforce head Scott Coker, Affliction’s Tom Attencio and Fedor.

This past June, the Court denied the parties’ motions for summary judgment (requests to dismiss the case on a party’s behalf). At the time, the Court advised the parties that they mediate the case in order to settle the matter short of trial. However, the parties did not settle. But, as with most heavily litigated cases where the result may be in doubt, the parties carved out a settlement short of the trial date.

While the Notice of Settlement filed with the court gave the parties the opportunity to reopen the case within 30 days of the notice, it is unlikely that would happen. In most instances, the parties leave this window in the event a party fails to hold up its end of the settlement (e.g., pay the negotiated settlement). More important to the litigants and their clients, the court deadlines were vacated meaning that further legal work (and legal fees) are avoided.

MMA Junkie reports that Strikeforce Challengers 18 which took place August 18th drew 1,890 fans for a total gate of $53,670.

Via MMA Junkie:

Of the 1,890 total attendees, 1,341 tickets (71 percent) were issued complimentary. With 549 paid tickets, the gate produced a $97.76 average ticket price.

Payout Perspective:

The numbers are in line with July’s Strikeforce Challengers event although 18 outdrew 17 in attendance and gate. With the low number of paid attendance and high number of comps, I wonder if Zuffa ever decides to give out all of the tickets to ensure a packed house and find other ways to monetize the event. The move to Las Vegas reflects the fact that Zuffa is cutting down on the expenses of travel for this series.

Just a few days after Strikeforce HW champ Alistair Overeem was released by Strikeforce’s parent company Zuffa, MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko and three additional teammates of Overeem from the famed Golden Glory camp (Marloes Coenen, Valentijn Overeem, & John Olav Einemo) were all released.

Zuffa released Fedor Emelianenko after losing three fights in a row during his short stint under the Strikeforce banner. Fedor Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem were the two heavy favorites by both the media and fans before the Strikeforce HW Grand Prix commenced earlier this year. A few months later after Zuffa purchased Strikeforce, both fighters have been released from the promotion. After Emelianenko made his Strikeforce debut on CBS against Brett Rogers and won in exciting fashion, he lost his next three fights to Fabricio Werdum (Triangle Armbar), Antonio Silva (TKO Doctor Stoppage), and most recently against Dan Henderson (TKO Punches). Fedor went 1-3 in Strikeforce while earning a reported $1.5M per bout ($300,000 publically reported to Fedor, $1.2M to M-1 as a consulting fee).

The release was expected by many in the industry, considering the high price tag Fedor brought to the table and considering that his participation in the event forced Zuffa to co-promote the event with M-1 Global, who Zuffa has grown tiresome of after years of several failed negotiations to get Fedor into the UFC. Although the UFC claims that they have released Fedor from Strikeforce, M-1 Global’s Evgeni Kogan claims that Fedor’s contract “is with Showtime” and “doesn’t need Strikeforce to fight on Showtime”.

Fedor’s counterpart that evening also has a reported hefty price tag. Dan Henderson’s fight against Fedor was the last on his Strikeforce contract, and sources reported that he was making nearly $800,000 per bout, which meant that between Fedor and Henderson, they raked in nearly $2.3M in salary that evening. After the event that night, Strikeforce only had three champs under contract – Middleweight champ Jacare, Lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez, and Female Bantamweight Champ Miesha Tate. Heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem, Light Heavyweight champ Dan Henderson, Welterweight champ Nick Diaz, and female 145lbs champ Cris Cyborg Santos have all either left Strikeforce for the UFC or are currently free agents. After Dan Henderson’s big victory, it is expected that the UFC will be in negotiations to get the former Strikeforce LHW champ in the UFC roster as soon as possible, where he is rumored to take on an upper tier LHW where he could be one win away from a title shot or possibly take an immediate title shot. Jon Jones, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, and Phil Davis have recently come up in dialog as potential opponents if Henderson rejoins the company he walked away from last year. Henderson’s Clinch Gear brand was banned from the UFC before he signed with Strikeforce. Talks between both parties went on for months, trying to agree on a new contract and settle the sponsor fee imposed by the UFC, forcing the aging MMA legend to sign the lucrative contract with Strikeforce. The move allowed Clinch Gear to sponsor Fedor and fighters from several promotions outside of the UFC.

***

Marloes Coenen (19-5) – the former Strikeforce 135lbs champion – was cut after losing her title on Saturday night’s Strikeforce: Fedor vs Henderson’s co-main event to current champ Miesha Tate via Arm-Triangle-Choke in the 4th round. After fighting Cyborg Santos and then defeating Sarah Kaufman in a dramatic come-from-behind bout to become the champ, Coenen became one of the bigger names in the Strikeforce female roster. Her release was considered by most in the MMA industry as shocking considering that she was the champ, though Dana White’s negative remarks towards women’s MMA paints a grim future for the division. Coenen accumulated a 3-2 record in Strikeforce before being released.

Alistair Overeem’s older brother – Valentijn Overeem (29-26) – was part of the Strikeforce HW GP reserve bouts, where he first took on K-1 veteran Ray Sefo and easily defeated him via Neck Crank during the Strikeforce: Fedor vs Silva event, which was televised on Showtime. In the next round, he was defeated by Chad Griggs via submission (punches) in the first round during the undercard of the Strikeforce: Overeem vs Werdum bout just a few weeks ago. He had a 1-1 record in Strikeforce before he was released.

John Olav Einemo ( 6-2) was on a 5 year hiatus before being signed by the UFC to take on Shane Carwin at UFC 131. Due to an injury to Shane Carwin, Einemo instead fought HW prospect Dave Herman, which he lost by TKO (punches) in the second round. Einemo had a record of 0-1 in the UFC before being released.

Zuffa was able to cut Coenen, Valentijn, and Einemo because the standard fighter contract gives Zuffa the ability to cut any fighter coming off a loss. The only remaining member of Golden Glory left in Zuffa is Sergei Kharitonov, who is already schedule to fight in September against Josh Barnett as part of the Strikeforce HW Grandprix. Kharitonov is coming off an impressive win over Andrei Arlovski in the first round so he is still contracted to fight, though sources tell MMAPayout that if Kharitonov participates in the Ultimate Glory event scheduled for October in Moscow or if he loses, he will also be cut.

Alistair Overeem was coming off a win over Fabricio Werdum when he was released, though sources have informed MMAPayout that Zuffa was able to do so because they claim Overeem refused to fight on September, which would indicate a breach of contract and an immediate release. Overeem and the Golden Glory camp stated that Overeem had multiple injuries and would not be able to compete in September, though he is scheduled to appear in the same October Ultimate Glory event in Moscow with fellow camp member Kharitonov. The camp even released the latest episode of “The Reem” on the day of the release, which documents doctor visits revealing toe and rib injuries, trying to prove that a breach of contract did not take place.

Dana White told MMAFighting that the release of the Golden Glory members was due to the way the camp does business:

“This is actually a pretty simple explanation,” he said. “If you look back throughout history, we haven’t had any Golden Glory guys fight with us since Semmy Schilt, right? And the reason is we have very different business practices. It’s tough to do business with them. The bottom line is the way they do business is, you have to pay them, not the fighters. We don’t work that way. It’s not the way we do business. It’s not how it works in the United States with the athletic commissions. You don’t pay the managers and the managers pay the fighters. You pay the fighters and the fighters pay the managers.”

Regarding the pay situation, Marloes Coenen informed Josh Gross of ESPN that “she wants Golden Glory to handle payments because of tax purposes” and that “She’s paid direct and knows what she makes”. Others have stated that due to tax laws in different countries, this type of arrangement is necessary to do business.

According to our sources regarding Zuffa’s perspective, the items listed below were the reasons specified as to why the UFC cut ties with the camp and their fighters:

Having to go through the camp as a managing group and pay them instead of the fighters directly Reports that Golden Glory wanted more money to be able to fight in September Overeem publicly stating that he was going to quit MMA and box Vitali Klitschko, not having enough fights under contract for Overeem to complete the Strikeforce HW Grandprix & potentially being able to hold the belt hostage to either get a lucrative UFC deal or get a significant bump in pay Appearing on a United Glory poster for the October Moscow event after turning down the September event due to injury along with an intent of United Glory to hold events here in the States within the next year

The other factor in all this is that Strikeforce’s deal with Showtime is up around February of 2012, so both the UFC and Showtime are trying to finish the GP by that time. October was the original date for the next event, but due to scheduling conflicts between Showtime and Zuffa, the event had to be moved to September. There is a strong possibility that Showtime will not renew the Strikeforce contract when it’s up next year in February/March. At that point Showtime can either replace the promotion with another or put their full effort into boxing. It is also expected that around that time Strikeforce could be be absorbed by the UFC, as most of their higher profile fighters are already making their way into the UFC.

MMA Junkie reports that Saturday night’s Strikeforce event on Showtime garnered an average of 571,000 viewers with a peak of 778,000. It was the fourth highest rated Strikeforce-Showtime show ever.

The list of the top five Strikeforce-Showtime shows as compiled by MMA Junkie:

“Strikeforce: Silva vs. Fedor” (February 2011): 741,000 viewers “Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum” (June 2011): 624,000 “Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg” (August 2009): 576,000 “Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Henderson” (July 2011): 571,000 “Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg” (January 2011): 561,000 Payout Perspective: Its interesting that four of the five highest rated shows occurred in 2011 and the fifth being the hyped Carano vs. Cyborg fight. Saturday night’s fight was probably one of the best, if not the best card Strikeforce has put on. Unfortunately, both main event participants are likely gone from the company. In addition, news came out today that the former champion Marloes Coenen has been cut by Zuffa. Interesting that Coenen doesn’t even get to stay to get a rematch.

MMA Weekly reports that 1,876 fans attended the Strikeforce Challengers 17 event held on July 22nd for a total gate of $42,987. Of the 1,876 attendees, 1,418 were comped tickets for the fights at The Pearl at The Palms Resort in Las Vegas.

Via MMA Weekly:

Strikeforce Challengers 17 pulled in a crowd of 1,876 for a total gate of $42,987.50. There were 458 tickets sold for the event, while the majority, 1,418, were complimentary tickets. T

hat left 98 tickets on the table as unsold.

In comparison, the TUF 13 finale in June drew an attendance of 2,035 with $440,150 in gate receipts. While there were more unsold tickets to the finale, 107, the paid attendance hit 1,583 with just 452 complimentary seats.

Payout Perspective:

As MMA Weekly points out, it may be unfair to compare the Challenger series with TUF since the TUF Finale has the television show as a vehicle to promote the fighters on the card. In addition, the card is supplemented by UFC fighters.  Its unlikely Zuffa is too concerned with losing money on the Challengers series live gate and is using it more of a farm system for Strikeforce. Moving the Challenger series to Vegas can be seen as a way to cut travel costs for the series as well.

MMA Junkie reports that 8,311 fans attended Saturday night’s Strikeforce event for a gate of $638,470. The event took place at the Sears Centre Arena outside of Chicago.

Via MMA Junkie:

This year’s Chicago-area show featured a heavyweight headliner between MMA legends Dan Henderson and Emelianenko. Thanks largely to that super-fight, most tickets were sold more than a week before the show, which Coker suggested was the most talent-rich in the organization’s history.

In comparison, June’s Strikeforce event, Overeem vs. Werdum, held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas had 7,639 in attendance for a total gate of $543,060.

Payout Perspective:

The main event is likely what everyone came to see and the action did not disappoint. We will leave it up to you to determine whether the fight was stopped too early. It will be interesting to see what will happen next to both Fedor and Henderson. If Fedor is cut from Strikeforce, it will have dismissed the two fighters it had hoped would meet in the finals of its Heavyweight Grand Prix. How ironic. With Overeem being cut from the organization and Fedor on a losing streak, Dan Henderson arguably is the face of Strikeforce. Yet, at 40 (41 August 24th), it seems like Henderson should be back in the UFC. There are a lot of interesting matchups that Zuffa could make if Henderson came back. But, that would mean another Strikeforce fighter vacating their title to jump to the UFC. Would Zuffa allow that to happen?

MMA Junkie reports that 8,311 fans attended Saturday night’s Strikeforce event for a gate of $638,470. The event took place at the Sears Centre Arena outside of Chicago.

Via MMA Junkie:

This year’s Chicago-area show featured a heavyweight headliner between MMA legends Dan Henderson and Emelianenko. Thanks largely to that super-fight, most tickets were sold more than a week before the show, which Coker suggested was the most talent-rich in the organization’s history.

In comparison, June’s Strikeforce event, Overeem vs. Werdum, held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas had 7,639 in attendance for a total gate of $543,060.

Payout Perspective:

The main event is likely what everyone came to see and the action did not disappoint. We will leave it up to you to determine whether the fight was stopped too early. It will be interesting to see what will happen next to both Fedor and Henderson. If Fedor is cut from Strikeforce, it will have dismissed the two fighters it had hoped would meet in the finals of its Heavyweight Grand Prix. How ironic. With Overeem being cut from the organization and Fedor on a losing streak, Dan Henderson arguably is the face of Strikeforce. Yet, at 40 (41 August 24th), it seems like Henderson should be back in the UFC. There are a lot of interesting matchups that Zuffa could make if Henderson came back. But, that would mean another Strikeforce fighter vacating their title to jump to the UFC. Would Zuffa allow that to happen?

MMA Junkie reports that last Friday night’s Strikeforce Challengers 17 garnered an average of 232,000 viewers. The average reflects the fourth highest in “Challengers” history and an increase from 210,000 viewers for Challengers 16.

In addition, the payout list was revealed via MMA Junkie:

Bobby Voelker: $11,000 (includes $5,500 win bonus)
def. Roger Bowling: $4,500

Devin Cole: $10,000 ($5,000 win bonus)
def. Shawn Jordan: $4,000

Ovince St. Preux: $12,000 ($6,000 win bonus)
def. Joe Cason: $3,000

Sarah Kaufman: $10,000 (no win bonus)
def. Liz Carmouche: $2,500

Adlan Amagov: $8,000 ($4,000 win bonus)
def. Ron Stallings: $3,000

T.J. Cook: $5,000 ($2,500 win bonus)
def. Lionel Lanham: $2,000

Anthony Smith: $5,000 ($2,500 win bonus)
def. Ben Lagman: $2,000

Bill Cooper: $4,000 ($2,000 win bonus)
def. Maka Watson: $2,000

Sterling Ford: $6,000 ($3,000 win bonus)
def. Brian McLaughlin: $2,500

Payout Perspective:

A very good showing for the Challengers series as it appears that it may have found a home base in Vegas. The ratings on Showtime are very good considering it competed with HD Net’s offering of Legacy Fighting Championships. Kaufman’s win does not include a win bonus because there’s a clause in her contract that states that she does not receive a win bonus unless she finishes her opponent (via Chris Nelson of Sherdog). A pretty tough clause to have, but it promotes exciting fights.

News came out Monday that Alistair Overeem was removed from Strikeforce’s Heavyweight Grand Prix set to continue in September. Overeem, appearing on the MMA Hour this week, acknowledged that he was scheduled to fight Bigfoot Silva on September 10th, but thought that the date was too soon.

He tells MMA Fighting that he was promised a date in October or November and planned his training accordingly. Then, he was told September.  He also stated that he was threatened with being cut from the tournament if he didn’t agree to the September fight date with Bigfoot Silva. Zuffa later announced Overeem’s removal from the card and announced Daniel Cormier as his replacement.

Payout Perspective:

The latest lineup change may be the final nail in the coffin for the Strikeforce HW Grand Prix. While the initial buzz for a HW Grand Prix was positive, the execution behind the tournament has been a disaster. Strikeforce intended this to begin and end in 2011 and include the top HW in its division. But, logistics with attempting to hold a show in Japan, the trouble in licensing Josh Barnett, the purchase of Strikeforce and the delay between cards have prevented any positive momentum for the tournament. Bigfoot Silva’s upset of Fedor and now Overeem’s removal makes the grand prix less appealing to fight fans. One might have speculated that the tourney was set so we would see a Fedor-Overeem final.

It appears that with the purchase of Zuffa, the tournament has less appeal. The only thing that would regain fan interest would be if the winner would receive a shot at the UFC champion. However, its unlikely that this would happen. Its too bad for Overeem. He could be a big star for Zuffa. However, his first fight with Fabricio Werdum was disappointing.

MMAPayout recently reported that Zuffa had imposed a sponsor “fee” – similar to the UFCs – that impacted several Strikeforce fighters heading into the Strikeforce HW GP: Overeem vs Werdum event. This time, the sponsor fee will prevent MMA fighters Tim Kennedy and Liz Carmouche from wearing the Ranger Up brand during their upcoming bouts.

Ranger Up President Nick Palmisciano spoke to MMAPayout regarding the current situation between Strikeforce/UFC and Ranger Up:

“We are in fact “out” [as sponsors], but are still supporting all of our athletes financially as if they wore the Ranger Up logo into the cage. We also completely understand and have no issue with Strikeforce’s position. It is a sign the sport is growing. We hope to be back in Strikeforce and the UFC soon, but until then continue to support and sponsor military athletes at all levels, and are very proud to have been able to advance the sport in the military community these past 5 years.”

�

Payout Perspective:

You have to feel bad for sponsors who have grown their brand side-by-side with their sponsored fighter from the small shows to the “big stage” and have continually supported their endeavor to pursue MMA. Most fighters would not have reached the “big stage” without those sponsors who gave them a revenue stream when they were just starting out.  In terms of MMA as a business, it makes perfect sense for Zuffa to apply the tax, though it becomes a tough and critical transitional stage for many fighter-sponsor relationships. For most smaller-scale sponsors, it just doesn’t make any fiscal sense to be paying the Zuffa sponsor fee, specially someone as unique as Ranger Up, who specializes in helping the troops and is not just focused on increasing brand exposure through the signing of numerous fighters.

“Sponsoring a guy does not do anything for you,” he asserted. “It’s sponsoring people, over time, that you believe in, that share your values, that are going to represent the brand well. Taking care of them, they will take care of you. It’s building something that has substance. No one event is going to make you a successful company.”

Ranger Up stressed that supporting the troops will always be the primary focus of Ranger Up, whether it’s through sponsorship in MMA or other events, such as the All-Army Combative Tournaments where Tim Kennedy has made a name for himself over the years. Ranger Up is currently sponsoring over 100 troop members pursuing MMA in smaller events.  “Anyone who has honorably served or serves our country will get our support. Whether it’s inside the cage or just personifying what Ranger Up stands for” said Palmisciano. Ranger Up currently sponsors notable UFC/Strikeforce fighters Tim Kennedy, Liz Carmouche, Brian Stann, Jorge Rivera, and Tim Credeur to name a few.

Note: Although Ranger Up will not be sponsoring Tim Kennedy for his upcoming bout, it is believed that the National Guard may step in and make it’s debut on the Strikeforce: Fedor vs Henderson July 30th event by sponsoring Kennedy.

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective! This week we’ll be taking a look at at the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix second event televised on Showtime, headlined by the current Strikeforce HW champion Alistair Overeem versus Fabricio Werdum and Josh Barnett versus Brett Rogers.

The event aired on Showtime and took place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. It featured Strikeforce HW GP first round bouts between Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum & Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers. The other fights on the main card were Jorge Masvidal vs KJ Noons, Daniel Cormier vs Jeff Monson, and Chad Griggs vs Valentijn Overeem.

The prelims portion of the event was aired on HDNet and was headlined by Justin Wilcox vs JZ Cavalcante. The other fights on the prelims were Conor Heun vs Mango Almeida, Nah-Shon Burrell vs Joe Ray, Isaac Vallie-Flagg vs Brian Melancon. Todd Moore vs Mike Bronzoulis – which took place after the main event, and did not air on TV due to time constraints.

�

Fighter Disclosed Payouts

Fighter payouts were not disclosed for the event.

Attendance and Gate

MMAJunkie reports that Strikeforce: Overeem vs Werdum achieved an attendance of 7,639 for a gate of $543,060. The numbers falls inline with most Strikeforce shows that don’t feature Fedor, who has consistently been able to break 10,000 in attendance and the $1M gates.  In fact, this was the best gate Strikeforce has ever done outside of San Jose that did not feature Fedor.

- 11,757 spectators, “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum” (June, 2010)
- 11,287 spectators, “Strikeforce HW GP: Fedor vs Silva” (February, 2011)
- 9,059 spectators, “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Cyborg” (January, 2011)
- 8,635 spectators, “Strikeforce: Houston” (August, 2010)
- 8,196 spectators, “Strikeforce: Nashville” (April, 2010)
- 8,136 spectators, “Strikeforce St. Louis: Heavy Artillery” (May, 2010)
- 7,639 spectators, “Strikeforce HW GP: Overeem vs Werdum” (June, 2011)
- 7,559 spectators, “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Noons II (October, 2010)
- 7,146 spectators, “Strikeforce: Henderson vs Babalu II (December, 2010)
- 7,123 spectators, “Strikeforce: Feijao vs Henderson” (March, 2011)
- 7,010 spectators, “Strikeforce: Miami” (January, 2010)
- 6,500 spectators, “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Daley (April, 2011) *Estimated, no official release*
- 5,259 spectators, “Strikeforce: Los Angeles” (June, 2010)

�

Ratings

MMAJunkie reports that Strikeforce: Overeem vs Werdum averaged 624,000 viewers (1.7 rating) and peaked at 719,000. The average number was good enough to make it the second most watched (average audience) Strikeforce event on Showtime, only trailing Silva vs Fedor (741K), which was just set back in January of 2011 .

Interesting to point out that Nick Diaz now has 2 of the top 5 most watched MMA events for Strikeforce on Showtime. It also marks another extremely successful event – on the television side – for the promotion, which has been riding high on momentum in 2011. It is also key to note that the 4 big Strikeforce events in 2011 have placed in 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 8th in terms of most average viewership for an MMA event on Showtime ever. Strikeforce events in 2011 now hold 4 out of the top 5 most watched MMA events on Showtime.

- 741,000 viewers (1.1 million peak), “Strikeforce: Fedor vs Silva” (February, 2011)
- 624,000 viewers (719,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Overeem vs Werdum” (June, 2011)
- 576,000 viewers (856,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Carano vs Cyborg” (August, 2009)
- 561,000 viewers (853,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Cyborg” (January, 2011)
- 528,000 viewers (806,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Daley” (April, 2011)
- 517,000 viewers (peak not available), “Strikeforce: Miami” (January, 2010)
- 412,000 viewers (700,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum” (June, 2010)
- 412,000 viewers (520,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Feijao vs Henderson” (March, 2011)
- 367,000 viewers (470,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Houston” (August, 2010)
- 350,000 viewers (509,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Noons II (October, 2010)
- 341,000 viewers (465,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Henderson vs Babalu II (December, 2010)
- 308,000 viewers (448,000 peak), “Strikeforce St. Louis: Heavy Artillery” (May, 2010)
- 164,000 viewers (197,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Los Angeles” (June, 2010) [Special Wednesday Show]

�

Storylines

Strikeforce Hosts Second Major Show Under Zuffa Ownership, First HW GP Event

- The event had a good amount of hype, as can bee seen by the great viewership numbers Showtime was able to pull that night.  Although many were anticipating the HW bouts between Overeem vs Werdum and Barnett vs Rogers, the main event and co-main event did not deliver good quality fights.  Barnett was easily able to take Brett Rogers down and dominate him with his wrestling and ground game.  Overeem vs Werdum was an odd fight, where Werdum wanted no part of Overeem’s standup game and applied a strategy where he would try for a takedown, pull guard, or try to sucker Overeem into his guard, a strategy he was able to successfully execute against Fedor.

The odd part of it all is that when Werdum chose to strike with Overeem, he was doing pretty well, better than most predicted.  According to FightMetric, Werdum out-landed Overeem in significant strikes (43-32), total strikes (62-46), head strikes (51-31), and leg strikes (7-2). Overeem only bested Werdum in body strikes (13-4).  In terms of grappling, Overeem did not attempt a single submission while Werdum attempted 12 and landed 1.  As a result, FightMetric awarded the decision to Werdum 29-28, though if you watched the fight live, it appeared that Werdum was afraid of Overeem and openly pleading for Overeem to come into his guard did not please the judges nor the fans, both in attendance or at home watching.

Both Fabricio Werdum and Alistair Overeem came out of the show not looking so great, which hopefully should not affect the next round since the match-ups are excellent.  Josh Barnett will take on Sergei Kharitonov while Alistair Overeem will face Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, probably the fighter with the most momentum heading into the second round after defeating Fedor handedly in their first round fight.

***

Strikeforce Imposes Sponsor Fee

- Just weeks before the event took place, it was announced that Strikeforce sponsors would have to pay a sponsor fee, similar to what the UFC does in that regard.  The announcement of the fee put fighters in a tough spot, where they had sponsors already lined up for the event but after the “fee” was adopted, those sponsors dropped out.  The notion was that sponsors that have grown with the fighters in small shows and supported their endeavor in pursuing MMA were dropped once the fighter reached the “big stage”, which is a shame because most fighters would not be able to get to Strikeforce or the UFC without those same sponsors who gave them a revenue stream when they were just starting out.  Again, as a business decision, it makes perfect sense for Zuffa, but this is one of those odd transition nuances after Zuffa purchased Strikeforce. Both the fighters and sponsors now have to adjust to the new policies enforced by Zuffa.

Post-Event Notes

- The next major show was announced during the event, Strikeforce: Fedor vs Henderson which takes place in Chicago and will be headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs Dan Henderson, Marloes Coenen vs Miesha Tate for the women’s welterweight title, Tim Kennedy vs Robbie Lawler, Paul Daley vs Tyron Woodley, and Tarec Saffiedine vs Scott Smith.  The prelims include Sarah D’Alelio vs. Ronda Rousey and Alexis Davis vs. Julie Kedzie.

- Strikeforce was granted a Nevada promoter’s license and is planning four Las Vegas events in 2011.  The Challengers events will be permanently moved to Las Vegas (Palms Casino Resort), starting with Strikeforce Challengers 17: Voelker vs. Bowling 3 set for July 22. Strikeforce also has an August 12 event booked for the same venue.

�

Twitter and Google Trends

- Good news for Strikeforce here, as the key words “Overeem”, “Werdum“,  “Barnett”, “Brett Rogers“, “Noons“, “Masvidal”,  “Monson”, “Cormier”, “Chad Griggs” and over on HDNet in the prelims Justin “Wilcox“, and “Joe Ray“ were all top twitter trends during the evening of the Strikeforce: Overeem vs Werdum event. The event trended so well (best ever for Strikeforce and for a Showtime MMA event), that for the first time in Strikeforce history, their announcers “Gus Johnson“, “Frank Shamrock” and “Mauro Ranallo” were all trending. Even Strikeforce cage-side guest “Michael Irvin” was a trending after a few seconds of air-time on Showtime.

- “Strikeforce heavyweight tournament” was the sixth most “hot search” on Google that night according to Google Trends.

�

Sponsor, Promotion and Marketing Watch

- All the usual sponsors where there for this event: Rockstar, GoDaddy, MusclePharm.  “Blowout Cards” and “Training Mask” also had some presence sponsoring fighters.

Prior to Saturday night’s Strikeforce event, it was announced that fighters’ sponsors would have to pay a sponsorship “fee”. Similar to the UFC fee imposed on its fighters’ sponsors, Strikeforce sponsors would have to pay a fee effective immediately.

The Underground reported the fee and stated that unconfirmed reports had the fee at $35,000. The fee, not the amount, was confirmed on the forum by MMA manager Alex Davis.

Via Fighters Only:

Unofficial sources peg the new Strikeforce ‘sponsor tax’ at around $35,000 but there is no verification for this at present. When the UFC introdued the measure in 2009, company president Dana White admitted one company was being charged $100,000 but said there was a sliding scale in place to reflect the different economic capabilities of potential sponsors.

Middle Easy spoke to Strikeforce fighter Conor Heun about the sponsor issue:

The only problem right now is that I have had a couple of guys sponsoring me since I was on the small shows, now they can’t sponsor me when wanted to return the favor and give them the time in the bright lights they deserve. They invested in me when I want doing much and now that i am on the big stage I want to support them like they supported me when there wasn’t much return. I do understand what Zuffa is doing and I think it will be better for the fighters in the long run. I mean, I would be taking these small clothing company sponsorships and I would be getting $500 and the reason I would be doing that is because it’s the same $500 they would give me when I was on a local show. That’s all they can afford and I want to show loyalty, I’m a loyal person and loyalty is very important to me.

(H/t robnashville)

Payout Perspective:

The Strikeforce sponsor tax was inevitable since Zuffa purchased the UFC. Heun’s sentiments are probably mirrored by most Strikeforce fighters. While they appreciate the sponsors that have been with them since they started, the realities of the Zuffa business model will leave small sponsors out. For Zuffa, its about the UFC, and now Strikeforce brand. Zuffa is looking to attract the Bud Light, Edge Shaving Gel and Tapout companies and that likely means smaller startup companies will not be able to compete unless it can pay to play.

There is nothing wrong with imposing a fee for sponsoring a fighter, the only issue I would have with it is the timing. It would have been prudent for Zuffa (and Strikeforce) to notify sponsors of this fee. While news of the fee came out this week, it would be interesting to know whether sponsors knew this was coming. If not, that would not be fair for a smaller company to have to come up with presumably $35,000 to sponsor its fighter. If it was known earlier, at least notice was given. Of course, this probably depended on when Zuffa knew each fighters’ sponsor. The late notice is a burden on fighters that lose the sponsorship money and their agents that were likely scrambling trying to find replacement sponsors.

For more thoughts on the sponsorship fee, look here and here.

All it took was two events after the Strikeforce purchase was announced for Zuffa to take over the Strikeforce promotion and replace the staff, quickly disproving the “business as usual” motto tied to the acquisition two months ago.

According to MMAPayout sources, May 9th, 2011 was the last day Strikeforce was an MMA  promotion under Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment, their previous owners who sold the budding promotion to Zuffa, LLC.  A few days after 5/9, Scott Coker and Peter Dropick met with the old Strikeforce staff individually to inform them that their services would no longer be required to avoid operational overlap and inefficiencies. A couple of staff members were offered positions to join Zuffa, but accepting the job would required a move to Las Vegas, which was not seen as a desirable move for those that were already established in Northern California. Those few opted to stay in the Bay Area instead.  Those that were willing to relocate and accept an offer from Zuffa were not offered a position.

As MMAPayout reported last month, Strikeforce employees were aware that after the April 9 event, staff changes were going to be made by early May and Zuffa would complete the process around early July, when most Strikeforce staff is expected to have worked their last days under the promotion.  Rich Chou was let go a few weeks ago and was replaced by former WEC matchmaker Sean Shelby.  Former WEC VP Peter Dropick will now do most of the heavy lifting for Strikeforce, as he was assigned to help run the promotion shortly after it was purchased.

It is still unclear what Scott Coker’s role will be going forward, but he will still be the figurehead of the promotion as long as they are up and running. It’s said that part of Scott Coker’s contract, besides a guaranteed job with Zuffa, included a clause that states he does not need to relocate to Las Vegas and could continue to work from his San Jose office, though that could not be confirmed upon publishing this article.  Former WEC PR director Dave Sholler has been traveling with the Strikeforce staff helping promote their events since the purchase was announced, and will continue to spearhead the PR efforts for upcoming events.  He flies to Dallas this week to meet up with Scott Coker, Herschel Walker, and Josh Barnett for a press tour in order to promote the second leg of the Heavyweight Grand Prix event in June.

�

Payout Perspective:

In post mergers and acquisitions, these type of layoffs are expected and it’s no difference in this case.  In fact, considering the situation regarding the Strikeforce TV deal with Showtime – which will be up around February/March of 2012 – it makes perfect sense.  During that time, Showtime will have the option of extending the TV deal, which would keep Strikeforce alive for the span of that deal.  Without an extension, many in the MMA industry believe the promotion could be folded as early as second quarter of 2012.  Negotiations between Zuffa and Showtime should heat up in the upcoming months leading up to the expiration date of the current TV contract.

Behind the scenes, Strikeforce is continuing to sign young prospects (Yuri Villefort, Maximo Blanco) and popular veterans (Keith Jardine, Jeff Monson) to fill up their cards, since they have a heavy schedule planned with Showtime for the remainder of the year.  During recent contract negotiations, fighters have stated that they only spoke to Zuffa personnel (no one from Strikeforce) and that everything ran a bit smoother behind the scenes since the takeover.  Fighter manager Monte Cox told Sherdog.com that Zuffa wasted no time in making changes:

“We didn’t get per diem [money]. We didn’t get mileage [money]. They just didn’t pay those things for the undercard…. Now there’s per diem. Now there’s travel. Now there’s three nights for a hotel. Instantly that all changed. For those guys, it’s a homerun.”

Along with increasing incentives for undercard fighters, Zuffa has done away with amateur fighters in the prelim slots, which will in fact help many in the Strikeforce roster who complained that they weren’t getting enough fights.  The extra room will allow to book more fighters already under contract, though Showtime will continue their policy not to air the prelims.  As a result, the UFC was looking to package those fights into another outlet for the fans, and although Facebook is a likely destination, nothing has been officially announced or confirmed yet.

No matter what type of outcome the Showtime TV negotiations produce, it appears that Zuffa  has their personnel ready to either keep the promotion running or start the merge process, a move similar to what the WEC experienced just a year ago.  Luckily for the former WEC staff, they are on the other side of the merger talks this time around.

�

Dave Meltzer over at F4WOnline.com is reporting some interesting details behind the Zuffa-Strikeforce purchase, which details why the UFC broke the news that Saturday morning and some info behind the bidders and the acquisition timetable.

On F4WOnline’s latest newsletter (subscription), some more notes regarding the deal between Sports Valley Sports and Entertainment and Zuffa were released:

- SVSE was looking for a strategic business partner who would help fund Strikeforce in order to expand and become a PPV revenue company.

- The key members during the negotiations were Lorenzo Fertitta and Lawrence Epstein from the UFC, Dana White was not involved.

- Talks began in December and terms and money had been agreed on by January.

- The story behind the Saturday announcement is summarized best from the quote below, taken from the write-up.

The plan was to make the public announcement on 3/14, however a media outlet found out and was going to go with a story on 3/12. That’s when UFC contacted Ariel Helwani as they wanted to get the word out first and get their version of the story out immediately.

-  MMAPayout was aware of the story 2 weeks before it broke that Saturday but could not confirm it before the story broke.  A few MMA outlets were on to the story already by that weekend, and it is said that Ariel Helwani was already flown in to tape the interview with Dana White by the end of the week to release it with the official announcement.  When the UFC realized that another MMA outlet was going to break the story first, they decided to release the tape and break the news on Saturday morning instead of Monday to get their version of the story out there first. Josh Gross of ESPN reported the news shortly after it broke that Saturday, followed by MMAJunkie and the other outlets that evening.

- Multiple legit offers were made for Strikeforce, including some from the boxing world.  UFC had the best deal and wanted to make it because it would eliminate their main competitor, gain marketable athletes, and would be able to run more shows and expand. One note here is Pro Elite’s alleged 40 million offer, which apparently was mostly a paper offer, was never considered a legit offer.

***

Links to MMAPayout coverage regarding the Zuffa-Strikeforce purchase can be found here:

- Zuffa Purchases Strikeforce, Agrees to Blockbuster MMA Deal

- Mystery Strikeforce Third Bidder, Early Signs Of Sale, & UFC Purchase Notes

- Exploring Why SVSE Walked Away from Strikeforce & MMA

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective! This week we’ll be taking a look at the Strikeforce: Diaz vs Daley event televised on Showtime and headlined by Strikeforce Welterweight champ Nick Diaz, as he defended his title against UK’s Paul “Semtex” Daley, and Lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez, as he defended his title in a rematch against Japan’s Tatsuya Kawajiri.

The event took place at the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego (formerly known as the San Diego Sports Arena), and featured the WW title fight between Nick Diaz vs. Paul Daley, LW title fight between Gilbert Melendez vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri, Gegard Mousasi vs. Keith Jardine, and Shinya Aoki (DREAM LW Champ) vs. Lyle Beerbohm on the televised portion of the event. The prelims portion was headlined by Robert Peralta vs Hirouki Takaya (DREAM FW Champ) – which was later streamed on Strikeforce.com, Brett Albee vs Virgil Zwicker, and prospects Joe Duarte vs Saad Awad.

�

Fighter Disclosed Payouts

Note: that the money reported below is only the money required to be reported by the commission, which does not take into account undisclosed bonuses or “locker room” bonuses, as they are referred to in MMA.

Courtesy of MMAJunkie:

The total disclosed payroll for the event was $769,740.

Champ Nick Diaz: $175,000 (no win bonus)
def. Paul Daley: $65,000

Champ Gilbert Melendez: $150,000 (no win bonus)
def. Tatsuya Kawajiri: $97,612.50

Gegard Mousasi: $150,000
drew Keith Jardine: $25,000

Shinya Aoki: $73,637.50 (no win bonus)
def. Lyle Beerbohm: $10,000

Robert Peralta: $4,000 (includes $2,000 win bonus)
def. Hiroyuki Takaya: $2,740

Virgil Zwicker: $3,000 ($1,000 win bonus)
def. Brett Albee: $1,000

Joe Duarte: $2,000 ($1,000 win bonus)
def. Saad Awad: $1,500

Herman Terrado: $1,500 ($500 win bonus)
def. A.J. Matthews: $1,000

Rolando Perez: $3,000 ($1,000 win bonus)
def. Tom Peterson: $1,000

Casey Ryan: $2,000 ($1,000 win bonus)
def. Paul Song: $750

Attendance and Gate

We are not able to officially report attendance and gate numbers since the CSAC has not officially released them at press time.  Although we have no official numbers, MMAPayout was on the scene and we estimated about 6,5000~7,500 fans in attendance, with an estimated paid attendance of about ~4,000-5,000 as of a few weeks before the event took place.  The event that this would be somewhat similar to this event is the Strikeforce Los Angeles event last year, which drew around 5,200 and had a gate of about $418,000, so we can safely assume that this event did numbers in the same ballpark.

It was not a great selling event, but it was expected in the San Diego market, which did similar numbers when the UFC came to the same venue recently when it hosted UFC on Versus 2 featuring Jon Jones vs Vladimir Matyushenko, which drew 8,132 for a $490k gate.

- 11,757 spectators, “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum” (June, 2010)
- 11,287 spectators, “Strikeforce: Fedor vs Silva” (February, 2011)
- 9,059 spectators, “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Cyborg” (January, 2011)
- 8,635 spectators, “Strikeforce: Houston” (August, 2010)
- 8,196 spectators, “Strikeforce: Nashville (April, 2010)
- 8,136 spectators, “Strikeforce St. Louis: Heavy Artillery” (May, 2010)
- 7,559 spectators, “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Noons II (October, 2010)
- 7,146 spectators, “Strikeforce: Henderson vs Babalu II (December, 2010)
- 7,123 spectators, “Strikeforce: Feijao vs Henderson” (March, 2011)
- 7,010 spectators, “Strikeforce: Miami” (January, 2010)
- ~6,500 spectators, “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Daley (April, 2011) *Estimated, no official release*
- 5,259 spectators, “Strikeforce: Los Angeles” (June, 2010)

�

Ratings

MMAJunkie reports that Strikeforce: Diaz vs Daley averaged 528,000 viewers (1.29 rating) and peaked at 806,000 (2.0 rating). The average number was good enough to make it the fourth most watched (average audience) Strikeforce event on Showtime, only trailing Silva vs Fedor (741K), Carano vs Cyborg (576k), and Diaz vs Cyborg (561k) – which was just set back in January of 2011 .

Interesting to point out that Nick Diaz now has 3 of the top 5 most watched MMA events for Strikeforce on Showtime. It also marks another extremely successful event – on the television side – for the promotion, which has been riding high on momentum in 2011. It is also key to note that the 4 big Strikeforce events in 2011 have placed in 1st, 3d, 4th, and 7th in terms of most average viewership for an MMA event on Showtime ever.

- 741,000 viewers (1.1 million peak), “Strikeforce: Fedor vs Silva” (February, 2011)
- 576,000 viewers (856,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Carano vs Cyborg” (August, 2009)
- 561,000 viewers (853,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Cyborg” (January, 2011)
- 528,000 viewers (806,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Daley” (April, 2011)
- 517,000 viewers (peak not available), “Strikeforce: Miami” (January, 2010)
- 412,000 viewers (700,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum” (June, 2010)
- 412,000 viewers (520,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Feijao vs Henderson” (March, 2011)
- 367,000 viewers (470,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Houston” (August, 2010)
- 350,000 viewers (509,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Noons II (October, 2010)
- 341,000 viewers (465,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Henderson vs Babalu II (December, 2010)
- 308,000 viewers (448,000 peak), “Strikeforce St. Louis: Heavy Artillery” (May, 2010)
- 164,000 viewers (197,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Los Angeles” (June, 2010) [Special Wednesday Show]

�

Storylines

Strikeforce Hosts First Major Show Under Zuffa Ownership

- The April 9th event in San Diego created buzz before the first fight even started. Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta showed up to the event and sat at cage-side to watch the event.  White posted a picture of himself on Twitter wearing a Strikeforce shirt, which was a hot topic for days to come after the event, along with the now famous “business as usual” saying with Strikeforce operations.

- On the April 9th show, most of what Showtime and Strikeforce was already doing in terms of production and presentation stayed the same.  The only visible changes to the average fan was commercials in the arena for the upcoming “The Ultimate Fighter” season and the upcoming UFC 129 event headlined by Georges St. Pierre and Jake Shields, who was there to corner his Cesar Gracie teammates Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez. Although, when Shields was given the mic and Melendez tried to push him on to the crowd, the fans booed Shields unmercifully.  It appears that neither UFC or Strikeforce fans are very fond of him or his fighting style.  On the other hand, Melendez and Diaz were the crowd favorites during the event.

- When Zuffa purchased Strikeforce, MMAPayout heard that there would be changes behind the scene at Strikeforce events moving on forward, and they began at their Challengers event on April 1st in Stockton.  In the San Diego event on 4/9, it was very apparent that the old WEC crew was watching their every move, offering to assist in any way possible, and learning the ins and outs of their operations.  Former WEC GM Reed Harris, VP of Operations Peter Dropick, Dave Sholler from P.R., and match-maker Sean Shelby were all there for the event and working backstage.

- The credentialing for the event was big news, as ESPN’s Josh Gross, Loretta Hunt representing CBS Sports, and Sherdog.com among others were not credentialed for the event, though they were mainstays at Strikeforce events before Zuffa purchased the promotion.  Many columnists and reporters criticized Zuffas move, including Jeff Wagenheim of Sports Illustrated, who called the move bush-league, and LA Times Lance Pugmire. MMAPayout’s Jason Cruz covered the topic on the day of the event, titled “MMA journalists shut out of Strikeforce event”.

- Dave Meltzer over on Yahoo describes how it wasn’t “business as usual” for the event:

But if it didn’t feel like a UFC event on television, behind the scenes, things were much different.
…
It is no secret that Dropick is being groomed to help run the Strikeforce business going forward. It was expected that Shelby, who is currently the assistant matchmaker for UFC and in charge of the lighter weight divisions he ran at WEC, would oversee the Strikeforce matchmaking in some capacity.
…
Security was handled by the UFC. Media credentials were handled by the UFC, including a story that came out days earlier where several reporters, most notably Josh Gross of ESPN.com, Loretta Hunt, who was going to freelance the event for CBSSports.com, and anyone associated with Sherdog.com, one of the largest MMA web sites, were denied credentials. All had been banned by White from UFC events but were fixtures at Strikeforce shows.

- Meltzer even went ahead to point out that the changes actually started at the Challengers show in Stockton, California, when “several of the Strikeforce employees were brought into a room and told they were being let go. They were told they would have the opportunity, if they wanted, to apply for positions in UFC parent company Zuffa LLC”, though that comment was later removed from the story.  According to MMAPayout sources, no one had been let go at the time, but there were plans for changes after the April 9 event.  If staff changes are made, Zuffa will likely make them by early May and hope to run with that new group under Scott Coker from here on out.

- The gift shops at the arena were very interesting to observe.  First of all, Rockstar and Clinch Gear had their own booths for this event.  Strikeforce and UFC apparel were sold together, including UFC gloves next to Strikeforce tees, hats, and posters. It was probably the most merchandising and apparel I have ever seen in one of the Strikeforce events.  Overall, there must have been around 3-4 booths in the arena including Clinch Gears.

�

Big Focus On Japan During Strikeforce Event

- The Strikeforce event and fans had great reactions towards the Japanese fighters on the card. DREAM fighters Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri, and to a lesser extent, Hiroyuki Takaya were all treated as stars and crowd favorites.  Many fans had Japanese banners, flags, and shirts on supporting the fighters and the country as it was still trying to recover from the terrible earthquake and tsunami that has plagued their land for weeks.  It was a great site to see the MMA community come together and show great support from a country that has been pivotal in the development of the sport for many years before it took off in the US. (HT: TwitPic)

�

Post-Event Notes

- Scott Coker mentioned that he is planning on holding approximately 17 live Strikeforce events on Showtime between June of this year and March of 2012.  That’s around the time they hope the HW GP will be done and they could host one or two more major shows.  After that, Strikeforce’s timeline seems a bit shaky.

- With the Zuffa takeover, Scott Coker is pushing for some changes as well.  He has already talked about giving “Fight Night” bonuses, but not decision has been made yet by Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White. He also talks to MMAJunkie about how their employees are learning the UFC’s system in this transition stage.

- A rumored Strikeforce July PPV event has been talked about since the event, supposedly headlined by Fedor Emelianenko and Dan Henderson.  King Mo vs Roger Gracie, Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos, Tarec Saffiedine, Tyron Woodley, Paul Daley, and Jacare have all been rumored for the event.

- The next major shows was announced during the event, which will be the second leg of the HW GP, which will be headlined by Alistair Overeem vs Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett vs Brett Rogers, Daniel Cormier vs Shane Del Rosario, Valentijn Overeem vs Chad Griggs, and Gina Carano vs TBA from Dallas, Texas.

�

Twitter and Google Trends

Great news for Strikeforce here, as the key words “Nick Diaz“, “Gilbert Melendez“, “Mousasi, and “Keith Jardine“ were all top twitter trends during the evening of the Strikeforce: Diaz vs Daley event.  No members of the events were in the top Google trends for the day.

�

Sponsor, Promotion and Marketing Watch

- All the usual sponsors where there for this event: FullTilt Poker (who may now not be a sponsor anymore due to the FBI indictment and was just ramping up their promotional efforts with the UFC and Strikeforce), Rockstar, GoDaddy, Clinch Gear, EA Sports MMA.  The new big additions to the event were UFC advertising UFC 129, Showtime advertising their “Fight Camp 360″ series for the Pacquiao vs Mosley fight on May 7th, Gamefly.com, and MusclePharm, who announced their participation in the event through a press release the day before.

Since this past weekend, MMAPayout has been providing an in-depth look at the recent indictment against major online poker sites, including Full Tilt Poker (“FTP”), and what it means to the MMA world.

Following up on this story, yesterday the “United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (“this Office”) and the defendant Vantage Limited d/b/a/ Full Tilt Poker” entered into an agreement “in which this Office agrees to grant FTP access to, and use of, the defendant-in-rem domain name fulltiltpoker.com (the “Domain”) for certain limited purposes . . .”

At the outset, the agreement makes clear that FTP’s access to the domain under the agreement is contingent on FTP no longer providing the ability for (or facilitating) U.S. based poker players from engaging in online poker for “real money.”

Specifically, the agreement provides:

FTP hereby agrees that for the duration of the Agreement, it will not allow for, facilitate, or provide the ability for players located in the United States to engage in playing online poker for “real money” or any other thing of value.

That said, the agreement expressly allows for online play outside the United States:

The Agreement does not prohibit, and, in fact, expressly allows for, FTP to provide for, and facilitate, players outside of the United States to engage in playing online poker for real money through the Domain, or any other domain names, sub-domain names, websites, or Internet-based means of communication under the control of FTP.

While I don’t know enough about FTP’s revenue stream, i.e. how much comes from abroad as opposed to the U.S., this may somewhat mitigate against the negative effect the indictment has on the MMA world.

The agreement also provides a bit of good news for U.S. based poker players as FTP has been given access to its domain to facilitate the withdrawal of funds held in accounts with FTP by U.S. based poker players:

This Agreement does not prohibit, and, in fact, expressly allows for, FTP to utilize the Domain (and any other forms of communication) to facilitate the withdrawal of U.S. players’ funds held in account with FTP. While withdrawal of funds is expressly permitted, the deposit of funds by U.S. players is expressly prohibited. FTP agrees that any financial transactions with players located in the United States shall be strictly limited to the return of those players’ funds held in account with FTP.

So it looks like U.S. account holders will be given the opportunity to request withdrawals from their FTP accounts.

With respect to its term, the agreement provides as follows:

This Agreement shall remain in place until: (i) the conclusion of the litigation in United States v. PokerStars, et. al., 11 Civ. 2564 (LBS) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York; (ii) a superseding Agreement is reached between this Office and FTP; or (iii) this Office and FTP mutually agree to terminate the Agreement.

Finally, the agreement provides that it “does not constitute an admission of liability as to any matter nor a consent to jurisdiction.”

Fight Lawyer

***

Justin Klein is a partner of the law firm Satterlee Stephens Burke & Burke LLP in New York City where he concentrates his practice in commercial litigation and represents clients in the fight industry.  He regularly addresses current legal issues that pertain to combat sports, including efforts to legalize MMA in New York, at his Fight Lawyer website.  He is a licensed boxing manager with the New York State Athletic Commission as well as the founder and Chairman of the Board of the New York Mixed Martial Arts Initiative, a non-profit organization that gives inner city youth the opportunity to experience the emotional and physical benefits of martial arts training.  Justin lives in New York City where he trains in jiu jitsu and boxing.

DISCLAIMER

The information in this post and on my site consists of my opinion only, i.e., it is not the opinion of my employer or anybody else. In addition, and because this is my opinion, it is not intended to be (and is not) legal advice or an advertisement for legal services. This post provides general information only. Although I encourage interested parties to contact me on the subjects discussed in the articles, the reader should not consider information on this site to be an invitation for an attorney-client relationship.  I disclaim all liability in respect to actions taken or not taken based on any contents of this post. Any e-mail sent to me will not create an attorney-client relationship, and you should not use this site or my site to send me e-mail containing confidential or sensitive information.

�

MMAPayout detailed what it meant to the MMA landscape after Friday’s shocking news that Full Tilt Poker, along with other online poker sites, were seized by the FBI and indicted for bank fraud, illegal gambling, and money laundering.

Today, CNBC’s sports business reporter specialist, Darren Rovell, reported the following on his twitter:

“The UFC had a huge new sponsorship deal on the table with Full Tilt that will now go out the window with the feds bust.”

MMAPayout spoke to members and managers within MMA industry, all sharing the same sentiment. They claim that the new deal would have been huge for the UFC, Strikeforce, and the fighters, but specifically, it really hurts the fighters as Full Tilt Poker is one of the better paying sponsors out there for those trying to make a living from the sport.

On Friday, MMAPayout reported that Full Tilt Poker was ramping up their promotional efforts with Strikeforce after Zuffa had acquired them, not to mention the big deal made between Fertitta Interactive (also owners of the UFC) and Full Tilt Poker a few weeks prior pending on legalizing online gambling in the United States, a bill that is being pushed by UFC/Station Casinos/Fertitta Interactive backed Nevada Senator Harry Reid.  With the growing relationship, Full Tilt Poker was going to be heavily involved in future UFC events and promotional efforts that would have brought a good money to Zuffa and the fighters.

MMAPayout has also learned that Full Tilt Poker was expanding their sponsorship efforts within MMA (outside of the UFC) and was working on some other pretty big sponsorship deals that have since fallen through as well.

�

Payout Perspective:

As to what type of money MMA gets from Full Tilt Poker, Rovell discusses it a bit more here in his write-up breaking down the poker FBI bust. Brian Belasbough of Poker Royalty talked about some of the ramifications for the poker industry after Friday:

When Pokerstars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker left the US market, 95 percent of the market share for US poker players absolutely disappeared and with that so did $200 million worth of marketing money and advertising money that these companies spent in order to acquire new customers. What that means is basically poker television shows like “The Big Game” on Fox and “Poker After Dark” on NBC are completely gone. So the poker landscape has changed dramatically in a very short period of time.

…

In addition to the poker television shows going away, there are a number of other sponsorship opportunities which have disappeared as well. There are 100 online poker players with sponsorships which likely will disappear. In addition to that there’s an entire industry of covering poker tournaments in the media in conjunction with that. ESPN had a $22 million deal with Pokerstars, which has to be over now and then the live events like the World Poker Tour, like the North American Poker Tour.

The other question that you have to ask here is that with the big sponsorship void left by Full Tilt Poker in MMA, what type of companies will step in and take their place?  We also have to wonder what it says about MMA as a sport considering that one of its biggest sponsors was an illegal gambling company that had been operating and generating revenue through banking and legal loopholes.  Big mainstream sponsors is something that the UFC and MMA has coveted for years, but luring them in hasn’t been as easy as once expected.  The addition of new sponsors and TV networks could reveal a telling story about the ceiling of the sport in the next few years.

Focusing on the fighters, they have been taking bigger blows outside of the ring/cage than inside as of late.  The removal of Full Tilt Poker as one of their bigger sponsors wasn’t the only blow dealt to them in the past year. When Authentic Brands Group purchased Sinister, Tapout and Silver Star (MMA apparel) and then decided to scale back their sponsorship money in MMA, it dealt an equal sized blow.  One has to wonder with the lack of big MMA promotions outside of Zuffa and with the recent trend of dying sponsors, how difficult it will be for fighters to make a living in the sport, which wasn’t an easy task before either.

Inside MMA has the scoop with Diaz manager Cesar Gracie who indicates that a fight with Fernando Vargas is signed. Does this mean that the Strikeforce welterweight champ is retiring from MMA?

In his post-fight interviews from Saturday, Diaz talked about not getting paid enough, overworked, over-trained and possibly being suspended. The release of Strikeforce salaries shows Diaz earned $175,000 (not including sponsors) for his fight with Paul Daley.

Nick Diaz last four payouts in Strikeforce:

vs. Paul Daley – $175,000

vs. “Cyborg” Santos – $150,000

vs. KJ Noons – $50,000

vs. Marius Zaromskis – $100,000

Diaz is earning respectable money for the Strikeforce WW champ. Speaking of underpaid, the latest Strikeforce salary report has Paul Song receiving only $750 for his prelim bout.

The full interview will be on Inside MMA on HD Net this Friday.

Payout Perspective:

This is an unusual career move if the information is true. Only Fernando Vargas benefits from this news as he is the only one that will receive a career boost from the fight. In a post-fight interview, Dana White talked about how Diaz could be a star and that the money will come. It should especially with the new marriage with Zuffa. Still, Diaz seems only happy when he’s miserable.

Shouldn’t Diaz question his management about the direction of his finances? If he is claiming that he’s not seeing the money then maybe he should ask his manager instead of demonizing a straw person (or people) holding him back. It should be the role of the manager or agent to come up with opportunities both inside and out of the ring. Sure, an agent can only go so far to lobby for matches. But, they definitely can help a client with outside opportunities.  Sponsorships, business investments and general finances are well within the realm of a manager. This is what White meant when he stated Diaz “won’t play the game”. If Diaz would be more media savvy, he might be able to get more opportunities. Diaz has the “Stone Cold” persona which could play well with sponsors and advertisers. A lot of people are fans of this Nick Diaz.  He just needs to know when to turn it on and off.

A fight with Vargas diminishes the Diaz brand at a time when its received the most publicity.