Strikeforce had its opportunity to shine on a Saturday night. It had two hours-plus on CBS, its chief competition Spike’s replay of UFC 110 and Mets vs. Cardinals on FOX that took 20 innings to complete (and eventually became part of the problem). For CBS’ audience was three championship fights each capable of headlining any Strikeforce show – all on free TV.
They instead were left with egg on their faces. To be fair, they had no control over all three going the full five rounds and how it annoyed CBS affiliates that didn’t expect their local news to go on the air 45 minutes past eleven ‘o clock. Everything else people are held accountable. Jason Miller acted like an idiot (and apologized the next day). Jake Shields, the Diaz brothers and Gilbert Melendez allowed Mayhem to get under their skin, which is what he does best. The fact that a melee happened on national television, knowing MMA is cut no slack by the ignorant when it comes to justifying itself as a legitimate sport, is inexcusable.
Of course there are people who have overreacted as if boxing, basketball, baseball or hockey were never marred by ugly in-game or postgame incidents. (Memo to the haters: Chill out and get over it. This will quickly become old news.) MMA will not shrivel up and blow away, and the Tennessee Athletic Commission – deftly explained by Sirius Fight Club host and former New York State Athletic commissioner Randy Gordon their irresponsibility and negligence to allow Miller and an extended entourage to enter the ring in the first place – has launched an investigation into a post-event brawl that concluded the “Strikeforce: Nashville” event that earned publicity for all the wrong reasons.
There’s an old saying in public relations: “Negative publicity is still good publicity.” But when the New York Post shouts a headline about a melee at a “UFC event” there’s a big problem.
Dana White told Kevin Iole he’s spoken to Nate Diaz, a competitor in his welterweight division, and won’t issue any punishment. That’s White’s decision and between he and his fighter. For the simple sake of setting an example, Scott Coker has to act, must put a White-like scare tactic into his employees to ensure that the high jinks that took place in Nashville won’t happen again. Boys will be boys, and to those who hold the sport of MMA accountable need to get over it and study the facts a lot harder, but a precedent needs to be set.
I figured White would be smirking while watching the melee and would take the time to trash people he hates, Showtime executive VP Ken Hershman and his band of suits. As usual, writes Iole, there’s no gray area when it came to White’s reaction.
“Of course, everyone thinks I’m anti-competition, but I’m not,” White said. “But everyone knows that they didn’t belong on CBS. Even if you’re the biggest UFC hater out there, you know that. Shame on CBS for this. They knew they should have been with us, but they went out and let those Showtime idiots talk them into going with Elite XC.
“Now, they’re stuck with a bush league, C-level promotion that will probably be out of business next month. And what you saw on Saturday is the kind of thing that happens when you put a product like that on national television. I take seriously delivering the kind of product my fans want to see. But what you saw on CBS is an example of what you don’t want to see on national television. No one had control and that’s what happens.”
Strikeforce isn’t going out of business, though CBS suits may conclude they made the same mistake twice and terminate its relationship with MMA. (The Kimbo Slice-Seth Petruzelli Elite XC fiasco is the primary example of how not to run the business.) Their roster features plenty of top fighters and the popular women’s division, and the Challengers Series on Showtime. But if I’m Coker I’d worry about three things:
1) Jake Shields. He’s Strikeforce’s middleweight champion, but will be a free agent and you can bet White will hand him a blank check with the sell that he was undermined by his current employers. In terms of contenders Strikeforce can offer Cung Le, Scott Smith, Lawler, Joey Villasenor, Melvin Manhoef and DREAM import Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. The UFC could throw Shields a few top middleweights before a showdown with Anderson Silva or Chael Sonnen, or perhaps a matchup with Georges St. Pierre. Dan Henderson bolting for Strikeforce gave them mainstream star power. Shields jumping to the UFC at the peak of his career will create an open wound that may never heal.
2) Ratings. Media Week published the overnight figures for Strikeforce on CBS and they’re not good. The early figures represented a 31% drop from Strikeforce’s November show on CBS, which attracted 3.79 million viewers in the 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. slot. The complete ratings revealed on Tuesday were terrible and here’s part of the reason why: Promotion for Saturday’s event was rotten, reduced to as little as five-second spots during the NCAA Tournament. (Why Showtime or CBS – even if they go viral – can’t piece together a promotional package remains a mystery.) Furthermore, all of it was centered around Henderson with little regard for Shields and the fact that his best days are still ahead of him. They were counting on a Henderson victory. Oops.
3) WEC 48. Five main-card bouts, each of which would headline (or close to it) any WEC event. Two prelim bouts to air on Spike as a UFC production complete with announcers Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan calling the blow-by-blow. Fans are used to seeing WEC shows over Versus and not spending $44.99 to view it over pay-per-view, but Zuffa is meeting the challenge with a fantastic card on paper headlined by Jose Aldo vs. Urijah Faber for Aldo’s featherweight title. Time will tell if that will translate into a large buy rate, but anything in or close to the black will be a tremendous victory and get rid of the filthy taste left by Silva’s antics at UFC 112.
