Does Strikeforce Have Enough Force To Strike?

After the completion of the second of two quality events this year, the up-and-coming mixed-martial-arts promotion Strikeforce should be pleased.

They are clearly the biggest threat to MMA’s most recognizable organization, the UFC. Their shows have gained viewership and lacked the false grandeur of previously failed promotions. Strikeforce contains several marketable fighters and the flexibility to co-promote with other vendors.

So as of right now, the organization is content with their standing amongst the competition.

Strikeforce’s most recent event presented stunning upsets, solid action and helped to establish new stars. By reducing over-the-top advertising, utilizing solid match making and avoiding “gimmick” fights, Strikeforce has thus far evaded the fate of its predecessor, Elite XC.

However, before the promotion can rejoice over their initial success, they first must establish a business plan that emphasizes the long term, not just the immediate future.

With another night of fights scheduled for August, which are being headlined by the highly anticipated bout between the Queen and Princess of women’s MMA, Gina Carano and Cristine Santos, the short term looks promising for Strikeforce. Yet, the question remains, where does the promotion go from there?

Despite the entertaining fights and quality production of the events, Strikefoce faces one major hurdle; a lack of depth within their talent pool.

With only a select few household names to throw at customers, Strikeforces’ options become limited. Gina Carano, Renato Sobral, Alistair Oveereem, Nick Diaz, Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler, Brett Rogers, a faded Frank Shamrock and a Hollywood-focused Cung Le round out the short list of elite fighters.

Even more damaging to the company is the fact that Diaz, Shields, Lawler, Shamrock and Le all fight within the same weight class. Diaz and Shields train out of the same camp and won’t fight one another, Le has been on a hiatus from fighting filming movies and Shamrock has lost much of his allure due to consecutive TKO losses.

For the time being, Strikeforce can use the revolving middleweight door and find some combination of match ups that work for another event or two. But, soon they will find themselves with a shortage of possible headliners.

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