Yesterday, on Aug. 3, 2009, it was announced that Fedor Emelianenko, widely regarded as the No. 1 heavyweight on earth, would be signing with Strikeforce, the No. 2 promotion in North America, for a three fight deal. So much is good and so much is bad with this news. Let's examine the consequences and benefits, both long term and short term, of this deal.
Greater exposure for the best fighter in the world
Strikeforce will open Fedor up to a much larger audience than Affliction ever could have. He will debut on Showtime in Fall 2009. Let's look at the numbers that Strikeforce and EliteXC pulled in with their respective Showtime events.
Kimbo Slice vs. Tank Abbott: 511,000 viewers
Frank Shamrock vs. Phil Baroni: 365,000 viewers
EliteXC Return of the King: 350,000 viewers
Frank Shamrock vs. Cung Le: less than 300,000
Solid numbers. Not Couture vs. Lesnar type of solid, but nothing to sneeze at either; certainly much larger than anything Fedor could have obtained with Affliction Entertainment.
Opponents that are ranked in the bottom half of the top 10
Let's look at the opposition Strikeforce can provide: Brett Rogers (No. 7 according to Sherdog following his stunning win over previously No. 2 ranked Andrei Arlovski), Alistair Overeem (No. 10 at Sherdog, and would likely be higher were it not for the repeated groin attacks on Cro Cop which resulted in the bout being turned into a No Contest) and Fabricio Werdum (not top 10 by any accounts since losing to Junior Dos Santos and going inactive).
Sergei Kharitonov or Jeff Monson may also be in consideration consideration considering Strikeforce's partnership with DREAM.
All good fights that anyone should tune into, but UFC can offer more. Brock Lesnar (Sherdog's No. 3, and likely soon to be No. 2 after Josh Barnett's steroid scandal), Frank Mir (No. 4) and Randy Couture (No. 6) would all be gripping fights, and fights against Shane Carwin (No. 9) and a rematch against Mirko Cro Cop might have been on the cards too. I won't include Nogueira because there's no need to see that again.
If we don't see the latter list of fights, we will have been cheated, people.
Mind you, there will always be new stars, so who knows; last year, Arlovski, Sylvia and Barnett were considered the best competition there was at the time. Maybe in a year or two Satoshi Ishii, Blagoi Ivanov, Bobby Lashley and Roger Gracie will have stormed the heavyweight ranks.
If we don't see the latter list of fights, we will have been cheated, people.
Mind you, there will always be new stars, so who knows; last year, Arlovski, Sylvia and Barnett were considered the best competition there was at the time. Maybe in a year or two Satoshi Ishii, Blagoi Ivanov, Bobby Lashley and Roger Gracie will have stormed the heavyweight ranks.
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