How Strikeforce Is Destroying Itself with Booking Mistakes

Fighters go to the cage and fight, but a poorly-booked contest can be doomed before the opening bell.

The best these fighters can do is to win and be entertaining in the process.

Booking agents, on the other hand, have to use logic to make the fights that fans want to see, and they have to book fights that will build up fighters and their respective divisions.

Sometimes a fight that looks good on paper ends up being a dud, but, with bad booking, some fights can be doomed before the opening bell.

The following is a look at some of the fights that have made fans stop caring about Strikeforce:

Alistair Overeem vs Brett Rogers

Alistair Overeem was the Strikeforce heavyweight champion for more than two years before he was scheduled to defend. There were cries that the belt should be stripped. Finally, in the summer of 2010, the Reem would return to Strikeforce in an attempt to extend his championship reign.

Brett Rogers found himself waking up surrounded by doctors.

Although his bout with Fedor Emelianenko was competitive, nobody that felt Brett Rogers was next in line for a title shot after being on the receiving end of one of the biggest knockouts of 2009—nobody, that is, except Strikeforce matchmakers.

Rogers was humiliated by the Dutch kickboxing champion in the very first round.

Luke Rockhold vs Keith Jardine

2-5-1. That is 36-year-old Keith Jardine's record leading up to his championship bout with Luke Rockhold. 

His two wins were against regional talent in no-name organizations. One of those wins was a decision victory on a card that didn’t have judges to score the rounds—and a fight in which Jardine was accused of greasing. 

A victory over Jardine is nice, but does it prove anything?

Rockhold’s next bout should have been against a true contender that fans knew and accepted as a legitimate and dangerous opponent. When selecting his opponent, Strikeforce should have found someone that would make fans think, “can Rockhold get past this guy?” 

Instead, puzzled fans asked a different question: “Why the hell is Keith Jardine getting a title shot in a division where he has never fought?”

Mayhem Miller vs Nobody

People are sure to disagree with me on this, but in the summer of 2010, Jason Miller was somebody that people wanted to watch.

He was the host of a popular MTV program and coming back from a recent suspension after a high-profile altercation with the Caesar Gracie camp on CBS. The war of words between Miller and Nick Diaz continued to grow to a point where we just knew that a catchweight fight was going to happen.

Unfortunately, Strikeforce left Miller off of their cards for the remainder of the year, and the Bully Beatdown host ended up taking a DREAM bout with Sakuraba in September.

In a case of too-little-too-late, Strikeforce tried to book Mayhem vs. Tim Kennedy for a March 2011 bout, but Miller’s contract expired and he left for greener UFC pastures.  

Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix

Bigfoot Silva, Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Alistair Overeem, Andrei Arlovski, Fabricio Werdum, Brett Rogers and Sergei Kharitonov were part of a stellar collection of heavyweights in Strikeforce’s 2010 Grand Prix. Unfortunately, Strikeforce matchmakers apparently ignored the general principles of seeding.

Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum and Fedor Emelianenko were undoubtedly the three biggest draws in the tournament. Yet somehow, they all ended up on the same side of the bracket.

Hindsight is 20/20 and nobody could have predicted the tournament's outcome, but the bracket guaranteed two of Strikeforce's three biggest attractions wouldn't survive the early rounds.

While the GP final matchup of Josh Barnett vs Daniel Cormier is intriguing, it isn’t nearly the star-studded, PPV-headlining fight that Fedor vs Werdum II or Fedor vs Overeem would have been.