10 Things Strikeforce Must Do To Challenge the UFC for MMA Supremacy

Since purchasing the assets of Pro Elite in 2009, Strikeforce has evolved from a highly successful regional promotion into a national MMA brand on the rise.

Some would argue that the California-based promotion is already a force to be reckoned with in the mixed martial arts industry, while others believe the promotion’s simple mistakes will cause them to ultimately crumble and fail.

If one were to compare the MMA industry to that of the animal kingdom, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is at the very top of the food chain.

Dana White and the Fertittas are the unstoppable lions and at this point it doesn’t look like any competing carnivores will be able to surpass the level of dominance that Zuffa LLC has established.

However—while they certainly shouldn’t focus on competing with the UFC—there are methods that Strikeforce can utilize that over time could potentially make them a lethal competitor.

With that said, here are 10 things that Strikeforce must do in order to accomplish that.

Make Adjustments to the Announce Team

Perhaps the area that Strikeforce has received the most criticism of in the past year is their current announce team set-up.  

When it comes to sports commentating, most would likely agree that three is not better than two.

That’s not to say that three-man commentary teams never work, because if done correctly, they can be quite successful, but it all comes down to the individual broadcasters and how they work as a team.

To get to the point, the team of Mauro Renallo, Gus Johnson, and Frank Shamrock simply does not appeal to both casual and die-hard fans. Johnson especially seems to frustrate listeners more so than actually getting them enthralled into the fights.

There’s no denying that Shamrock is a legend in this sport but his biased commentary mixed with Johnson’s cluelessness and Renallo’s cartoonish voice has a negative impact on the product.

Renallo is extremely entertaining and knowledgeable, don’t get me wrong, but he needs a broadcast partner or partners that complement his style better.

On the Strikeforce: Challengers series, Renallo calls the fights with both Stephen Quadros and Pat Miletich. Quadros has a better understanding of the sport than Johnson does and Miletich sounds much more professional than Shamrock.

Yet for some reason, Strikeforce feels more comfortable with the aforementioned team of Renallo, Johnson, and Shamrock for their bigger shows, despite the negative feedback they have received.

Legitimize Match Making

Nothing against Strikeforce matchmaker Rich Chou, but some of his decisions in the past year have been absolutely atrocious.

From giving Brett Rogers a heavyweight title shot after Rogers was coming off a brutal loss, to matching Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos up with an 8-8 Jan Finney, and the list just goes on and on.

One of the biggest issues with the Strikeforce matchmaking is their tendency to feed lower-level competition to popular stars, better known as “squash matches.”

Instead of putting Bobby Lashley to the test against a legitimate heavyweight, they put him in the cage against journeyman fighters in Wes Sims and Chad Griggs.

That concept came back to bite them in the face as Lashley was defeated by Griggs at Strikeforce: Houston and exposed as a one-dimensional fighter.

It’s one thing to build a newcomer up slowly, but Lashley was 5-0 before the Griggs fight and coming off a dominant performance over Sims.

They really could have capitalized on a marquee matchup between Lashley and a big-name heavyweight but they didn’t.

This sort of thing seems to happen constantly in Strikeforce and it’s to the point where fighters are actually leaving the organization because of it.

Jay Hieron earned the right to fight Nick Diaz for the welterweight title but they denied him the title shot, and as a result, Hieron asked for his walking papers and just recently received them.

Increase Press Coverage

You could have the best organization in the world, but if nobody knows about it, then it’s growth is limited.

Such is the case with Strikeforce; they have a decent roster and have delivered some memorable bouts in the past year, but their press coverage is lacking.

The UFC does an outstanding job in promoting their product. If a big fight card is coming up in the UFC, even the most casual fan will know about it months in advance.

They run ads on every  television network possible, appear on radio shows from all over the country, and promote their fight cards extensively on the Internet.

With Strikeforce, we rarely see commercials advertising the product on major networks such as MTV or FX. Even their own networks, Showtime and CBS, do a horrendously poor job in promoting the company.

This is something that absolutely must change in order for Strikeforce to expand into a dominant force in the MMA industry.

Currently there are some casual fans that will turn on Showtime during a Strikeforce event and ask their buddies, “what UFC is this?”. If Strikeforce improves their marketing strategy, they could make their product as synonymous with MMA as the UFC.

Get out of the CBS/Showtime Deal

Some may disagree with this, but realistically what has Showtime or CBS done to help promote Strikeforce? Not very much.

Yes, CBS is a major national television network, but the fact is they simply do not understand how to promote a mixed martial arts event and the same can be said about Showtime.

With over 10 million subscribers on Showtime sports, only about 300,000 tune in to major Strikeforce events.

What is the point of being on a network that quite frankly doesn’t contribute much in promoting your organization?

Obviously, many will argue that being on CBS and Showtime is the primary reason for Strikeforce’s recent rise in popularity but can you imagine how well they would be doing if they struck a deal with a better network?

One that actually took the time and effort to develop the Strikeforce brand on their station and promote their fight cards the way they should be?

Look at Spike TV and the UFC, Spike has promoted the UFC to the moon and beyond. It is to the point now where the UFC has become synonymous with the entire channel.

While watching Spike, you can’t go 10 minutes without seeing something UFC-related on the station.

Strikeforce needs to find their version of Spike TV, and when they do, you will notice a huge difference in the product almost instantly.

Increase the Prestige of the Championships

Being a champion in a major promotion should mean something.

It should solidify you as one of the best fighters in the world and serve as the culmination of all of your blood, sweat, and tears. Yet holding the Strikeforce title apparently means very little.

After all, they recently featured their 135-pound women’s champion Sarah Kaufman on the Challengers series, which is the equivalent of the UFC booking one of their title holders on a Fight Night card on Spike.

Not only is that a huge insult to Kaufman—one of the best female fighters in the world—but it also makes the championship as a whole seem very minuscule.

The current reigning Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem won the title in 2007 and only just defended it for the first time against Brett Rogers this past May.

In the three years in between, Overeem has been competing over in Japan for DREAM and K-1 and somehow Strikeforce didn’t have a problem with this.

It isn’t just the heavyweight title. All Strikeforce championships aren’t being defended on a regular basis.

Not only that, but they are awarding fighters title shots who are coming off losses rather than actually pitting the champions up against the true No. 1 contenders.

As a result, their belts lack prestige, which makes it very difficult for fans to anticipate their title bouts.

They need to start having their champions defend their gold every few months against worthy contenders; otherwise, people just aren’t going to buy into the product.

And if certain champions like Overeem refuse to defend the title on a regular basis, strip them of the title. It’s that simple.

Improve Focus on Women's MMA

One thing that sets Strikeforce apart from the UFC as a unique alternative is their embracing of women’s MMA.

They feature not one, but two female weight divisions with two reigning champions in Sarah Kaufman and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos.

Last year, Strikeforce promoted a female main event between Santos and Gina Carano which set a new MMA ratings record on Showtime with over 522,000 viewers.

That just goes to show you the drawing power of women’s MMA if promoted correctly.

However, booking Kaufman on the Challengers series and matching “Cyborg” up against lower-level competition makes their women’s division seem very second rate.

What they should be doing is promoting the ladies on the same level as the men.

It worked very successfully in the build up for the Carano/ “Cyborg” matchup, so why not do the same for the other women’s bouts?

Recently Strikeforce promoted a one-night women’s tournament in Phoenix, Arizona in which Miesha Tate won and earned a guaranteed title shot in the 135-lbs division.

But instead of setting up a title bout between Tate and Kaufman right away, Strikeforce has granted Marloes Coenen a title shot first.

Coenen is coming off of a loss in her last bout to “Cyborg” so it makes absolutely no sense to give her a title shot with Kaufman ahead of Tate.

Also, since the UFC does not promote women’s MMA, Strikeforce should sign all of the top females in the world from all corners of the globe.

Such a task is easier said than done, but if they could do that, then they can market their organization for having the best female fighters on the planet.

Revamp Preliminary Card Structure

Strikeforce needs to realize the significance of untelevised fights and their relation to building new stars.

A typical Strikeforce preliminary card features nothing but local talent that are usually relatively unknown.

Granted, every now and then a legitimate prospect fights on a Strikeforce prelim, but ordinarily it’s local journeyman with very poor losing records.

They are using their preliminary matchups as filler rather than promoting bright young prospects, and that is what will ultimately hold them back from creating new stars.

Promote Events in Japan

In the past year, the UFC has set its sights on global domination, holding international events in Germany and Abu Dhabi to name a few.

However, they have struggled to break into the Japanese market and this is something that Strikeforce might be able to take advantage of.

Strikeforce has a great relationship with Japan’s DREAM promotion, having co-promoted with them in the past, so they could easily make the transition into the Japanese market with the help of FEG.

While Strikeforce currently doesn’t have any Japanese talent on their roster, they could co-promote an event with DREAM in the Tokyo Dome pitting Strikeforce fighters against DREAM fighters.

If done correctly, they can establish a presence in a huge market that the UFC hasn’t been able to capitalize, that being the Land of the Rising Sun.  

Become More Active on Twitter/Facebook

When you look at the amount of success that the UFC has had utilizing social networking strategies, it’s quite surprising that Strikeforce hasn’t looked to do much of the same.

Just on twitter alone, the UFC and Dana White have taken the organization to new and exciting heights.

That’s not to say that Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker should mimic everything White does, but incorporating his own version of White’s networking strategies would go a long way in expanding the entire promotion.

Even simple things like tweeting pictures and doing video blogs would make a difference.

Work into the PPV Market

Last but certainly not least, in order for Strikeforce to come even remotely close to the UFC’s level, they will have to break into the pay-per-view industry. You can only go so far as a fight promotion without being on PPV.

The biggest source of revenue for the UFC comes from pay-per-view sales, and if Strikeforce can follow in their footsteps they too can bring in a tremendous amount of profit.

Selling PPV’s is no easy task but Strikeforce has the roster to endorse major PPV quality cards, they just need to revamp their marketing strategies.

If done correctly, a Strikeforce pay-per-view headlined by the rematch between Fabricio Werdum and Fedor Emelianenko would exceed most Strikeforce critics expectations in terms of buys.

Round out the rest of the card with intriguing matchups with big name stars such as Mohammed “King Mo” Lawal and Nick Diaz, and you’ve got yourself a stacked lineup. 

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Mitch Ciccarelli is the sexiest MMA columnist on the face of the earth. His articles drive women crazy and make men extremely jealous. Mitch is a contributor to both HeavyMMA.com and Bleacher Report.

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