Strikeforce MMA: With Prestige Comes Responsibility

When Alistair Overeem won the Strikeforce heavyweight title back in 2007, he did so by stopping the promotion's staple heavyweight, Paul Buentello.

In doing so, he basically cleaned out its heavyweight division.

Since Strikeforce began promoting MMA events in 2006, it took on the appearance of a showcase for local gyms such as American Kickboxing Academy, a San Jose-based training facility with many notable fighters.

When Overeem was presented with the opportunity to fight for its newly created title against AKA member Buentello, Strikeforce was a regional show whose foresight extended little beyond each current show.

The championship was more of an immediate selling point than a foundation on which to build an entire division and ranking system.

After besting Buentello, there wasn't a single notable heavyweight on the Strikeforce roster that would have been worth the cost of Overeem's travel and board to defend his title.

That changed in February 2009 with the collapse of ProElite—owner of MMA promotion EliteXC—and Strikeforce's subsequent acquisition of the majority of its assets.

It was a massive step; a signal that little-known Strikeforce was now aiming to be the No. 2 MMA promotion in the U.S., and maybe the world.

Days later, a three-year deal with Showtime was announced for up to 16 events per year, as well as a deal with CBS to produce up to four events per year for them.

Months following that, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker signed formal alliances with Japanese MMA promotion Dream and Russian promotion M-1 Global that would allow fighter exchanges and co-promotion between the companies.

With these steps, Strikeforce would now feature such fighters as Nick Diaz, Gegard Mousasi, Marius Zaromskis and Fedor Emelianenko.

That trinket Overeem picked up during his trip to America back in 2007 now took on new value.

Fast forward to present time.

To start 2011, Strikeforce and Showtime announced they will be staging an eight-man, single-elimination heavyweight tournament featuring some of the best big men the sport has to offer. The heavyweight title will be on the line in each of Overeem's bouts, or his successor's if he is to lose.

It is another massive step for Strikeforce to try something so noteworthy, and possibly so rewarding. And along with a tournament of this magnitude comes a new level of expectations for the promotion.

Strikeforce is now stepping into the big time.

Many observers criticized Strikeforce for never forcing Overeem to defend his belt in 2008 or 2009—making his first-round TKO of Brett Rogers in 2010 the sole defense of his title—but at that time, there was no one for him to face.

Now that is not that case.

All of the history we draw on when looking at Strikeforce's matchups and business decisions should not be relevant in the near future. Strikeforce is a rapidly growing promotion that has spent the last 20 months regaining its footing from the massive acquisitions in 2009.

Its quality of product is now much higher, and the rules will change.

If Strikeforce would have stripped Overeem before for not fighting enough within the company, who would Strikeforce have given it to? It had nobody. Now, if Overeem resists Strikeforce's demands, there are a handful of top-level heavyweights that will be proving their worth.

The UFC is a massive and successful promotion, light years ahead of Strikeforce, but it took them 18 years to get where it is.

Strikeforce has been around for some time, but it wasn't attempting to compete on the big stage until 2009, when it made its deal with Showtime, who arguably has just as much say in the direction of Strikeforce as Strikeforce itself.

When this tournament kicks off on February 12, the bar will then be raised. No more excuses and no more passes.

Strikeforce wants to be taken seriously, and it will. But with prestige comes responsibility.

Let's see if Strikeforce takes advantage.

This article was originally posted on TheMMATruth.com