Strikeforce MMA promotion purchases Elite XC assets

The San Jose based Strikeforce MMA promotion has gained a reputation as the best “regional” mixed martial arts promotion in the United States.  With a series of big announcements on Thursday, it looks as if they’re ready for a move to the bigtime.  The most significant of these was the announcement that Strikeforce had reached a deal with bankrupt EliteXC parent company Pro Elite to purchase “certain assets” including the contracts of 40 fighters including some of the biggest names in the sport.  With subsequent announcements of new high profile exposure on both pay cable and broadcast TV, Strikeforce appears ready to position themselves as North America’s #2 MMA promotion and could even threaten the UFC’s hegemony in the market.

Among the fighters acquired by Strikeforce:  Internet street fighting phenom turned MMA fighter Kimbo Slice, the hugely popular Gina Carano, plus Robbie Lawler and Jake Shields who are both favorites with hardcore fans.  A full list of fighters acquired by Strikeforce is forthcoming, but given the sheer number of contracts acquired it would appear that every decent fighter under contract to EliteXC will now be competing under their banner.  Scott Coker, the highly respected CEO of Strikeforce, explain the deal in a press release:

“This is a tremendous development that will bolster the Strikeforce roster and allow us to produce even more competitive matchups between top fighters. Some of these athletes have been on the sidelines for a while now and are eagerly waiting to return to competition. We look forward to providing them with the opportunity to do so in the next few months.”

Immediately after this revelation, Strikeforce had another potentially huge announcement of a TV deal with the Showtime cable network to air as many as 16 live events in the coming year along with an arrangement with CBS to air quarterly prime time events on broadcast television.  The Showtime deal will feature live fight cards as well as a series highlighting up-and-coming fighters similar to the old “ShoXC” program.  The CBS deal is no doubt along the lines of their arrangement with EliteXC which clearly suggests that the network sees considerable upside to the nascent sport of mixed martial arts despite all of the missteps of their former promotional partner.  Strikeforce also indicated that there were no plans to end their late night hour long highlight show on NBC, meaning that in one fell swoop they’ve put themselves on two major broadcast TV networks and the #2 pay cable network. 

The first live Showtime event will take place on April 11th at the HP Pavilion in their hometown of San Jose.  The only fight announced for the card so far is a compelling matchup between middleweights Benji Radach and Scott Smith, but in several media spots CEO Coker indicated that Cung Le and Frank Shamrock would face as-of-yet unnamed opponents at the event.