Before we get into the Pat Healy/Jorge Masvidal booking –which we’re sure will rustle your jimmies to no end — we’d like to discuss the actual name Strikeforce has decided upon for its final event and how it more or less serves as a euphemism for Strikeforce as a company over the past couple years. Champions. They named the event Champions. It made sense originally, with nearly every one of their belts being on the line, meaningless as they were. But one groundbreaking signing and a slew of injuries later, and Strikeforce’s final card — their swan song, their dying epilogue, the culmination of years of blood, sweat, and tears — will die a vapid, depleted shell of what it once was. Like Layne Staley.
Two of our title fights have been canceled. Daniel Cormier is fighting a complete wild card and it isn’t even for the title. Is Nate Marquardt defending his newly earned welterweight title against Tarec Saffiedine? Who the hell cares; one of them is going down in the next week and you can mark my words on that. We may like to have our fun at Strikeforce’s expense around here, but they deserved better than this. They gave us Gina Carano in a towel damn it. They gave us this gif of Ronda Rousey. Not to mention all of the less sexual, fight-related stuff they gave us, like Nick Diaz vs. Paul Daley, Scott Smith’s epic comebacks, and the God damned Nashville Brawl.
And now, they’ve been drained dry. Scott Coker had a milkshake, and Dana White had a milkshake and a straw, and Dana drank Coker’s milkshake. Even worse than that, DW has acted as if he wasn’t even aware that Strikeforce liked milkshakes whilst slurping theirs down right in front of them. That’s just cold. Not ice cold, or cold water cold, but somewhere in between cold.
As my esteemed colleague ReX pointed out, there are several reasons why this absorption could prove detrimental to the UFC brand, but it’s not like we can reset what’s already been done. Strikeforce is dead; it has been from the moment the UFC bought it out. And while we are excited to see the best fighters from each promotion square off down the line, we can’t help but mourn the loss of a dear friend.
Discredit Strikeforce’s current place in the MMA landscape all you want, but remember this: at least they weren’t EliteXC. At least they weren’t EliteXC.
Oh yeah, and Pat Healy is set to face Jorge Masvidal in the promotion’s last hurrah. Healy has scored five straight victories under the SF banner, most recently outpointing Mizuto Hirota at Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Kennedy. Masvidal recently bounced back from a failed title bid against Melendez to score a UD win over Justin Wilcox at the same event.
We’ve added the official promo for Strikeforce: Champions below.
At least they’re being honest.