UFC President Dana White officially announces the acquisition of Strikeforce by Zuffa during an interview with MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani.
Props to Nick Thomas at BloodyElbow.com for putting together the quotes.
– 0:48 “We just closed the deal”
– 0:53 “As we continue to expand, we need more fights”
– 1:10 “Strikeforce has a following, people enjoy the fights, it made sense to us”
– 2:05 “The deal happened quickly; I don’t want to disclose the details”
– 2:30 “The reality is we now own Strikeforce”
– 3:18 “Strikeforce is going to continue to run as business as usual, there are contracts in place, Showtime is happy with them, these guys will remain Strikeforce fighters. Could guys from the UFC leave and end up in Strikeforce? Yes absolutely.”
– 3:46 “Scott Coker is staying on, Scott is a good guy”
– 5:20 “Lorenzo can deal with Showtime”
– 6:00 “Scott Coker will continue to run that business (example: M-1 Global, Dan Henderson)
– 6:55 “M-1 has a deal with Showtime, that’s completely separate and Fedor will continue to fight in Strikeforce/Showtime”
– 7:42 “No we won’t be doing any super fights”
– 7:50 “When I say business as usual, we don’t co-promote, even when we own it”
– 8:12 “Can we make some tweaks (to Strikeforce) and make them better? Absolutely”
– 10:26 “(The Showtime deal) is around 2 years”
– 10:43 “Once contracts expire, I have the right to negotiate for the UFC and try to acquire some of their talent”
– 11:20 “Josh Barnett has a deal with Strikeforce and Scott Coker, that deal will remain in place”
– 13:06 “Scott Coker will continue to put on women’s fights and sign women”
– 15:00 “We do acquire their (fight) library, we need more fighters”
– 17:20 “Whatever deals (with DREAM, etc) Scott Coker has in place, he’ll continue to do”
– 17:50 “Strikeforce could end up in Canada and other parts of the world”
– 18:00 “It’s the same thing that happened with PRIDE and the WEC, that’s the way it goes”
– 20:00 “I’m stll not a Paul Daley fan. He will never fight in the UFC”