Look, I’m not a pessimist. I try to stay positive and see the bright side in everything.
But every single time somebody mentions Strikeforce, I feel a pit in my stomach. It’s like we’re talking about a diseased family dog that’s overdue for a trip to the vet.
Strikeforce was once great, and it hurts to see the upstart San Jose-based promotion being dragged through the dirt. Honestly, at this point, what else can be done to the company?
As it stands, I don’t even think there’s any point in looking forward to Strikeforce: Champions, the promotion’s final event. The current lineup is a pathetic, festering shell of its original self.
Really, why bother trying to keep the event together at all?
If everything had been done right, the main card would’ve been billed with nothing but title fights, headlined by Ronda Rousey and followed with Luke Rockhold, Nate Marquardt, Gilbert Melendez and Daniel Cormier.
But Rockhold and Melendez have already pulled out with injuries. Rousey is firmly under the UFC banner and won’t be coming back to give her home promotion a proper send-off.
Heck, you may as well call the January 12th card Strikeforce: Champion now that ex-UFC fighter Marquardt is the only one left who’s actually defending a belt.
And in all honesty, even if Lorenz Larkin is right about Rockhold ducking his last title defense in fear of looking bad on the last Strikeforce card, you really can’t blame the paper champion.
Why take the risk?
There’s no upside for anyone fighting in this event as the UFC has already made it obvious that they’re going to cherry-pick the biggest names available. Pragmatically, it’s just better to stay on the sidelines, call out some UFC fighters on Twitter and try to keep yourself in the headlines.
With the last two Strikeforce events in 2012 already canceled, it wouldn’t be a shock if the final event never happened.
In fact, that would be oddly fitting for the MMA promotion once known as the UFC’s biggest rival—a slow, fizzling death instead of going out with a huge bang.
So I’m not even expecting Strikeforce: Champions to happen.
Just get on with it, kill the card, and start merging the rosters sooner rather than later.
Besides, I doubt many Strikeforce fans are really that interested in watching Daniel Cormier beat the stuffing out of (hang on, let me look up this guy’s name) Dion Staring.
McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist and FightFans Radio writer. His work has appeared in GamePro, Macworld and PC World. Talk with him on Twitter.
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