With the acquisition of the Strikeforce promotion by Zuffa, it is no longer the biggest rival to the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and therefore under new management.
On Tuesday, a couple news items surfaced concerning Strikeforce regarding how it runs its events and the new relationship between the two mma promotions.
MMAWeekly.com confirmed a change for Strikeforce events, that they will no longer feature amateur fights on any of it’s shows. Before the Zuffa purchase, Strikeforce usually featured amateur bouts on their Strikeforce Challengers series shows. News of the change was confirmed with Strikeforce Director of Communication Mike Afromowitz.
Fans watching at home won’t be missing out as these matches were never televised on Showtime. Now Challengers shows will feature all pro-bouts, and should feature some exciting fights as up-and-comers look to gain access to the UFC through Challengers events.
As another example of how things have changed between the two promotions, Strikeforce will have a booth at the upcoming UFC Fan Expo in Toronto, which is set to take place on April 29 and 30 for the promotions first event in Ontario. No word yet on which Strikeforce fighters might appear, but the UFC posted it’s fighter list today, which can be found here.
Reporter Ariel Helwani posted that update on Tuesday.
The UFC Fan Expo will take place at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto in conjunction with UFC 128, which takes place on April 30 at the sold out Rogers Centre in downtown Toronto.