photos by Josh Hedges/Mike Roach/UFC
If you happened to catch the semi-finals of the Strikeforce World Grand Prix Heavyweight Tournament this past Saturday, September 10, then you witnessed one of the best shows of the year from Strikeforce.
Fans were treated to two knockout and two submissions, along with a five-round battle that saw the Strikeforce middleweight title change hands.
Despite all of this, it appears that without big names such as Alistair Overeem or Fedor Emelianenko, fans didn’t bother to tune in Saturday night.
Viewer numbers were posted on Tuesday for the Showtime event, reaching a low average of 274,000 for the Ohio show, far below the average 453,000 viewer numbers for previous events on Showtime.
Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov took place on Sept. 10 at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio. The event featured tournament bouts between Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov and Daniel Cormier vs. Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva. Barnett earned a submission win, while Cormier scored a knockout with both men meeting in the final. Also on the line was the Strikeforce middleweight title, which went to Luke Rockhold who defeated champ Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza by unanimous decision after five rounds. Former light heavyweight champ Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal ended Roger Gracie’s undefeated streak with a first round KO, and Pat Healy submitted Maximo Blanco in the Venezuelans debut.
MMAjunkie.com posted the numbers, indicating that this past weekends show ranked 17th among all Strikeforce events on Showtime.
Media coverage leading up to the event was highly overshadowed by last weeks GSP-Nick Diaz-Carlos Condit fiasco, with ‘King Mo’ calling the promotion a “cancer patient” waiting to die at a pre-fight press conference.
With the UFC moving into the main stream with the announcement of their broadcast deal with FOX, it’s sad to see Strikeforce get pushed to the wayside left to twist in the wind. There is certainly room for both the UFC and Strikeforce under Zuffa, but it doesn’t appear that anyone in the head offices sees it that way.
How many fans already refer to mixed martial arts as “UFC”, so it’s sad to see that despite the three steps forward the sport appears set to take a big step back.
Strikeforce, you will be missed.