Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce
With UFC parent company Zuffa swallowing up its biggest competitor Strikeforce, the dynamics of competition around the mixed martial arts world shifted in a way the sport has never seen. There isn’t a single promotion anywhere on the globe that can come close to matching the scope of Zuffa’s breadth and reach. The company now has television deals with Spike, Versus and Showtime, is the biggest pay-per-view provider in history, and could potentially tap into existing relationships with Strikeforce partner CBS and new Comcast partner NBC.
Yet despite the sport’s 800-pound gorilla adding on further muscle, company bosses Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White deny that the company has a monopoly on the MMA business.
On a Monday conference call officially announcing the transaction, Fertitta, a co-owner of parent company Zuffa as well as UFC executive, dismissed talk that the deal could open the promotion to anti-trust issues.