Tag: Strike Force

A few updates surfaced over this past weekend after the official Strikeforce announcement that the ‘Last Emporer’ Fedor Emelianenko and promotion light heavyweight champ, Dan Henderson, would meet on July 30 at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

Rumors had persisted that both men would meet at a 220 lb catchweight bout, but Henderson cleared that up by responding to a fan on Twitter (@danhendo) confirming the fight will be a heavyweight match.

– Fight is at heavyweight. RT @KinchKid: @danhendo is your fight at 220 catch weight?! Damn dirty Russians…

While ESPN reporter Josh Gross posted a note on Twitter (@JoshGrossESPN) concerning the salaries of both fighters. Emelianenko will reportedly make $1.5 million, while Henderson is expected to make $800,000 for the bout.

– Sources: Fedor takes home $1.5 M while Henderson makes $800k for their fight in July. Huge purses. Zuffa will have hard time making money.

The salary for Fedor alone dwarfs the entire reported salaries for any single UFC event, let alone one for Strikeforce. The UFC does offer bonuses to their fighters, but those numbers go unreported which is the way they prefer to keep things.

Strikeforce is going to have to pull in some very large numbers on Showtime as well as at the gate for the Sears Centre. I believe attendance for their best events has hovered around the low 10,000’s, far from the UFC gate totals.

Let’s hope that Strikeforce hasn’t bet the bank on this single fight.

Before tonight’s action kicked off in Las Vegas for UFC 130, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker, who is back wearing the cap as the promotions top executive, held a press conference to announce some big news for the promotion.

Besides officially announcing the Fedor Emelianenko vs. Dan Henderson bout, as well as the deal with HDNet to broadcast the June 18 prelim bouts, Coker announced to the gathered media that the July 22 Strikeforce Challengers, as well as all future Challengers shows, would take place at the Pearl at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas.

Coker identified a welterweight bout between Bobby Voelker (23-8) vs. ‘Relentless’ Roger Bowling (9-1) as the Challengers show main event. This meeting represents the third meeting between the two fighters, who have both earned a win over the other.

This will be a back-to-back rematch for Voelker who headlined his last fight, a Strikeforce Challengers: Bowling vs. Voelker event last October, against Bowling. He won their second meeting by second round TKO and is 3-1 in his last four fights.

Bowling was undefeated until that loss to Voelker, but has appeared in the Strikeforce cage one time since that loss. He earned a unanimous decision over Josh Thornburg in Columbus last March at the Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson event. He won their first fight in May of last year by Technical Decision after receiving an eye poke that left him unable to continue.

HT: MMAFighting.com