Strikeforce Plans Three More Cards for St Louis/Mizzou
June 7, 2009
Last night’s Strikeforce card from St Louis did good numbers crowd-wise, and the card looks to be part of a longer term targeting of the city by Strikeforce to make the area a stronghold for their product:
A close-to-capacity crowd of 8,867 — only seats in the lower bowl were sold — turned out at Scottrade Center for the city’s first major MMA card, headlined by a fight between Robbie Lawler and Jake Shields, and, based on the crowd, it won’t be the last.
Strikeforce, which put on Saturday’s show, is already committed to another major card here along with two smaller ones, which may or may not be held at Scottrade. With prominent fighter Matt Hughes training in Granite City, there’s a chance he could bring a UFC card here. Suffice to say, you haven’t seen the last of MMA around here.
Robbie Lawler is training in the area with the Hughes Intesive Training group, so he is something of a pull for locals but may not be the long term answer, as he has made many intimations of being open to a return to the UFC. If Strikeforce ends up signing someone like NCAA wrestling legend and University of Missouri product Ben Askren, that would go a long way to putting down roots in the the area long term. Askren is just starting on his road in the MMA game but he would be a nice hook to use to garner local media attention and fan support. Local products stocked the undercard, which is always good for the box office, but none have the mass appeal or name value of an Askren.
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