MusclePharm announced earlier today that they will be prominently featured during the Strikeforce: Diaz vs Daley event airing on Showtime Saturday night.
From the press release:
MusclePharm Corporation, a Nevada corporation (“MusclePharm” or the “Company”) MSLP, an expanding U.S. healthy lifestyle company, is pleased to announce that it will be prominently featured during Saturday’s Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley fight card, which takes place at Valley View Casino Center in San Diego, California and will be broadcast live on Showtime cable network.
MusclePharm will have significant mat placement in the cage for the event, which will be available live to Showtime’s 16.5 million subscribers.
This will be Strikeforce’s first major event since it was purchased by Zuffa, LLC (“Zuffa”), which is the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Zuffa acquired Strikeforce on March 12. In the main event, Nick Diaz defends his welterweight title against challenger Paul “Semtex” Daley.
Thanks to his entertaining style and brash personality, Diaz has been involved in several of Strikeforce’s most viewed telecasts on Showtime, which we believe will allow for greater exposure for MusclePharm during the broadcast.
The co-main event features current lightweight champion Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez fighting Tatsuya “Crusher” Kawajiri.
Payout Perspective:
In the press release, MusclePharm claims that it will have significant mat placement in the cage for the event, which will be available live to Showtime’s 16.5 million subscribers. They also go on to point out that Nick Diaz has been involved in several of Strikeforce’s most viewed telecasts on Showtime, which will allow for greater exposure for MusclePharm during the broadcast.
MusclePharm has also been tied to some interesting headlines lately, most notably, a report that surfaced last year claiming that Musclepharm, the WEC’s official supplement company at the time, owed the WEC $375,000 in sponsorship fees. The company’s debt was sold to a third party company, and shortly after that settlement, MusclePharm announced they had raised 1.4 million to continue to fund the company. MMAPayout covered the events earlier this year:
It was announced last month that nutritional supplement company, MusclePharm, owed Zuffa approximately $375,000 in over-due sponsorship fees accrued over the course of a year-long agreement between the two companies starting in January. This outstanding debt was subsequently sold by Zuffa to a collection agency in the Fall.
Many were surprised to see the brand return to the Octagon in January. The WEC deal had expired and Zuffa didn’t appear to have any outstanding obligations to the company. Why would it do business with a company that had already failed to pay its debts? The answer is ostensibly because MusclePharm was able to raise new capital in December to fund new marketing efforts and recommit to sponsoring UFC fighters (including the payment of the UFC “sponsor tax”).
MusclePharm signed a one year deal with the WEC back on January of 2010 and had accumulated debt throughout the partnership with the WEC.
World Extreme Cagefighting® announced today that MusclePharm will serve as the organization’s Official Sports Nutrition Company for 2010. Considered a leader in the sports nutrition industry, MusclePharm is committed to providing the best nutritional products to athletes and general consumers. MusclePharm’s commitment to athletes, in particular mixed martial artists, made the partnership attractive to WEC officials.
“We are pleased to have MusclePharm as our official sports nutrition company for 2010,” WEC Vice President Peter Dropick said. “They are dedicated to providing the best nutritional products to athletes of all levels. Because of that, they are a great fit for WEC.”
Since the time the WEC/UFC merger took place late last year, the fate of MusclePharm was in limbo considering the debt collected working with the WEC along with the UFC’s exclusive sponsors and partners, though it seems they are in good graces with the UFC once again.
Good4U drinks was in a similar situation when the UFC banned them for being a competitor to one of their existing sponsors. Good4U was able to land on HDNet, followed by Showtime as a main sponsor just a few weeks ago for M-1’s debut on the network. Showtime is quickly becoming a great alternative for MMA sponsors who are looking for a platform to grow their brand, as many sponsors are not allowed in the UFC.
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