With two of the most successful events for MMA on Showtime taking place in the last couple of weeks, there is no time for Strikeforce to take a breather.
Strikeforce is already preparing for their upcoming Challengers event this Friday in Austin, Texas, and just a few weeks later, the Strikeforce Columbus: Henderson vs Feijao event will take place, which has big implications for the company as they join the famed Arnold Sports Festival this year while making their promotional debut in Ohio.
SHOWTIME BOUTS:
– Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante (10-2) vs. Dan Henderson (26-8) **LHW Title Bout**
– Marloes Coenen (18-4) vs. Miesha Tate (11-2) **135 lbs Title Bout**
– Tim Kennedy (12-3) vs. Melvin Manhoef (24-8)
– Billy Evangelista (11-0) vs. Jorge Masvidal (20-6)
RUMORED PRELIM BOUTS:
– Roger Bowling (7-1) vs. Josh Thornberg (4-1)
– Jorge Gurgel (13-7) vs. Tyler Combs (14-5)
– Brian Rogers (6-2) vs. Mojo Horne (5-1)
– Jason Riley (9-5) vs. Jason Freeman (5-4)
– Marc Cofer (6-5) vs. Mitch Whitesel (15-19)
– JP Felty (0-0) vs. John Kuhner (1-2)
H/T: GatewayMMA
Payout Perspective:
No rest for the weary should be Strikeforce’s motto for 2011, already hosting 2 major shows and 1 Challenger event in the first 6 weeks of the year and gearing up for another Challenger event on Friday and the big Columbus event in conjunction with the Arnold Sports Festival in about 3 weeks. The key for Strikeforce is to keep the momentum going coming off hugely successful events in San Jose and New Jersey, in order to direct everyone to the now highly anticipated April 9th event which will host the second event of the Heavyweight Grand Prix, headlined by Alistair Overeem vs Fabricio Werdum and Josh Barnett vs Brett Rogers.
While there is a good amount of quality MMA coming in the next few months from the UFC, Bellator, MFC, Tachi Palace, etc, I believe the Strikeforce Columbus event is being overlooked at the moment, but I don’t expect that to be the case as we get closer to the event. Not only will the event be used to promote the second event of the HW GP, but the card looks like it should be another night of exciting fights for Strikeforce, and with their willingness to work with HDNet and Sherdog to televise the prelim bouts, fans are starting to soak in the brand and the fighters through the extra exposure. HDNet mentioned last week that they will not be broadcasting the March 5th Strikeforce prelims on the network this time around, though sources tell MMAPayout that Strikeforce will be looking to stream them, either through Sherdog or their own website. An announcement on the matter is expected within a couple of weeks.
Taking over for the UFC at the Arnold Sport Festival gives Strikeforce a great opportunity to expose their brand to thousands of sport enthusiasts. Luring in a portion of those fans and keeping them around will be a key factor, and perhaps they may make it a staple in their annual schedule as the UFC looks to expand to different countries as they branch out more towards the global market.
Good card. 10 times better than the lousy Fedor vs Silva card. Who created the fight poster? Very busy looking and your really cant make anything out at first glance you have to stare at it to see what it is. Causes my eyes to blurr too. doesnt look professional. Also putting a female fight as the number 2 billing when it is Cyborg or Carano is a poor decision IMO. Female MMA isnt popular yet and putting #2 on the card only sends the message to the casual fans that the rest of the card is weak. There is at least 5 better fights on the card who are more popular.
I was planning on attending this event. Not sure how things will go with work but my friends were planning on going to the UFC in Louisville and then over to Columbus for SF. Just a few hours drive from each event. We are refering the the weekend as the “Bermuda Triangle” as we are going from Huntington to Louisville, to Columbus, and back to Huntington.
It will be interesting to see what the attendance is like at this event. There are tons of sports going on and SF really isnt the name casual fans will go out of there way to see with so much on their plate. Also will the UFC event being so close so soon have an effect?
BrainSmasher:
Sounds like an awesome trip! Enjoy the fights. From what I’ve heard, the UFC Louisville tickets are not so hot. On the other hand, UFC Seattle is blazing, but it does seem like everyone is forgetting about this Louisville event.
In terms of Strikeforce, it’s a great event to capitalize on luring in as many fans as they possibly can, because like you said, they don’t have the brand awareness just yet to lure the casuals. Educating the fans and selling their product as martial arts and the fact that it is a sport should be stress points for them during the week. I am sure Hendo, Kennedy, Bowling, Gurgel, and Tate will be key for them.
Hey Brain Smasher
would be hilarious, if a Strikeforce hater like you would attend their event.
Didn’t you talk about how Fedor vs Silva would fail? Not really, huh
“Also putting a female fight as the number 2 billing when it is Cyborg or Carano is a poor decision IMO.”
Brain, I assume you mean when it is not Cyborg or Carano. I agree. Kennedy-Manhoef is a much bigger fight in my view, and Evangelista-Masvidal at least as big as Coenen-Tate. On the other hand, Coenen-Tate is a title fight. And even though it’s between two fighters who aren’t very popular, I like the fact that SF is showing some respect to their champions (a big criticism of theirs in the past) and making the fight a co-main event. The fight wouldn’t feel right further down the card. If SF have committed themselves to pushing women’s MMA, then this is the only way to play it.
The real question is whether pushing women’s MMA, with it’s shallow pool of competitors, is a good strategy. But considering the popularity of Carano and Cyborg, and how little SF pay for these fights, it’s probably a money-maker for them. (Note: I’m not saying they shouldn’t pay their fighters well, I just don’t think female fighters make much money right now.)
This card certainly is flying under the radar. Perhaps it has been overshadowed by the heavyweight Grand Prix and Fedor’s loss, as well as the news of th UFC 129 sell-out. It’s also possible that there just won’t be much interest in the card, as Strikeforce’s LHW division is razor thin. Dan Henderson certainly hasn’t been the mega-star Strikeforce probably hoped he would, we have the women’s 135 pound championship that will most likely be a weak draw, a Manhoef vs Kennedy bout that only hardcore fans will care about (the same hardcore fans that know Kennedy’s wrestling should spell death for Manhoef), and a lightweight fight meant for hardcore fans. It will be interesting to see how many tickets they sell at the Nationwide.
Wish I lived near Columbus so I could go. Brain, you’re absolutely right about the poster. Apart from the busy-ness and bright colors, it looks as if Hendo and Feijao are some sort of super hero team, with Hendo screaming to intimidate while Feijao beats the criminals down. I mean, it looks like they’re walking out of the same door or something. Where’s the rest of Feijao’s left leg?
It’ll be interesting to see the angles they use to promote these bouts.
In a lot of ways Miesha is more promotable than Gina is currently. Any time she fights she gets a huge pop on the boards. She works very well with the media, far better than Gina’s performance the other day. And while there is a very, very vocal minority that can’t stand women fighting the numbers show that the women are actually very popular. Gina will get a large part of her shine back when the movie comes out and she gets scheduled for a fight.
Bigger questions are the big gap to the next leg of the tournament and the fact that there is no card in May because of boxing. Momentum can be a hard thing to get and it would be a shame to lose it.
I dont think this card looks that good at all honestly.
Hendo/Feijao is good, teh female title fight I could care less about, Tim vs Melvin is solid and Billy E vs Masvidal is ok.
the undercard is shit though, I hate 4 fight cards thats weak and one of them is a female fight which I cant stand.
Decent card, not great by an y means. UFC 128>>>>>>> this card by a mile, or a few million miles.
The only two notable names on the undercard are Bowling and Gurgel, a UFC reject and a prospect who just got smashed and exposed, cant say I care about seeing those fights.
Card is being overlooked cause its not that great, with teh GP, Fedor losing, a 20x better UFC 128, Bellator debut, SF April card with Reem/Werdum, Josh/Rgoers and Gilbert/Crusher title fight, UFC 129, TUF debut, thats what has the attention of mma fans, this is a decent card and that March 5 is def a good mma night with Bellator and SF though.
Uncool 2010
What makes u think i hate SF? I have followed MMA online for 15 years now. I love all MMA and have went to many MMA events of all sizes. My former BJJ instructor fights in SF. What i dont like is people over hyping promotions and fighters into something they are not just to justify watching the product. I like SF because i like fights not because i want to go against the grain. To many people like SF only as a way to distance themselves from new TUF fans of the UFC on the internet. Then over hype SF to justify the blind following. This might seem cool to you. But i have been around long enough to see morons online do this with every major promotion that starts up. I like SF for what it really is, not what it isn’t.
Chris:
Bowling is still a good prospect and so is his opponent Thornberg, who is a Cesar Gracie Fighter and trains with Nick, Nate, Shields, etc. Bowling looked terrible in his last fight because he broke his foot early in the fight last time out against Voelker.
Coenen vs Tate should be a real good fight as well, but yes, there is plenty of good MMA for fans to overlook this card.