Strikeforce San Diego: Diaz vs Daley Event Posters, Promotion & Card

After the shocking news of the Strikeforce purchase by Zuffa, business will continue as usual for San Jose based promotion, as they plan their next four events (April 1st Challengers in Stockton, April 9th in San Diego, May Challengers, & June 18 Heavyweight Grand Prix in Dallas) under new management.

Diaz vs Daley Poster:

 

Melendez vs Kawajiri Poster:

SHOWTIME BOUTS:
– Nick Diaz (24-7) vs. Paul “Semtex” Daley (27-9) **WW Title Bout**
– Gilbert Melendez (19-2) vs. Tatsuya “Crusher” Kawajiri (27-6) **LW Title Bout**
– Gegard Mousasi (30-3) vs. Mike Kyle (18-8)
– Shinya Aoki (26-5) vs. Lyle Beerbohm (16-1)

UNDERCARD PRELIMS:
– Hiroyuki Takaya (15-8) vs. Robert Peralta (13-3)
– Saad Awad (8-3) vs. Joe Duarte (5-2)
– Casey Ryan (1-0) vs. Paul Song (2-0)
– Edgar Cardenas (3-0) vs. Rolando Perez (5-4)

RUMORED PRELIM PARTICIPANTS:
– Virgil Zwicker (9-2)
– A.J. Matthews (4-0)
– Herman Terrado (5-2)
– Brett Albee (3-0)

 

Strikeforce Diaz vs Daley Promotion on UFC 128 PPV:

Strikeforce Diaz vs Daley Showtime Promo:

 

Payout Perspective:

Although, “business as usual” has been stressed since the purchase was made, MMAPayout has learned that Zuffa will be making some changes behind the scenes in the upcoming events including security, credentials, and promotion.  The Strikeforce April 9th event from San Diego headlined by Nick Diaz and Paul Daley was advertised during the “upcoming events” portion of UFC 128, with UFC announcer Mike Goldberg telling UFC fans to buy tickets for the event at Ticketmaster while displaying Showtime as the broadcast partner for the event. Oddly enough, it seems that the UFC will ignore Strikeforce Challenger events since there was no mention of the April 1st event taking place in Stockton in just a few days.

It will be interesting to see what type of impact the recent promotion by the UFC will have on the event. In terms of promotion by Strikeforce,  I really like the look and feel of their posters of the event, which have garnered some very positive feedback by MMA fans.  Showcasing Diaz vs Daley on one poster and Melendez vs Kawajiri on another playing up the nation vs nation theme is a nice change from the typical Strikeforce poster which typically only focuses on the guys that move the needle.

Other changes that have occurred since the purchase include Strikeforce now following the Unified Rules and allowing elbows to a grounded opponent, as well as eliminating the use of amateur fighters on the prelims.