MMA Junkie reports that 8,311 fans attended Saturday night’s Strikeforce event for a gate of $638,470. The event took place at the Sears Centre Arena outside of Chicago.
Via MMA Junkie:
This year’s Chicago-area show featured a heavyweight headliner between MMA legends Dan Henderson and Emelianenko. Thanks largely to that super-fight, most tickets were sold more than a week before the show, which Coker suggested was the most talent-rich in the organization’s history.
In comparison, June’s Strikeforce event, Overeem vs. Werdum, held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas had 7,639 in attendance for a total gate of $543,060.
Payout Perspective:
The main event is likely what everyone came to see and the action did not disappoint. We will leave it up to you to determine whether the fight was stopped too early. It will be interesting to see what will happen next to both Fedor and Henderson. If Fedor is cut from Strikeforce, it will have dismissed the two fighters it had hoped would meet in the finals of its Heavyweight Grand Prix. How ironic. With Overeem being cut from the organization and Fedor on a losing streak, Dan Henderson arguably is the face of Strikeforce. Yet, at 40 (41 August 24th), it seems like Henderson should be back in the UFC. There are a lot of interesting matchups that Zuffa could make if Henderson came back. But, that would mean another Strikeforce fighter vacating their title to jump to the UFC. Would Zuffa allow that to happen?
After watching the fight several times, it’s hard to disagree that it was stopped early. However, it wasn’t a “robbery,” as Fedor fell flat on his face and absorbed multiple strikes without defending himself. I only argue that the stoppage was early due to Fedor immediately turning over ti fight off his back, but to be fair he just showed he was ok too late. It was an early stoppage because Fedor obviously could’ve continued, but Herb Dean had no way of knowing that and he made a good call. If you get dropped, fall flat on your face, and absorb multiple undefended strikes, a good referee really has no choice. This was not a Josh Koscheck/Paulo Thiago type stoppage to say the least.
There was nothing early about the stoppage Fedor went out and was woken up by more punches. The stoppage was great and continues to earn Herb Dean the moniker as the best in the business.