While not yet officially announced, Strikeforce has a hold on the HP Pavilion in San Jose for a show on Dec. 12, and former football great Herschel Walker, during an appearance on ESPN2, tabbed mid-December for when he would like to make his MMA debut.
Strikeforce promoter Scott Coker earlier this week said that Dec. 12 was only a tentative date. But if the date proceeds, it would be the first time a Showtime MMA event would go head-to-head with a UFC pay-per-view card.
It’s definitely a ballsy move if they make it. Whether it’s stupid or not I suppose is up for debate. The UFC is coming after Strikeforce regardless of much they like them or hate Showtime, so it’s not like this move would wake the sleeping giant.
Having Herschel Walker on the card is going to attract mainstream media attention regardless, but Herschel Walker vs. UFC 107 may very well attract more. There’s probably some small segment of the casual fanbase that could be persuaded into watching Herschel Walker for free (sort of) instead of paying for another UFC event, especially when there’s another one only a few weeks later. Or maybe a larger segment of that same fanbase would check it out if there wasn’t a UFC event to watch. Maybe the additional media coverage would convince a significantly larger portion of the general sports fanbase who don’t buy the UFC pay-per-views to tune in.
I don’t know, but at the end of the day, I really don’t think it matters what Strikeforce does or doesn’t do. There was a time when I thought one of these organizations could make a dent in the UFC’s market share, but after everything that’s transpired over the past couple years, I’m really starting to believe the UFC brand is just too powerful to overcome. No matter what all these promotions try, the UFC is always the one who comes out smelling like roses. Look at ProElite. Not even counting all the debt they racked up buying up other promotions, splurging on websites, lavish offices, and overpaying executives, they still weren’t making anything significant off their golden goose Kimbo Slice. Look who’s profiting off him now.
