No UFC live counter for Strikeforce 4/17 show
Mike Chiappetta of MMAFighting.com is reporting that Strikeforce will be the only MMA promotion running a live show on Saturday,…
Mike Chiappetta of MMAFighting.com is reporting that Strikeforce will be the only MMA promotion running a live show on Saturday, April 17th as the UFC has opted not to hold its rumored card, also in Nashville, on the same day.
The long-rumored UFC event expected to counter the promotion’s April 17 CBS offering will not take place, MMA Fighting has confirmed.
Earlier this month, the UFC explored the option, going so far as to inform likely broadcast partner Spike TV that the show was a go, but the company has apparently reversed course, and a Spike source said the network has been told by the UFC that the show is no longer happening.
Payout Perspective:
I’m not opposed to the idea of counter-programming with a live card – there’s an element of gamesmanship that I can appreciate – but I think it’s got to be done under the right circumstances. Strikeforce is trying to promote an honest card on April 17th; there’s no Herschel Walker or Jose Canseco (not yet), just three solid title fights and some other legitimate matches. They deserve their chance to sink or swim.
Plus, the UFC would have simply been putting on a fight card to hurt Strikeforce, not benefit the fans in any way. I would have DVR’d the UFN show regardless, but whatever the UFC could have mustered with its limited resources (three events in three weeks), wouldn’t have been much.
More importantly, that offering would have gone against the UFC’s mantra of putting on the fights fans want to see, and likely would have hurt the brand in the long run. The UFC needs to be wary of putting on too many fight cards. Market saturation is not the issue, quality over quantity is. Sometimes less is more. We learned that with UFC 109 and this counter-programming card could have very well been the same.
…..
Strikeforce is going to pull at least 2-3 million viewers on the 17th, and a good portion of those will be from the core MMA demographic; that presents a perfect advertising opportunity for the UFC. Some might think the UFC would never go for it – that somehow it would acknowledge Strikeforce’s legitimacy or whatever – but I tend to think a cheeky commercial that sends a strong message about the UFC might just steal a bit of Strikeforce’s thunder.
Besides, it’s not as if Strikeforce and CBS haven’t done the same on SpikeTV.
