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Delay in Strikeforce HW GP is an absolute joke
By Zach Arnold | March 1, 2011
It’s now official that the rest of round one in the promotion’s ‘tournament’ will happen on June 18th in Dallas at American Airlines Arena. Yes, in Texas. Who could have seen that coming? Read that Junkie report and the statement given by Scott Coker. Horrible.
First and foremost, as I stated this morning, there should absolutely be a penalty fee paid by Strikeforce & Showtime to the four fighters in the ‘tournament’ (Werdum, Barnett, Overeem, Rogers) for this ridiculous two month delay. It no doubt has impacted some of the scheduling for the fighters and their camps. No excuses, it’s time for Scott Coker to pay up.
Mike Kogan (in response to my comment about how the promotion should give fighters a penalty fee due to postponement):
life is unfair. Its in their contracts.
Second, the fact that Scott Coker really did push all of his chips to try to run the April 9th date in Japan is absurd. Yes, I predicted that Strikeforce would try to run some if not all of Barnett’s fights in Japan, but you would have to be a clueless idiot in 2011 to try to run that market — especially if you are a foreigner. What it goes to show you is what a mark Scott Coker is when it comes to Japan to ignore all the realities that were facing him and to proceed ahead as if he was running into a brick wall just for the fun of it. I’m not angry at Mr. Coker, I’m just embarrassed for him at this point.
Third, the delay in the HW GP should absolutely raise red flags in the minds of fans that this ‘tournament’ will even get completed. I’m not saying 100% that it won’t happen be finished, but it certainly has a larger chance of not getting finished within the 2011 calendar frame. The delay also makes all the advertising for April 9th on the February show with Fedor look like a joke. Yes, there will be an April 9th event and the card will be very good, but it’s not the HW GP and that’s the problem you run into when you run these gimmicks, these tournaments. They suck all the oxygen out of the all for booking because that what the fans only care about it. It’s like throwing a plate of red meat at a lion in a cage and then coming back for round two and giving the lion a platter full of broccoli & sprouts. Fans should have every right to be upset about the delay and what they may perceive as ‘false advertising’ when it’s really more or less incompetence.
I don’t know how many times I need to repeat this, but I will do so again: MMA fans want competency and consistency. Not one or the other, but both. Demonstrate that and you will win over fan trust.
Unfortunately, the story of Strikeforce on Showtime has more or less been about inconsistency or incompetency. Scott Coker rolls the dice on Fedor and ends up watching Fedor lose to both Fabricio Werdum and Bigfoot Silva. Then, instead of putting over the two guys who won, he focuses on saving Fedor’s career in interview after interview after interview. Now, he gambled on Japan (again) just like he did last year, only on a bigger scale this year, and predictably failed. You don’t have to be a millionaire or a genius to understand how toxic the landscape in Japan is right now. Stay out of the way of that place. Why risk your core business on what is becoming a secondary market due to politics and crime? There was no other reason to do so other than to live out some sort of bizarre fantasy.
Hopefully Mr. Coker won’t get his picture taken with Mr. Shinoda or his cast of characters in the future for ‘negotiations’ on business deals.
MMA writer Jon Luther writes tonight:
The delay in the Strikeforce HWGP has everything to do with Josh Barnett. They essentially wanted ACs to give him a license without testing.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 36 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Starting to wish I’d put real money on the finals never happening.
Yes delaying the second set of the HW Grand Prix from April 9 to June 18 is an absolute joke and now we may never see the finals /sarcasmandfanboyismpanic
Really the whole event is still set to finish around early December, which was their target schedule anyways, to get it done by 2011.
Is it horrible scheduling, yes. Is it time to panic? Absolutely not. In addition, the substitute April 9 card in San Diego looks FANTASTIC!
How can they finish the tournament by December? Think about it; they will do the rest of the first round fights June 18th. When will they do the semi-finals? Let’s say September. The finals? I bet February at the earliest, maybe late January. That’s not bad, but I doubt they will do the finals by December.
The best way for the finals happening before December? if Barnett loses, so SF will have an easier time to venue and athletic commission shop.
If you think one of these guys is going to fight 3 times between the middle of june and the end of the year I have a bridge to sell you.
So what will be the rest of the April 9th card? What’s insane is that this will be Diaz’s and Paul Daley’s third fight in seven months (Diaz) and five months (Dakey) respectively. Will there still be the Melendez/Kawajiri fight on that card?
I know the June card will also be Mo Lawal’s comeback fight. Against who though? Mike Kyle for a number one contendership fight at light heavyweight? Would make sense to me. I know most will bash Strikeforce’s decision to run the event in Texas, but really, what else could they do because of Barnett? Unless they want to replace Barnett, Texas will have to do.
Ah, I just saw what is more than likely on tap for April 9th, and I see Mousasi will fight Mike Kyle, so Kyle vs. Mo Lawal might be out the window. Then again, SF has had fighters take fights in close proximity of each other (April 9th itself will have Diaz/Daley as I outlined above), so if Kyle wins and is healthy, then I can definitely see Kyle/Lawal for June 18th.
April 9th is definitely shaping up to be a great card. Definitely one of the best from SF on paper. Reall,y if not the best.
2 title fights on 5 weeks notice? This must be a joke. These fights are nothing but exhibitions. If it’s based on injury it’s one thing but this is based on nothing more than incompetence.
Two on 5 weeks notice? The Melendez/Kawajiri fight has been set for April 9th for a while now. I see your point on Diaz/Daley, but it is an awesome fight on paper.
So why give that fight away with no hype and no build up? I agree it should be a fun fight to watch, but man what a waste.
I don’t think the build is that big of a deal. On something like Showtime just let me know when the fight is and I’ll tune in or set the DVR.
SF never does very well on live gate. So 5 weeks or three months doesn’t make much difference. Even with UFC. UFC announces a date and it sells right out then people just wait around for it to happen.
What the concern here is the opposite of short notice. I was pumped to see what would happen next after the first GP event. Now I have to wait until after Cotto/Mayorga, Maidana/Morales, Paq/Mosley and a couple killer UFC events before I even see the second half of the first round. Which should have happened three weeks ago.
Listen, if Barnett won’t get his act together and get licensed in a legitimate state then why waste time with him? He seems like a great dude in real life. But he couldn’t draw money with a box of green crayons. Now you let him ruin the whole first round of this ‘tournament’. What if he keeps winning? Are you to keep up this charade for the semis, the finals and then his title shot?
What if he becomes champ? Are you going to start running reservation shows?
Yeah, that is true. Besides the interwebz there has been ZERO hype for Melendez/Kawajiri.
Hype? how about proper training camps? It’s a joke.
I still can’t believe Coker went all in on Japan. I really cannot believe it.
mmalogic is saying the UFC is planning Bisping/Sonnen for June and wondered if this tournament would get postponed again. I don’t know if any of that will happen, but I will laugh especially hard if SF postpones it again. And the problem is that they can’t put that GP against the UFC’s two biggest trash fallers. It will get wrecked in the ratings.
Diaz/Daley and Melendez/Kawajiri are solid fights for short notice. But it’s bad that the champions aren’t getting a good training camp. And they are giving away their biggest fights in way of those divisions for likely a small gate and little notice. Not good.
Coker can’t handle the big time….
Scott Coker stenographer/MMA Junkie ‘reporter’ Steven Marrocco wrote this gem:
“The Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix’s second event will be delayed until early summer in order to properly capitalize on the success of its first event.”
By properly capitalize on the success does he mean
s***the bed?If Overeem loses at ‘STRIKEFORCE: Go Ahead and Do All The Steroids You Can’ on June 18th, they should just light their HW belt on fire and pretend it doesn’t exist.
Why not just have Barnett fake an injury and drop out. Or man up and say he didn’t get his paper work done like he was supposed to and he’s out. Then do the second half of round 1 on April 9. For fans who tuned in to the Fedor/Silva event they were promised the next round would be April 9.
Silva and Kharitonov aren’t in the same bracket, so they can’t fight until they fight the June 18 winners. If no one gets hurt you’re looking at September at the earliest. The wins over Fedor and Arlovski are going to be way in the past by then.
“If Overeem loses at ‘STRIKEFORCE: Go Ahead and Do All The Steroids You Can’ on June 18th, they should just light their HW belt on fire and pretend it doesn’t exist.”
You owe me a new keyboard…
“Year long tournament” means year long tournament.
It’s too bad the HW fights weren’t put onto the Ohio show, instead of trying to target Japan….but….Not the end of the world.
Tuf is a joke. Victor Belfort vs. Anderson Silva is a joke. A boxercise instructor pretending to be a president is a joke. zak arnold is a joke. And he’s a zoofa zombie.
Kill zoofa, that’s all. Since when does arnold care about fighters. He’s mocking the tournament, even putting it in scare quotes. Does he even know what scare quotes are for?
Save us the breath, zak. Just tell us you’re a zoofa zombie and you hate all non-zoofa mma. Then shut your hole.
Ladies and gentleman, I’m back on the Zuffa payroll again!
Congrats! Gotta pay dem bills!
This has to be a joke, I’m calling shenanigans.
Kogan proves again why he’s only managed to advance up to K-1 USA President which means
fuckall, about as much as President of UFC Japan.The fact that one man (Barnett) is bending Coker over backwards and forcing a 10-week delay in the GP is ridiculous.
Yes, Kogan, life isn’t fair. Neither is screwing around with people’s livelihoods.
And Barnett is doing this how?
Coker had to AC shop to have Barnett allowed to fight.
California is the only place as far as I know that has the issue.
There is some pretty well placed thought that a number of the more “prestigious” or high profile AC’s won’t licence him while he’s got issues with another big AC. I don’t think that’s a big stretch to think that way either.
“California is the only place as far as I know that has the issue.”
Nope.
New Jersey and Nevada have stated that they will not license him until he has cleared up his situation with California. Those are the three most influential commissions in the United States, and the vast majority of smaller state commissions follow their lead. There are only a handful of commissions out there who are willing to go against the grain.
How can there be an “issue” when his suspension from CSAC was up? California wanted Josh to do some sort of rehabilitation, which they announced after his suspension is up. It was clear that the CSAC was jerking him around making up rules as they go along – which doesn’t surprise me coming from them.
@Steve4192, I highly doubt SF does a show in Vegas – so that’s a non-issue.
@ Segerio to summarize:So Josh can’t fight in California and New Jersey basically ( SF not going to Nevada). There are plenty of other places where he can fight. I hardly call that “shopping around.”
I am disappointed in Scott Coker. My money was on that ship in the middle of the Pacific…remember that? Battleship MMA or something.
“life is unfair. Its in their contracts.”
It wasn’t it Maynard’s or Edgar’s contract to get their win bonus after a draw, but the circumstances of the fight made it the most fair thing to do.
The UFC has also paid fighters both their show and win bonus when their opponent flakes at the time of the weigh ins.
So to think these fighters should just eat the training costs die to a SF mistake is BS.
This is a much bigger problem than all the “momentum” talk and all the other nonsense.
It stinks as a fan that the GP is going as planned and we have to wait longer to see it, but this is making the list of fighters upset with being under SF contract longer. Back when Hendo signed everyone talked about how SF “treats the fighters better” than the UFC, but this stuff stinks. Dana talking
shitabout you but paying you regularly is better than Coker fluffing you while you train at the gym.IF CBS and the “we’ll treat you better” aren’t things that go into the decision, it’s going to be a lot harder to get top fighters to make the jump.
Welp…I tried to give Coker et al the benefit of the doubt on this, being that I recognized their small operations and limited ability to handle things in a way we’ve come to expect from the UFC. But there is no defence for this…one step forward, one step sideways, three steps back.
This tournament is turning into a
sh*tshow…and that’s just the happenings outside the cage.This is a bussiness, and sometimes you have to take bullets.
Ths japan Bussines doesnt work, is better for #Strikeforce hear for now the angry voices of the heyboard warrior’s than loose their money in a mediocre Jap event.
The time will tell, like UFC taking bullets in the past for putting Gracie vs Hughes.
Looks like Bigfoot is looking for a fight in Japan while the rest of rd. 1 is sorting itself out as his manager claims they do not want to sit around until September waiting for his next fight.
That could be a real disaster…what if he loses or hurts himself? What if other people see this and decide they want to do the same thing.
Ruh-ohhh..
That’s why they should book Silva vs Kharitonov on June 18th for the #1 Contendership.
Make Overeem vs Werdum for the title.
Then have the winners fight in late Sept or during the October sweeps on CBS.
I don’t think anyone would complain about that solution. It’s still a ‘tournament’ for Silva and Kharitonov.
That wouldn’t work for this tournament. That basically eliminates Barnett AND Rogers from the tournament, and it makes Overeem/Werdum a semi-final fight instead of a quarter final, effectively giving both guys a bye.
Really, the best thing to do is just rid Barnett of the tournament (as much as I don’t want that to happen) and replace him with any of V. Overeem, Chad Griggs, Daniel Cormier, or Shane Del Rosario. Preferably Del Rosario.
That’s my point. Take Rogers and Barnett out.
Rogers is an easy fight to get Barnett into the semi’s. But Barnett can’t get his piss test in order. Goodbye!
Werdum and Overeem are the top two Heavies in SF. Their fight should be for the (absolutely meaningless) HW title.