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Even at their peek, the leader in mixed martial arts, the Ultimate Fighting Championships had never put four title fights on any card. Although I believe that this could potentially become the best card Strikeforce has ever put on, it could do more damage to the company in the long term, despite the likely success the company would achieve in the short term.
The possible short term success for the promotion is easy to point out, which is a ratings boom and the guaranteed crowning of two new champions. The reason behind the potential ratings success should be pretty obvious, because all of these important title fights should draw big time ratings. Also, since Strikeforce is guaranteed to be crowning two new champions at the event (women’s and welterweight), that will also draw some interest from the MMA community.
While the two aforementioned short term success’s would definitely benefit the Strikeforce promotion, they could do more long term damage to the promotion down the line. First off, having the aforementioned four title fights on a single card can possibly dilute the future events for Strikeforce. I look at it like this, if Strikeforce is putting four title fights on a card, what title fights will they put on the next card that could potentially happen within two months of the August event.
Strikeforce could have potentially gone with two title fights on this card and then move the other two title fights to the following card. Also, if the fights were to be split up with one per card, Strikeforce is potentially putting four future main events on a single card, instead of potentially four cards that would go through 2009.
Although this could potentially become a minor issue, if at all, who would care about the fifth fight added to the televised card if there are already four title fights on the event. If you are a fighter like Jason Von Flue, Erin Toughill, Poppies Martinez or Billy Evangelista, would you really want to compete in the opener of a fight card in a fight that will easily be overshadowed by the remained of the fights?
To be completely honest with everybody, I’m looking forward to this card more than any other MMA card that I’ll be watching in August. However, I’m almost going to be more interested in what’s to be announced for the next Strikeforce card following this event. With that being said, the possibility of what Strikeforce can do for their next event after using so much talent in this upcoming event could possibly gain as much interest as the August event itself.
Although Strikeforce is easily one of the most talent filled MMA promotions in North America, you can only stretch that talent pool so far before it completely falls apart. That is something Strikeforce might want to consider during this upcoming event and in future events, no matter the results of the August super card.
August 15th will mark the biggest night thus far in the history of the Strikeforce promotion, but it can also prove the theory that to much of a good thing could become a bad thing.
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com
