Thursday, June 02, 2011

Could Cyborg vs Carano 2 be on a UFC PPV?

Yesterday Zuffa announced that Strikeforce champ Nick Diaz will fight Georges St-Pierre on an October UFC  PPV in Las Vegas. This was exactly three days after UFC president Dana White said there were still major hurdles to be jumped over before that match could happen. But the point is that the door is now open for Strikeforce fighters to cross over to UFC and vice versa. We all know that PPV is a big part of UFC's revenue seam. Strikeforce's profitability has been a major question mark for two years and there was constant discussion about possible PPVs. When Zuffa purchased Strikeforce a couple of months ago, they promised that the two companies would operate independently. I didn't believe that either and in case you hadn't noticed, all Strikeforce staff except Scott Coker has been fired and replaced by Zuffa staff. A crossover match was clearly the next step. Showtime was obviously the major barrier that White was referring to but he's not involved with them. Lorenzo Fertitta handles them. He got that done. So when Zuffa purchased Strikeforce, there was a lot of gloom and doom about Zuffa killing Strikeforce and getting rid of women's MMA once the Showtime contract ran dry because Dana White doesn't like women's MMA. But when he announced the purchase in an interview with Ariel Helwani, White admitted that it isn't his decision. It's Fertitta's decision. And though Fertitta hasn't said anything about women's MMA, Sarah D'Alelio and Julie Kedzie signed contracts after the purchase. A couple of days ago I was talking about Cris Cyborg's contract situation with a couple of folks on Twitter. The timing is very interesting. Gina Carano has her return match on June 18 and Cris is a free agent at the end of June. Right now Coker is handling negotiations. But you may recall that White said that once Strikeforce fighter contracts run out, Zuffa is free to negotiate with them. And remember that two years ago before Strikeforce bought the rights to EliteXC fighters, Zuffa was prepared to do Carano vs Cyborg on a PPV. So once Cris' Strikeforce contract runs out, Fertitta could sign her to a new Zuffa contract and then sets up Cyborg vs Carano 2 on a UFC PPV later on. They could do that now that the door has been opened to crossover matches. Call me crazy but that's a big money match by anyone's standards. And those guys like to make money regardless of whether they use men, women or martians. For now, I think the majority of women's matches will be on Strikeforce shows. But things change. And Cyborg vs Carano 2 on a UFC PPV would set a major precedent and could be the end of UFC misogyny.

No comments:

Post a Comment