By John Buchan ( CLOAKING )
Friday saw Showtime feature another installment in the Strikeforce Challengers series, although the main event
was a particularly curious affair, with Olympic wrestling silver medalist Matt Lindland running roughshod over
Rickson Gracie brown belt, Kevin Casey. Lindland stopped Casey via TKO due to strikes in the third frame.
What made this headlining bout so curious, is that neither Lindland, nor Casey are particularly appropriate choices
to be featured on a show that is supposed to be about showcasing hot prospects on the upswing in their careers.
Lindland, a grizzled veteran, suffered back-to-back losses in his previous two outings, dropping fights to both
Ranaldo "Jacare" Souza, and Vitor Belfort. Casey, on the other hand, is a man whose main claims to fame are that
he got knocked out by Ikuhisa Minowa, and threatened Marc Laimon with a gun.
This card served as yet another example of the missteps being made by Showtime and Strikeforce with respect
to their MMA programming. Indeed, a great deal of this blame probably lies with Showtime, a premium cable
company with little knowledge of the sport. What is upsetting, is that Strikeforce seems to either not have the
clout to steer Showtime executives in the right direction with their programming, or they fail to see the problems
inherent in their model of operations.
After their deal with Showtime and CBS, Strikeforce began signing fighters left and right. Dan Henderson, Jacare,
Lindland, Andrei Arlovski, and arguably the number-one heavyweight on the planet, Fedor Emelianenko were all
inked to compete in the promotion. Unfortunately, the company didn't seem to have concrete plans for these
signings, leaving many fighters in limbo for far too long. This situation exploded onto the internet in recent weeks,
with Lyle Beerbohm, a fantastic lightweight with a hell of a back story and the fanciest pants in the business, taking
to the famed Underground, looking for legal advice on getting out of his deal with Strikeforce. He is not the only
fighter to express dissatisfaction with the promotion in recent weeks. At the heart of Beerbohm's grievance was a
dispute over contractual obligations.
Beerbohm's contract was originally with Pro Elite, the ill-fated promotional brand of laborious breather Gary Shaw.
After the company went bust and Strikeforce bought a portion of their assets, the fighter's contract was re-
negotiated in good faith. He was originally scheduled to fight Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro on the televised portion of an
earlier card, however, an injury Beerbohm suffered in training caused the fight to be postponed to their Heavy
Artillery card, which went down on May 15. With no room on the televised portion of that card, the Beerbohm-
Shaolin fight was relegated to the prelims, meaning Beerbohm, who has a split contract, would be paid significantly
less for his appearance. Sponsors would undoubtedly pay less as well for a prelim fight.
"Shaolin" the man he questionably beat on that card has had his problems with Strikeforce as well. Originally signed
in September of 2009, Ribeiro lingered for nine months before finally being booked to fight at the Heavy Artillery
card. Such problems are separate and apart from Strikforce's complete bungling of the prelims of cards. Refusing to
broadcast any preliminary bouts in any format is a questionable move, for sure, but filling them up with D-level local
talent is also perturbing, given they have a roster of A and B-level fighters sitting on the shelf.
For Strikeforce, this feels like a case of "too much too soon". The promotion excelled when they worked with a
smaller stable of fighters, putting on a smaller number of cards per year, and employing strategies like booking local
fighters to increase gate revenue. Such a strategy however, is incompatible with a national promotion trying to put
on the big fights they are. This is especially true when they aren't able to get fights for their top talent.
Coker and his Strikeforce brand are in a precarious situation. With Showtime's Ken Hershman at the helm, and a clear
track record of doing things the wrong way, they are left trying to make the best of a difficult situation. Meanwhile,
fighters like Beerbohm, Shaolin, and others are left on the shelf, while we see main card spots taken up by fighters
like Kevin Randleman and Kevin Casey.
For the good of his brand and the good of the sport he loves, Coker needs to stop Hershman from sticking his nose
in affairs he not only doesn't understand, but doesn't seem interested in understanding. If he thinks booking Kevin
Randleman on main cards time and time again will draw ratings because he fought in the UFC, he is completely out
of his depth. Randleman has been an irrelevant fighter for nearly a decade now, last competing in the UFC in 2002,
years before it was enjoying any semblance of its current popularity. This is the same logic that would put a fighter
like Kevin Casey in against Matt Lindland. I'm sure it was Casey's association with a vapid television personality,
Spencer Pratt, a man whose specific claim to fame is unknown and irrelevant to anyone over the age of 15, rather
than his fighting ability that got him that main event spot. It certainly didn't have anything to do with his 3-1
professional record at the time. He's now 3-2 after his loss to Lindland, if you were curious.
Stikeforce and Showtime need to figure out what they're doing, and fast. Operating in such a directionless,
haphazard way is detrimental to any kind of longevity they hope to achieve. Not only does it repel and alienate their
core fan base, it does the same to their roster of fighters. Fighters are spending way too much time on the shelf,
only to be booked in poorly-made matches.
