Strikeforce and Showtime announce new deal with eight events and televised prelims

Strikeforce and Showtime announce new deal with eight events and televised prelims

by MMA junkie Staff
As expected, Strikeforce and Showtime have inked a new deal that will keep the Zuffa-owned fight promotion on the premium-cable station.

Officials today announced the deal, which calls for up to eight events, though no timeframe was disclosed for the shows.

As part of the deal, main-card bouts will continue to air on Showtime, and preliminary-card fights now will be broadcast on sister channel Showtime Extreme.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Officials suggested that events no longer will be held under the Strikeforce Challengers brand.

The deal kicks off with the Jan. 7 "Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine" event in Las Vegas, so all fights (prelims and main card) from the card will be televised in some form. Additionally, the event takes place during one of Showtime's free-preview weekends, which makes the channel available for free to more than 60 million households.

As part of the announcement, officials stated that current Strikeforce fighters – including champions Gilbert Melendez, Luke Rochhold, Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos and Miesha Tate – will remain in Strikeforce. (Recently, some champions such as Nick Diaz, Dan Henderson and Alistair Overeem had been folded into the Zuffa-owned UFC.)

"Since its advent on Showtime in 2007, live mixed martial arts has always performed well with our subscribers, particularly in the younger demographics," Showtime executive Stephen Espinoza stated. "As the one and only premium network in the MMA business, we are proud to renew our commitment to the sport and to our partners at Strikeforce. This agreement ensures that we can continue to deliver the edge-of-your-seat programming that each live MMA event produces in the new year and beyond."

UFC president Dana White echoed those sentiments.

"We're excited about this renewal with Showtime, and I expect to put on some big Strikeforce events next year," White stated. "I never thought I would say this, but I am very much looking forward to building Strikeforce and working very closely with Showtime."