The UFC purchases rival MMA promotion Strikeforce

By Mike Johnston

@MikeyJ_MMA

Dana White and the UFC have announced that Zuffa has purchased rival mixed martial arts promotion Strikeforce. In an interview with Ariel Helwani of mmafighting.com White made the announcement that has the MMA community buzzing. This deal is different to when World Extreme Cagefighting merged with the UFC several months ago, and to when Zuffa purchased PRIDE in 2007. The UFC and Strikeforce will run as two separate entities.

White touched on the UFC’s plans to continue its expansion in Canada and across the world. “The UFC is the premiere brand of mixed martial arts. I’ve been saying for ten years, we have a plan to take this thing global and make this thing the biggest sport in the world,” said White. “We’re going into 55,000 seats in Toronto, Canada, we just sold out in Australia again and we plan on going to China… we’re going to Korea, we’re going to Japan, we’re going to India, we’re going to all these different places.”

“Up in Toronto, since we went up there and got Ontario done, there’s like 20 [upcoming MMA] shows scheduled just in Ontario now,” said White. “Strikeforce could end up in Canada and other parts of the world,” White added.

White repeatedly said in the interview that “it is business as usual” and that nothing will change in the near future. If a fighter is currently signed with Strikeforce they will not appear in the UFC. White also stated that co-promoting with Strikeforce is not something in the cards. White did however say that in the future they could make some “tweaks” to have the Strikeforce brand become more viable to a wider audience.

There were several key reasons as to why the UFC made the deal according to the UFC President: “Number one, we do acquire their library [of fight footage] and we have the largest mixed martial arts library on the planet. Number two is we continue to go into these other countries and we continue to grow and expand the business. I’ve been saying this for the past year-and-a-half, we need more fighters, we need to put on more fights.”

Strikeforce currently has some of the most high profile mixed martial artists in the world including: Nick Diaz, Alistair Overeem, Fedor Emelianenko, Gilbert Melendez, Dan Henderson, ‘Jacare’ Souza, and Canadian Sarah Kaufman.

To watch the entire interview CLICK HERE.

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