Just over a year and a half after its purchase by Zuffa (made official on March 12, 2011), Strikeforce will hold, on January 12, what has everything to be its last event. O Strikeforce: Marquardt vs Saffiedine will take place at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. The news that this could be the organization's last event, based in San José, California, surprised fans. In a recent interview, one of the owners of Zuffa (and president of the UFC), Dana White, stated that the intention at the time of acquiring Strikeforce was not to end the event. “Anyone who was with me at that time knows that was absolutely not the plan,” he said.
Although there is no confirmation that this is the last event, the end of the partnership between Strikeforce and the North American cable channel Showtime (from the CBS group), this event confirmed by both parties, is seen as a key factor for the definition of the complete dissolution of the MMA organization and the incorporation of its main athletes by the UFC – Zuffa's main event. The partnership with the CBS group, and consequently with Showtime, has been in effect since 2009 and its highlight was the live broadcast, on an open television network in the United States, of the debut of the legend Fedor Emilianenko in Strikeforce against Brett Rogers.
Strikeforce number 63 was beset by problems. Originally, the event would take place in September 2012 and would host a lightweight title fight between current champion Gilbert Melendez and his challenger Pat Healy, but it ended up being cancelled. Subsequently, Strikeforce 63 was rescheduled for November and the main event would be the heavyweight duel Daniel Cormier e Frank mir, who ended up getting injured and his replacement, Matt Mitrione, withdrew from the fight against Cormier shortly after accepting it. As if that weren't enough, the setbacks continued after the announcement of the event that will take place on the 12th. It was expected that Gilbert Melendez and Luke Rockhold defend their belts at the event, which was not possible as both were injured. Finally, Pat Healy still finds himself without a defined opponent since the injury that sidelined Jorge masvidal the event.
Check out the full card below Strikeforce: Marquardt vs Saffiedine, which takes place on January 12th:
Main Card
-Nate Marquardt vs. Tarec saffiedine
-Daniel Cormier vs Dion Staring
-Josh Barnett vs Nandor Guelmino
-Mike Kyle vs. Gegard Mousasi
-Ed Herman vs Ronaldo Souza
Preliminary Card (with TV broadcast)
-Pat Healy vs opponent to be determined
-Roger gracie vs Anthony Smith
-Tim Kennedy vs Trevor Smith
-Ryan Couture vs KJ Noons
Preliminary Card (no TV broadcast)
-Jorge Gurgel vs Adriano Martins
-Michael Bravo vs Estevan Payan
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