Sarah Kaufman shines, in cage and ratings, for STRIKEFORCE Challengers 9.

Sarah Kaufman's relationship with Strikeforce has been rocky. Earlier this year, she talked about being a free agent despite being the SF 135 lb champion. She expressed a desire to get back with Strikeforce, only to later find out that they exercised the championship clause without telling her and extended her previous contract.

Leading up to this card, she talked about being frustrated at not just being relegated to a challengers card, but not even headlining.

Then, on Saturday night, she let her skills do the talking. She stopped Roxanne Modafferi, via a wicked power bomb, in the second round. After the fight, she again talked about wanting to be on a bigger card.

Some have pointed out that very few women fighters draw and that SF is being right by simply having women's fighting. There is a saying, if you are going to do something, you should do it right.

The ratings seem to back Sarah up: While the show averaged 197,000 viewers, it peaked for Sarah's fight with 254,000 viewers.

The idea behind the Challengers cards is to showcase up and coming talent. Sarah is a champion and should be put front and center. If the average fan thinks that SF does not care about the ladies 135 champ and division, it is unlikely that he will either. I am not saying she should be headlining the main cards, but why not have the women's title fights in the middle of the regular cards. If not, why have them at all?

Finally, the Challengers cards feel almost like throwaway cards. If the idea is to use them to build up guys, they should be promoting them a hell of a lot more. less than 200k watched this card and that is a bad number no matter how you spin it. And it is not just the Challengers cards that lack the PR build, we have seen it in the past for some of the regular Showtime cards. Strikeforce is not big enough that they can let cards fly in under the radar, they need to work hard to build EVERY card. They need to not simply establish a solid fanbase, but build it up. That is something they have failed to do.

The SF cards usually have some fun fights, ones that could help convince casual fans that Strikeforce is the real deal and is must-see MMA. If not for Sarah Kaufman, I don't know that anyone would have been talking about this card at all.

If Werdum and Fedor dance again, who does Overeem face? I have a suggestion.

Last Saturday’s main event, while exciting and note worthy, has left Strikeforce with a dilemma. The obvious next step appears to be a rematch between Fedor Emilienenko and Frabrico Werdum. Personally, I don’t know that I agree with that since A) A win by Fedor leaves Werdum in a position not much better than he was in prior to beating Fedor. B) Fedor has but one more bout on his Strikeforce deal. If he wins, he could walk away and SF would be left with a weakened heavyweight division.

But Fedor and co want a rematch and Werdum wants a rematch. Since M1 has shown an unwillingness to do anything that does not appeal to them, it seems all be assured that a rematch will take place.

Now the problem with this is that it leaves the heavyweight champ, Alistar Overeem, on the sidelines twiddling his thumbs. As most know, Overeem wont the HW title two years ago and only recently defended it (when he mugged Brett Rogers). To have him sit on his ass for another six to eight months is asinine and would further reduce the credibility of the title, something SF can ill afford.

Looking at the SF HW division, while there are some solid fighters, none really are in position to challenge for the title. Big Foot Silva is one fight past his loss to Werdum and Rogers just lost to Overeem. Sergie Kaeriejre may earn a shot down the line, but he has not yet fought in SF and not only does he not deserve the fight, but he is an unknown to U.S. fans (Ok, an unknown to those that are not MMA geeks).

Fearing for the well being of Strikeforce, I pondered this and have thought of one solution. It has it’s downsides, but would give the division some depth and provide an instant challenge for the title.

Sign Mirko Cro-cop. Mirko just became a free agent, having recently completed his contract with the UFC. He is on a two fight win streak, including one on one of the biggest PPVs in MMA history. He also has some history with Overeem. The two fought in Japan for the Dream organization in a bout that was ruled a no contest after Alistar smooshed Mirko’s family jewels. Both chattered a bit about and certainly could deliver some entertaining pre-fight banter. Would Mirko win? Probably not, \but he still has the tools and name value to make him a worthy addition.

There are a couple of downsides. The first is that it will almost certainly push Dana over the edge and make Strikeforce his mortal enemy. And while that will provide hours of entertainment for MMA fans and media, it also means more road bumps for SF down the line. Dana is not without power and we all know he is more than willing to use (abuse?) it.

The second negative is that Mirko will come with a fairly high price tag. He has also expressed some doubts about his future in MMA and writing big checks to a less than motivated fighter is a dicey proposition. I think that fights with Overeem, Werdum and/or Fedor could be appealing to Mirko.
But Mirko/Overeem is a solid bout and one that would allow the Werdum/Fedor rematch to take place with keeping the title active.

Fedor vs. Werdum delivers nice numbers.

MMAJunkie is reporting that Saturday's Fedor vs. Werdum event, on Showtime, had an average audience of 550,000 viewers. According to the site, that number includes DVR and on-demand viewings. The main event, when including the aforementioned viewings, ended up over 700,000.

These numbers are good. I would say that anything under 400k would have been a failure and anything over 450k is a success.

Between the gate/attendance, the ratings and the media fallout from the event, Strikeforce should regain some of the momentum they had lost in the past couple of months. One has to assume they are hoping it will bring CBS back to the table. Strikeforce previously had a two event deal with CBS and that deal ended with the Nashville card.

While this bout was obviously a big one, it did not hurt that Strikeforce and Showtime promoted it a fair amount and this was a bout that had been talked about for some time. Strikeforce needs to get the ball rolling earlier for upcoming cards and get chatter going. While they obviously don't have the resources Zuffa does, the UFC cards are generally known months in advance. There is online chatter well before the official marketing push starts up.

In the future, Strikeforce should take the position that there no minor cards and give every show a proper build-up, as well as making an effort to make the major bouts known earlier.

Meaningless Statistics: Strikeforce 2006-2010.

Hey folks! On Monday, I posted the stats for WEC from 2007 to 2010 and tonight, I have the numbers for STRIKEFORCE.

The numbers for SF are tough to analyze because of the Challenger/Young Guns cards as well as the fact that the early cards had a very mixed bag regarding talent.

2010 thus far:
# of fights: 43
KO/TKOs: 19 for 44%
Subs: 9 for 21%
Decisions: 14 for 33%
Draw: 1 for 2%

2009:
# of fights: 97
KO/TKOs: 33 for 34%
Subs: 34 for 35%
Decisions: 14 for 28%
DQ: 1 for 1%
No Contests: 1 for 1%

2008:
# of fights: 85
KO/TKOs: 31 for 37%
Subs: 28 for 33%
Decisions: 26 for 31%

2007:
# of fights: 47
KO/TKOs: 21 for 45%
Subs: 10 for 21%
Decisions: 15 for 32%

2006:
# of Fights: 47
KO/TKOs: 16 for 34%
Subs: 19 for 40%
Decisions: 10 for 21%
Draws: 1 for 2%

Overall:
# of fights: 319
KO/TKOs: 120 for 39%
Subs: 100 for 31%
Decisions: 93 for 29%
Draw: 2 for 1%
DQ: 1 for less than 1%
No Contest: 2 for 1%

STRIKEFORCE CHALLENGERS VII gate, ratings and payroll.

On Friday night, Strikeforce ran their seventh Challengers card. Here are the numbers for it:

Attendance: 4,963 overall. No data has been released as to how many are paid and how many are comps.
Gate: $109,222.
These numbers are a notable improvement from the previous couple of Challengers shows. The gate was up 26% from the previous show.

Ratings: a 1.0 with 316,000 viewers. This show took place on free Showtime weekend this show certainly benefited from it. These numbers are up 111% from the previous challengers show.

Official payouts:
Lavar Johnson: $16,000 ($8,000 win bonus)
def. Lolohea Mahe: $3,000
Ron "Abongo" Humphrey: $7,000 ($3,500 win bonus)
def. George Bush III: $5,000
Andre Galvao: $10,000 (no win bonus)
def. Luke Stewart: $5,000
Miesha Tate: $5,000 ($2,000 win bonus)
def. Zoila Frausto: $3,000
Justin Wilcox: $12,000 ($6,000 win bonus)
def Shamar Bailey: $4,000
Daniel Cormier: $500 (no win bonus)
def. John Devine: $2,500
Total disclosed payroll was $73,000.

Note: Obviously Daniel Cormier made more than $500. The To Fight and To Win pay has to be reported to the SAC, but any and all other income does not. Signing bonuses for overall contracts or even for the fight agreement as well as gate or ppv percentages are not uncommon in MMA at the bigger levels. While none of the other guys on this card are likely to get any of those things, Daniel certainly did. Odds are good he gets a signing bonus that makes this worth his while.

The reason for constructing the contract this way could be a number of things. The simplest of which is Cormier and/or Strikeforce not wanting folks to know exactly how much was paid to this new fighter. His background certainly increases his worth and I would not be surprised if they feel he could be a legit draw both in terms of ratings and gate, but also in terms of mainstream media attention.

Final thoughts:
Overall, these numbers are very positive. If the next SF Challengers show can maintain these, it would suggest that Strikeforce is making some progress in terms of brand recognition. The increased ratings can be attributed to Showtime being free from another 50 million homes, but that does not account for the increase in attendance and gate. The attendance could be nothing since we don't know how many comps were handed out, but a 26% gate increase is impressive in any situation.