Looking ahead to 2010 and the future of Strikeforce
Published by Zach Arnold on December 22nd, 2009 in Current Events

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While there were glowing reviews for the Strikeforce event at HP Pavilion (San Jose Arena) last Saturday night, the outcomes of the main fights on the card produced some mixed results for matchmaker Scott Coker.

The big positive coming out of last week’s event was Josh Thomson vs. Gilbert Melendez in the 155-pound division. The two Bay Area fighters did the media rounds to promote their re-match, including a spot on Chronicle Live on Comcast Sportsnet. Both men are charismatic fighters who have very high energy levels in the ring. As expected, Melendez won the fight and did so in a manner in which a third fight between the two Lightweights will most assuredly happen sometime down the road.

It’s a possibility that Coker told Sherdog in a post-fight interview that he was very high on.

“It feels really good. I mean, you know, Josh and Gilbert ONE was amazing and to see a fight that you know basically outdid the first one? It’s pretty impressive because I didn’t think it could happen and that’s the kind of fight that like the Rafael Marquez/Israel Vasquez in boxing… but you know we have other guys for them to fight now and we’ll let them kind of take their own path but there has to be a rubber match at some point, right?

“I mean it was Rocky 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, right? So we’ll I mean seriously we’ll probably you know give them a little time off and let them go fight other guys and they’re going to have tough fights with other guys as well and I’d like to have Gilbert fight Aoki in the second quarter, you know here in the Bay Area hopefully and Josh you know maybe he can fight Kawajiri or Josh and KJ Noons might be a real good scrap and Gilbert fighting Shaolin who’s under contract with us now, but um you know as we grow this roster we’ll have other people for them to fight for sure but you know when the trilogy you know happens I think now all eyes will be on this fight because it’s you know it was an amazing fight.

“Absolutely, I think I mean, c’mon, I think that’s a CBS fight, don’t you?”

While Coker briefly mentioned Shin’ya Aoki’s name in reference to Melendez, Aoki is quickly becoming the hottest commodity at 155 pounds now that BJ Penn has cleaned out the UFC Lightweight division. Joe Rogan was calling for Aoki to come to UFC, but given the relationship between Strikeforce and DREAM we will see the Japanese ace fight in the States but for UFC’s rival.

While the Lightweights gave Coker something to celebrate, the main event created a lot of mixed feelings. Cung Le, who in the San Jose area is a huge name, lost to veteran Scott Smith in a match that likely shouldn’t have been booked in the first place. Smith’s die-hard fight style has quickly become the stuff of legends in MMA. The problem is that Smith’s not a big-enough household name in America and by the time he fully gets the exposure he deserves with mainstream fight fans, he will likely be on the downside of his career due to the punishment he takes in each and every fight.

The fight between Le and Smith went exactly as you would expect with Le dominating the stand-up until Smith made a furious comeback and tagged Le with a left hook that sent the 185-pound champion down. It was a giant upset win on paper, though in reality the layoff that Le took to film movies instead of train full-time in MMA produced the result that you thought it would. Le’s star took a hit while Smith, who is good enough to beat most guys but not the elite level fighters, saw his star temporarily rise.

In a post-fight interview with Sherdog, Smith showed the same kind of emotion that he displayed in the post-fight press conference.

“It’s feel good, I know I’m always in the fight. I got to get a little pissed off earlier on and go out there and try to win in the first round you know once in a while but yeah it’s great, I know I’m always in the fight and you know it’s, I’m overwhelmed with emotion, this is awesome.

“Everybody looks for my straight right, my left hook’s my best punch. I’ve just been fortunate enough to knock a lot of people out with the straight right so faked the right, throw the left hook.

“You know it doesn’t matter who they give me in Strikeforce it’s going to be exciting fights, absolutely stacked at 185 so I’ll let my management team and Coker take care of that. They’ve done a great job of giving me you know highlight reel potential fights, so…”

The history between Scott Coker and Cung Le is enormous, given how many shows Coker has promoted in the Bay Area and how Le was an attraction in many Sanshou bouts on those cards. Coker was in a reflective mood on one of his favorite fighters after Le lost.

“With Cung you know he’s a very special athlete here you know and especially this is his hometown and he’s been fighting here for 12 years and when Cung last fought here he was the main event against Frank (Shamrock) and beat Frank for the title, so you know we gave Cung his respect and you know that was I mean Scott Smith, boy, he never ceases to amaze me. He’s like you got to beat him up and then he comes back and knocks you out, you know, but you know Cung you know he looked really good in that first couple of rounds and I just think you know he got caught, that happens in this business.

“Yeah, he was like ‘I am really sorry I got caught.’ I said Cung, you know what? Don’t worry about it, we’ll talk later and you know just take care of yourself and go heal up and we’ll talk next week, but you know Cung is he’s like family to me, we’ve been together a long time and you know we grew up in this community and so you know to have a loss I’m sure it’s a tough thing and you know he’ll be fine.”

The booking of Cung Le in the main event slot was a curious move, but clearly one that the promoter had to make to ensure that Le would fight on the December show. The fight between Le and Smith in particular highlighted some of the challenges and growing pains that the regional promotion is undergoing as they continue to expand into a national player. Le is the kind of guy who should draw a lot of interest in San Jose but because the perception of Strikeforce in the Bay Area is no longer as a regional entity but rather as a national entity, the fan base is starting to change. As Dave Meltzer pointed out in the week leading up to the event, ticket sales were not moving that fast. Cung Le not drawing… in San Jose?

Le’s not entirely damaged as a brand, but his value as a major drawing card in San Jose right now is up in the air. Coker, meanwhile, is focused on a gigantically busy schedule of Strikeforce events in 2010. His top prize, Heavyweight ace Fedor Emelianenko, will take center stage on at least a couple of the mega-events.

“I think Fedor will fight it looks like he’ll fight you know most likely Fabricio Werdum, it’s not signed it’s not committed we haven’t gone through that process yet but I mean Fabricio I think is a natural because he fought [Bigfoot] Silva on CBS so the fans on CBS got to check him out and look at him and I would like to see that fight. I’d like to see Jake Shields fight Dan Henderson and defend his title belt. I’d like to see Gina Carano come back and I’d like to see Alistair Overeem make his debut in America on CBS or make his debut on CBS on that fight with maybe somebody maybe Bigfoot Silva, Brett Rogers, you know, we’ll put something together for him, too.

“You’re going to see a lot of fights, you know we’ll probably take off the majority of February because of the Olympics but you know starting back in March I think we’ll be in full swing. We’re going to do 20 fights not in a calendar year but from March 1st, we’re going to do 20 fights that includes 16 Showtime fights, 8 challengers, and 8 large fights like this one tonight and then you know we have the CBS fights and then I think we’ll do a PPV fight next year with Fedor and so we’re going to be very busy.”