Has Bellator surpassed Strikeforce at its peak?

[swarrrm]

No because Strikeforce fighters became champions in the UFC

UFC fighters become champions in Bellator........

 

[Dark Individual]

Not even close. Strikeforce was fucking awesome. At one point I was enjoying Strikeforce more than UFC.

 

[moreorless87]

Bellator is a larger org than SF but as mentioned it doesn't have as much top level talent as SF did.

If theres a change in the air I think its less about signing away UFC names and more about Bellator arguably investing more in new talent.

 

[Reapzz]

Nah, Strikeforce was legit. They always had some interesting fights going on. Sucks we didn't get to see even more awesome matchups like Overeem vs Fedor, Cormier vs Fedor or Overeem. Daley vs Diaz was epic, and I'm sure lots of people remember Hendo bombing on Calvalcante in the third round. There were so many great fights in Strikeforce....good times....

 

[Toco]

lol

DC
Luke
Ronda
Meisha
Cyborg

yeah buddy, you gotta give them time for bellator fighters to grow. if you went back 10 years you would be like. strikeforce lol, who are these cans? no one would be champ in the ufc. 5 years forward......

 

[beefcake180]

At no point has Bellator ever had the relevancy or excitement levels that Strikeforce brought. It just hasn't.

 

[Mpower]

Not remotely close

 

[Haj01]

The last few years of strikeforce were must see cards! I couldn't miss a single one. Bellator not quite on that level yet for me. But it seems to be getting there.

But boy Strikeforce was as enjoyable; sometimes more enjoyable than alot of UFC cards.

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

Maybe commercially, I dunno.

But Strikeforces roster was superior both at the time name value wise, and also in hindsight when you see how many of their fighters went on to be major players in the UFC. A lot of their cards in the final few years were more stacked than most modern day UFC cards too.

 

[trident]

and Gals..

and Cyborg.

This is true. Ronda was huge.

What did they pay for strike force?

They got some great fighters out of there.

 

[Sakuraba7]

I understand Bellator signed the deal with DAZN, but that deal isn't necessarily just to find an American viewership. DAZN is already in other countries and is apparently popular in some of these places, so they're hoping to gain an international audience. But if they want a bigger American audience, they need to do their damnedest to try and get onto network TV. I honestly believe that they will make a play to get on Fox somehow, after the UFC is moved over to ESPN. Not sure how the red tape plays out with Viacom owning Bellator, but there is talk of Viacom merging with CBS anyway, I believe, and those are people who Coker has dealt with previously.

Long windend post short, give it some time. They're playing the long game, and they have a little breathing room with the 100+ million deal they signed with DAZN. That will carry them for a while, and Coker has proven himself previously, surpassing Strikeforce will probably eventually happen.

DAZN from my understanding is only available in a handful of countries, and isn't even that well-known.

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

Not even close. Strikeforce was doing 300-500k views on Showtime which is a premium network. On CBS, they were doing millions of views and 5 million alone for Fedor/Rogers. UFC doesn't even do that and Bellator isn't even in the same universe.

 

[strongstylekarate]

They're heading that way.

 

[NaughtyBoy]

Strikeforce used to have quite better names of fighters in their prime. So I would said not yet.

 

[felmmando]

So far Bellator has Eddie Alverez and Will Brooks.

Am i missing anyone?

Hector Lombard?

 

[Theproof]

A lot of people overrating strikeforce here....

 

[dmwalking]

No.

 

[Substance Abuse]

No. At its peak? No.

SF had quality cards and mostly better results. Belloltor tries to make up for it with a ramp, a big screen and one or two good matchups, if you're lucky, per card.

 

[Joseph_McBride]

Also Woodley.

I knew I was forgetting someone

 

[jeremyemilio]

Strikeforce had much more depth, and had an entire decision (HW) that was arguably better than the UFC's.

But Bellator has guys at the top of MW and WW who are arguably the equal of their UFC counterparts. As an organization, they are certainly on their way. They just need to pick up another couple of top 10-15 fighters for each division.