It’s difficult to do that now since at that time there were a lot of top fighters that were free agents after the fall of PRIDE.
Affliction, EliteXC, Strikeforce, DREAM, and Sengoku all had some of the top fighters. Strikeforce ended up reepng the benefits of Afflictions fall even though UFC was the one who bought Affliction. They bought EliteXC that had loads of talent. Partnership with DREAM was very fruitful.
Strikeforce is the model to follow to compete, not Affliction. What hurt Strikeforce was that their parent company weren’t really “in it”. People act like they lost some money so that means they’re a failure. The truth is everybody loses money when they go from occasional show in San Jose to National. That doesn’t come seamless. However the brand name was getting stronger, the ratings were stronger, the roster was more than credible, and they were rapidly increasing in value.
But maybe they weren’t profitable yet..But the Fertitas lost money as well. They bled money for awhile..the difference is they were invested enough to see it through. Strikeforce was unfortunately owned by SV venture capitalists who would by nature jump at any offer that’s slightly above value. If only Strikeforce had the safety net that Bellator enjoys today, then we’d be talking about a true competitor. I actually remember hearing Zuffa feared Viacom purchasing Strikeforce when it was known that UFC wouldn’t re-up on Spike.
