They are shooting their credibility with holding up this paper tiger. If it isn’t already shot.
For a smaller organziation like strike force to stay alive, grow and challenge the UFC for legitmacy so to speak; they will need to have the most powerful, regular and electrifying fights of any ‘league’.
To have a 2 year hiatus on a title shot is simply unacceptable. UFC built its brand without buying pride, and wooing all top talent from Brazil. If UFC had no world class name brand fighters, and just it’s domestically and internally created branded nobodies, they’d still be a billion dollar brand and all over the news.
This is what Strikeforce is failing at, people would not see their fighters as inferior-to-ufc or tomato cans because they came out of the blue, rather, because the competition in the league is not a bloodthirsty genocide.
If Strikeforce took just regular amateur figthers trying to turn pro, and had those guys turn the cage into a meat grinder, people would be interested. Those fighters would gain recognition, because at the end of the day, it isn’t about ‘who you’ve fought,’ but ‘how you’ve fought.’ This is the difference between Forrest Griffin and an Andrei Arlovski.
The Silva-Griffin fight showed Griffin is not a world-class striker, and perhaps even a b-class fighter, but he has been created into a brand because of this slug fests as much as his win over Shogun.
Arlovski on the other hand, has been a champion, has been a namebrand, and has fought some known characters, but is a shitbrand because his figths are boring and non-electric. This is why he gets dropped from so many orgs.
Strikeforce needs to make some Griffins, and it needs to post it’s own TUF and promotional material on a website with advertisements to make revenue for all the hardcore, or semi-harcore guys to watch while they post on forums. This is key to their expansion and survival.