Showtime and Strikeforce Thursday announced an extension of their broadcast agreement to continue producing live MMA events on the network. Showtime will produce and televise up to eight live events in '12. The new deal begins Saturday, Jan. 7, with the Luke Rockhold-Keith Jardine middleweight fight in Las Vegas (Strikeforce/Showtime). Showtime Sports Exec VP & GM Stephen Espinoza said that Showtime and Strikeforce “will work together to provide the best fight programming available.” CABLEFAX DAILY writes Showtime “must be geeked" about UFC President Dana White’s, whose company purchased Strikeforce last March, “renewed zeal in and commitment to the property.” CABLEFAX DAILY: “Forget the expletives that fly like haymakers when he speaks, for White knows what young males want and is the ideal frontman for an exploding programming genre” (CABLEFAX DAILY, 12/16). Espinoza was appointed to his current post last month, replacing Ken Hershman, who left Showtime in mid-October to become HBO Sports President. White said that Hershman’s move to HBO “opened the way for a new deal with Showtime.” White: “I did not have a good relationship with the old regime, and I have a good relationship with the new regime.” USA TODAY’s Sergio Non notes the new agreement “means the elimination of Friday shows for the Strikeforce Challengers developmental circuit” (USA TODAY, 12/16).
PERKS IN THE PLAN: YAHOO SPORTS’ Dave Meltzer wrote the “biggest news concerned the heavyweight division, which will disappear from Strikeforce likely by the end of summer.” White said, “We’re going to focus on key weight classes and the women’s divisions.” He added, “If Strikeforce had gone away, there would be no women’s fighting. We’re not doing women’s divisions in the UFC right now. Strikeforce offers an opportunity to build new stars, new champions, new contenders and keep the women’s divisions alive. UFC doesn’t have that and wouldn’t have it if Strikeforce went away.” White, Espinoza and Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker were “adamant Strikeforce will not simply become a feeder circuit for UFC, which is how many viewed it with its heavyweight division” (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 12/15).
