UFC has officially announced the purchase of rival mixed martial arts promotion, Strikeforce, with all sides (all eight of them) “looking forward to working together for the greater good.” UFC President Dana White called MMAFighting.com video interviewer (and friend of the late, great FanHouse Pro Wrestling) Ariel Helwani into his office on Saturday and broke the news. It’s surprising that the company would be able to keep something of this magnitude a secret for this long, and the purchase is sure to be the MMA story of the year, at least until Triple H shows up at an MMA event and gives Cain Velasquez the stink-eye.
UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta said:
“We’ve long admired Scott Coker and the Strikeforce business he launched and developed. We feel that together with Scott, we can continue to build both Strikeforce and the UFC. We intend to operate Strikeforce as a separate business much like we did with the WEC for many years. We look forward to working with Scott Coker and the entire Strikeforce and Showtime teams to continue to provide quality content for mixed-martial-arts fans.”
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker added, “Aaaaaaaaaaaah” before being kicked in the chest and knocked into a large, circular pit.
According to reports out of Zuffa headquarters it’s “business as usual” for both organizations, with Strikeforce being run as a separate entity for now, although I wouldn’t be shocked to see them book an invasion angle where guys from Strikeforce show up and act all threatening before the UFC guys squash them. Regardless, this should restock the promotion’s talent shy roster with a new batch of little tattooed bald guys who are just as mad as Hell~.