“Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov” Ratings and Attendance Fail To Meet Expectations
Last weekend’s Strikeforce event failed to attract a live audience worth noting as estimates show less than a two thousand people attended.
We also have figures to support a failed television broadcast for the event as well.
According to reports the show averaged a meager 274,000 Showtime viewers which ranks the show 17th in Strikeforce ratings history.
“Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov” took place at Cincinnati’s U.S. Bank Arena this past Saturday and featured a main event between Josh Barnett and Sergei Kharitonov as well as a co-main event against Antonio Silva and Daniel Cormier to conclude the Strikeforce HW Grand Prix’s Semi-Final round.
It also featured a middleweight title fight between Jacare Souza and Luke Rockhold.
Strikeforce lost a lot of momentum with this latest outing. Prior to this event the last round two rounds of the HW Grand Prix far exceeded the most recent. The HW Grand Prix opener featuring Fedor Emelianenko and Antonio Silva brought in an Audience of 741,000 viewers and the Overeem vs. Werdum event took in 624,000 this past June.
One would think that with the ZUFFA machine behind the promotion the numbers would be going up and not in the opposite direction, post-purchase, but that however does not seem to be the case.
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Its because Strikeforce su*ks! The fights themselves su&k, the fighters are washed up, overrated or inexperienced, and the production and commentators are horrible.!@ Strikeforce is just about done why do u think the best strikeforce has to offer keep ending up with UFC contracts..cause strikeforce suc*s!
Strikeforce still has some quality fighters…they’ll end up in the ufc within a year most likely.
Aoki
Gil
Cormier
Calvacante
Barnett
Gegard
King Mo
all those guys I bet will end up in the ufc…that would make for some stacked fights…and no more repeats..
its pretty simple as to why, Ubereem and fedor were the big names people wanted. it the reem had been there i would have purchased and watched it online But there moronic management gave him the boot…there own fault. oh well reem vs brock! woot woot
Hey strikeforce and Zuffa magic word: OVEREEM!
This is sad I thought they were great fights, I guess people think only big names mean good fights. I hope they get strikeforce to a point were its stabilized. With fighters are going into strike force rather than cut all together and finish moving fighters to the UFC. I feel it would be better for young fighters not yet ready for UFC or fighters who just cant cut it in the UFC. Think of baseball minor league.
It’s not that strikeforce sucks it’s that UFC is doing everything possible to destroy Strikeforce. First UFC cuts Allistar, Dana says he sucks and then signed him the week of the fights to fight lesnar. Second UFC schedules a press conference for Diaz vs GSP the week of the fights when the fight isn’t for next month. UFC took all the attention away from strikeforce cause they want people to think MMA is UFC! It’s all about the UFC brand. I went to the strikeforce weigh in and all you saw on the tv monitors is Advertising for UFC videos. Then for the frosting on the cake UFC schedules Diaz vs BJ Penn. Those three stories took the attention away from UFC and fans know nothing outside UFC. The true MMA fan knows the these strikeforce fights are a lot better than UFC. UFC also took and is taking the best fighters from Strikeforce to UFC, Diaz,Chung le, allistar, and it won’t stop there.
Just my humble opinion
Dana never said Overeem sucks… He has been always trying to lure him over to UFC for years… The only popular fighter Dana has said that sucks is Fedor.
Its only natural that Dana would want to push UFC, welcome to the world of business! and of course he wants the reem, Top 5 HW for sure and a Huge fan drawer. I would have got ther PPV for strikeforce if reem had been there….since he was not ill wait till its out for free. shit happens lol
“The true MMA fan knows the these strikeforce fights are a lot better than UFC” Really? Athletic contests are generally more entertaining when the competitors are close in skill level. Nobody wants to watch a HS team play the Sooners. The NFL like the UFC has the best competitors for their prospective sports.
Sure college games and Bellator fights can be awesome to watch, (sometimes better) but they aren’t the top tier of their sport. To say they’re “a lot better than UFC” is a unproveable statement aimed to discreditthe major promotion fo the sake of???
MMA is such a young sport, let the UFC take it mainstream, you’ll appreciate it in the end.
Also, if you think that King Mo fight was in anyway a quality fight, you may want to re-evaluate your qualifications for “true mma fan.” I could list more, but I think you get the idea.
I thought there were good fights on the card…too bad they didn’t get ratings, but the UFC is moving toward enveloping the Strikeforce brand into UFC. I was impressed with Cormier, and knew Barnett would win, that will be an interesting fight, but most likely the last meaningful one.
It is like watching a slow death…once the Showtime deal is over, so is Strikeforce.
I found the strikeforce card entertaining and enjoyable. The quality of a fight has so many different meanings for so many different mma fan personalities. I do agree that Strikeforce is a lamb on its way to the slaughter and will unfortunatly die with in 6-8 months.