Showtime Executive Blames Decimation Of Talent As Reason For Stikeforce Demise | MMA NEWS

“We had the option to extend for another year. We decided not to, and candidly, there’s one main reason behind it. As any fan who follows Strikeforce or MMA generally knows, there’s been some talent problems in the last half of the year, and there’s been some injury problems throughout the sport. But given where the talent pool in Strikeforce is, we really got decimated by injuries and suspensions. And in the overall scheme of things, we just weren’t comfortable with the trajectory of where the shows were going. We didn’t believe toward the end of the year that we were getting shows that were premium television level shows, and we didn’t see that situation getting any better. I wanted to live up to the high standards that Strikeforce set with Showtime before I got here, and as the year went on, it was clear that wasn’t going to happen…. This problem with the talent pool and the trajectory of the promotion going forward wasn’t going away. It wasn’t just a streak of bad luck for a couple months. It was a trend. Look at it from the big picture. Look at the trajectory of the organization Strikeforce before the acquisition by Zuffa and after. I think, with due respect, everything that we did after, the trajectory wasn’t the same. That became very clear by the end of the year.”

Showtime Sports executive Stephen Espinoza, tells the good guys over at MMAFighting.com’s “The MMA Hour” why he believes Strikeforce was unable to stay afloat following the post-ZUFFA purchase era.