Apparently MMA fans weren’t feeling nostalgic about Strikeforce’s last ever event on Saturday night as just 310,000 viewers watched the live event.
It should be noted that this only includes regular Showtime subscribers and doesn’t factor in any addition viewers tuning in as part of the network’s free-view weekend, however comparing it on a like-by-like basis it stands as one of the least watched major events in the promotion’s history.
Admittedly the card had suffered significantly from call-offs, with both lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez and middleweight title holder Luke Rockhold pulling out, but there were still a number of major Strikeforce stars like Nate Marquardt, Daniel Cormier, Josh Barnett and Gegard Mousasi on-board, and given that most of the aforementioned were on six-figure paydays it’s fair to assume that they were hoping for better numbers than this.
The fact that many of the well-known fighters on the card were fighting relative unknowns certainly won’t have helped, and the rather messy last few months which saw back-to-back Strikeforce events being cancelled appears to have killed off a lot of interest in this final chapter in the company’s live.
If there’s an upside to all this it’s that many of these fighters will now move over to the UFC where they can expect to fight in more meaningful bouts in front of much bigger audiences.
