Strikeforce

What was Strikeforce?

Scott Coker started Strikeforce as a kickboxing promotion in 1985 and ran it out of San Jose for its entire life. It only moved into mixed martial arts two decades later, and when it did, it made an immediate mark. Its first MMA card, Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Gracie on March 10, 2006, was the first sanctioned MMA event in California and drew 18,265 fans to the HP Pavilion, a North American attendance record at the time (later topped by UFC 129), according to Wikipedia.

From there, Strikeforce grew from a strong regional operation into a national one. A broadcast deal put its events on Showtime, and in November 2009 it brought MMA to CBS with Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers, a card that peaked at about 5.46 million viewers per Wikipedia’s cited ratings. That reach, plus a heavyweight roster that could compete with the UFC’s, is why fans of the era talk about Strikeforce as the last major American promotion to stand toe to toe with Dana White’s company.

Strikeforce vs. UFC

Most people run into the name Strikeforce because a fighter or commentator mentions it in a UFC context, so the natural question is how the two differed. The short version: Strikeforce was smaller, aired on network and premium cable rather than pay-per-view, and the UFC’s parent company eventually bought it out.

	Strikeforce	UFC
Status	Defunct (2006-2013 in MMA)	Active, the sport’s largest promotion
Base	San Jose, California	Las Vegas, Nevada
Cage	Six-sided (hexagonal)	Eight-sided (the Octagon)
Main broadcast	Showtime and CBS	Pay-per-view and cable/network partners
Ground elbows	Not allowed until Zuffa took over	Allowed under the unified rules

The cage is the tell most fans remember. Strikeforce fought inside a six-sided cage, while the UFC uses its eight-sided Octagon. Strikeforce also barred elbows to the head of a grounded opponent until its new owners lifted the ban, per Wikipedia.

Notable fighters and the women’s MMA breakthrough

Part of what made Strikeforce matter was the talent it put on. Fedor Emelianenko, long considered the best heavyweight in the world, fought his American bouts there. So did Nick Diaz, Dan Henderson, Alistair Overeem, Josh Barnett, Cung Le, and future UFC champions Daniel Cormier and Luke Rockhold. Cormier won the promotion’s Heavyweight Grand Prix, a tournament held across 2011 and 2012.

Its biggest cultural contribution was in women’s MMA. On August 15, 2009, Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg fought for the vacant Strikeforce women’s featherweight title in what ESPN and Al Jazeera both describe as the first time women headlined a major MMA event. A few years later, Ronda Rousey rose through the same promotion, beating Miesha Tate in 2012 to become Strikeforce’s last women’s bantamweight champion before signing with the UFC as its first female fighter, according to ESPN. When Rousey and Carano met in a Netflix bout in May 2026, nearly every preview traced both careers back to Strikeforce.

Why did the UFC buy Strikeforce, and what happened to it?

On March 12, 2011, Dana White told Ariel Helwani that Zuffa, the UFC’s parent company, had bought Strikeforce. The reported price was roughly $40 million, per Sportskeeda, though the terms were never officially confirmed. At first, nothing much changed. The stated plan was to keep Strikeforce running as its own promotion under Coker, and for a while that held.

That independence did not last. Over the next two years, the UFC signed away many of Strikeforce’s biggest names, and the promotion held its final card, Strikeforce: Marquardt vs. Saffiedine, on January 12, 2013. After that, Zuffa dissolved the brand and moved the remaining contracts into the UFC. Coker landed on his feet, taking over as president of Bellator MMA in June 2014.

The roster it built is the reason the name still surfaces. By 2015, per Wikipedia, former Strikeforce fighters held UFC belts across four straight divisions at once, from heavyweight down to welterweight. So when a modern broadcast calls someone a “former Strikeforce champion,” it is usually pointing to a career that started on Showtime before the UFC absorbed the whole operation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Strikeforce still around?

No. Its last event was in January 2013, after which Zuffa shut the promotion down and folded its fighters into the UFC.

Who owned Strikeforce?

Scott Coker founded and ran it, with San Jose Sharks ownership holding a significant stake. Zuffa, the UFC’s parent company, bought it in 2011.

How many events did Strikeforce hold?

Sixty-three in total through its final show in January 2013, including 20 in its Challengers development series, according to Wikipedia.

Was Strikeforce bigger than the UFC?

No. It was the UFC’s strongest American competitor for a stretch, especially at heavyweight, but it was always the smaller promotion.

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Sources

1. Wikipedia. “Strikeforce (mixed martial arts).” Accessed August 2026.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strikeforce_(mixed_martial_arts)
2. ESPN. “Ronda Rousey to fight Gina Carano in return to MMA.” Accessed August 2026.
   https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/47954480/ronda-rousey-fight-gina-carano-return-mma
3. Al Jazeera. “Ronda Rousey vs Gina Carano Netflix MMA fight.” Accessed August 2026.
   https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/5/14/ronda-rousey-vs-gina-carano-netflix-mma-fight-card-start-how-to-watch
4. Yahoo Sports. “How Strikeforce broke records and launched UFC’s last great rival.” Accessed August 2026.
   https://sports.yahoo.com/mma/article/a-magical-moment-how-strikeforce-broke-records-and-launched-ufcs-last-great-rival-20-years-ago-today-192056862.html
5. Sportskeeda. “How much did UFC buy Strikeforce for?” Accessed August 2026.
   https://www.sportskeeda.com/mma/news-how-much-ufc-buy-strikeforce-for
6. Sports Illustrated. “With Strikeforce tapped out, UFC’s monopoly may never be challenged.” Accessed August 2026.
   https://www.si.com/more-sports/2011/03/14/ufc-strikeforce

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