Scott Coker is on MMA Weekly’s radio show right now, and brought up a very interesting promotional strategy. He mentioned that when he meets with the Showtime people to discuss promotional strategy, he will propose tournaments and see what their interest level is. His view was that tournaments are the best way to quickly create stars, since fans get behind a guy and see him go through so much to win. Then, if the real champion and tournament champion are different people, you have a big match right away.
With so many events a year under this deal, I really like the tournament concept for Strikeforce. It’s obviously tough for the fighters, but tournaments do tend to create stars in a hurry. On the other hand, it’s kind of a double edged sword, because you can have your champion lose in a quarter final and all of a sudden he doesn’t seem like a legitimate champion. Regardless of promotional consequences, they’re a blast to watch.