The Strikeforce Era (2006-2013)

The San Jose pivot

Strikeforce was founded in 1985 by Scott Coker as a kickboxing promotion. The MMA pivot in March 2006 — Strikeforce: Shamrock vs Gracie at HP Pavilion in San Jose — was the moment the promotion transformed from a regional kickboxing brand into the major US #2 MMA promotion. The 18,265 attendance at the Shamrock-Gracie event remained the largest MMA crowd in California history for years.

The MMA pivot coincided with the post-PRIDE absorption of Japanese roster talent into the US market. Strikeforce signed PRIDE-era veterans (Kazushi Sakuraba, Mauricio Rua), American free agents (Robbie Lawler, Nick Diaz, Cung Le), and developed regional talent through the Northern California gym network.

The Showtime broadcast era

The November 2009 Showtime broadcast partnership transformed Strikeforce into a national MMA brand. The deal — which essentially replaced the EliteXC broadcast slot — gave Strikeforce access to premium cable distribution alongside the UFC's pay-per-view-and-Spike-TV model.

The Showtime era produced the most-watched Strikeforce events:

• Strikeforce: Carano vs Cyborg (August 2009): the most-watched women's MMA bout in history at the time. Cris Cyborg KO'd Gina Carano in 4:59 of round 1. The bout demonstrated women's MMA's commercial viability.
• Strikeforce: Diaz vs Cyborg — never happened, but the matchmaking discussion produced the most-anticipated women's MMA matchup that didn't materialize.
• The Heavyweight Grand Prix (2011-2012): the post-PRIDE-Fedor stretch.

The women's MMA pioneering

Strikeforce was the first major US promotion to feature women's MMA prominently. The women's 135-lb (bantamweight) and 145-lb (featherweight) divisions were established in 2009-2010, and the promotion built champions through:

• Cristiane "Cyborg" Justino: the women's featherweight champion from 2009 to 2011. The dominant women's striker of her era and the first major women's MMA star.
• Gina Carano: the women's MMA early star whose 2009 loss to Cyborg ended her competitive career but elevated women's MMA into mainstream broadcast.
• Marloes Coenen, Sarah Kaufman, Miesha Tate: the women's bantamweight bracket that produced the eventual UFC women's champions.
• Ronda Rousey: signed to Strikeforce in late 2011, won the women's bantamweight title from Miesha Tate in March 2012.

The Carano vs Cyborg fight in August 2009 is widely regarded as the moment women's MMA crossed from niche to mainstream broadcast. The 856,000 viewers on Showtime was the largest women's MMA audience to date.

The heavyweight Grand Prix

The 2011-2012 Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix produced the most-watched non-UFC heavyweight MMA matchups of the early 2010s. The bracket included:

• Fedor Emelianenko: the post-PRIDE heavyweight legend whose Strikeforce stretch produced three consecutive losses (Werdum, Silva, Henderson) — the first sustained downturn in his career.
• Fabricio Werdum: the BJJ specialist whose triangle-armbar finished Fedor in June 2010 (1:09 of round 1).
• Alistair Overeem: the eventual Grand Prix winner, who defeated Brett Rogers and Werdum in the bracket.
• Josh Barnett: the catch-wrestler whose semifinal loss to Daniel Cormier paved the way for Cormier's emergence.
• Daniel Cormier: the eventual UFC LHW and HW champion. His Strikeforce career — Olympic wrestling pedigree plus the technical refinement that made him a championship-level athlete — was the structural development for his subsequent UFC title reigns.

The Zuffa acquisition

In March 2011, Zuffa (the UFC's parent) acquired Strikeforce from Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment. The terms were not publicly disclosed but were reported in the $100-150 million range. The acquisition was structured to keep Strikeforce operating as a separate brand for two years while the contracts wound down, then to shut it down and absorb the roster into the UFC.

The acquisition was widely criticized at the time as the elimination of the only credible US-based MMA competitor to the UFC. The competitive landscape afterward — Bellator emerging as the new #2 — was a step down from the Strikeforce era's roster depth.

The shutdown

Strikeforce continued operating from 2011 to January 2013 under the Zuffa ownership. The final card, Strikeforce: Marquardt vs Saffiedine on January 12, 2013, was the moment the rosters merged with the UFC. Daniel Cormier, Luke Rockhold, Ronda Rousey, Tyron Woodley, Robbie Lawler, Gilbert Melendez, and others moved to the UFC contracts.

The post-Strikeforce careers of these athletes confirmed that the promotion had been operating at championship-level competitive standards.

The legacy

The Strikeforce era's legacy is the establishment of women's MMA at major-promotion broadcast level and the development pipeline that produced multiple subsequent UFC champions. The Scott Coker management approach — preserving athlete development, supporting women's MMA, and operating in regional markets — has continued through his subsequent role as Bellator MMA president (2014-2024) and now as part of the PFL acquisition structure.

The promotion's structural achievement was demonstrating that a credible US #2 MMA promotion could operate at championship-level competitive standards. The post-Strikeforce era has not produced an equivalent challenger to the UFC at the same competitive level.