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Fedor Emelianenko may be having trouble getting his hand raised, but he doesn’t seem to be having any problems attracting viewers to Showtime.

The ratings are in from Saturday night’s Strikeforce “Fedor vs. Henderson” broadcast, and they’re good enough to rank fourth on the list of top-rated Strikeforce-Showtime shows.

This past weekend’s “Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Henderson” event drew a 1.7 household rating and ranked fourth all-time in Strikeforce-Showtime history with 571,000 viewers.

The event peaked with 778,000 viewers for the night’s main event.

Fedor vs. Henderson was only bested by SF Fedor vs. Silva (741,000), SF Overeem vs. Werdum (624,000) and SF Carano vs. Cyborg (576,000).

Fedor may not be winning, but clearly people still want to see him fight. He at least has that going for him if and when his management team enters their next round of negotiations.

Image via James Law for MMA Fighting

MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani caught up with Dana White in NYC to talk about a variety of topics including UFC 133, Alistair Overeem, HBO and Dana’s visit with WWE bossman Vince McMahon. Notes:

• Rich Franklin turned down a fight against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 133 because he only wants to fight top names. Dana White doesn’t blame him.
• Disappointed how Lyoto Machida and his camp handled negotiations when he was asked to replace Phil Davis against Rashad Evans, but isn’t mad at him.
• “Totally impressed” that Tito Ortiz beat Ryan Bader and took the Rashad Evans fight on short notice. Tito did not negotiate a new deal to take the Evans fight.
• Showtime wanted the Sept. 10 date for tournament. Maintains that Alistair Overeem pulled out of the tournament with a toe injury, despite Ariel Helwani telling Dana twice that Overeem told him it was the date change. Dana makes it a point to say they did not remove him from the grand prix. Alistair Overeem was never “strong-armed, bullied or disrespected in anyway, shape or form.”
• Golden Glory personally called Dana White to negotiate a deal with him for Overeem, but Dana says just because Nick Diaz made the jump doesn’t mean everyone else can.
• “Really, really bad idea” for Alistair Overeem to box Vitali Klitschko. Overeem’s hands didn’t look good against Werdum, so how is he going to box the Klitschko’s?
• Dana doesn’t see Ross Greenburg’s exit from HBO opening up new doors for the UFC there. Boxing is HBO’s sport, so he doubts it.
• Visited Vince McMahon at WWE headquarters to “bounce some stuff off him.” They “shot the shit” but wouldn’t say what they talked about.

If coffee is for closers (see “Glengarry Glen Ross” by David Mamet), then the assortment of fight finishers that graced our TV screens for last night’s M-1 Challenge XXVI on Showtime deserve to have free reign at their nearest Starbucks.  Of the five fights on the Russian-based promotion’s latest US installment, four ended with knockouts.  Let’s review the carnage, shall we?

The first bout of the evening saw Arizonan Eddie Arizmendi taking on Iraqi war veteran Jason Norwood.  Eddie who versus Jason who?  Beats me, but to their credit, these two unknowns made the most of their television time by scrapping.  From the outset it was clear Arizmendi had the advantage in striking, as with only a tiny bit of distance he was able to land hard and repeatedly.  Norwood, meanwhile, struggled to press his foe up against the cage and grapple him – a futile effort given that M-1 Challenge uses a ring instead of a cage. 

Round 1 was somewhat even thanks to Arizmendi securing back-control and punishing Norwood and Norwood reversing an attempting some ground and pound.  But a referee standup late in the second round signaled the beginning of the end for the man with weaker striking.  First a high-kick, then a cross-hook combination, and Norwood was tumbling to the canvas, stunned as “Big” John McCarthy was forced to step in.  The official time of the knockout was 4:55 of Round 2.

Beau Baker has never been more than a journeyman in his MMA career, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t tough.  Unfortunately for him, though, you need more than toughness to win fights – especially when your opponent, a German named Daniel Weichel, wields superior standup and relentlessly punishes you with it.  From beginning to end Weichel was working Baker over, confidently blasting him with punches and sneaking in kicks to the body, and when they clinched, tying Baker up with a Thai Plum and working him over.  Baker emerged from Round 2 bloodied, and while his aforementioned resilience kept him coming back for more, there was no doubt who’d earned the unanimous decision when time expired.  (Hint: the German dude.)

The beauty of M-1 Challenge is that it pits some pretty elite guys from overseas against some far-from-elite guys from here in the States.  Case in point: Mairbek Tiasumov versus Josh Bacallao, which saw the foreigner outclass the American in brutal fashion.  Right out of the gate Bacallao tried to get it to the ground, and with very little effort Taisumov shrugged him off.  Then he squared up and fired a right hand down the middle – a heat-seeking missile that exploded in Bacallao’s face and dropped him.  The follow-up fist on the ground sealed the deal, and the knockout was official at 2:01 of the first round.

Tyson Jeffries is a strong, capable fighter.  Believe me, I saw him win the M-1 Challenge “Selections” tournament, saw him withstand ungodly punishment and come back to wreck house.  But I guess you’d never know of Jeffries’ ability based on what you’ve thus far seen of him on Showtime.  At the last M-1 Challenge installment on TV he got clobbered by Magomed Sultanakhmedov, and at this one, he ran into a brick wall named Arthu Guseinov.  How did Jeffries get smashed this time?

As soon as referee Herb Dean said “go”, Jeffries was on the Russian like white on rice, aiming to negate Guseinov’s deadly striking with a wrestling assault.  But Guseinov escaped danger, set himself, and threw a spinning backfist that completely and utterly separated Jeffries’ consciousness from his body.  The American was out cold at 1:32 of Round 1.

In the finals of the M-1 Challenge “Selection” heavyweight tournament, Kenny Garner and Pat Bennett played “Rock-‘Em-Sock-‘Em Robots” until Bennett dropped midway through the first round.  This time, Bennett made it into the second round before dropping.  The difference was the New Yorker’s slightly better footwork and head-movement, which enabled him to dodge a small percentage of leather he’d otherwise have eaten.  Still, Garner remained the better man on the feet, and that “betterness” manifested itself with accurate punches and the kind of confidence that breeds aggression.  The end came via a Garner knee to the head and right-left combo that TKO’d Bennett at 1:15 of Round 2.

Results:

-Eddie Arizmendi def. Jason Norwood via KO (Punch) at 4:55 in Round 2

-Daniel Weichel def. Beau Baker by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-25)

-Mairbek Tiasumov def. Josh Bakkalao via KO (Punch) at 2:01 in Round 1

-Arthur Guseinov def. Tyson Jeffries via KO (Spinning Backfist) at 1:32 in Round 1

-Kenny Garner def. Pat Bennett via KO (Punch) at 1:15 in Round 2

The M-1 Challenge 26 “Bennett vs. Garner” weigh-ins took place earlier yesterday at Hooters in Costa Mesa, California.

All fighters made weight.

The main event features a rematch between Pat Bennett and Kenny Garner. Garner defeated Bennett in their first meeting via TKO in the first round, and Bennett is looking for a little payback.

“I want it bad. I feel lucky to get rematch and the opportunity to get this one back.  He’s the type of dude that if you give him an inch, he’ll take a mile… Deep down, I think he knows I’m a much better fighter than I showed in our last fight.  Every heavyweight has knockout power – that’s just a fact of being a heavyweight.  It doesn’t matter who you’re fighting, you just have to keep your hands up.”

Meanwhile, Garner plans to prove that the first beatdown he gave Bennett wasn’t a fluke.

“You know I beat people’s brains out?  The must mean I left some last time that I need to take care of… As soon as I connect, start counting.  I’ll end the fight in six punches.”

The weigh-in results:

• Pat Bennett (240) vs. Kenny Garner (256.6)
• Arthur Guseinov (183.4) vs. Tyson Jeffries (184.8)
• Josh Bacallao (154) vs. Mairbek Taisumov (155)
• Beau Baker (156) vs. Daniel Weichel (155.5)
• Eddie Arizmendi (186) vs. Jason Norwood (184.6)
• Georgi Karakhanyan (n/a) vs. Randy Spence (n/a)
• Richard Schiller (n/a) vs. Mark Vorgeas (n/a)
• Mike Derobers (n/a) vs. Max Martyniouk (n/a)

Fighters in non-title fights are allowed to weigh in one pound over the weight class limit.

M-1 Challenge 26 “Bennett vs. Garner” will take place tonight, July 8, at the The Hangar in Costa Mesa, California and will air live (tape delayed on West coast) on Showtime at 11pm ET/PT.

Despite the long layoff, the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix continues to be a big hit in the ratings department. Last Saturday’s Strikeforce “Overeem vs. Werdum” event finished second on the all-time Strikeforce/Showtime ratings list, only behind the first GP show featuring Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Silva, Sergei Kharitonov and Andrei Arlovski. MMA Junkie has the numbers:

Overall, the June 18 event earned a 1.7 household rating, an average audience of 624,000 viewers, and a peak audience of 719,000 viewers.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed the figures with an industry source.

Interestingly, four of the top five rated Strikeforce shows on Showtime have all taken place in 2011, suggesting that Strikeforce’s fan base has a hit a growth spurt this year. It will be interesting to see if that gives Zuffa extra motivation to keep the Strikeforce brand alive. I’m sure Showtime will be pushing for it.

It was very much “business as usual” during Saturday night’s Strikeforce “Diaz vs. Daley” broadcast, the first major event since Zuffa purchased Strikeforce. Showtime addressed the sale at the top of the broadcast and briefly showed Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta in attendance, but in terms of presentation and production value, there really weren’t any noticeable differences from past Strikeforce/Showtime events.

According to Dave Meltzer however, that wasn’t the case at all behind the scenes. Dana White said upfront that they would be bringing in some of their people to help run Strikeforce and as Meltzer reports, they didn’t waste any time in doing so. Interestingly, Zuffa elected to send over many of the folks that ran the WEC for a number of years including former WEC GM Reed Harris and matchmaker Sean Shelby. The WEC was a well-run organization so the move makes sense, but unfortunately there were casualties in the process.

The changes actually started at a smaller Strikeforce event, held eight days earlier, in Stockton, Calif., when several of the Strikeforce employees were brought into a room and told they were being let go. They were told they would have the opportunity, if they wanted, to apply for positions in UFC parent company Zuffa LLC. Many noted that while there was clearly uncertainty as soon as the purchase was announced, they were surprised the ax came down so quickly.

Friday’s weigh-ins, from an organizational perspective, felt like a World Extreme Cagefighting front-office reunion party (Zuffa merged WEC into the UFC after a final show in mid-December). Among those front and center were former WEC vice-president Peter Dropick, general manager Reed Harris, matchmaker Sean Shelby and P.R. head Dave Sholler.

It is no secret that Dropick is being groomed to help run the Strikeforce business going forward. It was expected that Shelby, who is currently the assistant matchmaker for UFC and in charge of the lighter weight divisions he ran at WEC, would oversee the Strikeforce matchmaking in some capacity.

Another major change not readily apparent to fans, but has received quite a bit of attention in the past couple weeks is Strikeforce’s new professional journalism policy. It’s common knowledge that Sherdog, Loretta Hunt, Josh Gross and others who have pissed off Zuffa officials have long been denied press credentials to UFC events. They were however welcomed with opened arms at Strikeforce events. Not anymore. Neither Sherdog nor Loretta Hunt who was attempting to cover the show for CBS Sports were granted credentials to Saturday’s event.

In short, Strikeforce still looks like Strikeforce, but it’s quickly morphing into a Zuffa promotion wrapped in Showtime’s clothing.

Strikeforce turned in another solid ratings performance for Showtime on Saturday night with their “Diaz vs. Daley” show. For the third time this year, Strikeforce broke the 500,000 viewer mark. MMA Junkie has the numbers.

This past weekend’s “Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley” event drew strong ratings on Showtime, and the peak audience, which coincided with a headlining title fight between welterweight champion Nick Diaz and Paul Daley, resulted in 806,000 viewers.

Overall, the April 9 event averaged 528,000 viewers.

It’s only the third highest rated Strikeforce event of the year, but the numbers are solid nonetheless when compared to the 300,000 – 500,000 viewers most Strikeforce shows averaged in 2010.

• Strikeforce “Fedor vs. Silva”: 741,000
• Strikeforce “Diaz vs. Cyborg”: 561,000
• Strikeforce “Diaz vs. Daley”: 528,000
• Strikeforce “Feijao vs. Henderson”: 412,000

I think the key takeaway here is that Nick Diaz does in fact move the needle. In January, he had a supporting cast that included Herschel Walker who drove significant ratings in his pro MMA debut. These numbers however seem to suggest that Walker wasn’t as much of a factor as we thought he was. It certainly didn’t hurt in this instance to have an exciting opponent in Paul Daley, but the common denominator between the two shows is Nick Diaz.

Love him or hate him, people are tuning in to watch Nick fight. And why wouldn’t they? As one esteemed writer suggested today, Diaz is the most exciting welterweight in the cage right now and the quite possibly the craziest outside of it. The one thing Nick Diaz never is: boring.

Image via Esther Lin for Strikeforce/Showtime

A rundown of post-fight news and notes coming out of Strikeforce “Diaz vs. Daley”…

— Despite three thrilling finishes and an bloody war, Zuffa and Strikeforce officials decided not to implement the UFC’s fight night bonus structure at last night’s event. It’s disappointing because if there were ever a group of fighters that deserved such bonuses, it was the group that fought last night. Hopefully they got a little extra behind the curtain because they certainly deserved it.

— Nick Diaz came back from the jaws of defeat to finish off Paul Daley only moments later in one of the most exciting rounds in recent history. Midway through the first, Daley cracked Diaz on the temple with a left hook that left Diaz face flat on the canvas. Most fighters would have recognized the danger they were in. Not Nick Diaz. He talked about it like it was no big deal at the post-fight press conference.

“I’m probably better off down there anyways than standing up when I’m knocked off balance like that, until I get my footing. If I go down, I go down. What are you going to do down there? He couldn’t hit me once I was down there.”

The promoters were certainly happy with the main event. Dana White was so impressed, he openly gave Paul Daley respect on Twitter.

I give him all the respect in the world for that fight. They went to war!

Scott Coker was pleased as well. He called it “electric.”

“It reminded me of those electric fights I watched growing up like Hagler-Hearns. It had that electricity.”

That it did. While the appropriate course of action would be to match Diaz up with UFC champion Georges St. Pierre (should he beat Jake Shields at UFC 129), there won’t be any UFC champion vs. Strikeforce champion fights in the immediate future. Instead, it looks like Tyron Woodley is next in line for Nick Diaz. Scott Coker hinted at the match-up following the event and Woodley was seen all weekend wearing a t-shirt that said “I Got Next!”

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Gegard Mousasi lets it slip in this interview with MMA Heat’s Karyn Bryant that Showtime wants to put a fight together between Dan Henderson and Fedor Emelianenko. While that bout could certainly headline a Showtime event, MMA Weekly reported just yesterday that Strikeforce is planning a possible pay-per-view in July (with King Mo vs. Roger Gracie rumored), the same month Fedor is expected to fight and the same month Hendo said he wanted to fight. It wouldn’t be the strongest PPV headliner given Fedor’s recent decline, I could see them trying to pass it off as such.

If that’s even what they’re plan is, the other question is if and how Showtime would be involved in such a pay-per-view. Before Zuffa purchased Strikeforce that would have been an easy answer, but since Zuffa does own Strikeforce now, I doubt they’ll be too eager to share any pay-per-view revenue with Showtime unless they’re already contractually obligated to do so.

There’s a lot of unknowns here, so I caution you take all this with a grain of salt, but it will be interesting to see how it all develops if it does.

Update: According to MMA Weekly, Hendo will fight on the July card but a fight against Fedor has not been offered as of yet.

A few observations from last night’s M-1 Challenge 24 on Showtime…

— Boy, commentator Pat Miletich wasn’t kidding.  Those Russians really do go for it.  Have they not heard of “lay and pray” and “wall and stall” over there yet?

— Alexander Sarnavskiy beat on Beau Baker so relentlessly, I am convinced Baker owed him rubles.  Hopefully Baker pays him back now.

— Good for Vinny Magalhaes.  He’s found a decent home for himself, where he can beat on regional-level guys and showcase his skills on national television.

— Of course, leave it to the two Americans to have the only bout that goes the distance.  Thank you very much, Jason Norwood and Mojo Horne.  Did you fellas not see all the other bouts ending abruptly and violently around you?

— I had high hopes for Team Quester Tyson Jeffries and thought he had a chance against Magomed Sultanakhmedov, but boy was I wrong.  With a furious barrage of fists and knees, Sultanakhmedov crushed him like a babushka crushing beets for borscht (note: borscht is a Russian soup made of beets.  Get it?).

— Thankfully, American Top Team rep Jose Figueroa was able to stop Artiom Damkovsky and keep it from being an all-Russian shutout.  But it should be noted that Figueroa earned his shot at the belt by winning the M-1 Challenge “Selections” tournament in New Jersey last year, and he won his final match with consecutive groin shots against George Sheppard.  So can we get a Figueroa/Sheppard rematch now?

Results after the jump.

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