Unless you’ve been living under a rock this week, you’ve heard that Jerry Jones has seen enough of his team failing to compete on the gridiron and given his head coach the axe. Leading to his release Wade Phillips was unable to motivate his players, instill discipline at any level of the team and perhaps worst of all, he was a genuinely nice guy who wanted to be liked by his players. Take that personality from the football field to a cage and who do you get? Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker. Just like Wade, Scott Coker is a very likeable guy. You watch him and Strikeforce and you want him to succeed and for his company to grow. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of these guys that only cares about Zuffa brand MMA. I’ve been a Strikeforce fan for years, since they were putting on shows out of the Playboy Mansion that could only bee seen at 3:00am on Sunday on NBC between infomercials.
As much as I like Strikeforce and Scott Coker, he has to get tough. Strikeforce officially staked it’s claim as the number two MMA promotion last year when Affliction MMA folded and Coker and company did what Dana White couldn’t by signing the great Fedor Emelianenko. Since then Strikeforce entered in a deal with Showtime, co-promoted with Japan’s top organization, DREAM, and collected the best stable of fighters outside of the UFC.
He has also seen his heavyweight champ, Allistair Overeem fight only once in two years, perferring to fight for K1. His other heavyweights make excuses not to fight each other on a daily basis. Former middleweight champion Jake Shields all but gave him the finger when his contract expired and jumped ship to the UFC. Speaking of Shields let’s not forget the infamaous Nashville Brawl that took place after Jason “Mayhem” Miller got attacked by the Gracie Jiu Jitsu camp after entering the cage and asking the new free agent for a re-match. Or the eight-man middleweight tournament that was announced then immediately scrapped after no one in the division wanted to take part in it.
By allowing this type of behavior in his organization it will never grow into a household name. And if it keeps up, Strikeforce may end up like the Dallas Cowboys 2010 season. When you think about it, they’re very similar. They both have too much talent to be as bad as they are right now. The Cowboys are trying to turn things around by getting rid of their softie. If Strikeforce wants to do turn things around themselves, Mr. Coker has to stop being so soft as well. He doesn’t have to be as tough as Dana White is. Maybe he just needs to take a page from Nick Diaz’s book and tell his fighters “I ain’t no bitch.”.
