As you may have heard Dan Henderson has signed a deal to fight for Strikeforce opting to work with the budding promotion rather than stay with the UFC under a deal he was unhappy with. With Strikeforce steadily building it's roster of fighters, coud it only be a matter of time before co-promotion between them and the UFC is unavoidable? The UFC's strict policy on not co-promoting fights has led to several missed opportunities to make the best fights out there. M-1 is nothing without Fedor and Gegard Mousasi so there was no real upside for the UFC to co-promote with them. Strikeforce however is steadily garnering talent in all of it's divisions and gaining more and more eyeballs with CBS and Showtime backing it which gives them a huge bargaining chip to hopefully someday broker a deal to co-promote with the UFC. Elite-XC had the network coverage in it's corner what they didn't have was competent management, see Scott Coker, or the greatest heavyweight of all time. Strikeforce did co-promote with Elite and reaped the benefits of the television coverage without getting shit on it's face from the backroom shenanigans that Gary Shaw and company had engaged in. With GSP publicly stating that one of his dream fights would be with Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Jake Shields, and fans salivating over a Brock Lesnar/ Fedor Emelianenko match up, how much longer can this policy exist without hurting the sport? Dan Henderson is just the latest of high profile stars to stray from the pack and join forces with someone who sees that he is worth more than just mid-level treatment and mild respect from his promoters.
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