Last weekend's Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine card was their first of 2012 and many people have been curious about what the "new" Strikeforce will look like, inside and outside the cage. Well, the action in the hexagon (or lack thereof) spoke for itself, and now there's some information about the card for fans to digest. Ratings for the card on Showtime, fighter salaries, and medical suspensions, coming up!
Let's start with ratings. The show averaged 344,000 viewers, which is down from the 460,000 average for last month's Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal. The numbers aren't even close to the average for last year's eight larger events, which averaged 522,000 viewers. It should also be noted that the card aired on a free preview weekend for Showtime, which meant that more than three times the usual number of subscribers had access to the card. While everything's way down, that was to be expected (at least to a degree), and it remains to be seen what the new Strikeforce will level out at in terms of viewers.
We'll get to salaries and medical suspensions after the jump, since they're kind of bulky and take up a lot of space. Let's roll!
So who's making big bags of money in Strikeforce, and who's taking home the chump change? Here's your list of salaries, which is topped by Robbie Lawler, Luke Rockhold, and Mo Lawal (who was on the last fight of his old deal). The info is courtesy of the Nevada State Athletic Commission:
Luke Rockhold: $90,000 (includes $25,000 win bonus) beat Keith Jardine: $30,000
Robbie Lawler: $150,000 (no win bonus) beat Adlan Amagov: $10,000
Muhammed Lawal: $95,000 ($15,000 win bonus) beat Lorenz Larkin: $17,000
Tyron Woodley: $60,000 ($30,000 win bonus) beat Jordan Mein: $9,000
Tarec Saffiedine: $31,000 ($15,000 win bonus) beat Tyler Stinson: $4,000
Nah-Shon Burrell: $8,000 ($4,000 win bonus) beat James Terry: $9,000
Gian Villante: $20,000 ($10,000 win bonus) beat Trevor Smith: $4,000
Ricky Legere: $10,000 ($5,000 win bonus) beat Chris Spang: $6,000
Estevan Payan: $8,000 ($4,000 win bonus) beat Alonzo Martinez: $5,000
As for medical suspensions, four fighters were given long suspensions due to suspected injuries, including reigning middleweight champion Luke Rockhold. Here are the major suspensions (again courtesy of the NSAC):
Luke Rockhold: Suspended until July 6 due to a right-hand injury, can be cleared early by doctor
Tarec Saffiedine: Suspended until July 6 due to a left-elbow injury, can be cleared early w/ X-ray or MRI
Tyler Stinson: Suspended until July 6 due to left-thumb an right-knee injuries, can be cleared early by doctor
James Terry: Suspended until July 6 due to shoulder injuries, can be cleared early by orthopedic doctor
Saffiedine and Stinson are suspended until Febuary 22nd regardless with no contact until February 8th due to cuts. Here are the rest of the suspensions:
Keith Jardine: Suspended until March 8 with no contact until Feb. 22 for precautionary reasons
Adlam Amigov: Suspended until Feb. 7 with no contact until Jan. 29 for precautionary reasons
Lorenz Larkin: Suspended until Feb. 7 with no contact until Jan. 29 for precautionary reasons
Trevor Smith: Suspended until Jan. 29 with no contact until Jan. 22 for precautionary reasons
Estevan Payan: Suspended until Feb. 7 with no contact until Jan. 29 due to a right-eye laceration
Alonzo Martinez: Suspended until Feb. 22 with no contact until Feb. 7 due to a bridge-of-nose laceration
And your roundup is complete.
0 recs | 16 comments
Getting their $.
But I would still like to see half that card in the UFC.
mma.ly - January 10, 2012
yeah
From what Robbie’s getting at SF, and granted he has been an elitexc/sf staple and usually has entertaining fights.. UFC would probably give him a third of that purse if hes lucky.
elmojo - January 10, 2012
He would probably get a couple of knockout of the night bonuses, though.
fbihop - January 11, 2012
Kind of expected James Terry to be earning more at this point considering his long association with the Strikeforce organisation…
Pyrgz Krum - January 10, 2012
beat James Terry = $9,000
TheWorldForRansom - January 10, 2012
Poor Tyler Stinson...if this was the ufc, he'd have a fotn bonus to go with his show money.
Snatchl - January 10, 2012
Big bank beat lil bank
kick_puncher - January 10, 2012
With Mo complaining about being stuck in SF cuz he had no choice
He has to be happy about making that kind of money in SF. I doubt he would be making that in the UFC.
BrandtShaft! - January 10, 2012
At the very least he has to be looking at it as "easy wins and an immediate title shot someday".
castleeb - January 11, 2012
Mo's old deal was 80 flat, the win bonus was not on his old contract
Forrest Lynn - January 11, 2012
Damn Lawler's making bank
BROCKLESNAR!!!!! - January 11, 2012
Robbie “The Bawler” Lawler
ANance - January 11, 2012 via mobile
solid
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - January 11, 2012
This card was also opposite the Saints-Lions playoff game
It was the “big” game of the day. I personally watched the football game over the fights. I flipped back and forth during ads, but I was mostly focused on the football game.
HaterSlayer - January 11, 2012
Jardine should have never been given a title shot
it was a weak main event and hard to get excited about but at least it had Robbie on it and I was looking foward to seeing Larkin against a good fighter like Mo who he was not ready for as it turned out
biggant - January 11, 2012 via mobile
Interesting
I’m always glad to see guys like Lawler, who have been in the sport for a long time, making good money. On another note though I have no idea how Zuffa justifies keeping Strikeforce afloat. With a payroll for this event of over $500 gran but weak ratings numbers, there is just no return on investment. Obviously we still need to see the live gate numbers but if the past couple events are any indicator it won’t be a huge number.
Paying a guy $150 grand who doesn’t generate significant fan interest to fight in the middle of the main card against a complete unknown is just baffling to me. It’s salaries like that which most likely led to the sale of Strikeforce in the first place.
pcusick13 - January 11, 2012
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