Has Strikeforce Blacklisted Lyle Beerbohm?
by Erich Vowell on May 18, 2010 1:00 PM EDT
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This is what Lyle posted on the UG before his fight with Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro:
IM LOOKING FOR A LAWYER TO GET ME OUT OF CONTRACT WITH STRIKEFORCE. PLEASE HELP. CONTACT ME AT 509 9955282 Lylebeerbohm@yahoo.com
Before Lyle even posted this, his fight with Ribeiro was on the preliminary card. Usually Strikeforce does not show preliminary fights on their broadcasts. With about 30 minutes left in Showtime's broadcast of Strikeforce, instead of showing the Lyle Beerbohm vs. Vitor Ribeiro fight (the winner would possibly get the next title shot) Showtime ended the broadcast. Could this be because of Beerbohm's willingness to leave the promotion? Zack Arnold thinks so:
The only defense I could see in the promotion not airing the Shaolin/Beerbohm fight is that Lyle had a lot of heat on him after he wrote that post on The Underground Forumin which he asked for a lawyer to help him get out of his Strikeforce deal. I thought it was very curious that Scott Coker said after the St. Louis show that he wanted the Ribeiro/Beerbohm winner to face Josh Thomson on 6/26 in San Jose. Talk about a quick turnaround. Beerbohm, after the fight, needed to get his arm examined...It’s one of those situations where a promoter essentially gets called out by a frustrated fighter on an internet forum, then books him right away in a dark match with no TV exposure, and then says, OK, now you won your fight, go fight a few weeks later. And if you’re hurt? Then the other guy you fought (Shaolin) gets your slot on television and if you’re not on television, that would be unfortunate… sorry. Yes, Beerbohm is a definite prospect and Strikeforce lacks depth in all divisions, but this is a fighter who has shown he wouldn’t mind leaving the promotion so why would someone be inclined to give him a hard push or more exposure than he (rightfully or wrongfully) deserves? Hardball.
We have seen this tactic from Zuffa, and how they dealt with Andrei Arlovski. The question then becomes, with 30 minutes left of broadcast time why not show the Jesse Finney fight? Finney put together this undercard, he is now a 6-0 prospect. If Strikeforce/Showtime wanted to blacklist Beerbohm, why didn't they show the Jesse Finney fight and other quick finishes on the undercard? I think Strikeforce/Showtime is just bad at promoting their prospects and possibly future stars. Whether Lyle said those things or not, I don't think it effected the way the broadcast ended. I think Strikeforce/Showtime just dropped the ball yet again.\
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#1. I think it was pretty stupid of Beerbohm to post that on the UG prior to an upcoming fight. I mean…he can’t find a reputable lawyer without the UG’s help?
#2. Strikeforce is horrible at getting future contenders exposure…so even had he not done so…he probably wouldn’t have made the main telecast.
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I agree with Kelvin
But here’s a very serious question: would the situation be any different if Beerbohm hadn’t put out that post, or just said it was someone else? People rag on Strikeforce all the time for a variety of stuff but one thing needs to be very clear: they have very little outlook on the future. If you ask them what they’ve got going for this time next year, they’ll probably just give you a vacant stare, possibly even cock their head to the side a little and furrow their brow.
Here’s a quick how-to on building fights:
1) Find some dude who has something, and get him signed
2) Get him fights, and show them to people so interest builds in him
3) Get a contender’s match that will make people think that he can beat the champ
4) Title fight with the champ
Now Strikeforce is sort of doing that, except that #2 is done on the un-televised undercard, and in this case so is #3. So we’ve got a title fight of some guy that nobody has seen in the promotion challenging for a title. Yet another example of their low-rent operation.
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Since Strikeforce is posting the whole Beerbohm/Ribeiro fight on their website tomorrow and is trying to book Lyle on the main card of their Fedor vs Werdum show against Josh Thomson in what may end up being a number one contenders match, I would say they are doing a pretty piss-poor job of blacklisting him.
they may be doing this as a result of people saying they are blacklisting him.
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by Kelvin Hunt on May 18, 2010 11:04 PM EDT up reply actions
That's why I said this:
If Strikeforce/Showtime wanted to blacklist Beerbohm, why didn’t they show the Jesse Finney fight and other quick finishes on the undercard? I think Strikeforce/Showtime is just bad at promoting their prospects and possibly future stars.
Strikeforce/Showtime doesn’t do anything to promote their up and coming talent, which is very irritating to me.
"I have to carry out another fine moment before I die."
-Tatsuya Kawajiri-
by Erich Vowell on May 18, 2010 11:22 PM EDT up reply actions
Wasn't really arguing with you. Was only pointing out that I thought it highly unlikely they were blacklisting him.
As for the use of Strikeforce’s prelims I feel the need to point something out to everyone:
The only fighters on the undercard that I believe are currently signed to multi-fight contracts with Strikeforce are Beerbohm and Ribeiro. When people complain that they don’t show prelim fights, what they fail to understand is that almost none of the fighters that ever appear on a Strikeforce cards prelims are Strikeforce fighters, so Showtime is not going to spend a dime recording and broadcasting fighters that they have no guarantee will appear on a future card. That is why the prelims are always stacked with local no-names: so they don’t have to spend a dime while selling some local tickets. It’s purely a cost/reward decision.
One could also make the argument that Strikeforce have great prelim fights that are always broadcast. They just happen to be broadcast on Challenger cards, because that is where the actual Strikeoforce prelims appear. Again it’s a cost issue. By scratching all their prelim fighters off a regular Showtime card they are saving $100,000 in payroll while gaining an extra $300,000 in licensing fees from Showtime for the Challenger cards, If Strikeforce were to suddenly inform Showtime that they wanted to buff up their prelims they would also be losing out on $300,000 per event.
Do I wish Strikeforce would fold their Challenger cards into their regular cards to create great top-to-bottom events? Yes. But I understand why they don’t: money.
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