After strikeforce is disolved

What organization becomes the second most popular, and where do most of the female fighters go?

*if* strikeforce is dissolved, bellator seems to to be the next in line.  but bellator is not exactly a powerhouse. i don't know if there's going to be a strong #2 ever again.

By default it would be Bellator who would be the #2 promotion. As for what happens to the women...Well there's Bellator again. Apart from that, there's a few MMA promotions that are catered to female MMA I think. By then though Dana might have soften his stance on females in the UFC.

Bellator. 

I think it is pretty clear.. and we all agree.. Bellator.  TPF is not terrible, but far from #2.

Anyone who doesn't get into the UFC will go into Bellator. And I hope UFC doesn't buy them, they aren't much of a threat and fighters who aren't allowed in the UFC need a decent place to go.

I think Bellator is running a pretty solid orginazation.

i like bellator but they need to have a womens tournament next season.

I dont think UFC will let there be a strong #2 again , they'll buy them out before they gain that status .

i think bellator is constantly on shaky ground financially. they are always the next deal away from collapse. hopefully they continue to survive and put on great fights, cause i like watching them.

what bellator fighters have been picked up by the ufc?

@Jeremy I can't think of any fighter that has fought for Bellator that has fought in the UFC after

If Strikeforce is merged into the UFC I wouldn't be surprised to see Bellator add a women's division it would get a few more main stream names onto their roster and be good for their business...also they could begin making a move to have the strongest women's MMA organization in the world

@soccer neither can i and i think that's interesting. bellator is starting to cultivate real homegrown talent in ben askren, hector lombard, the pitbulls, mike chandler and others, but the fact is the UFC has not picked up a single Bellator fighter. at least none that i can think of. that may be a deliberate plan to limit Bellator's profile.

i suspect that Bellator has so much debt that if the UFC ever bought it, it might buy it for nothing or next to nothing in exchange for assuming its debts, in order to take on its fighter contracts and video library.

but i don't expect that to happen anytime soon. people started grumbling about a monopoly when the UFC purchased Strikeforce, and while that claim is probably unfounded, it's negative publicity the UFC doesn't want to restart by buying another organization so soon after. the UFC also doesn't want to encourage new upstart organizations into thinking they can pump up a new fight promotion, spend a couple years on it and then sell it off to the UFC. they would rather let new ones fail a la EliteXC and Affliction if they are struggling. all of which suggests to me Bellator should be around on its own for a while longer, if it is able to survive.

@Jeremy, I believe that last post is pretty bang on.

 I hate to say that Bellators inevitable ceiling is either folding to debt and having the UFC absorb the upper tier fighters, or UFC buying Bellator in a couple years time, when Bellator really has some momentum going. Unfortunetly, at this point, these seem like the two most plausible out comes. Hopfully I turn out to be wrong and there is still years to come of Bellators exciting tournement style MMA; they put on great fights and offer a refreshing alternative  to the UFC (and also adds more variety to the over all MMA world as a whole). However I would love to see fighters like Alverez, Arksen, Lombard, Chandler, Hawn ect fight the best of the best, after all isn't the potential to know who that baddest fighter on the planet is one of the most intriguing facets of MMA?

Everyone said how happy they were when the UFC bought strikeforce.. but I liked watching MMA so much more when the WEC was still around, and with Strikeforce being bought and maybe disolving in the future.. I guess I am just dissapointed.

As for the women fighters, I really do hope the UFC makes a division.

as far as i'm concerned dana white has brought the ufc as far as he can do. it's obvious he can not make a del with a major cable operator or a channel like nbc or cbs. i really believe the fertitta brothers should replace him with somebody who can make these deals and make mma bigger than it is now. sports in general have gone thru the roof with tv contracts. the nfl and college football have massive contracts. mma is falling behind and i blame DW.

NFL and College football didn't grow overnight and neither will MMA.

MMA is still a very young sport and UFC, which is the biggest representative of the sport, is still growing. It wasn't all that long ago UFC was itself in trouble of being wiped out (thanks to politics). But Dana White, along with the fertitta brothers, helped avoid that and now it's pretty much not looking back.

The reason why no deal with a major cable operator has been made yet is because Dana White is not willing to have the UFC be at a disadvantage in the deal. He's not willing to back down or make compromises that he sess as unfair. and Why should he, right now UFC has made tons of money without it and White dosen't need to be desperate to sign one.

The problem right now is that for all the progress that has been made, many still see MMA as "human ****fighting", a sport that lacks the class of Boxing or the tradiotinal heritage of American Football. I don't beleive the answer to the UFC for getting a deal with a major cable operator is to "get rid of Dana White" as doing that right now could cause huge damage to the UFC.

That's my take on it anyway :)

I don't know about Blaming Dana, he's the reason we have quality MMA fights to watch. MMA is still a relatively new sport, with the NFL and college football having a much richer history making them easier to sell.  Once New York inevitibly caves in to holding MMA events, it will open the door for better opportunities I would guess. Dana's the face of MMA, he's going nowhere. Plus he genuinly loves the sport and works his ass off for it.

actually mma started in 1993. the top sport back then was baseball. today the nfl rules the sports world thru smart businessman. it looks like the will be a strike. dana should take advantage of this. as for college football it was behind all the four major sports back in 1993. it is firmly the # 2 sport in the united states and it got there by smart commissioners like mike slive of the SEC conference and larry scott of the Pac-12 conference. mr scott just made the biggest deal in college football history. 300 million dollars for the 12 schools over a 10 year plus contract. it just happened. 

your wrong to think dana can't or wont be replaced. i don't even dislike him. he just has gotten the sport as far as it can go and i bet the fertiita's know this as well. did you know that dana was against the TUF show in the beginning. he had to be talked into it.

In the world of bsuiness, no one is unreplaceable. But Dana White is such a huge figurehead and important to UFC that it is next to impossible that he is going to be replaced anytime soon. And it's not going to be a quick thing either.

"actually mma started in 1993."
Which makes it 18 years old. Which is still a young age for a sport.

While UFC may be the #1 organisation in MMA by a mile, it is not a sport in itself, so it's no use comparing UFC to College Football and NFL, which the latter two not only have a rich tradition, but also have politicians on their side. With the purcahse of Strikeforce, UFC are one step closer to getting a deal with a cable company.

"Did you know that dana was against the TUF show in the beginning. he had to be talked into it."
So? We can see that as a mistake in hindsight. But it's not good business practice to okay every idea (Otherwise we'd have M-1 Global co-promoting UFC events) and if Dana had to be talked into it, it shows that he was willing to discuss the idea and realize it may be a worthy risk.

For all his mistakes, Dana White has done a lot more that is right for the UFC.  

Great, now I sound like the biggest Dana White supporter ¬_¬

Dana White has made the sport this big... If he goes away i can see for some reason the sport getting worse but I think it just stays on going steadily hope he stays involved for a long time.