"I don't want to disclose any of the details on how the deal was done or how it went back and forth, but, you know, the reality is we now own Strikeforce," stated UFC President Dana White, who made the blockbuster announcement literally moments after they closed the deal. Speaking to Ariel Helwani of mmafighting.com, White discussed the Zuffa purchase and explained how Strikeforce will continue to operate independently of the UFC.
"Every year, we take this thing to another level and some of the deals that we're working on now, international and all the other things, and obviously acquiring Strikeforce now," White explained. "As we continue to grow and expand into all these other countries, one of the things that I keep telling you every time we talk is we need more fight. We need more fights, more fights, and let's face the facts, Strikeforce is a brand that fans have come to like. They do have a following, people enjoy the fights that they're putting on and it made sense to us."
Althought Zuffa now owns Strikeforce, White made it clear that the promotional company will still operate separately from the UFC. In other words, Strikeforce fighters will not be fighting for the UFC and there won't be any plans to co-promote. "Strikeforce is going to continue to run business as usual. There's contracts in place. These guys are on Showtime. Strikeforce pulls good ratings for Showtime. I think Showtime's happy with them and all of those contracts will be honored. These guys are going to remain Strikeforce fighters. They're not going to be UFC; could guys from the UFC leave and end up over in Strikeforce? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's really the way it works now. It is literally business as usual. We signed a deal with Scott Coker; he's staying on."
"When I say business as usual, we don't co-promote. Even when we own it, we don't co-promote period," White emphasized one more time, making it clear that Strikeforce and the UFC will continue to operate as separate entities.