Strictly speaking, the Strikeforce Welterweight Championship bout between Nate Marquardt and Tyrone Woodley isn't the main event on Saturday night, when the Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Kennedy fight card takes place at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon. That honor belongs to the namesake fighters, Luke Rockhold and Tim Kennedy, who will do battle for Rockhold's Strikeforce Middleweight Championship.
In terms of Strikeforce's long-term relevance as an MMA promotion, however, the bout for Strikeforce's vacant 170-pound title is the fight to watch on Saturday night.
In recent weeks, when SWR has covered Strikeforce, Ronda Rousey and her Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Championship have been the focus, and with good reason. Women's MMA may have been the greatest beneficiary of last year's acquisition of Strikeforce by UFC parent company Zuffa, as the UFC's formidable marketing muscle has been put behind fighters like Rousey, Miesha Tate, Gina Carano and other top female fighters. However, with events like the Heavyweight Grand Prix and the Dan Henderson-Fedor Emelianenko superfight in the rearview mirror, the men's divisions of Strikeforce are being perceived as "UFC Light."
Of course, perception isn't always reality in these cases - as former WEC lightweights like Ben Henderson, Anthony Pettis and Donald Cerrone have shown by holding their own in the Octagon since the UFC/WEC merger, with Henderson dethroning Frankie Edgar for the UFC belt - but there is little doubt that Strikeforce has lost much of its luster with the departure of fighters like Jake Shields, Cung Le, and the man whose title Marquardt and Woodley will fight for on Saturday night, Nick Diaz.
However, the promotional debut of Marquardt, a UFC veteran and former King of Pancrase, has the potential to give Strikeforce some much-needed star power. The promotion is keenly aware of its need in this regard, as evidenced by Keith Jardine's challenge for the middleweight title earlier this year and his return to the main card on Saturday night against Roger Gracie. Marquardt, like Jardine, is damaged goods, having been cut from the UFC over a controversy surrounding testosterone replacement therapy and having been out of action for 16 months. However, given his accomplishments over the course of his career, there's no denying that his name commands attention, and as the paltry attendance at Strikeforce's press conference for this weekend's fights shows, attention is something that Strikeforce is sorely lacking at this point.
Of course, there's also the argument that a fighter like Woodley, who comes into Saturday night with a perfect 10-0 record with five submissions, could become the kind of star Strikeforce needs by adding a win over Marquardt to his résumé, and that could be the case. However, if Strikeforce hopes to maintain any kind of following outside MMA diehards, it needs names that command recognition on fight posters.
Nate Marquardt is one such name.
