Holding a mixed martial arts event at a location such as the Playboy Mansion is a double edged sword.  On the one hand it gets the event tons of publicity and raises awareness of MMA in general.  On the flip side, you can take away from the attention of the actual fights at this celebrity-filled event .  Staging MMA fights in the presence of Heffner, the Playboy Bunnies, A-list celebs and the paparazzi guaranteed the card would garner far more attention that it would otherwise, and give the show the atmosphere of being the place to be and be seen. Reports are that the Strikeforce event experience both the good at the bad at the Playboy Mansion.

“You see all the people here tonight, right?” asked Frank Shamrock. “This is why you stage an event at a place like this, to get your promotion noticed. People are talking about our show.”

For much of the night, the matches were secondary to the scene, as much of the crowd displayed more interest in partaking of Heff’s legendary hospitality than watching the fights. Heffner himself made a fashionably late appearance front-row appearance and took in about half the show before calling it an early night. Fighters the caliber of Andrei Arlovski, Urijah Faber and Renato “Babalu” Sobral (who announced Saturday night he has signed with Strikeforce) were largely left alone to watch the fights while fans looked to catch the attention of the celebs in attendance.

The payoff for the ground-breaking Strikeforce show? We’ll have to wait and see.

Sunday, September 30th, 2007 | File under Strikeforce