Bellator General Discussion and Info

[REDDzone]

If my understanding of the situation with Nam and Hollett is correct, then bellator were playing hardball with those guys for sure, and it doesn't really seem fair. Dana went on a tirade about it at the presser/scrum for those who missed it, saying its the dirtiest move in the business, scumbag move, and its only hurts the fighter.

Bjorn on the mmahour said ufc did the exact same thing to them on the King Mo deal a few months back. Not surprising. None of these promotions have any issues hurting the fighter as long as they could potentially make a negative situation for the other for even a few extra days.

[SDM]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07gwTpj6dM0&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[Cammo101]

If my understanding of the situation with Nam and Hollett is correct, then bellator were playing hardball with those guys for sure, and it doesn't really seem fair. Dana went on a tirade about it at the presser/scrum for those who missed it, saying its the dirtiest move in the business, scumbag move, and its only hurts the fighter.

Bjorn on the mmahour said ufc did the exact same thing to them on the King Mo deal a few months back. Not surprising. None of these promotions have any issues hurting the fighter as long as they could potentially make a negative situation for the other for even a few extra days.

The difference here is that Bjorn is holding these guys careers hostage by signing them and then not giving them fights. A guy like Nam wasn't fighting in Bellator, but wasn't allowed to fight anywhere else either because Bellator controlled his right. Dana is right here, that is dirty business.

[REDDzone]

Didn't you read where I said it seemed unfair, camm? What is the difference you are speaking of?

Again, Bjorn claims (and I've found out since that Dana denies) that zuffa did the exact same thing with King Mo and Roger Huerta. Said despite publicly releasing that they cut King Mo, they made bellator send them the contract to look over to determine if they wanted to match, and took their time before saying no. This is just like nba restricted free agency, and depending on who you believe, both promotions do it.

[Bernman]

The difference here is that Bjorn is holding these guys careers hostage by signing them and then not giving them fights. A guy like Nam wasn't fighting in Bellator, but wasn't allowed to fight anywhere else either because Bellator controlled his right. Dana is right here, that is dirty business.

That's not true at all.

Nam was only with Bellator 2.5 months before being released. By his own timeline he signed very end of March/beginning of April and was released in mid June. He signed with Bellator to replace Rodrigo Lima in the season 6 tourney, because it didn't appear Lima would get a visa, but he got the situation sorted out a few days before the fight and reclaimed his spot. One guy or another was going to get screwed over by circumstance and in part because the tourney format creates a small window for fighters. As consolation he was promised a spot in the season 7 tourney, which fell through, and they released him soon afterward SO HE COULD GET WORK BY FIGHTING ELSEWHERE. And supposedly he only got that fight against Dantas to potentially catapult his career because Bellator knew they'd have the option of bringing him back. Without that matching rights' clause, he's not in position to leverage his way into UFC and WSOF offers off his first notable win of his career. It doesn't sound like a bad deal for Tyson Nam. People shouldn't feel too sorry for him at this point.

As for Hollett, he had an irregular heartbeat which got his tourney fight canceled. Then they cut him loose for the medical issue and so he could get work. Bellator reconsidered bringing him back once he proved healthy enough again to be fighting for UFC. Were they at some point just dragging their feet to mess with the UFC. I don't know. But that case is extremely circumstantial and based on one circumstance, really. Dana and Hollett were venting because Bellator's decision inconvenienced them. You know how Dana especially doesn't like to be inconvenienced, fair or not. Somebody is going to get an earful about it.

Bellator WASN'T sitting on those fighters and that's why they were in that position. Ironically they'd be taking less flack if they just held those fighters under contract. Some of their fighters do get inadequate work for sure. It's usually champions and fighters who've been around for a while waiting for the next tourney because of their rigid system that does adversely effect a percentage of their roster. Now of course they're holding some notable fighters out a couple months extra because they'll have to wait to put them on Spike.

I don't know if the allegations about Huerta and King Mo are true either. But if true, those situations would be worse because they were cut for performance and disciplinary reasons. Zuffa didn't want them anymore, so why take the time? Bellator nor UFC should have the matching clause in their contracts for situations where they release a guy when they don't want them anymore. A high majority of MMA promotions are shady, probably Zuffa and Bellator both included in that category, as they are MMA promotions. They profit off people beating each other up and risking their health. It kind of comes with the territory. If you think Dana White and Zuffa aren't sleazeballs, you're being delusional. A lot of people are quick to jump on other sleazeball organizations (like Bellator) though and turn a blind eye to Zuffa, because they want one dominant MMA organization. How's that working out for ya right now? 2-3 sleazeballs are better than one sleazeball. They keep each other honest. Look how the NFL is treating players and fans right now by having a monopoly, and that's with unions.

[REDDzone]

What Bjorn was saying about only letting the Nam/Dudu fight happen because he had matching rights actually makes sense and I believe him I think. That said, the stuff about deciding to go with Nam for that fight because he was a nice kid or whatever was bs, they thought he was going to get run over, that he was a safe fight for Dantas.

[Bernman]

For sure, safe to an extent, but in the event that Dantas lost he'd be losing to a sort of Bellator fighter.

Incidentally, when that fight was signed, I didn't think he was particularly safe. I knew Dantas liked to strike to set up his BJJ rather than score takedowns. That would put Dantas in Nam's milieu until he scored a knockdown, which Nam was kind of prone to, but he also of course had the ability to accomplish that himself.

[Bernman]

BTW, Bellator's season starts this Friday, if you weren't aware. It seems like a lot of people weren't aware. Bellator lost quite a bit of momentum thru the Summer Series with occasional lackluster cards. Of course they're holding back a significant amount of talent this season as a sacrifice for their upcoming Spike move.

This week's card is decent. The main events aren't sexy, but there's plenty of depth throughout the card. Alexandre Bezerra vs. Jeff Smith is a 5th main card caliber fight. The prelims are pretty solid. The Taleb-Zaromskis fight should be entertaining. And I'm looking forward to seeing Koreshkov and Good again. They seem to be the clear tourney favorites. Taleb is the darkhorse.

[Shaazzam]

Thanks for the heads up. In Canada these will be shown every saturday night @ 9pm on the score.

[Bernman]

Or if you want to watch them live they are shown on Friday nights on the Score's website.

I think they'll be carried live on Score TV once they move to Spike in turn switching nights. Right now they're being pre-empted by WWE Smackdown I think.

[Bernman]

This weekend's Bellator event was pretty good.

Koreshkov showed he still has some things to learn, but he gutted it out, and we got a good back and forth in the process.

Taleb was out-scoring Zaromskis but he landed the bombs to offset them and got a little creative as you'd expect.

Tsarev was the unknown and he showed some extremely quick transitions on the ground and sharp striking against albeit a lackluster opponent.

Good looked like a beast against Wallhead. Wasn't afraid of the judo throws and just clinched all day with him and peppered him with strikes. I've contended for a while that Good is one of the most underrated mixed martial artists around. He deserved to beat Hawn and should only have that loss against Askren, who he nearly finished at the end, on his record.

Good and Koreshkov sets up to be a fantastic finale. 2nd round we'll get Koreshkov-Zaromskis and Good-Taleb which I preferred.

Next week the heavyweights are up. Unless Minakov and/or Kudin break in as late replacement it's probably going to be a disappointing tourney. Looking forward to seeing Thiago Santos and Richard Hale again though. Mark Holata is underrated. I don't like anyone else in it.

Bellator in two weeks should be a lot of fun. Possibly Eddie's final fight in Bellator, against Patricky. Then there's the FW semis, which is probably again the best tourney. Plus, the prelims are solid.

[cowboyronnie]

Love this Taleb-Zaromskis fight. God, when do you ever see guys exchange kicks like this? Just great footwork and agility to be able to throw that quickly, viciously, and from any position. I think Taleb is for real. He would have KOd a bunch of dudes with strikes like this...all the whole moving backwards.

Another exciting WW for Bellator's stable. I'd love to see any of these guys matched up with Daley, whatshisface, or that other guy.

[cowboyronnie]

Miragliotta is pandering to fans with all these stand-ups. Why is it the big meatheads who the ones are most desperate for affirmation?

[REDDzone]

Miragliotta is pandering to fans with all these stand-ups. Why is it the big meatheads who the ones are most desperate for affirmation?

Despite loving Rumble getting whooped, the standups in the Belfort/Rumble fight were some of the worst reffing I've ever seen. Literally standups after 30 seconds.

[Bernman]

Bellator's HW tourney should take a distant back seat to UFC's event on the same night, but the weigh ins are more interesting than UFC's. They are arguably more interesting than Bellator's event itself.

Santos vs. Prindle the weigh in 3.

If Volkov hasn't put on weight and Rogers is up to the HW limit we could be talking about a 60 lb size difference in the cage. That's got to be the biggest difference since Pride if so.

Vinicius Spartan tested positive for roids in UFC so that's a hurdle for him.

Minakov could be waiting in the wings in case someone slips.

And I also am curious to see how Hale looks as a HW. He's taking a risk moving up in weight.

So there are a lot of questions to be answered.

[Bernman]

Santos barely made weight. I think he came in at 265.6. Prindle made it a little more comfortably at 264. This fight is going down finally it seems.

Volkov weighed in at 225. He was a little more muscular than in the past. But Rogers was 265+, which means he probably cut weight. We're talking about a 55-60 lb difference in the cage. I can't recall a bigger difference than that when there have been weight classes. Volkov is probably going to get ragdolled so he better have worked on his defensive guard and hope Rogers gasses. I think in the future Volkov will far exceed Rogers' ability, provided he isn't irrevocably changed in the matches where he's conceding massive amounts of weight.

Holata and Hale are physical specimens at HW.

Minakov isn't being inserted, at least for this round, because Ryan Martinez-Manny Lara was announced as the alternate fight, and everybody qualified anyways.

[REDDzone]

Volkov at times with the jab with a PERFECT snap right into fat Brett's face. Awesome.

[REDDzone]

Not that he was ever a world beater, but something broke Rogers. Not sure if it was the Fedor knockout or the Overeem fight.

[Bernman]

I've never seen anything like this in MMA. 4 times a match was arranged between two fighters, and 4 no results. Talk about a cursed match-up. What was Prindle thinking when the same thing in the same position only with roles reversed happened the last time they actually reached the cage? Ugh. I wanted Minakov to replace one of the contestants in this tournament, but not Santos. They were the two legit contender heavyweights in this thing I thought. If Ryan Martinez replaced him because he was in the alternate fight tonight, that would really suck.

All the other fights were solid.

Volkov's and Hale's performances were notable. They both have excellent reach and footwork for HW's and compliment them with their stiff jabs to set everything else up. I thought beforehand Volkov had Struve like potential, but didn't think he would get past Rogers because of his lack of strength. He had just enough though to avoid the few TD's Rogers attempted and in spite of being thin he can take a shot pretty well. Not that Rogers got close enough to deliver many, but he hit him with a few impactful ones. Volkov has limited finishing ability at this point because of the size disadvantages. I can't wait to see this kid at 245-250.

[REDDzone]

Can't believe it happened again.