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Putting out a PPV probably deserves it's own thread. May 17th.

This is the final card apparently:

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)

Champ Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler – for lightweight title
Quinton Jackson vs. Muhammed Lawal – light heavyweight tournament final
Tito Ortiz vs. Alexander Shlemenko – non-title fight
Will Brooks vs. Nate Jolly
Michael Page vs. Ricky Rainey

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike TV, 8 p.m. ET)

Cheick Kongo vs. Eric Smith
Blagoi Ivanov vs. Alexander Volkov – heavyweight tournament final
Marcin Held vs. Patricky Freire – lightweight tournament final
Mike Richman vs. Goiti Yamauchi

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike.com, 6 p.m. ET)

Austin Lyons vs. Zach Underwood
Justin Frazier vs. Mike Wessel
Ben Brewer vs. Andy Uhrich
Anthony Lemon vs. Codie Shuffield
Brian Hall vs. Cortez Phelia

What are they charging for this?

How many buys are they expecting to do? How many buys do they need to do to make the show a success?

As one of the few who is actually down to see Tito vs Schlemenko, I don't think this is sooo bad. That said, I don't know any of the fighters in the first two bouts of the PPV and recognize that 3 of the next 4 fighters are virtually (and actually) pro wrestlers. But, uhh, I recognize their names?

Chandler vs Alvarez is just a badass fight. As relevant and as exciting as just about any other in MMA this year.

I love Mike Richman's fight style and I'm down to watch Kongo.

But here I'm also trying to give the event any credit I can possibly find. I fear this will be a horrible failure. Alvarez's revenge for the dirty tactics of Bjorn and co, perhaps? might really mess with Bellator's future.

I mean, who the **** would buy this, outside of serious fanboys looking to charitably prop-up an org other than the UFC? (which is the only way I'd buy it).

cowboyronnie wrote:
I mean, who the **** would buy this, outside of serious fanboys looking to charitably prop-up an org other than the UFC? (which is the only way I'd buy it).

If they insisted on putting Cheick Kongo, Alexander Schlemenko and Tito Ortiz on the card I would have put them in matchups that made more sense. I would have given Vladamir Mateyshenko a shot at Tito for his swan song. Its a simple fight that makes sense for where both guys are at with their careers. Tito's current fight is a blatent attempt to grab viewers that will fail miserably. I would have preferred to see Schlemenko fight a UFC castoff like Tomasz Drwal, Josh Neer or Joe Doerkson in order for us to gauge how well he'd perform against UFC caliber middleweights. Maybe you make that fight the headliner of the prelims card to help drive viewers to the PPV. And I would have matched up Cheick Kongo with Lavar Johnson. Johnson has been a big name bust in Bellator thus far. What better way to milk whats left of his credibility than to match him up with Kongo to open the PPV? Sure, he lost recently but it was by submission so unless he got hurt there is no reason he couldn't have turned back around quickly. I think that fight would be exciting while it lasts.

I don't know. I'm just pulling stuff out of my arse. But as things stand right now this isn't even a good enough card to justify ordering for the sake of supporting a non-UFC PPV. I think any of the televised prelims fights would make more sense as part of the pay per view than the opening two fights of the PPV. Plus, I just hate the Tito/Schlemenko matchup. Hate it.

CPT wrote:What are they charging for this?

How many buys are they expecting to do? How many buys do they need to do to make the show a success?

I'm seeing $39.95, $5 more for HD. Don't know about the last two questions.

cowboyronnie wrote:I mean, who the **** would buy this, outside of serious fanboys looking to charitably prop-up an org other than the UFC? (which is the only way I'd buy it).

I don't know, but given that I've never paid for a sports PPV or anything "on demand" on TV I'm the wrong one to answer that.

Volkov - Ivanov is probably the second most interesting fight of the night.

Was this just high-level revenge by Eddie? LOL! Cos my grasp was that they were legally obliged to have this PPV precisely because of Alvarez's contract...?

(He's now out) Chandler against Brooks.

cowboyronnie wrote:Was this just high-level revenge by Eddie? LOL! Cos my grasp was that they were legally obliged to have this PPV precisely because of Alvarez's contract...?

(He's now out) Chandler against Brooks.

Are you kidding? Omg.

Ouch. Will they still go on with the PPV?

Bellator should just stick to Tv, just dont have the depth to put out PPvs
My interest for this card went from 9/10 to 2

I dont give a **** about watching Tito fight in 2014. I dont give a **** about this fake beef b/w Page and Mo when they were just training w/ each other not long ago. I dont care about the lesser Pitbull or Kongo. Brooks is gonna get starched by Chandler whos a top 5 Lw in the world.

Only reason ill watch is b/c of Volkov/Ivanov and to see how Mvp does.

This sucks for sure. The last 2 Bellator TV cards have been garbage because they put all their eggs into this PPV basket. Now it has blown up in their face. Also, we don't get to see the trilogy fight and it makes us have to wait even longer to see Alvarez in the UFC.

The only upside is they had Will Brooks fighting a can already, so they were able to salvage a watchable match out of the main event.

As someone who is not paying for it, I'm thoroughly looking forward to this card.

It's a bummer that Alvarez-Chandler is off, but the bright sides are Brooks-Jolly is off, and Chandler has a style that in all likelihood won't allow Brooks to be boring. And aside from style, Brooks is a talented guy. He may not be ready for this yet in his evolution, but he has the potential to be, and if so it could be a really good fight. Otherwise he gets ko'ed early and many people will enjoy it.

I'm also really looking forward to see how Shlemenko-Tito plays out. Shlemenko fights are usually entertaining, and he's offensively technical and diverse, but defensively lacking, and he's giving up a ton of weight here, so Tito can have his moments. If Shlemenko wins it will be an accomplishment because of the weight difference. I'm hoping for and expecting repeated body strikes to eventually fell Tito.

In addition, if you can't get invested in the success of Blagoi Ivanov you don't have a pulse. Maybe the best comeback story in MMA ever. He keeps looking more and more recovered with every fight. I think he pulls this one out, but Volkov will have him in danger every moment the fight is on the feet and at distance or in the clinch where he has nasty knees and elbows. If it gets to the ground enough you figure it'll be all over. Volkov has a good enough defensive guard, but Ivanov's sambo throws put him in side mount to start. That's a big advantage if he can get them.

Page-Rainey, Yamauchi-Richman, Shamhalaev-Guerreiro, and of course Rampage-Mo are also fights of some interest which could provide fireworks too.

If you just focus on what the card still has, and not what it lost, you should have plenty of fun watching this, provided you aren't paying for it. But FWIW it does cost less than a UFC PPV.

I lulzed at the thought of Tito winning at first, but man he dwarfs Schlemenko lol. There could easily be a 30+ pound weight difference in the cage.

Also, who the hell is the fatty fighting Kongo? I guess fatties have a good track record against Kongo, but idk man.

It would be a good card if it was on Spike (or Fox Sports). But not having Alvarez sinks what was a questionable PPV anyways.

Brooks is legit, imo. What does Bellator do if he beats Chandler by split decision or something? Is the Schlemenko fight at 205?

REDDzone wrote:I lulzed at the thought of Tito winning at first, but man he dwarfs Schlemenko lol. There could easily be a 30+ pound weight difference in the cage.

Also, who the hell is the fatty fighting Kongo? I guess fatties have a good track record against Kongo, but idk man.

He's all grown up and out of prison. Not the worst guy Bellator has signed.

REDDzone wrote:I lulzed at the thought of Tito winning at first, but man he dwarfs Schlemenko lol. There could easily be a 30+ pound weight difference in the cage.

Also, who the hell is the fatty fighting Kongo? I guess fatties have a good track record against Kongo, but idk man.

That's why I hate this fight. What's the upside for Bellator? If Schlemenko beats Tito it says more about Tito's decline than Schlemenko's legitimacy. If Tito wins...then what. Your longest serving champion just lost to a has been. With Tito's size and wrestling ability he could potentially win.

skflives wrote:

REDDzone wrote:I lulzed at the thought of Tito winning at first, but man he dwarfs Schlemenko lol. There could easily be a 30+ pound weight difference in the cage.

Also, who the hell is the fatty fighting Kongo? I guess fatties have a good track record against Kongo, but idk man.

That's why I hate this fight. What's the upside for Bellator? If Schlemenko beats Tito it says more about Tito's decline than Schlemenko's legitimacy. If Tito wins...then what. Your longest serving champion just lost to a has been. With Tito's size and wrestling ability he could potentially win.

You just explained why in reality it'd be a decent win for Shlemenko, and how it's justifiable for Bellator. This fight is outside Shlemenko's weight class. So if he loses they can just explain it away as him just not being the best at 205. Wouldn't be a big deal if Hendricks lost to Wand. UFC used to have these type of fights for Andy when he was 185 lb champ. So they were risking him being somewhat marred too. But if he lost it wouldn't have been the end of the world.

skflives wrote:That's why I hate this fight. What's the upside for Bellator? If Schlemenko beats Tito it says more about Tito's decline than Schlemenko's legitimacy. If Tito wins...then what. Your longest serving champion just lost to a has been. With Tito's size and wrestling ability he could potentially win.

I just find it intriguing. I don't give a **** about Tito and have no interest in him getting destroyed by any decent lhw, so I'm curious as to how this plays out. I honestly have no idea how it goes, which is why I like the fight.

One theory I've had for awhile is that its less crippling for a grappler to give up weight vs a striker than vice versa...a grappler who is much bigger than his opponent seems to have a huge advantage. So even though Tito isn't good anymore imo...I'm still curious how this plays out against a much better yet much smaller tough Russian dude.

REDDzone wrote:I just find it intriguing. I don't give a **** about Tito and have no interest in him getting destroyed by any decent lhw, so I'm curious as to how this plays out. I honestly have no idea how it goes, which is why I like the fight.

One theory I've had for awhile is that its less crippling for a grappler to give up weight vs a striker than vice versa...a grappler who is much bigger than his opponent seems to have a huge advantage. So even though Tito isn't good anymore imo...I'm still curious how this plays out against a much better yet much smaller tough Russian dude.

I agree with that theory, and think the odds are a little inflated as a result, although Shlemenko still should win.

Speaking of odds, I think there are a lot of fighters on this card being notably under-valued. If you put money on Yamauchi, Guerreiro, Ivanov, Rainey, Brooks, and Tito; you probably stand to make a nice profit. You just have to be willing to lose on some because half of those would be value plays.

Lame that this is still going to be on PPV.