Bellator General Discussion and Info

Cammo101 · Post #301 » by **Cammo101** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 5:43 pm

This might be the deepest card Bellator has ever put on.

Gold Chain · Post #302 » by **Gold Chain** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 7:59 pm

This card is amazing.

Hopefully people watch.

I'd shudder to see the Strikeforce numbers from this weekend,
and no one watched the last Bellator.
(Even with Tito's promotional plug walking out at UFC 148.)

SDM · Post #303 » by **SDM** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 12:55 pm

It's a great card. Excited to see Chris Barnett. There aren't many 5'4" heavyweights with karate backgrounds.

cowboyronnie · Post #304 » by **cowboyronnie** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 4:12 pm

IDK a lot of these guys but noentheless can see the depth. Always excited for Saunders and Daley. Wiuff...that last performance and post-fight had my palms sweating. Oof. Really just ex-UFC guys, but I also like Amassou.

Gold Chain wrote:This card is amazing.

Hopefully people watch.

I'd shudder to see the Strikeforce numbers from this weekend,
and no one watched the last Bellator.
(Even with Tito's promotional plug walking out at UFC 148.)

??

cowboyronnie · Post #305 » by **cowboyronnie** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 3:29 pm

^^ oh, I get it now.

no comments on the event? Amassou vs Askren, how's that gonna go? Does Amassou have TDD?

Bernman · Post #306 » by **Bernman** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 3:52 pm

It was shaping up to be a good card until Bellator unnecessarily created those mismatches w/ Saunders and Daley beforehand, and then during Spiritwolf was futzing with his glove the entire time in what projected to be a fun fight. The prelims for the most part were action-packed, if not high calibre.

I wasn't really down on Vegh/Newton like most others. It was decent. Vegh was hitting Newton with some hard counter shots thus I was also in the minority of people who believed he deserved to win the fight. His counter wrestling was also impressive. I think he's the man to take out Wiuff for that reason and also his patience and power on the feet. I think a number of the strikes he landed on Newton would have dropped Wiuff.

As for Amoussou, I always thought he was way too small for 185, and was high on him at 170 since his first fight there on a prelim card before this past season. He timed that leg kick knock down really well and the transition to the inverted heel hook was a beauty. I think he very much has it within him to take out Askren, but he needs to play the distance striking game like Hieron, and pace himself. With his judo background he is equipped to stuff plenty of TD's provided he doesn't gas by going too hard early which he has a tendency of doing. That's what will probably happen against Askren. I'll certainly be rooting for Amoussou though even though I'm from Wisconsin like the Funk.

Cammo101 · Post #307 » by **Cammo101** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 7:39 pm

It did suck seeing Zaromskis, Saunders, and Daley all on the same card, yet all fighting cans.

This is the problem Bellator has when their tourneys aren't running. They are very afraid of having a big name lose in a non-tourney fight.

Bernman · Post #308 » by **Bernman** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 8:49 pm

Cammo101 wrote:It did suck seeing Zaromskis, Saunders, and Daley all on the same card, yet all fighting cans.

This is the problem Bellator has when their tourneys aren't running. They are very afraid of having a big name lose in a non-tourney fight.

They do it protect fighters for tournaments and maybe save some money, which I really wish they wouldn't do for the former reason because it dilutes card intrigue for me. But you're being too fast and loose with the term can. Spiritwolf and Bears have accumulated some decent wins over their career. Spiritwolf got jobbed by the doctor in his last fight against Zaromskis. That wasn't a mismatch. The other two were however. You pretty much knew who was going to win so it sucked the enjoyment out of those fights.

Cammo101 · Post #309 » by **Cammo101** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 10:16 pm

Can may not have been the best choice of words, but it just sucks that there were 5 world class welterweights on the card and only 2 of them actually fought each other.

Bernman · Post #310 » by **Bernman** » Fri Jul 27, 2012 2:50 am

Bellator is moving their operations to So Cal, which means many more events held out west, and probably a much later time slot when they transfer to Spike Network in January. I think they'll be airing their shows on Thursday nights at 10EST/7PAC after TNA. They've been doing a lot of co-promoting w/ TNA and the possibility was posed to Bjorn a while back and he hinted the interviewer was correct. At least that was my interpretation of his response. I think Bellator is trying to be the rich man's WEC. They'll be an independent WEC with heavier divisions and a much better TV deal. WEC had a later time slot and held a lot of their events out west. Bellator applied for a Nevada license a while back. If you want to be a major player in the sport holding events on weekdays you probably want to be in Vegas which is one of the few places in the world where most people don't have to get up for work the next day after attending an event.

Bernman · Post #311 » by **Bernman** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 7:07 pm

Eddie's last fight during his current contract with Bellator will be against Patricky Pitbull Freire on October 12th in Windsor, Ontario.

That's a DANGEROUS final fight for Eddie to say the least. I think you can pretty much guarantee Eddie will get dropped once or twice. If Eddie loses then his leverage is shot and he's pretty much guaranteed to return to Bellator.

Most of the WW tournament match-ups are out for September 28th: Good vs. Wallhead, Zaromskis vs. Taleb, Koreshkov vs. Smith, and Lima vs. TBA. It looks like Daley and Saunders are holding out of tournaments until Bellator make the move to Spike for sponsorship potential. Hawn is trying to do the same w/ his fight against Chandler. So the cards could take a hit this upcoming season.

Cammo101 · Post #312 » by **Cammo101** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 10:13 pm

Bernman wrote:That's a DANGEROUS final fight for Eddie to say the least. I think you can pretty much guarantee Eddie will get dropped once or twice. If Eddie loses then his leverage is shot and he's pretty much guaranteed to return to Bellator.

Considering the need for quality fighters to fight Gilbert Melendez in Strikeforce, I think Zuffa will be very active trying to get Alvarez, win or lose.

Bernman · Post #313 » by **Bernman** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:39 pm

Bellator signed Babaloo for their light heavyweight tourney scheduled to start in January on Spike.

I guess it's a pretty good deal if it's a standard tourney. If they paid way above that it's falling into the trap a lot of other major organizations who tried to be competition to the UFC did.

It's a pretty common belief that Rampage will sign with Bellator/TNA once his deal with UFC expires after his fight w/ Glover. King Mo, Rampage, and Babaloo surrounded by prospects and Bellator vets like Hale, 2 of Vegh/Wiuff/M'Pumbu, Newton, etc. would make for a solid tourney.

REDDzone · Post #314 » by **REDDzone** » Sat Aug 11, 2012 4:23 am

Babalu is clearly ducking James McSweeney.

SDM · Post #315 » by **SDM** » Sat Aug 11, 2012 2:29 pm

Weird. I thought after the Henderson fight he was retiring because he had some business ventures that made him rich.

Bernman · Post #316 » by **Bernman** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 12:23 am

http://espn.go.com/mma/story/_/id/8269744/pat-curran-forced-title-defense-patricio-freire-suffering-fractured-orbital-bone

Son of a f*()Y&*Yin bitch!

That fight was a week and a half from FINALLY happening after the first injuries to Pitbull and Curran and delay from the tourney format. That was possibly going to be the best fight of the year outside Zuffa.

They should just have Pitbull and Straus face each other for the interim title ASAP. But Bellator is too rigid about their system. They could easily tweak it while keeping their principles. Straus and Pitbull earned their shots. Santos earned his place just as much as Prindle.

This news sucks. This card sucks now. The next few months of Bellator are probably going to suck too because high quality fighters are being held out of this season's tournaments on their own accord and Bellator's because the Spike move will be beneficial to both parties. F**k Zuffa's no compete with our reruns for a year clause. Zuffa thinks competition is a bad thing in theory because they receive a smaller percentage of the market share, but looking at the numbers right now maybe it's a good thing for them because the market is bigger when they are prompted to be better. It was always obviously better for the fighters and fans, if they were seeing the big picture.

REDDzone · Post #317 » by **REDDzone** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 12:54 am

Wow, that sucks.

Out of curiosity, shouldn't you be pissed at viacom as well? I thought they could choose to bring bellator over anytime they wanted, but choose to show old episodes of unleashed instead.

Bernman · Post #318 » by **Bernman** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 12:59 am

REDDzone wrote:Wow, that sucks.

Out of curiosity, shouldn't you be pissed at viacom as well? I thought they could choose to bring bellator over anytime they wanted, but choose to show old episodes of unleashed instead.

No, they have to show old UFC fights for the rest of the year, and while doing so can't host another competing promotion. They'd have transferred Bellator over from early in the year if they could. They'd have benefited greatly from building off UFC's momentum on the channel.

REDDzone · Post #319 » by **REDDzone** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 1:37 am

Are you sure they HAVE to show ufc? Viacom tried to sell the fight library back to the ufc, but the ufc refused to buy them out. I think viacom could just waive their rights to the library and bring bellator over, though. At least according to the article I read.

Cammo101 · Post #320 » by **Cammo101** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 5:41 am

Bernman wrote:
REDDzone wrote:Wow, that sucks.

Out of curiosity, shouldn't you be pissed at viacom as well? I thought they could choose to bring bellator over anytime they wanted, but choose to show old episodes of unleashed instead.

No, they have to show old UFC fights for the rest of the year, and while doing so can't host another competing promotion. They'd have transferred Bellator over from early in the year if they could. They'd have benefited greatly from building off UFC's momentum on the channel.

They don't have to, they choose to. Viacom had the option of airing UFC or bringing in another promotion and giving the UFC immediately rights to their old Spike shows. They chose the UFC reruns.