Bellator General Discussion and Info

Bernman · Post #541 » by **Bernman** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 1:53 am

Most people didn't know they were on. They had such a huge gap between seasons, switched nights, and times (twice).

It's a blessing in disguise if this gets them to not shift back to Fridays for their next full season. They had a good thing going on Thursdays, even if the time slot was far from ideal.

Also of note is that card was pretty lackluster after losing the main event and w/ all the mismatches, which created even more commercials than we are typically accustomed to during a Bellator show.

I can see the negative influence of Viacom starting to really rear it's ugly head with Bellator's shifts to more short-sighted decisions, unlike what they built with independently, but they can still rise and at least be competitive with UFC provided Viacom isn't really under the delusion they built UFC. If they are, well Bellator will stagnate at best, and may crumble.

Cammo101 · Post #542 » by **Cammo101** » Thu Jul 18, 2013 11:10 pm

I can finally stop staying up nights wondering who would win if Vlady Mayushenko and Christian M'Pumbu fought. Because these juggernauts are about to main event a Bellator card.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/7/18/45 ... ellator-99

SDM · Post #543 » by **SDM** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 3:41 am

Yeah, I think Viacom dropped the ball.

Yet at the same time Bellator's format is way too hard to work with. They don't shoot content often enough... major problem. And when they do it's inconsistent. The non title fights for champions because the stupid tournament hasn't finished yet has always bothered me because you're on a limited marketing budget and you can't book the champ to win. The tourney format doesn't work with significant gaps between rounds as injuries pile up. Their video game was a joke, they didn't differentiate Fight Master from TUF and it comes off uninspired (though it's well made technically).

The contracts! MMA management typically handled by trainers/former fighters and not Scott Boras types has given Bellator more rope than deserved. Bjorn would be blacklisted, he'd have to be.

This is WCW late 90s dysfunction and lack of direction. They're toast.

Post #544 » by **kdawg32086** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 5:04 am

Cammo101 wrote:I can finally stop staying up nights wondering who would win if Vlady Mayushenko and Christian M'Pumbu fought. Because these juggernauts are about to main event a Bellator card.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/7/18/45 ... ellator-99

Cammo101 · Post #545 » by **Cammo101** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 7:13 am

On the upside, I am really liking the format of Fight Master.

Jasen777 · Post #546 » by **Jasen777** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 2:54 pm

Cammo101 wrote:On the upside, I am really liking the format of Fight Master.

I think they lost a lot of drama not showing the fighters picking their opponents in order.

Cammo101 · Post #547 » by **Cammo101** » Sat Jul 20, 2013 1:53 am

Jasen777 wrote:
Cammo101 wrote:On the upside, I am really liking the format of Fight Master.

I think they lost a lot of drama not showing the fighters picking their opponents in order.

Yeah, I just like that they aren't just making a TUF knockoff. They have ideas. I also think living at the gym and the ranking the fighters was a nice touch.

Chris Lozano, one of the supposed TUF level fighters in the cast got a gift decision the other night.

SDM · Post #548 » by **SDM** » Sat Jul 20, 2013 5:58 am

Nunes/Patricio!
OK, they did good on that.

SDM · Post #549 » by **SDM** » Wed Jul 31, 2013 5:16 pm

Nate Quarry is also apparently working with Bellator/Viacom. He's got a new show where he sits with a fighter and they dissect fights. Always liked the guy, so I hope this takes off.

http://www.spike.com/episodes/htb6hw/be ... ren-ep-101

Also, can't freaking wait for Randy's Gym Rescue program. Bar Rescue and Tattoo Rescue are slaying it right now.

Jasen777 · Post #550 » by **Jasen777** » Wed Jul 31, 2013 11:08 pm

SDM wrote:Nate Quarry is also apparently working with Bellator/Viacom. He's got a new show where he sits with a fighter and they dissect fights.

Liked the first episode.

Post #551 » by **Headliner** » Thu Aug 1, 2013 2:06 am

I'm really liking fight master, I think it's very well done.
It's creating an interest in bellator with me.

Even if Tito vs rampage is not all that exciting... I'll still watch it. If they load it with a couple dudes from the show that I might know that's even better

Cammo101 · Post #552 » by **Cammo101** » Thu Aug 1, 2013 7:49 am

With the MMA climate being such that even the UFC is finding PPV buys dwindling, this Tito vs. Rampage PPV is likely to tank really hard. It is a fight between 2 guys on 3 fight losing streaks that people wish would just go away.

I'm sure Bellator will try to load the card with people like Chandler and Askren, but no one else in Bellator is a real legit PPV type draw.

SDM · Post #553 » by **SDM** » Thu Aug 1, 2013 2:34 pm

Someone on a thread elsewhere made a great point that Bellator won't be able to use any UFC/PRIDE promo material and Page and Tito have little fight footage outside Zuffa entities.

The trailer for the card is going to be hilariously dull.

Post #554 » by **Shaazzam** » Thu Aug 1, 2013 2:50 pm

ONe positive is we won't have to hear Rogan saying that Tito's cardio will be so good because he trains at big bear.

Cammo101 · Post #555 » by **Cammo101** » Thu Aug 1, 2013 3:00 pm

Shaazzam wrote:ONe positive is we won't have to hear Rogan saying that Tito's cardio will be so good because he trains at big bear.

The best part of any Tito fight is hearing Rogan talk about him training at altitude.

REDDzone · Post #556 » by **REDDzone** » Thu Aug 1, 2013 3:11 pm

Can you imagine the excuses after this fight? It is literally inevitable.

Cammo101 · Post #557 » by **Cammo101** » Thu Aug 1, 2013 4:21 pm

If Bellator really wants to sell this PPV, they should make every fight on the card except Rampage/Tito a title fight.

SDM · Post #558 » by **SDM** » Thu Aug 1, 2013 4:40 pm

I think their only hope for selling this is Fedor/Randy.

But that's not happening.

November's quite a bit of time... they can pull something together, I hope, but I don't think signing Bibiano or Khalidov is enough, if they're even interested. I think they need to get some recently retired bigger names to scrap. Which is awful. WCW circa 1998, I called it. There just isn't enough male talent outside UFC for any one org to have a PPV.

Cammo101 · Post #559 » by **Cammo101** » Thu Aug 1, 2013 6:08 pm

SDM wrote:I think their only hope for selling this is Fedor/Randy.

But that's not happening.

November's quite a bit of time... they can pull something together, I hope, but I don't think signing Bibiano or Khalidov is enough, if they're even interested. I think they need to get some recently retired bigger names to scrap. Which is awful. WCW circa 1998, I called it. There just isn't enough male talent outside UFC for any one org to have a PPV.

Bellator was doing really well building slowly with their own fighters, but since the move to Spike it seems like they are grabbing any UFC retread with any name value and trying to put on PPVs. It is like their business model has changed over night for the worse.

Bernman · Post #560 » by **Bernman** » Fri Aug 2, 2013 3:37 am

Cammo101 wrote:Bellator was doing really well building slowly with their own fighters, but since the move to Spike it seems like they are grabbing any UFC retread with any name value and trying to put on PPVs. It is like their business model has changed over night for the worse.

Unfortunately, this is correct. Not only are they grabbing them, but they are featuring them, and protecting them so they stay around for a while to draw ratings in the interim.

To give a couple examples:

- one is the LW tourney includes Rich Clementi, Marcus Davis, and John Alessio. On that same card, in the alternate tourney fight, is Marcin Held and Ricardo Tirloni. Both are better than all 3 of those UFC retreads. Marcin Held even beat Clementi in the last tourney they were in. And Tirloni got robbed against the fighter who eventually beat Held (Dave Jansen).

- the other is Joe Riggs being allowed to fight the likes of Frank Carillo and Eric Scallan so far on Fight Master. They were both bottom of the barrel in their respective rounds. And in the next round, he'll have the option of facing Joe Williams, who lost on the prelims, then for whatever reason took on the worst fighter left in the competition in the next round, Ismael Gonzalez. Everybody else avoided fighting Ismael Gonzalez, as if they were fearful of a guy with a losing record. The whole thing was contrived so Riggs could keep getting highly winnable fights. I figure he'll take on Joe Williams or a hand-picked injury replacement (if one is necessary) in the next round. Then, maybe, he'll have to beat one opponent who is decent, once again the worst one left, to get to the final.

This is the long proven unsuccessful strategy employed by many non Zuffa organizations before Bellator. It's especially a shame that Bellator used to be the exact opposite type of organization, and the switch came right before they were going to have an opportunity to get their own underrated talent the exposure they deserved. Dana was right, BjorN is not running the show anymore. And if this is how they're going to run their company, I now hope Zuffa does buy out the original talent they still do have.