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Dana White: ‘I Don’t See Bellator as Competition Whatsoever’

Bellator is finally making moves in the pay-per-view market, but the Viacom-backed MMA promotion isn’t even close to contending with the UFC, according to Dana White.
The UFC president recently spoke with MMAFighting.com about comments made by Be…

Bellator is finally making moves in the pay-per-view market, but the Viacom-backed MMA promotion isn’t even close to contending with the UFC, according to Dana White.

The UFC president recently spoke with MMAFighting.com about comments made by Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney to the Latin Post. In his interview, Rebney accused Zuffa’s “horrible” relationship with unions as being one of the primary reasons MMA is still illegal in the state of New York.

In response, White claimed Rebney was merely “screaming for attention” by saying a lot of “stupid s–t”:

It’s one of those things. Those guys, I don’t care about those guys. I don’t see them as competition whatsoever. I see that Bjork [Bjorn Rebney] has been saying a lot of stupid s–t lately, he’s in the press. He’s screaming for attention.

Talking about New York and the union and he’s going to… what the f–k has he done to do anything in New York? What has that guy done to raise the bar in mixed martial arts whatsoever? He’s done nothing. He’s done completely zero. Zilch.

So good luck to him on their pay-per-view.

On Saturday night, Bellator will attempt its second venture in the pay-per-view business. The promotion’s first crack came in late 2013 at Bellator 106, where former UFC champs Tito Ortiz and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson were expected to headline.

However, the event was moved to free TV just eight days out after Ortiz pulled out of the fight, citing a neck injury.

A similar disaster nearly followed for Saturday’s fight card. The main event, a highly anticipated lightweight title rubber match between Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler, was scrapped a week out from the event after Alvarez suffered a concussion in training.

Fortunately for Bellator, there is still the light heavyweight grudge match between Jackson and Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal to lean on. The promotion has decided to keep the pay-per-view intact by promoting the co-main event bout as the new headliner.

Meanwhile, Chandler will now fight Bellator MMA: Season Nine lightweight tournament winner Will Brooks.

White knows a thing or two about the pay-per-view business, and he believes the loss of Alvarez vs. Chandler was a major dagger in an already mediocre fight card. In fact, White claims the lightweight title fight was the only legit bout on the card altogether.

“That was the legit fight on the card. It’s tough. It’s tough losing that,” said White.

Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.

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Bellator 119 a Success but Storm Clouds Gather for PPV Prospects

(Via Brian J. D’Souza)

By Brian J. D’Souza

Last night, Bellator 119 was held at Casino Rama in Orillia, a sleepy town about two hours north of Toronto. By some standards, the show was a success—it featured performances by a talented, well-matched card punctuated with Daniel Weichel (33-8) finishing Desmond Green (11-2) via rear naked choke in the second round of the featherweight tournament finale. It was the type of mid-level show that has proved financially sustainable in the gritty dog-eat-dog world of MMA promotions. Regardless of sweeping reports from Sherdog.com and MMAFighting.com that Eddie Alvarez is pulling out of the inaugural Bellator pay-per-view show next week (reports that Bjorn Rebney denied at the post-fight presser), the promotion’soverall prospects for expansion are limited.

On the undercard of Bellator 119, Brazilian featherweight Marlon Sandro faced London, Ontario native Chris Horodecki. Sandro controlled the pace, committing to his strikes and dominating Horodecki to earn the judge’s decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27). At the post-fight presser, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney explained reasons why the bout was intentionally hidden among the untelevised preliminary bouts:

“Ran into some difficult contract situations that came to light in the last 24-48 hours before the fight…we all felt it was a better decision to keep the [Sandro-Horodecki] fight off TV and not exacerbate a bad situation,” said Rebney. “We got a lot of claims coming in from other camps that were claiming an interest in Chris Horodecki. We didn’t want to put him in a horrible spot of receiving a big lawsuit.”

Chris Horodecki has fought in three separate promotions since his last three-fight Bellator stint. If he is still under contract to another promotion, Horodecki needs to question his management for placing him in the precarious lose-lose position of limited exposure and shortchanging Bellator’s TV product.

(Via Brian J. D’Souza)

By Brian J. D’Souza

Heavyweights Raphael Butler and Nick Rossborough started with a bang and finished with both men out of gas. Butler intentionally fouled Rossborough with a head butt in the first round when Rossborough had Butler’s back. The ref took a point and restarted them on the feet; Butler took control from there onwards, clearly winning the final two rounds. After the fight, Rossborough claimed to have no memory of what transpired after the head butt; the judges scored the fight 28-27, 28-28 and 28-28 making it a majority draw.

In the other televised bouts, Marius Zaromskis low-kicked Canadian Vaughn Anderson’s leg into hamburger en route to a decision win; Canadian John Alessio used his veteran experience to outwrestle Eric Wisely and grind out a decision win.

For all the skill on display, Bellator has a ceiling in terms of how successful the promotion can become as its homegrown talent is handicapped in terms of perception and marketability. For instance, the May 17 pay per view relies heavily on UFC veterans Quinton Jackson and Tito Ortiz. If Eddie Alvarez fulfills the final fight on his Bellator contract when he recovers from his concussion and is signed to the UFC, he may prove himself equally skilled or superior to UFC lightweights; Bellator would win a moral victory but that wouldn’t necessarily translate into higher viewership for Bellator lightweights like Michael Chandler.

To become a player in the pay per view market, Bellator needs to sign UFC stars at the zenith of their popularity like Jon Jones, Ronda Rousey or Nick Diaz. Assuming Viacom would pony up the scratch, standard contractual language like the 12-month matching clause poses a tremendous problem. When Bellator attempted to acquire Gilbert Melendez, all the UFC had to do was outbid Bellator once and Melendez became UFC property once again.

“God bless Gilbert Melendez, we made him a very rich man,” claimed Rebney. “We made him an offer. The matching clause is in place, he is now the highest paid lightweight the UFC has—[and] one of the highest paid fighters the UFC has fighting in any division.”

Strategically, the UFC will continue to sign its marquee fighters to long-term contracts and match any offers made to their most marketable fighters in order to retain the dominant market position.

Still, Rebney is optimistic about Bellator’s offerings for its first pay per view show, “I think people need to look at it in the context of a fighting event, and not think about branding.”

In fact, the strength of the UFC brand is part of why the promotion remains content to offer an increasingly watered-down product with an escalating frequency of shows. However, some fans are getting wise to the game and are becoming increasingly critical; the UFC has no reason to change unless said fans vote with their pocketbooks.

If Bellator gets its first PPV card off the ground despite Alvarez’s injury and somehow manages to land near the break-even point, future shows will have to be cobbled together using a mix of former UFC fighters and homegrown talent. Throughout this, Bellator will need to stop the UFC from poaching their brightest stars, as was the strategy when Eddie Alvarez attempted to sign with the UFC and Bellator invoked their right to match the offer.

All in all, there’s a lot to be considered for the long-term health of the sport. Having a second major promotion would benefit the industry in every way imaginable, but whether Bellator can survive business forces long enough to be a contender remains a topic for debate.

***
Brian J. D’Souza is the author of the critically acclaimed book Pound for Pound: The Modern Gladiators of Mixed Martial Arts. You can check out an excerpt right here.

Concussion Forces Eddie Alvarez Out of Bellator PPV

Did Dana White study voodoo from Michael Jackson or something? Because Bellator has had worse luck than than nearly any promotion in the history of MMA when it comes to launching a successful PPV.

In case the headline didn’t tip you off, Eddie Alvarez is out of Bellator 120—the promotion’s second attempt to break into the PPV market. His rubber match with Michael Chandler will have to wait.

(Well, in a way, MMA’s “greatest trilogy” did kind of end at Bellator 120…)

Did Dana White study voodoo from Michael Jackson or something? Because Bellator has had worse luck than nearly any promotion in the history of MMA when it comes to launching a successful PPV.

Sherdog’s Greg Savage broke the news on Twitter last night. Initially, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney denied the rumor, saying the fight was still on. Less than 24 hours later, Bellator hasn’t officially announced anything but media outlets are accepting Alvarez’s withdrawal as fact.

What’ll they do now? Hopefully they convert it to a free card on Spike, like they did with their last ill-fated PPV. It’s unlikely Rampage Jackson vs. King Mo, Tito Ortiz vs. Alexander Shlemenko, Michael Page vs. Rick Rainey [Editor’s note: They were charging money for that fight?] and Will Brooks vs. Nate Jolly will be worth the price of admission. Regarding the last fight, Brooks vs. Jolly, it’s speculated that Brooks will be bumped into the main event against Chandler but who can say for sure.

We can see Dana White readying his famous tombstone now.

Bellator Champion Douglas Lima: Is He the Most Underrated Welterweight in MMA?

Douglas Lima has perfected the art of finishing fights, his latest such victory earning him the Bellator welterweight championship and a spot on the short list of top 170-pound fighters in the world.
In each of his last five fights, Lima has scor…

Douglas Lima has perfected the art of finishing fights, his latest such victory earning him the Bellator welterweight championship and a spot on the short list of top 170-pound fighters in the world.

In each of his last five fights, Lima has scored wins inside the distance, including an April TKO over Rick Hawn that secured his first title in Bellator. Lima bruised and battered Hawn so badly over eight minutes of action that the corner threw in the towel to save him from any further punishment.

When you think about the welterweight division, names like Johny Hendricks, Rory MacDonald, Tyron Woodley, Carlos Condit and of course Georges St-Pierre come to mind.

Lima believes he is in that same group, as he said in an interview with Fightline: “I put myself up there. I’m definitely not the best, but I’m training hard to be. I just want to fight the best and move up in the ranks. I watch all the 170 pounders. I’ll fight any of them.”

Bellator lost unbeaten fighter and former U.S. Olympic wrestler Ben Askren to ONE FC last year, as Askren left without surrendering the belt. He was the last man to defeat Lima, earning a decision over him in 2012.

Since that defeat, Lima has turned himself into a monster, training with the crew at American Top Team in Atlanta that includes Dhiego Lima, his brother and a current member of The Ultimate Fighter 19 cast. He came back almost seven months after the defeat to Askren and finished Jacob Ortiz in the third round after delivering a head kick.

In 2013, the 26-year-old started off his run in the Bellator season eight tournament by defeating Michail Tsarev with leg kicks in the second round. Less than a month later, he knocked out Bryan Baker with a first-round knockout that was only topped later that year when he dropped Ben Saunders with a head kick that landed him on the highlight reels.

His ability to stop an opponent by taking out his most vital ligaments, his legs, is on par with what we’ve seen from other Brazilians like UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo and UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao. It’s proven to be an effective weapon once fighters step inside the cage.

Other than the loss to Askren, the only things that have troubled Lima have been issues with breaking his hand and making the cut to 170 pounds. He admits that he’s eventually going to outgrow the division and will need to make the move to the middleweight ranks, but he has his focus set on becoming a legend at welterweight first.

Before settling in at his current weight class, Lima won the 2010 REDLINE Middleweight Grand Prix by besting the likes of UFC fighter Clint Hester and Cortez Coleman while stringing together a nine-fight win streak that also included a victory over former World Series of Fighting welterweight champion Steve Carl.

He has discussed a potential match with Bellator middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko, telling FightLine that “I would love this match up. Shlemenko is very tough and durable, and he’s been on top forever, finishing everybody. I respect him a lot and I do see myself again him down the road.”

Lima is right there with him in terms of stopping foes, and Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney has taken note of what he can do and where he might be headed.

Rebney told Sherdog’s “Beatdown” radio show, “The future is incredibly bright for this guy. He’s got a huge future ahead of him here. I think that future probably, at some point, sees him move up to 185, but for the time being, he’s a devastating 170-pound champ.”

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Bellator 120 Is the Time to Shine for Michael Chandler, Alexander Shlemenko

Michael Chandler and Alexander Shlemenko can grab the Bellator MMA torch and carry it into the future at Bellator 120 this month. Or they can tumble all the way back down the pyramid, bringing the promotion with them.
Bellator will host its first-ever …

Bellator will host its first-ever pay-per-view on May 17, with Chandler taking on Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title and Shlemenko meeting former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz.

If the pressure of facing two well-rounded fighters wasn’t enough, they are also the building blocks and stars to what Bjorn Rebney, Bellator and Spike TV have planned going forward.

Alvarez is the champion, and the more known of the two fighters in the main event, but he has an interesting contract worked out. Most feel he will leave Bellator after this fight, as arranged by his deal, so putting that giant logo on his back makes no sense. If Chandler fails to win the belt from him, it doesn’t look good for Rebney to lose his champ.

Ortiz is on the opposite end of the spectrum from all three fighters mentioned, as he is closer to retirement than building himself back into a contender. However, he could severely cripple Shlemenko’s status by stunning the 50-win fighter.

Again, plenty of pressure on both Chandler and Shlemenko to deliver in the spotlight.

While all of that is taken into consideration, there are plenty of reasons to believe each man will come out with their respective hand raised on that May night.

Chandler has dealt with adversity his entire life, entering the University of Missouri wrestling room as a walk-on and leaving years later with four NCAA qualifier marks and 100 wins. He was a two-time runner-up in the Big 12 and a fifth-place finisher at nationals.

After preparing himself for a career in MMA at Xtreme Couture, Chandler debuted in 2009 with a second-round TKO. A year later, he made his Bellator debut and finished Scott Stapp in the first round. Two more first-round finishes led Chandler to a tournament quarterfinal with Marcin Held that he won via first-round arm triangle choke when he left Held unconscious.

Back-to-back decisions provided Chandler with a tourney title and shot at Alvarez. At 9-0, and just a few years into his career, he submitted Alvarez in the fourth round in a bout widely considered the “Fight of the Year” in 2011.

Chandler followed that up with three straight finishes over Akihiro Gono, Rick Hawn and David Rickels to defend his title before dropping a split decision to Alvarez last year.

To say he has shown why some consider him a top lightweight is easy. In 13 career bouts, he has finished 10 of his opponents, and done so equally with five knockouts and five submissions.

The second meeting with Alvarez was a back-and-forth 25-minute grind that Chandler easily could have been declared the winner in. He converted on 10 takedowns, while stuffing all three attempts by Alvarez, held a plus-15 advantage in power strikes and was more successful on his ground strikes.

In falling, though, he set up this important and critical third meeting with Alvarez, and that only helps his stock. By coming back and scoring the win, he’ll have avenged the loss and proven to the world that he is elite.

Shlemenko will turn 30 just days after the event, but he already has 57 fights on his resume; he’s won 50 of them. Twenty-nine of those 50 victories have come via knockout, with another eight from various forms of submissions.

If you haven’t seen some of “Storm’s” impressive finishes, check out his latest victory over Brennan Ward and you’ll be a fan.

In Ortiz, the Russian will be giving up several pounds, maybe 30-plus come fight night, but he’ll have an incredible advantage in speed, strength and skill. At 39 years old and coming off of another neck surgery, the Ortiz of old isn’t going to show up inside the Bellator cage.

Bellator’s tournament-style ways of pairing fights has led some people to shy away from watching, but Chandler and Shlemenko are two reasons to make sure you catch the pay-per-view offering.

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UFC vs. Bellator: Sorting out Who’s Really Winning the Television Ratings Battle

From the moment Viacom purchased Bellator MMA, comparisons to the late 1990s promotional war between WWE and WCW have rarely been in short supply. At the risk of drawing the ire of B/R MMA’s readership by mentioning pro wrestling, the parallels b…

A billion dollar company buys a majority stake in a small promotion with the aim of eventually challenging the industry leader. Said promotion gradually builds a fanbase by showcasing a mixture of homegrown talent and ageing stars.

That being said, the similarities have always seemed superficial. After all, MMA is a distinctly less pliable business than pro wrestling. Bringing in recognizable names is one thing, but controlling their in-cage destinies is another.

However, Bellator’s success in the ratings since moving to Spike TV in 2013 raises the question of whether the comparisons are more substantive than first thought. Indeed, the California-based promotion has bested the UFC’s Fox Sports ratings on more than one occasion.

This indisputable fact must mean that a genuine, highly competitive rivalry between the promotions is underway, right? Let’s take a closer look.

Intuitively, one would think that comparing television ratings is a simple exercise. Which number is bigger: x or y? There’s a little more to it than you might think, though. To contradict a popular expression, the numbers do occasionally lie.

Since moving to the fledgling Fox Sports channels in mid-2013, the UFC has struggled to match the ratings it achieved on Spike and FX.

From 2009-2011, UFC Fight Nights on Spike would regularly attract almost 2 million viewers for events that were often short on star power. In contrast, the organization’s best effort since moving to Fox Sports 1 is 1.7 million viewers, which was achieved with a star-studded event headlined by Chael Sonnen and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua on the channel’s launch.

Since then, ratings have fluctuated dramatically, even dropping as low as 122,000 for UFC Fight Night 30 on Fox Sports 2. Meanwhile, Bellator hasn’t dropped below 400,000 viewers since debuting on Spike.

Has Bellator really gained so much ground on the UFC within the past year? One can never really say for certain, but there are more plausible explanations for this illusion of promotional parity.

As I pointed out late last year, it takes time for a new channel to establish itself in the general consciousness. Just because Fox Sports and Spike are in a comparable number of homes, it does not mean that the channels provide comparable exposure.

Spike is an established television network with a built-in MMA audience as a result of its previous partnership with the UFC. Fox Sports, on the other hand, is still building its audience. The media-led notion that the channel would compete with ESPN was, and continues to be, a complete fantasy.

At its worst, ESPN’s SportsCenter quadruples the audience of the similarly themed Fox Sports Live. Is that because the latter is an inferior show or because SportsCenter is an established part of the average sports fan’s diet?

When Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney claims to be winning the ratings war with the UFC, he is savvy enough to know better. It is exactly the kind of posturing one would expect from a fight promoter—“Rampage” Jackson might actually believe it when he says it, however.

What is surprising is that some of the media have been taken in by the idea that recent television ratings paint an accurate picture of Bellator’s standing in relation to the UFC.

Numbers are important, but they are occasionally trumped by common sense. When Bellator 105 attracted four times as many viewers as UFC Fight Night 30 on the same weekend last year, what conclusion should we have drawn?

Either Bellator has discovered a way to overcome the UFC’s prohibitive brand recognition and its superior product almost overnight or it can be explained with reference to the vagaries of television ratings.

The growth of Bellator is extremely important for the future of mixed martial arts. Currently, the sport’s success is defined by the UFC’s success. Given the uncertain nature of the market, that isn’t a comfortable place for the sport to be.

Unfortunately, that is the situation no matter what the television ratings might suggest. Both a quantitative and qualitative gulf exists between the UFC and Bellator, and obfuscating that fact isn’t going to alter the reality.

James MacDonald is a freelance writer and featured columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow James on Twitter.

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