The year started with so much promise for Bellator, as the promotion, with a new deal with Spike TV under its belt, was poised to position itself as the second most important MMA promotion after the UFC. But somewhere along the way, the Bellator ship found itself in stormy waters and this Saturday, at Bellator 106, the promotion will be fighting for relevancy.
That’s a sad state of affairs considering the card had everything that could have transformed the promotion into a serious challenger to the UFC. It would have been the promotion’s first pay-per-view event, headlined by a somewhat irrelevant, but headline-grabbing main event between MMA legends Quinton Jackson and Tito Ortiz.
However, with Ortiz injured, Bellator’s PPV dreams are over, for now, and Spike’s ambitions to become a force in MMA again have to be scaled back.
What’s more, Bellator 106 is also the finale of Spike TV’s Fightmaster MMA reality TV show—the show that was supposed to give the UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter a run for its money. Instead, the show was on a ratings roller coaster all summer long, barely able to make a dent on the numbers picked up by the UFC’s TUF, which regularly used to push the two million mark over the 14 seasons it aired on the same network.
The finale, which will be between welterweights Joe Riggs and Mike Bronzoulis, is now only of passing interest, despite featuring prominently on the main card.
However, there’s still plenty to offer at Bellator 106 that could make it a significant event for the promotion. Tickets have sold well as well, according to one ticket broker at least.
Having been forced to ditch its PPV plans, Bellator is now refocusing its energy on the tournament format that helped carve it out as a different and, in many ways, more intriguing promotion than the UFC.
As such, three titles are on the line on Saturday. Third from the top, featherweight champion Pat Curran defends his belt for the third time against Season 6 tournament winner Daniel Straus. That match will be followed by the return of the flamboyant “King Mo” Muhammed Lawal as he seeks to avenge his loss to Emanuel Newton and capture the promotion’s interim light heavyweight crown.
And, at the top of the night, fighting for the lightweight title is an eagerly awaited showdown between Michael Chandler and Eddie Alvarez.
Chandler came out of nowhere in 2011 to unseat longstanding 155-pound champion Alvarez in what was largely regarded as the fight of the year. Since then, Chandler has gone on to defend the belt three times in dominant fashion, while Alvarez’s career has been stalled due to an acrimonious contractual dispute with Bellator.
The two sides have made up, for now, although what will happen to Alvarez after the event is still unclear. Either way, Chandler vs. Alvarez II remains one of the most eagerly awaited matches this year. And, with the Ortiz/Jackson sideshow out of the way, the two fighters can take pride of place at the top of the card to showcase the depth of MMA talent that Bellator can still call upon.
In a way, a barnburner between the two could be a better outcome for the promotion as it fights to remain relevant in an increasingly crowded MMA market.
Bellator 106 will air live on Spike TV at 9pm ET from the Long Beach Arena in California.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com