White shared his thoughts on the apparent end of Bellator’s run with Paramount Global, who is rumored to be getting out of the fight business entirely this year.
Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire, and the skies are dark above Bellator as reports continue to emerge about the company’s imminent demise.
For months there’s been talk about the PFL buying Bellator from their parent company Showtime. More recently we’ve heard that Showtime Boxing is about to get the axe too. Then there’s Bellator heavyweight champion claiming Showtime’s parent company Paramount Global (formerly Viacom) pulled him from Bellator 300 to save money.
Lots to keep up with, but UFC CEO Dana White isn’t paying attention.
“Literally not at all,” he said when asked following Tuesday’s Contender Series event if he was keeping up with the Bellator drama.
Dana White is asked if he is monitoring the Bellator Situation.#UFC pic.twitter.com/omh1BqGjwl
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) October 4, 2023
“If Bellator continues to exist, it’s not a bad thing,” he added. “It’s a good thing. If you look at all the s— that we take about a lot of things — they’re owned by f—ing Viacom. Do you know how much money these guys have? Why would they be going out of business unless they’re just tired of doing it.”
“You’re hearing rumors about Showtime too,” White said. “Not just Bellator, so … you know what I think about Showtime as a company. Again, I could go on for days about the production on Saturday [for Canelo vs. Charlo]. They tried to do it better, I noticed. Showtime tried to do it better, but you guys suck.”
It feels like Bellator hasn’t been a priority for Paramount Global for years. Shut away on Showtime as cable withered away, the promotion lost its No. 2 status to PFL (and could arguably be further down the rungs than that) because that lack of care correctly signaled its days were numbered. The whole thing has felt very ‘going through the motions’ for the past couple years.
Bellator has a lot of amazing talent on the roster, but that only gets you so far when your organization is the redheaded stepchild of an indifferent mega-corporation. To them, Bellator is nothing but a line on a spreadsheet that the bean-counters and executives grumble about.
Hopefully a PFL deal comes through and Bellator fighters can be extracted from the situation. If not, it could be wild witnessing the free agency frenzy as dozens of fighters with world class resumes hit the market at the same time.