For the longest time, Bellator FC was thought of as a distant third when put up against both Strikeforce and the UFC. In 2011, the groundwork was laid for a seismic shift in that power structure thanks to two key events: Strikeforce being sold to the UFC, and the UFC moving from Spike TV to Fox. With a move to Spike more or less confirmed, Bellator’s potential has never seemed higher. With almost all of its champions and stars gone, Strikeforce has never looked weaker.
Here’s five reasons why Bellator should soon surpass Strikeforce and become the number-two MMA organization in the world.
5. Strikeforce will probably never add a Bantamweight and Featherweight Championship.
Perhaps this is an argument best served for another discussion, but I’ve always felt that lighter-weight fighters are easily as entertaining and even sometimes a good bit more entertaining than their higher-weight counterparts. I love the UFC’s 135 and 145 divisions; some of my favorite UFC fighters are Bantamweights and Featherweights. I’m even glad to see Flyweights in the Octagon.
In Bellator specifically, the lighter-weight tournaments (especially Featherweight!) constantly produce amazing, highlight-reel moments. And Strikeforce? Nothing.
4. Hello Dana White! Erm…goodbye Dana White.
As a Strikeforce fan and former Strikeforce super-fan, I admit that I was very interested and maybe even a little excited when UFC President Dana White said that he would start taking a much more active role in Strikeforce. That opens up a whole lot of interesting possibilities…or at least, it would have. White’s sudden interest in Strikeforce seems to have stopped just as quickly as it started. In a Twitter post, White even went as far as to say that Showtime would be running Strikeforce from now on and that he was “100% UFC”.
3. Does anyone know how long Strikeforce will go on?
This has a little bit to do with Dana White’s Tweet that effectively shows him giving up on Strikeforce, but there’s more to it than that. Strikeforce will continue onward for a while…but what then?
It’s a feeder league in every sense of the word, except no one (not Zuffa, not Showtime) wants to officially brand it a “feeder league” because most sport fans don’t care one bit about feeder leagues. Lying that it isn’t a feeder league just makes its status as a feeder league more obvious.
Unluckily for Zuffa and Showtime, MMA fans are many things. We’re brash, we’re outspoken, we’re defensive, and we’re easy to anger. But we are not stupid. At least, most of us aren’t, especially the hardcore fans. And with the exodus of almost all of its top talent (more on that later), it’ll be the hardcore fans that keep Strikeforce afloat.
Will that be enough? Maybe. Possibly. Hopefully! But then again, when was the last time a TV show, any TV show, was able to remain on the air for more than a few seasons when its audience consisted solely of a small-but-dedicated group of hardcore fans?
2. The Spike TV audience is the MMA audience, and Spike TV and its audience should welcome Bellator and their audience with open arms.
I’ve always (and I do mean always) said that I can’t think of a single Spike TV show that I watch other than the UFC. Spike TV, as a channel, was practically built by the UFC. Bellator will have to wait a year until Spike loses the rights to broadcast UFC events, but the memory of an MMA fan isn’t so short that he’ll forget that Spike TV has been the home of MMA for many, many years.
When Bellator makes the switch to Spike TV, they’ll be mixing their hardcore, dedicated audience that knows Spike TV is where you watch MMA with with the audience they pulled from MTV2. And there’s a strong possibility that such a melting pot of audiences will propel Bellator to become bigger and better than it’s ever been.
1. The UFC has decimated Strikeforce’s ranks, while Bellator’s biggest stars remain in Bellator.
I hate to say this, but I’m just going to come out and say it: the only Strikeforce champion I give a crap about right now is Gilbert Melendez. There’s no Welterweight Champion. Luke Rockhold isn’t exactly known for the quality of his fights, although I can admit he has a whole lot of potential. There’s no Light Heavyweight Champion. And not only is there no Heavyweight Champion, the Heavyweight division itself will soon be gone from Strikeforce.
The UFC has picked the bones clean from Strikeforce, and all that remains is a rotting carcass. The only good thing about this situation is that Strikeforce was so good before it died that its ghost can still produce some good events. As much as I love the women’s division and Gilbert Melendez…this is not Strikeforce.
On the other hand, Bellator is still Bellator. You can complain that Bellator doesn’t keep its champions active enough, and there’s been some rumors that Hector Lombard could be coming to the UFC. But, at this point in time, Bellator’s champions are still firmly committed to Bellator.
That could all change when/if the UFC begins considering them enough of a threat to start poaching their talent, but if all else fails, the tournament format results in an ever-increasing talent pool for Bellator, with many tournament finalists and winners going on to become some of Bellator’s biggest stars.
Point blank: Strikeforce is on the way down and Bellator is fast on the rise. Go watch Bellator.
If you’re a Twitter user and want to get in on the discussion and/or offer up your own insight, feel free to use #gowatchbellator in your tweets to help spread the word.
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