With Hector Lombard leaving and expected departure of Eddie Alvarez, Bellator will be losing two of the most influential faces in the promotion’s history. Losing two stars like Lombard and Alvarez is no doubt a huge loss, but it may actually turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
Let me make this clear right from the start—there is no sensible way to deny that the two men were great stars for Bellator. Both men were the most dominant champions in the promotion and you could argue that Lombard was the face of the promotion much in the same way Georges St-Pierre is the face of the UFC.
So how can it be a good thing for Bellator if their two biggest stars are in transit to greener pastures?
The answer lies in Bellator’s move to major cable outlet, Spike TV, in 2013. Normally, losing two superstars is a dreadful loss, but given the fact that Bellator is in a transition period, they can now market any number of talented fighters in their move to Spike TV.
Bellator can tell us Michael Chandler or Alexander Shlemenko are world beaters and new fans wouldn’t know any better.
And it’s not like Lombard and Alvarez were helping the promotion move forward anyway. The ratings for the promotion have dropped abysmally the past few shows and it seemed nothing Bellator could do would help raise ratings.
You know what happens when a team underachieves in professional sports? The roster gets blown up.
Guys like Chandler, Shlemenko, the Freire brothers and Pat Curran among others are all new faces to many MMA fans who can carry the banner for Bellator moving forward.
Bellator also has the advantage of being the only major promotion not under the Zuffa umbrella that features women’s MMA. If they can correctly market WMMA on national cable, Bellator could potentially replace Strikeforce as the top promotion for women’s competition.
The Lombard/Alvarez Era helped make Bellator into what it is today, and their contributions cannot and should not be denied. But at the same time it’s clear Bellator is moving into a new era with a major TV deal and as such new stars are needed to replace the older ones.
Change is always scary for anyone but in cases like this, it’s needed.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com