Author: Oliver Saenz

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. 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Sometimes the best way to get a little attention is to cause an argument.

As a fan of Bellator Fighting Championships, I had a very positive reaction when it was announced months ago that they would be switching to Friday nights.

The general consensus, however, seemed to be that Bellator would still run into stiff competition from “The Ultimate Fighter Live,” which recently debuted on FX and is also being aired on Friday.

Now that both “season openers” have aired, Bellator FC has emerged as the obvious choice.

Here are five reasons why you should go watch Bellator and save TUF Live for the TiVo. 

 

5. Preliminary fights before and even after the event.

Maybe it’s a bit of a bizarre concept to have “post-event” prelims, but they’re still live MMA fights available for the low, low cost of free.

All you need is an Internet connection and you can watch at least four additional fights from Bellator.

The question is simple: Which is better, an entire episode of build-up for one live fight, or at least eight live fights spread across Spike.com and MTV2?

The answer is simpler: go watch Bellator.

 

4. Amazing fighters (Bellator) vs. people you’ve never heard of (TUF).

One of the goals of the UFC is to introduce you to an ever-revolving cast of characters that hopefully you end up caring about for a prolonged period of time.

It’s a noble goal, and it’s led to the creation of some amazing stars.

But Bellator simply has much more going for it.

While it’s interesting and fun to get to know someone you’ve never met through his actions on television, ask yourself this: As an MMA fan, shouldn’t the fights take top priority?

Not only do you get more fights with Bellator, you get bigger fights featuring a lot of top-ranked (both in Bellator and in the world) stars.

And they almost always produce unforgettable highlight-reel moments.

 

 

3. “The Ultimate Fighter” is still very much a reality TV show with “reality TV drama.” The drama in Bellator is as real as it gets.

This point could be argued until you realize that several notorious “TUF bad boys” have both indirectly and directly stated in interviews that they were playing a role and just did the “bad boy” gimmick so people could notice them.

On “The Ultimate Fighter,” you get your 15 seconds of fame by being a drunken loudmouth that everybody absolutely loathes.

In Bellator, you get your 15 seconds of fame by catching people in Inverted Triangles or knocking people into next week.

Once again the choice is obvious: go watch Bellator.

 

2. Live fights mean better fights? Maybe for Bellator, not for TUF Live.

This is numbered so high for one reason: the UFC did everything in its power to ensure that the “TUF Live” debut would be full of action—and I still saw several boring fights.

You couldn’t ask for a better formula (one five-minute round fought live) and it still couldn’t motivate some fighters to fight for a finish.

In general, the fight quality of any “Ultimate Fighter” season can be all kinds of hit-and-miss, and the debut episode proved that not even the live concept can guarantee the fights will always be exciting.

Of course, there’s always next week. But even if you take that viewpoint, you’re still saying “maybe next week” for one fight, while Bellator is broadcasting an entire night of live fights.

 

 

1. It’s been 15 seasons and, compared to Bellator, nothing has changed.

Even on a new network and with a live concept anchoring the show, TUF still felt very much like TUF.

Is that a good thing?

Maybe not after 15 straight seasons. The term “stale” has been used to describe the TUF format for several seasons now.

Meanwhile, Bellator FC continues to see champions rise and fall while world-class competitors fight in Bellator tournaments for their shot at the gold.

Who knows what the next Bellator tournament will bring?

I’ve seen TUF for so long that I know what to expect, and even if it’s on a different network, it’s still TUF.

Bellator, meanwhile, continues to surprise me on a per-event basis. A little stability is nice, but unpredictability is what got me into MMA.

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. 

 

Oliver Saenz, also known as PdW2kX, is a freelance journalist, opinion columnist, hardcore MMA fan, and lifelong video game nerd. For more news, views, previews, and reviews on all things Mixed Martial Arts as well as video games, be sure to visit FightGamesBlog.net.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

I have no idea if this is going to change anything or have an effect on anyone. I don’t want to consider this a movement, although I would like to consider it a rallying cry. The purpose of this post is pretty simple: I want you to go watch Bellator. This will probably be long and rambling, but bear with me, as it is my way. Ready? Let’s begin.

I’ve been a Bellator fan since they debuted on MTV2. I came relatively late to the party, but I still consider myself a diehard fan. I just think that there are “tiers” to being a diehard fan, and the ones that saw Bellator from the beginning are simply in a higher tier than me.

Before the MTV2 deal, I was only marginally familiar with Bellator. It just wasn’t on my radar at all. And I can admit, I wanted to see Bellator on MTV2 mostly because I wanted to see how long it would take for this idea to fail.

Can you blame me? A live, weekly MMA event on a network like MTV2? It just seemed strange, downright bizarre. I knew from the get-go that if the shows didn’t perform, there was almost zero chance that MMA would click with the MTV2 audience. With a lot of hesitation and a decidedly morbid sense of curiosity, I began watching Bellator regularly.

What I saw, and what I continue to see, was and is one of the greatest Mixed Marital Arts promotions I have ever seen in my life.

There are so many things to like about Bellator. First off, their presentation is a lot of fun. Every time I see a Bellator event, I know that I’m watching something that is uniquely Bellator.

The commentary team is spot-on, and in my opinion, they’re only second to Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg. The design of their cage also instantly gives the promotions their own unique feel.

And of course, you can’t beat weekly, live MMA.

Think about that for a second: Every single week, for a few months straight, you’re getting live Mixed Martial Arts events. I can only guess how hard that must be to pull off, and my guess is that it isn’t easy. Not even the UFC can offer weekly events for months straight.

And now we come to the meat of my argument: my No. 1 reason to watch this promotion. I could give countless examples from countless Bellator events, up and down Bellator’s sometimes-tumultuous history. But it all boils down to one key point.

Pound-for-pound, Bellator may be the best MMA promotion in the world right now.

I say “pound for pound” because you have to consider one simple fact.

On the tightest budget of all three of the major MMA promotions, and with a history of being on the smallest and most obscure network of the three major MMA promotions, Bellator FC has still somehow managed to deliver fights that have matched and even sometimes surpassed any of the fights/events that Strikeforce or even the UFC has put on.

They’ve done it with a roster of talent from around the world and from all walks of life. Some divisions are admittedly weaker than others. But fans are realizing more and more lately that many of the top Bellator stars, particularly in Bellator’s lighter-weight divisions, could make serious runs in both Strikeforce and the UFC.

And when you consider the “new age” of Strikeforce, with almost all of Strikeforce’s biggest stars now in the UFC, I think it’s only a matter of time before Bellator surpasses Strikeforce in all areas.

Every time Bellator starts up a new season, they deliver highlight-reel moments again and again, seemingly with ease.

Maybe it’s an awesome submission (inverted triangle anyone?) or a crazy KO (Pat Curran anyone?). Maybe it’s a three-round or even five-round all-out war. Maybe it’s the shock of a tournament favorite losing, or the surprise of a tournament “dark horse” fighting to the finals.

The world of Bellator is filled with stories that twist and turn, but no matter what else happens, it all ends with two guys in the cage giving their all.

Before I go, let me say this: Bellator is not a perfect promotion. They’ve had bad fights, they’ve even had entire events that I haven’t liked.

I can even admit, somewhat apologetically, that in the grand scheme of things, sometimes I’ve simply forgotten about Bellator for a few days and missed a Bellator show entirely. But as with any sport, you have to take the bad with the good.

And maybe that’s my entire point: Bellator has had its bad moments, but there are so many good things about this promotion that I want to try to convince as many people as possible to do one simple thing: go watch Bellator.

This entire post has more or less been me standing on the soapbox, and there may be more of that in the posts/articles to come where I continue to make my case for why I love this promotion so much.

As I said in the beginning…bear with me, it is my way. I will leave you with this: just give it a chance. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to become a fan of this promotion. I should know, I was that guy not so long ago, and I’ve even gotten some of my friends hooked on Bellator when they too knew practically nothing about the promotion.

It’s a treat, it’s a breath of fresh air, it’s a welcome divergence from the norm. It is Bellator, and there is only one Bellator.

So go watch Bellator.

And one final note: 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.

 

Oliver Saenz, also known as PdW2kX, is a freelance journalist, opinion columnist, hardcore MMA fan, and lifelong video game nerd. For more news, views, previews, and reviews on all things Mixed Martial Arts as well as video games, be sure to visit FightGamesBlog.net.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com