Bellator has started to pick up a little bit of steam coming off its amazing Bellator 106 card, which was free on Spike TV. The card was originally on pay-per-view, but an injury to Tito Ortiz, who was in the main event, forced a cancellation.
This was the best-case scenario for Bellator, as it did record numbers on free TV. This came on the back of three championship fights, including a Fight of the Year candidate in Michael Chandler vs. Eddie Alvarez.
The problem Bellator is having right now, other than the fact that it has become the island of misfit UFC veterans, is that it is trying so hard to be relevant by using old-school names as top draws that it is taking away the credibility of its world titles and the stars it should be building.
Exhibit A is Bellator 106 before it became free on television.
There were three world title fights, one of which was an interim title bout, but none of those fights was the headliner for the pay-per-view. Instead, a light heavyweight feature between two men who have failed to put together a winning streak—or any wins, for that matter—took the prime spot.
How weak does that make the Bellator titles look?
You’re telling me that a bout between two over-the-hill fighters who haven’t been relevant in years is more important than your championships? I get it: They are draws because of their name value. But they are not guys to build your company around.
This may not seem like a big deal, but the placement of the interim title bout between King Mo and Emanuel Newton over the third title defense between Pat Curran and Daniel Strauss was also troubling. Curran, who was arguably a top-10 featherweight going into the bout, was thrown on earlier in the card, but he should have had a later spot in the card due to his higher status in the company.
Instead, an interim title bout—which should have never taken place, given the circumstances—topped the featherweight title bout on the card, showing Bellator‘s love for name value (King Mo) over future stars who will help build the company.
That may not seem like a big deal, but we have ourselves another conundrum in the near future in Bellator 108.
Once again, the Bellator brass has jazzed up the order of its next show instead of throwing the big name in the co-main event behind the title fight.
Bellator 108 is headlined by Rampage Jackson, who will make his debut opposite two-time UFC cast-off Joey Beltran. Not only does that devalue the heavyweight championship, which sits in the co-main event slot, but it also shows that Bellator is a UFC-talent vacuum that is purely picking up crumbs.
Sure, I am a Joey Beltran fan. But to put him in a main event over a heavyweight title bout between Alexander Volkov and Vitaly Minakov—two of the best Russians and heavyweight prospects in the weight class—is demeaning.
If Bellator wants its company to survive long term, it needs to stop using stars of the past over stars of the future. Bellator wants credibility as a rival of the UFC and as the second-biggest MMA promotion in the world, but if it keeps things up, UFC will make Bellator look even more minor league than it already appears. World Series of Fighting will also catch up, as it is doing things the right way.
The reason some MMA companies have exceeded expectations is because they built stars. Bellator did that in the past, but, for some reason, it has resorted to relying on men past their prime. This problem needs to end, or Bellator could be on the slippery slope to becoming a less credible MMA organization.
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