LAS VEGAS — Around 4 p.m. on October 18, tens of thousands gather around Sam Boyd Stadium on the outskirts of this very famous city, closer to the mountains and the Hoover Dam than the casinos and broken dreams of the Vegas strip.
The official attendee uniform color, apparently, is black. Many bear the signature logo of the energy-drink company Monster, either on their sideways-tilting hats or socks. A fence sections off an area taking up most of the parking lot. It is called The Pit.
Inside of The Pit, hundreds wait in line for alcohol at a makeshift tent. Half as many stand in a line for rank portable toilets. In the distance, human beings fly into the air on motorcycles to the delight of a roaring crowd.
The event is the Monster Energy Cup, a supercross featuring dozens of the world’s greatest dirt-bike riders competing for a one-million-dollar grand prize. Outside the stadium, out in The Pit, there are demonstrations of insane motorcycle jumps. And on a grassy hill sidling up to the edge of the dilapidated stadium, there is a six-sided cage adorned with the Bellator MMA logo.
North America’s second-largest mixed martial arts promotion was hitting Las Vegas for the first time, and it elected to do so as part of a unique promotional event. The Ultimate Fighting Championship owns Vegas, and it is rare for any other promotion with any kind of foothold in the market to appear here.
There are many local fight promotions; Tuff-N-Uff has promoted local amateur fights for more than a decade without interference from the UFC.
But few promoters seen as direct competitors to the UFC ever run an event in this city. That’s largely because they can’t find a venue willing to risk angering Zuffa or its casino-magnate owners.
Bellator’s first foray into the market went mostly unnoticed until it happened. The three-fight bout sheet was not mentioned on its official website. MMA fans on Twitter almost unanimously had no idea the event was taking place until Saturday.
It was a curious Vegas debut for Bellator, an organization that has undergone a much-needed change over the past six months. Gone is Bjorn Rebney, the maligned former owner and president of the company. In his place is Scott Coker, the former promoter of Strikeforce and a man who is universally liked by everyone in the mixed martial arts sphere.
Coker sold Strikeforce to Zuffa in 2011 and spent a few years as a quasi-paid employee of the UFC. In reality, he spent a lot of time playing golf. On June 18, Coker was announced as the new president of Bellator.
Coker has worked swiftly to remake Bellator in Strikeforce’s image. He installed Rich Chou, his longtime Strikeforce matchmaker, in the same role at Bellator. Many of the same public relations officials are in place.
And Coker has done away with Bellator’s longtime tournament and weekly show format. In 2015, Bellator will move to monthly Friday night events, and it’ll promote larger Saturday night events every three months.
In all, Chou told Bleacher Report, the organization will plan on running roughly 16 events in 2015, and it’ll do so in cities that are easier to promote than the usual Indian reservations Bellator is used to running.
The lighter schedule is a relief for Chou, who said it’s nearly impossible to effectively run weekly events due to the overwhelming amount of talent required to do so. And Bellator public relations official Anthony Mazzuca noted it’ll be easier for the organization to promote events when it has a full month between fight cards rather than seven days.
Those days are off in the distance, but Bellator and Spike TV will test their new format on November 15 when they air an event headlined by former UFC stars Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar.
Ortiz and Bonnar, both past their prime, are the name-value guys Coker hopes to draw in the casual fans with. Once he has their attention, he hopes they’ll become attached to Will Brooks and Mo Lawal and others. And if they see a vicious knockout in the bout between professional kickboxers Joe Schilling and Melvin Manhoef, well, so much the better.
The November 15 card is the prototype for Bellator events in 2015. For now, it’s running out the last of its events scheduled for the fall, and it’s also testing out the new promotional tool with Monster-branded events.
Coker, Chou and Mazzuca mill around the cage, which features a new black canvas adorned with the Monster logo.
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Bellator’s highest-profile signing to date, arrives and spends time casually chatting with fans around the cage before being interviewed by the ring announcer. The announcer asks Jackson for his thoughts on the Monster Energy Cup and all the trappings that go along with it.
“I’m glad to be here,” Jackson says. “Do they have this every year, or what?”
Former UFC bantamweight Dominick Cruz arrives. He is sponsored by Monster and, like Jackson, is wearing clothing adorned with the Monster logo. But he is also a student of the fight game and a vociferous watcher of fights, regardless of the talent level involved.
Later, he will watch the action in the cage silently, while Jackson offers his take on a cageside comedy routine: give hilarious advice to a fighter in the cage, wait for the audience surrounding him to laugh and repeat.
The first fight of the evening features Gustavo Lopez taking on Sean Cantor. Lopez is close friends with UFC stars Miesha Tate and Bryan Caraway. Cantor is a local product who trains at Syndicate mixed martial arts. He does not last long with Lopez, who wins by rear-naked choke in the first round.
The second fight features Adrian Hadribeaj taking on A.J. Williams, another local fighter who goes by the nickname Black Dynamite. Jackson is enamored with this nickname and continues his comedy show by continually repeating the same phrase:
“Black Dynamite! Use the jab!”
Black Dynamite does not use the jab. Instead, he opts to repeatedly use the flashiest moves in his arsenal. He uses the spinning back fist to the point where Hadribeaj is able to see it coming from a mile away and casually step aside.
In the second round, Williams attempts a Showtime Kick, sort of. It misses by a mile. Jackson and his friends howl with delight. Cruz hangs his head in disgust. Still, it is a close fight, and Jackson urges Williams to go for the finish in the closing moments of the final frame.
“Black Dynamite! You have a short time to take him out! Take him out!,” Jackson says.
Black Dynamite does not take him out and ends up losing a split decision. But it was an exciting contest between two evenly matched competitors, and it prepared the fans in attendance for the main event.
One thing I forgot to mention: For this event, Bellator is using a smaller 20-foot cage. The main event features two large heavyweights: Dan Charles and James Wilson, who looks like the product of a world where Tyron Woodley and Daniel Cormier somehow make a baby. They are large, and the cage is small, and that is usually a recipe for violence. Chou figures the fight won’t last longer than two-and-a-half minutes.
Before the main event, Jackson asks Cruz where he trains. Cruz tells him he trains at Alliance. Jackson asks where Alliance is located, and Cruz tells him it’s in San Diego. Jackson turns to his buddy and says he’d like to train in San Diego.
“I ain’t got nobody to train with right now,” Jackson says, with just a hint of sadness in his voice.
Charles and Wilson hit the cage. The sun is vanishing over the mountains on the horizon. It is a beautiful night and a picturesque setting for mixed martial arts. Wilson fouls Charles three times in the first round: a blatant cage grab and two knees to the groin. Referee Steve Mazzagatti, just as ineffective outdoors as he is in the confines of the MGM Grand or Mandalay Bay, does not take a point away.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Charles is far more athletic than Wilson. Chou says Charles will eventually have to move to light heavyweight; he weighed in at 226 pounds after taking the fight on one week’s notice.
“That’s a light heavyweight,” Chou says.
Charles wins a split decision that is not remotely as close as the scorecards indicate. He apologizes to friends sitting cageside, telling them he broke his right hand in the first round and wasn’t able to punch. They tell him not to worry about it, because he still put on a great performance and, in the end, he got the win.
The fans immediately disperse and head inside the stadium for the supercross. Motorcycle engines are firing. Alcoholic beverages are being consumed in large quantities.
Outside, the Bellator team begins taking down the cage, preparing to vanish into the night.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com