World Series of Fighting match maker Ali Abdelaziz floated an interesting idea on the MMA Hour, proposing a WSOF vs. Bellator MMA pay-per-view event.
While WSOF lacks a roster sexy enough to craft a pay-per-view, and Bellator‘s initial foray into the pay-per-view business turned out less-than awesome, putting the two together creates very interesting matchmaking possibilities.
Abdelaziz made his own card and plugged it with Ariel Helwani. We grabbed a screenshot, which you can see here:
WSOF exec @AliAbdelaziz00 on #themmahour wants a WSOF vs. Bellator fight card. Check out the line up (if u can see). pic.twitter.com/lIY23V6CLC
— Bleacher Report MMA (@BR_MMA) January 6, 2014
For those who can’t make out the blurry text, the lineup is:
- Tyrone Spong vs. Quinton Jackson
- Anthony Johnson vs. Attila Vegh
- Andrei Arlovski vs. Vitaly Minakov
- Marlon Moraes vs. Eduardo Dantas
- Yushin Okami vs. Alexander Shlemenko
- Rousimar Palhares vs. Douglas Lima
- Justin Gaethje vs. Eddie Alvarez (or Michael Chandler)
- Georgi Karakhanyan vs. Daniel Straus
- Jon Fitch vs. Rick Hawn
- David Branch vs. Brett Cooper
That really is something of a fantasy, mind you. That lineup includes all of Bellator‘s champions, as well as the most recognizable fighter on the roster, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Along with the champions, there will also be the two men who will face off to fill the vacant welterweight belt. (Douglas Lima vs. Rick Hawn will fight to take over for Ben Askren as the 170-pound champion.)
Granted, most of WSOF‘s most popular fighters are there as well (the lone exception being Nick Newell), but it’s unlikely that both promotions would realistically want to tie up all their biggest draws for one card.
That said, co-promotions are by no means uncommon in the world of MMA. While the best known examples are likely the Dynamite!! cards, Japanese events co-promoted by kickboxing organization K-1 and MMA promotion Dream, the likes of Strikeforce, EliteXC and M-1 have all dipped into each others’ cards in the past.
While it isn’t necessarily the best move for Bellator, the fact that WSOF seems to be looking to co-promote with other major organizations is definitely interesting. We’ll see if they start to reach out to Invicta FC, or even possibly Glory, in terms of co-promoting larger events.
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