Tag: Bellator 120

Bellator 120: Rampage Edges King Mo, Will Brooks Out-Points Michael Chandler

Tonight, Bellator will make its first foray into the PPV market after a botched attempt last year. Bellator 120 was originally scheduled to be main-evented by the rubber match between Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler, but Alvarez recently withdrew due to a concussion. Bellator matched up Chandler with Will Brooks, and bumped King Mo vs. Rampage Jackson into the card’s main event. We’ve also got Tito Ortiz vs. Alexander Shlemenko, Blagoi Ivanov vs. Alexander Volkov, and Michael Page vs. Ricky Rainey.

In this liveblog of Bellator’s first-ever PPV, CagePotato social media kosmonaut and weekend editor Matt Saccaro will be giving you the results for the PPV portion of the fight card, in case you’re too cheap to buy it or don’t have access to it for some reason. He’ll also be posting quick results from the rest of the event, as well as his typical analysis of commercials on the Spike TV portion of the broadcast.

The PPV begins at 10:00 pm EST. The Spike TV preliminaries start at 8:00 pm EST. We’ll start posting results after the jump shortly thereafter. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest.

Tonight, Bellator will make its first foray into the PPV market after a botched attempt last year. Bellator 120 was originally scheduled to be main-evented by the rubber match between Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler, but Alvarez recently withdrew due to a concussion. Bellator matched up Chandler with Will Brooks, and bumped King Mo vs. Rampage Jackson into the card’s main event. We’ve also got Tito Ortiz vs. Alexander Shlemenko, Blagoi Ivanov vs. Alexander Volkov, and Michael Page vs. Ricky Rainey.

In this liveblog of Bellator’s first-ever PPV, CagePotato social media kosmonaut and weekend editor Matt Saccaro will be giving you the results for the PPV portion of the fight card, in case you’re too cheap to buy it or don’t have access to it for some reason. He’ll also be posting quick results from the rest of the event, as well as his typical analysis of commercials on the Spike TV portion of the broadcast.

Here are the results for the prelims:

Spike TV Preliminary Card

Cheick Kongo def. Eric Smith via TKO (strikes), 4:35 of round 2
Marcin Held def. Nate Jolly submission (arm bar), 4:20 of round 1
Fabricio Guerreiro def. Shahbulat Shamhalaev via submission (kimura), 3:29 of round 1
Goiti Yamauchi def. Mike Richman unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Spike.com Preliminary Card

Austin Lyons def. Zach Underwood via technical decision (unanimous)
Mike Wessel def. Justin Frazier via TKO (punches), 4:28 of round 1
Ben Brewer def. Andy Uhrich via KO (strikes), 2:40 of round 2
Codie Shuffield def. Andy Lemon via submission (rear naked choke), 2:15 of round 2
Brian Hall def. Cortez Phelia via TKO (punches), 0:24 of round 3

And now, the liveblog for the main card:

Michael Page vs. Ricky Rainey

Round 1: Rainey sugers forwards and misses. Page uses his footwork to escape, riding his bicycle. Rainey lands a right but it didn’t have much power. Page has his hands at his waist. Page starts landing tons of shots, then throws Rainey to the mat. Rainey gets up. Page is looking in the opposite direction while fighting Rainey and landing. he’s turning his back on Rainey now. The showmanship is great but if he loses he’ll look like a twat. Rainey clinches Page and has him against the fence now. Page separates and they reset. Page lands a left and then a front kick. Rainey is already breathing heavy. Page is shaking his ass and dancing, no joke. Page lands a jab. Rainey clinches again, pressing Page against the cage. Rainey goes for a single but Page reverses and almost lands on top of Rainey before he scrambles to his feet and they reset. Page lands a flying knee and then a spinning backfist. Rainey can’t touch page in the striking. Page looks disinterested. He lands two jabs and an uppercut. Rainey runs forwards. Page lands a huge right that floors Rainey and the referee stops the fight. Page wins via KO.

Alexander Volkov vs. Blagoi Ivanov

Round 1: Early striking exchanges favor nobody. Ivaonov clinches and gets Volkov against the fence. he tries a single leg but abandons it. He goes back to the body lock, leaning on Volkov. They spend some time fighting for hand positioning. Not a ton of action against the fence. Ivanov attempts a double but fails. Back to the same over-under position they’ve been in. The referee warns them; he wants action. The two fighters exchange knees. Volkov hits a knee and then a body kick but Ivanov catches it and clinches. Volkov gets double underhooks briefly but separates and lands an uppercut. Ivanov lands a right hand and clinches. Volkov lands a nice knee to the chin. The two fighters do some dirty boxing before Volkov circles out. Ivanov hits a right hand, Volkov hits a left and then a knee. Volkov has the better combinations, hitting a jab, cross, round kick to the body combo. Ivanov lands a right hand as the round ends.

Round 2: Both men miss right hands. Ivanov tries a single leg and Volkov shrugs it off. A brief, wild slugfest ensues but nobody lands anything. Ivanov attempts a throw but botches it; Volkov takes his back and has him in a rear naked choke. Ivanov taps! That was unexpected.

Tito Ortiz vs. Alexander Shlemenko

Round 1: Ortiz misses with two rights and a head kick. He shoots and Shlemenko shrugs it off. Shlemenko starts peppering Ortiz as the crowd chants for Tito. Shlemenko lands two punches to the head but Ortiz counters with a knee. Ortiz presses Shlemenko against the fence, finally making use of his size advantage. He lands a couple of soft knees. Ortiz gets Shlemenko down and has his back. He flattens him out but winds up on top in side control. He’s going for an arm-triangle and he might have it. He has it. Shlemenko is out cold. Holy shit.

After the fight Ortiz cuts the worst promo of all time. He pretended to be Hulk Hogan and it was honestly the most embarrassing thing I’ve seen in MMA.

Michael Chandler vs. Will Brooks

Round 1: Chandler lands a jab. Brooks misses a round kick. Chandler pressures Brooks to backing up against the cage. He shoots a double on Brooks and gets it. Chandler is having a bit of trouble escaping from Brooks’ guard. Brooks gets to his feet. Chandler misses an overhand right, Brooks lands a left and then a good knee. Chandler misses an upcrut. He attempts a double leg but Brooks sprawls. Still, Chandler shoves Brooks up against the cage and keeps him there. Chandler scores a takedown with about two minutes left in the round. The fight stalls out while Chandler is in Brooks’ guard. The round ends.

Round 2: Chandler shoots a single-leg and has Brooks stymied against the cage. Brooks stops the takedown, and now they’re fighting in the clinch. Brooks separates and they reset. Chandler lands a double-leg. The rest of the round will probably be Chandler sitting in Brooks’ guard. With a minute and a half left Brooks FINALLY gets up and even manages to take Chandler down and take his back! But Brooks loses the position and is now on top of Brooks again in guard. That’s where the round ends.

Round 3: Chandler hits a sweet left hook, then shoots a double. Brooks sprawls. He hits a knee on Chandler as they rise up to their feet. Chandler clinches again and bullies Brooks against the fence, but Brooks reverses. They clinch again and Brooks lands a knee and misses an uppercut. Another clinch, Chandler tries a guillotine but winds up getting taken down. Brooks has his back now. He’s got the body triangle locked up. Chandler rolls over into full mount. He’s cut and Brooks is landing ground and pound. It’s not looking good for Chandler. He’s landing some short elbows now, and now more punches. Chandler explodes out of mount and escapes. Wow. They’re standing now. Brooks shoots and fails. Chandler drops to all fours and Brooks tries to take his back again. Chandler gets up. he goes for a head kick that lands on the jaw. He lands another and as he has Chandler wobbled he takes him down and gets the back and body triangle. Only 20 seconds left. The round comes to a close before Brooks can capitalize.

Round 4: Brooks lands a body kick and misses a head kick. Brooks hits a jab; he looks like the fresher fighter. Chandler shoots from across the cage and misses by miles. Chandler lands a nice hook but Brooks BLASTS him off his feet with a power double. He’s got Chandler’s back again now, but Chandler reverses and winds up on top in guard. Not a ton of action. The ref stands them up with 1:30 to go. Brooks lands a good right hand. Chandler shoots underneath a right hand but Brooks sprawls and lands a knee. Chandler is slower than he was last round. Brooks lands an illegal knee (or at least the ref thought so) to Chandler while a hand was on the ground. The fight resumes. Brooks lands a head kick. He stops another shot from Chandler and takes his back AGAIN. He’s going for the RNC with 10 seconds left but he can’t get it.

Round 5: Chandler shoots. Brooks sprawls. They separate and reset. Brooks is looking very fresh still. Incredible cardio. Chandler attempts a single-leg and after a while finally gets it, but Brooks scrambles immediately and escapes. Chandler goes for an ugly double-leg and brooks punishes him with knees to the ribs. Chandler is getting aggressive now, too much so. Brooks gets his back and SUPLEX. He takes Chandler’s back but was too high and slipped off. Now Chandler’s on top of him in guard. With 1:00 left, Brooks escapes to his feet. Chandler gets hyper aggressive and nearly KOs books! he floored brooks. He’s going for an arm triangle now as the seconds are winding down. Brooks escapes, but is still mounted. That’s how the round and the fight ends, with Chandler on top in mount.

The judges gave Will Brooks the split decision. Crazy fight. Crazy card. Wow.

Quinton Jackson vs. Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal

Round 1: King Mo shoots right away and successfully lands a single leg. All Rampage can do is keep Mo in his guard. The fans are booing loudly. Mo passes into side control. Rampage manages to stand back up, but Mo retains a body lock. He has Rampage against the fence. Mo goes for a double now and gets it. With about 2:30 left Rampage gets back up but gets double-legged again. He’s got zero answer for Mo’s wrestling. Rampage gets to his feet again with 1:30 to go. Rampage FINALLY manages to separate. Jackson swings big with a left hook and misses. Mo misses a big right hand and Rampage counters with a left. Mo slips while defending against a flurry from Rampage. Rampage gets a little more aggressive as the round ends but can’t connect before the bell.

Round 2: Mo lands a body kick. Rampage lands a left hand that shook Mo a bit. Mo is petrified of Rampage’s striking, it seems. Rampage loads up on right hands and lands a left too. Mo is hurt but manages to clinch. Mo shoots but Rampage throws him off. Mo flies back whenever Rampage’s strikes make contact with him. Mo tries another double leg but Rampage blocks it. They’re against the fence now, with Mo putting his weight on Rampage. He level changes and tries yet another takedown, which fails. A single leg attempt from Mo gets nowhere. Rampage separates for a moment and throws a huge hook. Mo ducks it and clinches. After some inactivity, Rampage separates. King Mo hits a big left hook that hurts Rampage bad. Then he tries the worst flying knee I’ve ever seen, which predictably fails. Afterwards, King Mo brings Rampage to the mat with a double leg. Rampage explodes and gets back up, but it’s too little too late. The round is over.

Round 3: Rampage blocks a single leg attempt from King Mo and lands a flurry of punches. Both fighters breathing heavy. Rampage lands a left hook and Mo initiates a clinch. He bullies Rampage against the fence and pulls off a single-leg takedown. The crowd is booing. There’s three minutes left and King Mo is on top of Rampage in half guard. The fight will probably end here. Rampage gets back to guard. Big John McCarthy calls for action and threatens a stand-up. Rampage turtles up and Mo takes his back. Rampage gtes back to his feet with 2:00 to go. Rampage has his right hand so cocked and loaded it’s ridiculous. Mo shoots a double and has Rampage pressed on the fence. A minute left and they’re still clinched. McCarthy separates them. 30 seconds left. Rampage lands a good uppercut and Mo lands a jab. The fight is over.

Before the decision is announced Rampage and King Mo are still jaw-jacking. Mo is getting pretty animated. They get separated but Mo is still yelling from across the cage. Ugh.

The judges awarded Rampage Jackson with a unanimous decision win. We don’t really agree. They’re yelling at each other after the decision is announced. MMA is terrible sometimes. Rampage is calling for a rematch even though he won. Looks like they’re trying to book the next PPV already. Mo is going apeshit, calling Rampage a dick-rider. Wow.

That’s the event, Potato Nation. Was it worth $50? Probably not, but we certainly had fun watching it because there were quite a few surreal moments.

Bellator 120 Weigh-In GIFs: Rampage Jackson Shoves King Mo, Tito Ortiz Has Some Size on Alexander Shlemenko


(Come on Rampage, how you gonna punk King Mo like that in front of his umbrella ho?)


(That moment when you realize you should have brought Berz Dog for backup.)

GIFs via ZombieProphet. Full Bellator 120 weigh-in results are after the jump via MMAJunkie.


(Come on Rampage, how you gonna punk King Mo like that in front of his umbrella ho?)


(That moment when you realize you should have brought Berz Dog for backup.)

GIFs via ZombieProphet. Full Bellator 120 weigh-in results are after the jump via MMAJunkie.

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
Quinton Jackson (205.9) vs. Muhammed Lawal (205.6) – light heavyweight tournament final
Will Brooks (154.2) vs. Michael Chandler (154.9) – for interim lightweight title
Tito Ortiz (205.5) vs. Alexander Shlemenko (201.9) – non-title fight
Blagoi Ivanov (249.5) vs. Alexander Volkov (236.1) – heavyweight tournament final
Michael Page (170.5) vs. Ricky Rainey (170.1)

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike TV, 8 p.m. ET)
Cheick Kongo (235) vs. Eric Smith (253.8)
Marcin Held (158) vs. Nate Jolly (158) – 158-pound catchweight
Fabricio Guerreiro (147.9) vs. Shahbulat Shamhalaev (145.1) – 148-pound catchweight
Mike Richman (145.5) vs. Goiti Yamauchi (145.5)

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike.com, 6 p.m. ET)
Austin Lyons (152.4) vs. Zach Underwood (152.3) – 153-pound catchweight
Justin Frazier (264.5) vs. Mike Wessel (257.9)
Ben Brewer (170.2) vs. Andy Uhrich (170.5)
Anthony Lemon (170) vs. Codie Shuffield (170)
Brian Hall (125.6) vs. Cortez Phelia (125.6)

Why Do MMA Fans Want Bellator to Fail?


(“Ay dog, just give it to me straight — am I the father or not?” / Photo via ora.tv)

By Matt Saccaro

Bellator 120 is a day away, but the MMA world doesn’t seem to care…unless of course they’re deriding the Viacom-owned promotion’s PPV endeavors.

People like laughing at Bellator. That goes for both fans and media. MMAJunkie’s Ben Fowlkes noted this phenomenon recently:

You make a fair point about the undercurrent of glee in the response to every new Bellator setback. It reminds me of the late IFL CEO Jay Larkin, who, when convening a conference call to essentially sound the death knell for that organization, bitterly remarked that it seemed to be the most interest the MMA media had ever shown in an IFL announcement. In other words, it’s not just Bellator feeling that sting. As much as MMA seems to recognize the need for a serious competitor to the UFC, it also seems to love to watch those contenders rise and fall. I’m not sure I know why that is, but I do know that, if you are one of those contenders, you don’t help the situation by complaining about it.

So I’m not alone in this; it’s clear that anti-Bellator sentiment is pervasive. But why?

Regarding fans, the sport and the sport’s chief brand—the UFC—are typically conflated. Most casual fans don’t know that MMA and the UFC are two different things. If it’s not UFC, it’s nothing; they’ll believe anything the UFC tells them without question. The UFC’s ability to produce stars might be lacking, but they’re as good at producing ideologues as they ever were.

However, this doesn’t answer why the hardcore fans hate Bellator. Hardcores often have an anti-UFC slant (they’re still mad about Pride and Strikeforce). So it seems only natural they’d be big Bellator supporters, especially since Bellator’s tournament structure purportedly reduces title shot chicanery that the UFC is infamous for. Except it doesn’t. They screwed Attila Vegh because he wasn’t profitable enough. They engineered the season 10 light heavyweight tournament for the most favorable outcome (King Mo vs. Rampage). Bellator went from providing something novel and refreshing to being a second-rate UFC clone. And let’s not even mention pushing an ancient, injury prone Tito Ortiz and a past-his-prime, embarrassingly disinterested Rampage Jackson as superstars.


(“Ay dog, just give it to me straight — am I the father or not?” / Photo via ora.tv)

By Matt Saccaro

Bellator 120 is a day away, but the MMA world doesn’t seem to care…unless of course they’re deriding the Viacom-owned promotion’s PPV endeavors.

People like laughing at Bellator. That goes for both fans and media. MMAJunkie’s Ben Fowlkes noted this phenomenon recently:

You make a fair point about the undercurrent of glee in the response to every new Bellator setback. It reminds me of the late IFL CEO Jay Larkin, who, when convening a conference call to essentially sound the death knell for that organization, bitterly remarked that it seemed to be the most interest the MMA media had ever shown in an IFL announcement. In other words, it’s not just Bellator feeling that sting. As much as MMA seems to recognize the need for a serious competitor to the UFC, it also seems to love to watch those contenders rise and fall. I’m not sure I know why that is, but I do know that, if you are one of those contenders, you don’t help the situation by complaining about it.

So I’m not alone in this; it’s clear that anti-Bellator sentiment is pervasive. But why?

Regarding fans, the sport and the sport’s chief brand—the UFC—are typically conflated. Most casual fans don’t know that MMA and the UFC are two different things. If it’s not UFC, it’s nothing; they’ll believe anything the UFC tells them without question. The UFC’s ability to produce stars might be lacking, but they’re as good at producing ideologues as they ever were.

However, this doesn’t answer why the hardcore fans hate Bellator. Hardcores often have an anti-UFC slant (they’re still mad about Pride and Strikeforce). So it seems only natural they’d be big Bellator supporters, especially since Bellator’s tournament structure purportedly reduces title shot chicanery that the UFC is infamous for. Except it doesn’t. They screwed Attila Vegh because he wasn’t profitable enough. They engineered the season 10 light heavyweight tournament for the most favorable outcome (King Mo vs. Rampage). Bellator went from providing something novel and refreshing to being a second-rate UFC clone. And let’s not even mention pushing an ancient, injury prone Tito Ortiz and a past-his-prime, embarrassingly disinterested Rampage Jackson as superstars.

Fans who don’t know that “UFC” and “MMA” are two different things will always hate the #2 promotion. Meanwhile, nuanced fans (the kinds of people who read CagePotato and spend loads of time on r/MMA) will want the #2 promotion to do something other than attempt to out-UFC the UFC.

But the fans aren’t the only guilty ones. Bellator’s failures elicit weapons-grade snark from MMA media members. MMAFighting’s Luke Thomas speculated as to why on his live chat series earlier this week.

“I think there are some guys in media either cognizantly or just buy accident…who are just gonna have a UFC bias,” he said in response to a lengthy comment about the MMA media’s coverage of Bellator. “I think there are some guys who are openly biased towards UFC and I think there are some guys who are just naturally gonna be drawn that way, naturally drawn to a space where because [the UFC] is so powerful and because so much of their attention is derived around it and because it becomes almost a chore in some ways to cover Bellator they don’t give it proper attention.”

Thomas elaborated further:

“There’s limits about what you can cover and what you can’t cover. And the reality is, with some exception, You have to cover things because it’s journalistically important, and we do. We give every Bellator show coverage…In terms of the return on the investment, insofar as you want to look at it that way, most Bellator shows do not do a tremendous amount of traffic. In terms of allocating resources to cover something, which you have to look at the bottom line, it becomes an issue.”

He’s right, at least as far as return on investment goes. I’ve been with CagePotato for about a year now (and writing about MMA for three years), and I’m typically the one who does Bellator recaps on the site. Regarding the page views on them, let’s just say if page views directly correlate to PPV buys, Bellator 120 will not succeed. Bellator articles are almost always underwhelming traffic-wise. The exceptions are usually the negative articles (their first PPV cancellation, Eddie Alvarez’s recent concussion), or when you’re directly comparing them to the UFC. Still, we cover Bellator shows because we’re an MMA site and not a UFC PR machine like other outlets.

America loves to praise a winner, but enjoys mocking a loser just as much. While we laugh at Bellator sometimes too, that doesn’t mean we don’t recognize Bellator’s importance in the MMA landscape, even when we write/tweet negative things about it. MMA is better off with a strong #2 promotion than without one. Just look at the Gilbert Melendez situation. Bellator’s existence allowed him to make more money. Keep that in mind next time you turn your snark up to 11 or buy into the anti-Bellator hype. They might make a lot of dumb decisions, but the MMA ecosystem benefits from Bellator, shady behaviors notwithstanding.


(“Unlike our competitors, Bellator will never rely on cheap subliminal persuasion gimmicks. Either you want to watch this deliciously stacked, top-heavy fight card or you don’t.” / Photo via MMAJunkie)

Seven Last-Minute Changes to the Bellator PPV That Would Actually Make It Worth Paying For


(Trust us, Bjorn. When Tito pulls out of the Shlemenko fight in a few days, you’ll want to start thinking outside the box. / Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

By Seth Falvo

By now, you’ve all heard the news: The main event of Bellator’s inaugural pay-per-view has been cancelled due to one of the headliners getting injured only one week out from the fight…again. Except this time around, Bellator isn’t simply moving the remaining card to Spike TV. Instead, Bellator is making Rampage vs. King Mo the new main event, having Michael Chandler fight Will Brooks for a completely meaningless interim lightweight title, moving Alexander Volkov vs. Blagoi Ivanov to the main card, and asking us to kindly fork over our money for this new line-up.

I hate to be pessimistic, but I really don’t think this strategy is going to end well for anyone involved.

The biggest problem with the “Alvarez vs. Chandler III-free” Bellator 120 is that there’s no hook. Every good pay-per-view has to be about something, and if “These two aging light-heavyweights used to really hate each other five years ago” is that something, it’s doubtful that too many fans are going to spend both their money and a Saturday night on it. The boom period for MMA on pay-per-view is long gone. If a new competitor is going to put on a successful pay-per-view event, it’s going to need a stronger product than UFC Lite — it’s going to need something to make it actually stand out.

So it’s in that spirit that I’ve decided to offer up a few last-minute suggestions to make Bellator 120 a more interesting card, to both the casual MMA fans and the grizzled diehards who Bellator is hoping to attract. All of these suggestions are at least a little crazy. Some are crazy enough to actually work. We’ll start off with what I feel is the most practical, then descend further into madness in no particular order…


(Trust us, Bjorn. When Tito pulls out of the Shlemenko fight in a few days, you’ll want to start thinking outside the box. / Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

By Seth Falvo

By now, you’ve all heard the news: The main event of Bellator’s inaugural pay-per-view has been cancelled due to one of the headliners getting injured only one week out from the fight…again. Except this time around, Bellator isn’t simply moving the remaining card to Spike TV. Instead, Bellator is making Rampage vs. King Mo the new main event, having Michael Chandler fight Will Brooks for a completely meaningless interim lightweight title, moving Alexander Volkov vs. Blagoi Ivanov to the main card, and asking us to kindly fork over our money for this new line-up.

I hate to be pessimistic, but I really don’t think this strategy is going to end well for anyone involved.

The biggest problem with the “Alvarez vs. Chandler III-free” Bellator 120 is that there’s no hook. Every good pay-per-view has to be about something, and if “These two aging light-heavyweights used to really hate each other five years ago” is that something, it’s doubtful that too many fans are going to spend both their money and a Saturday night on it. The boom period for MMA on pay-per-view is long gone. If a new competitor is going to put on a successful pay-per-view event, it’s going to need a stronger product than UFC Lite — it’s going to need something to make it actually stand out.

So it’s in that spirit that I’ve decided to offer up a few last-minute suggestions to make Bellator 120 a more interesting card, to both the casual MMA fans and the grizzled diehards who Bellator is hoping to attract. All of these suggestions are at least a little crazy. Some are crazy enough to actually work. We’ll start off with what I feel is the most practical, then descend further into madness in no particular order.

Throw a One-Night Heavyweight Tournament

Tell Rampage, King Mo, Tito Ortiz and Alexander Shlemenko to forget about that pesky cut down to 205, and throw in Cheick Kongo, Eric Smith, Alexander Volkov and Blagoi Ivanov for good measure. Keep the original four fights as the opening round of the tournament, then air Michael Page vs. Rickey Rainey before the semi-finals and Michael Chandler vs. Will Brooks before the tournament championship bout.

Why It Would Work: The appeal of one-night tournaments has been obvious since the dawn of MMA (no matter what you consider that to be), and the tournament concept is consistent with everything Bellator already does.
Why It Wouldn’t Work: Well, let’s ignore the fact that this season’s light-heavyweight tournament will be decided by a heavyweight bout in this scenario, and instead focus on how this tournament would guarantee that at least one division’s tournament winner will go on to earn a title shot despite coming off of a loss. Also, anyone who thinks a one-night heavyweight tournament is a fool-proof promotional strategy has clearly never heard of YAMMA Pit Fighting.

On that note…

A One Night Open-Weight Tournament

Embrace your inner-Super Hluk. You know you want to.

Why It Would Work: This is the type of spectacle that practically sells itself to the hardcore fans who remember when staying up until 7 AM to find out that Sakuraba mangled his arm seemed like something a normal human being would do.
Why It Wouldn’t Work: This is also the type of spectacle that the Mississippi Athletic Commission would (presumably) frown upon.

BellaTNA: The Hybrid MMA/Professional Wrestling Card

Viacom has been forcing a strange Bellator/TNA partnership for the past few years. Why not promote a half professional wrestling, half MMA card when it actually kind-of makes sense?

Why It Would Work: At least TNA Impact has a built-in fan base that has demonstrated they’re willing to spend money on the company’s pay-per-view events. And besides, Bobby Lashley is currently on the TNA Roster, so there’s that, I guess.
Why It Wouldn’t Work: So, you expect TNA to announce its involvement in the pay-per-view on Thursday’s edition of Impact, hope that fans actually buy it in time for Saturday, and present it to an audience that paid for a show they assumed would only feature MMA bouts? TNA has made some boneheaded business decisions, but this would be a low point even for them.

On the next page: PRIDE, boxing, and the most obvious solution of all…

Bellator 119 a Success but Storm Clouds Gather for PPV Prospects


(Via Brian J. D’Souza)

By Brian J. D’Souza

Last night, Bellator 119 was held at Casino Rama in Orillia, a sleepy town about two hours north of Toronto. By some standards, the show was a success—it featured performances by a talented, well-matched card punctuated with Daniel Weichel (33-8) finishing Desmond Green (11-2) via rear naked choke in the second round of the featherweight tournament finale. It was the type of mid-level show that has proved financially sustainable in the gritty dog-eat-dog world of MMA promotions. Regardless of sweeping reports from Sherdog.com and MMAFighting.com that Eddie Alvarez is pulling out of the inaugural Bellator pay-per-view show next week (reports that Bjorn Rebney denied at the post-fight presser), the promotion’soverall prospects for expansion are limited.

On the undercard of Bellator 119, Brazilian featherweight Marlon Sandro faced London, Ontario native Chris Horodecki. Sandro controlled the pace, committing to his strikes and dominating Horodecki to earn the judge’s decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27). At the post-fight presser, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney explained reasons why the bout was intentionally hidden among the untelevised preliminary bouts:

“Ran into some difficult contract situations that came to light in the last 24-48 hours before the fight…we all felt it was a better decision to keep the [Sandro-Horodecki] fight off TV and not exacerbate a bad situation,” said Rebney. “We got a lot of claims coming in from other camps that were claiming an interest in Chris Horodecki. We didn’t want to put him in a horrible spot of receiving a big lawsuit.”

Chris Horodecki has fought in three separate promotions since his last three-fight Bellator stint. If he is still under contract to another promotion, Horodecki needs to question his management for placing him in the precarious lose-lose position of limited exposure and shortchanging Bellator’s TV product.


(Via Brian J. D’Souza)

By Brian J. D’Souza

Last night, Bellator 119 was held at Casino Rama in Orillia, a sleepy town about two hours north of Toronto. By some standards, the show was a success—it featured performances by a talented, well-matched card punctuated with Daniel Weichel (33-8) finishing Desmond Green (11-2) via rear naked choke in the second round of the featherweight tournament finale. It was the type of mid-level show that has proved financially sustainable in the gritty dog-eat-dog world of MMA promotions. Regardless of sweeping reports from Sherdog.com and MMAFighting.com that Eddie Alvarez is pulling out of the inaugural Bellator pay-per-view show next week (reports that Bjorn Rebney denied at the post-fight presser), the promotion’s overall prospects for expansion are limited.

On the undercard of Bellator 119, Brazilian featherweight Marlon Sandro faced London, Ontario native Chris Horodecki. Sandro controlled the pace, committing to his strikes and dominating Horodecki to earn the judge’s decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27). At the post-fight presser, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney explained reasons why the bout was intentionally hidden among the untelevised preliminary bouts:

“Ran into some difficult contract situations that came to light in the last 24-48 hours before the fight…we all felt it was a better decision to keep the [Sandro-Horodecki] fight off TV and not exacerbate a bad situation,” said Rebney. “We got a lot of claims coming in from other camps that were claiming an interest in Chris Horodecki. We didn’t want to put him in a horrible spot of receiving a big lawsuit.”

Chris Horodecki has fought in three separate promotions since his last three-fight Bellator stint. If he is still under contract to another promotion, Horodecki needs to question his management for placing him in the precarious lose-lose position of limited exposure and shortchanging Bellator’s TV product.

Heavyweights Raphael Butler and Nick Rossborough started with a bang and finished with both men out of gas. Butler intentionally fouled Rossborough with a head butt in the first round when Rossborough had Butler’s back. The ref took a point and restarted them on the feet; Butler took control from there onwards, clearly winning the final two rounds. After the fight, Rossborough claimed to have no memory of what transpired after the head butt; the judges scored the fight 28-27, 28-28 and 28-28 making it a majority draw.

In the other televised bouts, Marius Zaromskis low-kicked Canadian Vaughn Anderson’s leg into hamburger en route to a decision win; Canadian John Alessio used his veteran experience to outwrestle Eric Wisely and grind out a decision win.

For all the skill on display, Bellator has a ceiling in terms of how successful the promotion can become as its homegrown talent is handicapped in terms of perception and marketability. For instance, the May 17 pay per view relies heavily on UFC veterans Quinton Jackson and Tito Ortiz. If Eddie Alvarez fulfills the final fight on his Bellator contract when he recovers from his concussion and is signed to the UFC, he may prove himself equally skilled or superior to UFC lightweights; Bellator would win a moral victory but that wouldn’t necessarily translate into higher viewership for Bellator lightweights like Michael Chandler.

To become a player in the pay per view market, Bellator needs to sign UFC stars at the zenith of their popularity like Jon Jones, Ronda Rousey or Nick Diaz. Assuming Viacom would pony up the scratch, standard contractual language like the 12-month matching clause poses a tremendous problem. When Bellator attempted to acquire Gilbert Melendez, all the UFC had to do was outbid Bellator once and Melendez became UFC property once again.

“God bless Gilbert Melendez, we made him a very rich man,” claimed Rebney. “We made him an offer. The matching clause is in place, he is now the highest paid lightweight the UFC has—[and] one of the highest paid fighters the UFC has fighting in any division.”

Strategically, the UFC will continue to sign its marquee fighters to long-term contracts and match any offers made to their most marketable fighters in order to retain the dominant market position.

Still, Rebney is optimistic about Bellator’s offerings for its first pay per view show, “I think people need to look at it in the context of a fighting event, and not think about branding.”

In fact, the strength of the UFC brand is part of why the promotion remains content to offer an increasingly watered-down product with an escalating frequency of shows. However, some fans are getting wise to the game and are becoming increasingly critical; the UFC has no reason to change unless said fans vote with their pocketbooks.

If Bellator gets its first PPV card off the ground despite Alvarez’s injury and somehow manages to land near the break-even point, future shows will have to be cobbled together using a mix of former UFC fighters and homegrown talent. Throughout this, Bellator will need to stop the UFC from poaching their brightest stars, as was the strategy when Eddie Alvarez attempted to sign with the UFC and Bellator invoked their right to match the offer.

All in all, there’s a lot to be considered for the long-term health of the sport. Having a second major promotion would benefit the industry in every way imaginable, but whether Bellator can survive business forces long enough to be a contender remains a topic for debate.

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Brian J. D’Souza is the author of the critically acclaimed book Pound for Pound: The Modern Gladiators of Mixed Martial Arts. You can check out an excerpt right here.

Concussion Forces Eddie Alvarez Out of Bellator PPV

Did Dana White study voodoo from Michael Jackson or something? Because Bellator has had worse luck than than nearly any promotion in the history of MMA when it comes to launching a successful PPV.

In case the headline didn’t tip you off, Eddie Alvarez is out of Bellator 120—the promotion’s second attempt to break into the PPV market. His rubber match with Michael Chandler will have to wait.


(Well, in a way, MMA’s “greatest trilogy” did kind of end at Bellator 120…)

Did Dana White study voodoo from Michael Jackson or something? Because Bellator has had worse luck than nearly any promotion in the history of MMA when it comes to launching a successful PPV.

In case the headline didn’t tip you off, Eddie Alvarez is out of Bellator 120—the promotion’s second attempt to break into the PPV market. His rubber match with Michael Chandler will have to wait.

Sherdog’s Greg Savage broke the news on Twitter last night. Initially, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney denied the rumor, saying the fight was still on. Less than 24 hours later, Bellator hasn’t officially announced anything but media outlets are accepting Alvarez’s withdrawal as fact.

What’ll they do now? Hopefully they convert it to a free card on Spike, like they did with their last ill-fated PPV. It’s unlikely Rampage Jackson vs. King Mo, Tito Ortiz vs. Alexander Shlemenko, Michael Page vs. Rick Rainey [Editor’s note: They were charging money for that fight?] and Will Brooks vs. Nate Jolly will be worth the price of admission. Regarding the last fight, Brooks vs. Jolly, it’s speculated that Brooks will be bumped into the main event against Chandler but who can say for sure.

We can see Dana White readying his famous tombstone now.