“We weren’t able to do the first one on pay-per-view, and I definitely want to headline a pay-per-view card, and we get an opportunity to do that. What better way to do that than to have one of the best trilogies in MMA history? Why not fight the guy three times, four times, five times? Who cares? It’s a hell of a fight every time.”
“We weren’t able to do the first one on pay-per-view, and I definitely want to headline a pay-per-view card, and we get an opportunity to do that. What better way to do that than to have one of the best trilogies in MMA history? Why not fight the guy three times, four times, five times? Who cares? It’s a hell of a fight every time.”
I’m halfway-convinced that this was Bellator’s plan all along. (They couldn’t have possibly expected Ortiz and Rampage to stay healthy, right?) At any rate, it all worked out for the best. Alvarez won a narrow split-decision after five rounds, avenging his previous submission loss against Chandler, and over a million viewers tuned in to see it.
We already know that MMA fans will show up to watch Alvarez and Chandler beat the crap out of each other when it’s aired on cable. The question is, are you willing to pay $34.95 for a fight that was already given away twice for free?
It’s official: Bellator’s canceled pay-per-view was the greatest thing that ever happened to the promotion. (Called it!) According to a press release distributed today by Spike TV, Bellator 106: Chandler vs. Alvarez 2 delivered 1.1 million average viewers during the Spike telecast, which made it the most-watched event in Bellator history and the most watched mixed martial arts show on television this fall. As the release goes on to explain:
The “Chandler-Alvarez II” fight card peaked at 1.4 million viewers at 11:17pm and reached its high mark with Men 18-49 with a 1.1 rating for the Alvarez-Chandler bout. The telecast also ranked #2 in cable in its timeslot with Men 18-49.
For fans who missed the fight, or who recorded it but the end was cut off due to the extraordinary length of the event, Spike TV will replay the Chandler-Alvarez II main event bout on Friday, November 8 at 8:00pm ET/PT. The replay will lead into a live Bellator event featuring heavyweights Cheick Kongo vs. Peter Graham and a co-feature with lightweight contenders Joe Warren and Travis Marx.
Note to Bellator: Don’t brag about the “extraordinary length” of your event. That shit was nearly four hours long, and people almost died out here. (It’s worth noting that the audience peaked well before the main event had even begun.) On the plus side, it must feel amazing for Bellator to clown the UFC with that “most watched mixed martial arts show on television this fall” line, especially at a time when the UFC is probably kind of sensitive about that sort of thing.
It’s official: Bellator’s canceled pay-per-view was the greatest thing that ever happened to the promotion. (Called it!) According to a press release distributed today by Spike TV, Bellator 106: Chandler vs. Alvarez 2 delivered 1.1 million average viewers during the Spike telecast, which made it the most-watched event in Bellator history and the most watched mixed martial arts show on television this fall. As the release goes on to explain:
The “Chandler-Alvarez II” fight card peaked at 1.4 million viewers at 11:17pm and reached its high mark with Men 18-49 with a 1.1 rating for the Alvarez-Chandler bout. The telecast also ranked #2 in cable in its timeslot with Men 18-49.
For fans who missed the fight, or who recorded it but the end was cut off due to the extraordinary length of the event, Spike TV will replay the Chandler-Alvarez II main event bout on Friday, November 8 at 8:00pm ET/PT. The replay will lead into a live Bellator event featuring heavyweights Cheick Kongo vs. Peter Graham and a co-feature with lightweight contenders Joe Warren and Travis Marx.
Note to Bellator: Don’t brag about the “extraordinary length” of your event. That shit was nearly four hours long, and people almost died out here. (It’s worth noting that the audience peaked well before the main event had even begun.) On the plus side, it must feel amazing for Bellator to clown the UFC with that “most watched mixed martial arts show on television this fall” line, especially at a time when the UFC is probably kind of sensitive about that sort of thing.
Shortly after Bellator 106, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said that he’d like to do the rubber-match between Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler on pay-per-view. Hopefully these Spike TV numbers will make him realize that not being on pay-per-view is what made the success of this event possible. Granted, not all of Bellator’s future shows will be able to draw as many eyeballs as this, but if they can occasionally put on events headlined by genuinely exciting fights, fans will tune in.
And just to clarify — Chandler vs. Alvarez is a genuinely exciting fight. Rampage vs Tito is not.
(The purple hue really brings out the chestnut color of Alvarez’s eyebrows. / via twitter)
The best Sundays are post-event Sundays. There’s tons of great articles to read about the valiant, violent displays of physical fortitude that occurred the night before.
Usually, there’s not enough interest in a Bellator card to warrant a slew of interesting sound bites and pictures. But Bellator 106 was different. Bellator 106 was the canceled PPV that became one of the most important free, non-UFC televised cards in MMA history. Let’s look at some of the fallout, the crucial and the just plain cool.
Rebney had some other important statements. He pessimistically dismissed the future of Bellator’s “Ultimate Fighter” knockoff “Fight Master.” Typical of post-Viacom buyout Bellator, Rebney didn’t do this without taking a shot at the UFC.
“Reality fight TV is having its difficulties now. You can see it in the UFC’s ratings, they’re having the lowerst-rated TUF they’ve had in the history of the show,” he said (he was right, by the way).
Read about Bellator’s next PPV, King Mo’s surprising salary, and more after the jump.
(The purple hue really brings out the chestnut color of Alvarez’s eyebrows. / via twitter)
The best Sundays are post-event Sundays. There’s tons of great articles to read about the valiant, violent displays of physical fortitude that occurred the night before.
Usually, there’s not enough interest in a Bellator card to warrant a slew of interesting sound bites and pictures. But Bellator 106 was different. Bellator 106 was the canceled PPV that became one of the most important free, non-UFC televised cards in MMA history. Let’s look at some of the fallout, the crucial and the just plain cool.
Rebney had some other important statements. He pessimistically dismissed the future of Bellator’s “Ultimate Fighter” knockoff “Fight Master.” Typical of post-Viacom buyout Bellator, Rebney didn’t do this without taking a shot at the UFC.
“Reality fight TV is having its difficulties now. You can see it in the UFC’s ratings, they’re having the lowerst-rated TUF they’ve had in the history of the show,” he said (he was right, by the way).
But Rebney couldn’t continue his streak of smart post-fight quotes—he all but flat-out said that he’s planning another PPV for Bellator…because it went so well the first time. He said he wouldn’t put Chandler-Alvarez III on free TV unless he had his brains removed, which is funny because your brain (or at least part of it) would have to be removed to think putting Tito Ortiz vs. Rampage Jackson on a PPV in 2013 was a good idea.
Presumably, Chandler-Alvarez III would serve as this hypothetical PPV’s main event. That’s great because Bellator would be promoting it’s own stars rather than UFC castoffs, which is what a lot of fans and writers want. But if Bellator 106 showed anything, it was that Bellator doesn’t have the supporting cast to make a PPV worth $45, no matter how exciting the main event promises to be.
On the lighter side of things (and it’s interesting commentary on MMA that a fighter tweeting a picture of his injured face is the lighter side), Eddie Alvarezshared a picture of his stitched-up, swollen eye. The shiner was probably worth the $160,000 Alvarez earned though; he was the highest paid fighter of the night.
Interestingly (and sadly), King Mo only made $10,000 despite being one of the most well-known fighters on the card. For reference, low-level journeyman Hector “Sick Dog” Ramirez (the very same Hector Ramirez that Forrest Griffin won a boring decision over way back at UFC 72) made $7,000 to lose on the prelims. Guess it’s not so good to be the king—unless you count meeting former WCW champ Diamond Dallas Page after the fight as part of Mo’s kingly benefits (which is pretty cool).
That’s all for now. Soak it up, because there might not be another Bellator news roundup until their next PPV.
After going 0-2-1 in his first three UFC appearances, McCall won his do-or-die fight against Iliarde Santos at UFC 163, and was looking to make it two in a row against Jorgensen, a former bantamweight contender who was scheduled to make his 125-pound debut. The UFC is currently looking for a replacement opponent for Jorgensen, who was most recently choked out by Urijah Faber at the TUF 17 Finale. Anyway, tough break for Creepy. We’ll update you when we know more.
In other injury news, Bellator 106 has taken another step towards “cursed card” status…
(“Serves you right, you bastard.” — The local homeless drug-addict community. / Photo via MMAJunkie)
After going 0-2-1 in his first three UFC appearances, McCall won his do-or-die fight against Iliarde Santos at UFC 163, and was looking to make it two in a row against Jorgensen, a former bantamweight contender who was scheduled to make his 125-pound debut. The UFC is currently looking for a replacement opponent for Jorgensen, who was most recently choked out by Urijah Faber at the TUF 17 Finale. Anyway, tough break for Creepy. We’ll update you when we know more.
In other injury news, Bellator 106 has taken another step towards “cursed card” status…
Fun fact: Bellator’s current heavyweight champion is a guy named Alexander Volkov; I just learned that on Wikipedia. Come back, Cole — the game needs you.
Officially, Bellator canceled the PPV because Tito Ortiz withdrew from the main event bout versus Rampage Jackson, and not because of the PPV’s dubious chances of success. But the result is the same as if they had just canceled it outright: Bellator saves face.
Ortiz’s injury and the resulting cancellation of the PPV were a godsend for Bellator. Why? Let’s look at the most likely scenario for what could’ve happened if Bellator went on with their PPV — both if Ortiz had gotten injured and if he hadn’t.
Scenario 1, Ortiz doesn’t get injured and the PPV goes on:
Officially, Bellator canceled the PPV because Tito Ortiz withdrew from the main event bout versus Rampage Jackson, and not because of the PPV’s dubious chances of success. But the result is the same as if they had just canceled it outright: Bellator saves face.
Ortiz’s injury and the resulting cancellation of the PPV were a godsend for Bellator. Why? Let’s look at the most likely scenario for what could’ve happened if Bellator went on with their PPV — both if Ortiz had gotten injured and if he hadn’t.
Scenario 1, Ortiz doesn’t get injured and the PPV goes on: What happens here? The show probably bombs with 10k buys or fewer. Viacom realizes that, like Dana White said, there’s no value in Bellator.
Viacom either pulls the plug outright or scales down Bellator from hopeful claimant to the UFC’s throne into something akin to the toughman contests on FX. If this happened, Viacom would keep it around because it’d get decent enough ratings for the pittance it’d cost to produce the scaled down version of the show.
Scenario 2, Ortiz does get injured and the PPV still goes on: Attila Vegh replaces Ortiz against Rampage (even though Attila Vegh was “injured” and had to pull out of a fight on this PPV previously). The PPV bombs even worse.
Those two scenarios are both terrible for Bellator. The PPV, Ortiz or no, was destined for Affliction-level failure. Making the card free on Spike was the best option (and was from the onset of Viacom’s acquisition of former UFC “stars”).
The casuals don’t know Michael Chandler (despite the fact that he’s the face of Dave & Busters). The casuals don’t know Eddie Alvarez. The casuals don’t know most of the other fighters on the card either. Putting the entirety of the Bellator PPV card on Spike will help build their profiles a little more, or at the very least stop people from forgetting about them.
Furthermore, Bellator can use Rampage like he should’ve been used: To help get more ratings on Spike to draw more eyeballs to Bellator’s stable of talented, non-UFC-washout fighters.
Bjorn Rebney said that they were going to book a fight for Rampage “literally as quickly as possible.” Hopefully for Bellator’s sake, that means it’ll be on free television (unless they’re planning on producing an ad-hoc PPV solely to showcase an old, slow, whining, lazy Rampage versus some random can). Rampage, being Bellator’s fighter with the greatest name value — yeah, I know, that’s not saying much — can draw more viewers to the younger, more talented fighters on Bellator’s roster.
Allow me to make a comparison to pro wrestling history: #2 promotion WCW hired Hulk Hogan after he had left the WWE (then WWF) because he was a star. That star brought viewers to WCW, viewers who where then wowed by some the undercard matches between young, exciting wrestlers like Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio Jr, and Chris Jericho — wrestlers who many casual fans might not have ever seen if the older, established Hogan hadn’t brought attention to WCW.
Of course, Bellator Rampage Jackson is no WCW Hulk Hogan — who was still the biggest star in wrestling at the time. Nevertheless, Bellator will build greater name value for their fighters by showcasing their big UFC acquisitions Tito and Rampage on free TV alongside the young, hungry, talented fighters. Canceling the PPV has allowed them to do that.
The cloud of Bellator’s PPV cancellation doesn’t have a silver lining because the entire cloud practically is a silver lining.
(The reason was to avoid another unnecessary ass-kicking, Tito. DUH. Via Ortiz’s instagram.)
Hey, you guys? Oh my God, you guys. You guys are never going to believe this shit. It appears that Tito Ortiz’s neck has once again collapsed under the weight of his massive head (via MMAFighting):
Bellator’s inaugural pay-per-view has been hit by the injury bug.
Tito Ortiz suffered a neck injury in training which will keep him out of next weekend’s fight against Quinton Jackson, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
Bellator is currently seeking a replacement for Ortiz, and it is unclear at this time whether Jackson will remain on the Nov. 2 card. There is a chance next weekend’s pay-per-view card turns into a Spike show with Jackson being moved to another event.
Well, at least Tito didn’t wait until 3 days after the fight to announce that he had been injured the whole time. It’s what we like to call “progress.” But seriously, bathroom selfie or it didn’t happen.
[UPDATE] Bellator sheds some light on the status of their PPV (via Twitter) after the jump…
(The reason was to avoid another unnecessary ass-kicking, Tito. DUH. Via Ortiz’s instagram.)
Hey, you guys? Oh my God, you guys. You guys are never going to believe this shit. It appears that Tito Ortiz’s neck has once again collapsed under the weight of his massive head (via MMAFighting):
Bellator’s inaugural pay-per-view has been hit by the injury bug.
Tito Ortiz suffered a neck injury in training which will keep him out of next weekend’s fight against Quinton Jackson, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
Bellator is currently seeking a replacement for Ortiz, and it is unclear at this time whether Jackson will remain on the Nov. 2 card. There is a chance next weekend’s pay-per-view card turns into a Spike show with Jackson being moved to another event.
Well, at least Tito didn’t wait until 3 days after the fight to announce that he had been injured the whole time. It’s what we like to call “progress.” But seriously, bathroom selfie or it didn’t happen.
