Eddie Alvarez is back in business.
The former lightweight champ, long relegated to the spectator seats because of a protracted legal battle with Bellator, will return to the cage Nov. 2 for a rematch with reigning champ Michael Chandler in the co-main …
Eddie Alvarez is back in business.
The former lightweight champ, long relegated to the spectator seats because of a protracted legal battle with Bellator, will return to the cage Nov. 2 for a rematch with reigning champ Michael Chandler in the co-main event of Bellator‘s first pay-per-view event.
USA Today and MMAJunkie.com’s John Morgan broke the news Tuesday morning. The story quotes Alvarez as saying “I couldn’t be happier right now…I’m happy to put my name on the dotted line and move forward with my career.”
It’s been a long time coming for the 29-year-old Alvarez (24-3), who has long been considered one of the best lightweights in any MMA promotion. When he steps in the cage against Chandler, he will have lost more than a full year of his prime to lengthy and seemingly acrimonious contract negotiations, which included extensive legal wrangling among Alvarez, Bellator and the UFC, which reportedly offered Alvarez a lucrative contract of its own.
As recently as the spring, a lawsuit between Bellator and Alvarez was expected to go to trial and keep Alvarez out of action until well into 2014. However, with Tuesday’s announcement, it seems a settlement was reached.
That’s a good thing both for Alvarez and Bellator, which stumbled into public-relations no man’s land after booking big but fading stars Quinton Jackson and Tito Ortiz for the main event of Bellator 106, its first pay-per-view event. Adding a title bout between Alvarez and Chandler—the last man to defeat Alvarez—would seem to add much-needed heat to the event.
Chandler (12-0) is becoming a major star in his own right. Most recently, Chandler knocked out David Rickels in the first round to defend his lightweight title for the second time. In November 2011 at Bellator 58, Chandler won the belt with a fourth-round submission of Alvarez. The fight was widely considered to be one of the best of 2011.
(Posting this image alone seems inappropriate enough given the “context” of this article, but we’ll get to that in a minute.)
The man formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver but now spoken only of in terrified whispers as “War Machine” just can’t stop making himself look like an absolute dipshit. Or won’t stop.
The twice imprisoned Bellator welterweight has been fired in the past for making his insane thoughts public, to the point that he is currently the face of the “Think Twice, Then Type” campaign on the social networking site. His most recent remark, also on Twitter, may be his worst to date. However, it does not appear that his employer cares in the slightest.
Just raped @ChristyMack She tried to make me wait until “after errands” As if! =p” War Machine tweeted August 10th.
Koppenhaver went on to declare that, “Real men rape. (Their GF’s and wives, not strangers, don’t get your panties in a bunch.)” Yes, Mr. Machine, let us not jump to conclusions when judging your moral turpitude.
As one would expect, Machine’s latest musings were not received without criticism. Thankfully, we can all rest assured knowing that Machine’s thoughts — which he typed himself, mind you — were taken out of context.
“Apparently you idiots didn’t read my tweet prior to the one y’all are crying about, it puts it in the right context. Sensitive ass bitches,” he scribed, likely while wearing an ascot and smoking a corncob pipe. “Context is the word…y’all motherfuckers just love to take what I say out of CONTEXT and then attempt to demonize me with it. #DIESLOW.”
(Posting this image alone seems inappropriate enough given the “context” of this article, but we’ll get to that in a minute.)
The man formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver but now spoken only of in terrified whispers as “War Machine” just can’t stop making himself look like an absolute dipshit. Or won’t stop.
The twice imprisoned Bellator welterweight has been fired in the past for making his insane thoughts public, to the point that he is currently the face of the “Think Twice, Then Type” campaign on the social networking site. His most recent remark, also on Twitter, may be his worst to date. However, it does not appear that his employer cares in the slightest.
Just raped @ChristyMack She tried to make me wait until “after errands” As if! =p” War Machine tweeted August 10th.
Koppenhaver went on to declare that, “Real men rape. (Their GF’s and wives, not strangers, don’t get your panties in a bunch.)” Yes, Mr. Machine, let us not jump to conclusions when judging your moral turpitude.
As one would expect, Machine’s latest musings were not received without criticism. Thankfully, we can all rest assured knowing that Machine’s thoughts — which he typed himself, mind you — were taken out of context.
“Apparently you idiots didn’t read my tweet prior to the one y’all are crying about, it puts it in the right context. Sensitive ass bitches,” he scribed, likely while wearing an ascot and smoking a corncob pipe. “Context is the word…y’all motherfuckers just love to take what I say out of CONTEXT and then attempt to demonize me with it. #DIESLOW.”
…
Without coming off as the PC police, I think we can all agree that War Machine’s rant crossed a line. What intrigues us most, however, is the correlation between Twitter, MMA and rape jokes. I mean, there’s obviously some hidden connection there, but why exactly? Is there something about only having 150 characters to express oneself that makes MMA fighters want to assert themselves sexually by force? Details at 11.
Shortly after, however, War Machine became enlightened and issued a heartfelt tweetology, “I tweeted something earlier that was stupid, insensitive and wrong. Rape is never something to joke about ever. I sincerely apologize.”
Listen, I like Jon. Or at least the guy named Jon I briefly interviewed years ago shortly after his season of The Ultimate Fighter. *Jon* seemed earnest and courageously spoke openly about his psychological and emotional issues, as well as the help he was seeking for them.War Machine, on the other hand, needs to get a hold of himself and perhaps cancel his Twitter account. He’s a talented and skilled fighter but may be close to once again having his livelihood threatened by stuff he says or does outside of the ring.
Or not. Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney issued a long-winded statement that amounted to a whole lot of nothing regarding his organization’s stance on its fighters being insensitive about rape in response. “I agree with those who found Jon’s earlier statement to be offensive and inappropriate,” the statement began.
And, while his public apology surely does not excuse his statement, it does evidence his recognition of the seriousness of the situation and his realization that what he said was offensive, ignorant and hurtful. Since the day I entered this business, I’ve believed that my job was to treat our fighters like human beings and not like property. Human beings make mistakes and sometimes say stupid things. I’m surely prepared to take action in warranted situations as evidenced by recent promotional contracts we have terminated with well-known, popular fighters who have committed assault and/or who have broken the law. But, in this situation, I remain hopeful that Jon will learn from his mistake, redeem himself and become a better man for it and I would like to give him that chance.
I’m not calling for Machine’s release but goodness, Bjorn, would it be too much trouble to do or say anything of consequence that might make it seem like Bellator does not let its fighters, especially those with violent criminal pasts, say this type of thing publicly? YOU’RE MAKING US ALL LOOK LIKE ASSHOLES.
Bellator’s first ever reality show, “Fight Master,” will be moving nights and time slots for the remainder of the season.
Spike TV will shift the MMA reality show, starring coaches Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock, Greg Jackson and Joe Warren, to Thursday…
Bellator‘s first ever reality show, “Fight Master,” will be moving nights and time slots for the remainder of the season.
Spike TV will shift the MMA reality show, starring coaches Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock, Greg Jackson and Joe Warren, to Thursday nights at 11 p.m. following “IMPACT Wrestling,” which airs from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Bellator officials confirmed with Bleacher Report on Monday that the move was permanent after Spike TV first made an announcement on Twitter.
“Fight Master will be moving to Thursdays at 11p for the remainder of the run,” Bellator officials said via email on Monday.
The move comes just a week after “Fight Master” suffered its worst ratings of the season, pulling in just 398,000 viewers for the August 7 broadcast.
The show has been a roller coaster of ups and downs all summer since launching in June as part of the network’s effort to get back into the MMA market after losing the UFC to Fox in 2011.
The debut of “Fight Master” came with a paltry viewing audience of 432,000 viewers, although the show happened to be going head-to-head with the Stanley Cup playoff finals in the NHL.
In subsequent weeks, the ratings for “Fight Master” improved with week two bumping up to 545,000 viewers and episode three at 676,000 viewers.
Episode four dropped down to 505,000 viewers, with episode six again jumping up in the ratings, gaining 629,000 viewers.
This latest drop, however, is the most dramatic in the series’ brief history. Spike TV officials were unavailable for comment about the move on Monday.
The move to 11 p.m. on Thursdays could mean a couple of things for the struggling show. First, Spike TV is moving it directly after one of their most popular offerings, with TNA wrestling routinely pulling well over a million viewers per episode.
On the other hand, an 11 p.m. time slot is never ideal for original programming on TV when it’s not considered a “late night” show such as “Conan O’Brien” or the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”
There has been no official word on if “Fight Master” will get picked up for a second season or not.
Meanwhile, Bellator remains on hiatus until Saturday, Sept. 7, when they return for the kickoff of season nine, before the live fights move to Friday nights on Spike TV.
Bellator has shifted programming a few times thus far since entering a partnership with Spike TV in 2012. The fight promotion started on Thursday nights, and then shifted to Wednesdays for the summer shows that have aired thus far.
Now they will move to Friday nights for the biggest part of season nine, which runs through Friday, Nov 22.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report
Bellator welterweight Jon “War Machine” Koppenhaver is the latest fighter to make an ill-advised and offensive joke on Twitter when he unleashed a series of messages on Saturday afternoon.
Koppenhaver is no stranger to controversy and was released from…
Bellator welterweight Jon “War Machine” Koppenhaver is the latest fighter to make an ill-advised and offensive joke on Twitter when he unleashed a series of messages on Saturday afternoon.
Koppenhaver is no stranger to controversy and was released from his original contract with Bellator after making derogatory remarks about President Barack Obama on Myspace. He’s also served two separate sentences in prison, had a short-lived career as an adult film star and continues to have one of the most questionable Twitter accounts on the social networking site.
Bellator brought Koppenhaver back where he recently picked up a win over Blas Avena, but on Saturday, he decided to make what he believed were jokes, via MMA Mania’s Matthew Roth, involving rape when speaking about his girlfriend, adult film star Christy Mack.
The Bellator welterweight eventually deleted the second message making reference to rape again and then went on a tirade defending his actions, saying others were taking his joke out of context. (Due to the graphic nature of the tweets and subsequent messages, they will not be posted here.)
It took a few hours and some other colorful language from Koppenhaver on Twitter before he finally issued an apology.
Following that message, Bleacher Report reached out to Bellator officials for a comment on Koppenhaver’s actions, and if any additional discipline would be handed out for the offense. Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney responded by saying that while he absolutely does not condone the behavior, Koppenhaver has apologized and he’s hopeful that he’s learned from the situation.
“I agree with those who found Jon’s earlier statement to be offensive and inappropriate. And, while his public apology (“I tweeted something earlier that was stupid, insensitive and wrong. Rape is never something to joke about ever. I sincerely apologize”) surely does not excuse his statement, it does evidence his recognition of the seriousness of the situation and his realization that what he said was offensive, ignorant and hurtful,” Rebney said via email on Saturday night. “Since the day I entered this business, I’ve believed that my job was to treat our fighters like human beings and not like property. Human beings make mistakes and sometimes say stupid things.
“I’m surely prepared to take action in warranted situations as evidenced by recent promotional contracts we have terminated with well-known, popular fighters who have committed assault and/or who have broken the law. But, in this situation, I remain hopeful that Jon will learn from his mistake, redeem himself and become a better man for it and I would like to give him that chance.”
The fighters Rebney is referencing in his statement include former welterweight standout Paul Daley as well as middleweight Maiquel Falcao, who were both released by Bellator following recent arrests.
Koppenhaver unfortunately joins a sad, but growing club of MMA fighters who have made terrible choices by joking about a very serious crime such as rape. Former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin was admonished after making comments about rape on Twitter, and he was joined by former WEC champion Miguel Torres, who tweeted about the subject as well.
In Torres’ case, he was briefly released by the UFC due to his comment but allowed to come back to the promotion just weeks later.
Since that time, the UFC has instituted a promotion code of conduct policy for its athletes. Bellator, meanwhile, has taken every situation in a case-by-case approach when dealing with its fighters.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report, and all quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
There’s no mystery as to why Bellator is entering the fold — the pay-per-view marketplace is where the profits are for MMA promoters. Yet as Yahoo’s Kevin Iole is fond of noting in one of his latest columns, the only entity in the 20-year history of MMA that has successfully pulled off profitable pay-per-view shows has been the UFC. Merely attempting to break even with a Tito-Rampage main event might be over-reaching on Bellator’s part.
Part of what Iole writes is true, including how Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney is contradicting his previous statements about Bellator aiming to build stars from scratch rather than relying on former UFC fighters. But it is myopic of Kevin Iole to rail off biased theories about how the Bellator PPV is just a ploy in the legal drama between Bellator and Eddie Alvarez, who are feuding over the matching clause in Bellator’s contract. As Iole argues:
“Bellator also looks petty by even putting on a pay-per-view show, because it is likely just a legal maneuver in its court case with top lightweight contender Eddie Alvarez. Alvarez attempted to sign a UFC contract, but Rebney contended Bellator matched the UFC offer and that Alvarez belongs to Bellator.
That’s for a court to decide, but it’s unconscionable for Bellator officials to tie up a young athlete in the prime of his career. But Bellator, which in the suit said it planned to feature Alvarez in a pay-per-view to compete against the UFC offer, now has to go forward.”
A talented fighter like Eddie Alvarez does deserve his chance in the UFC. Unfortunately, the cream does not rise to the top, especially in the fight game: Without the right management, political maneuverings and opportunities, it simply spoils unnoticed and unheralded on the sidelines. Where Iole misses the point over both the Alvarez situation, as well as the true significance of the Bellator PPV, has to do with the context that he explains these situations occurring within.
Bellator didn’t trip over itself to find Tito Ortiz and Quinton Jackson. They just happened to be the only available and marketable MMA fighters who fit into Viacom/Bellator’s plans. Interestingly, the Eddie Alvarez situation speaks directly to the reason why so few free agents exist in MMA, because of how Alvarez’s MMA contract essentially enslaved him to his promotion.
There’s no mystery as to why Bellator is entering the fold — the pay-per-view marketplace is where the profits are for MMA promoters. Yet as Yahoo’s Kevin Iole is fond of noting in one of his latest columns, the only entity in the 20-year history of MMA that has successfully pulled off profitable pay-per-view shows has been the UFC. Merely attempting to break even with a Tito-Rampage main event might be over-reaching on Bellator’s part.
Part of what Iole writes is true, including how Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney is contradicting his previous statements about Bellator aiming to build stars from scratch rather than relying on former UFC fighters. But it is myopic of Kevin Iole to rail off biased theories about how the Bellator PPV is just a ploy in the legal drama between Bellator and Eddie Alvarez, who are feuding over the matching clause in Bellator’s contract. As Iole argues:
“Bellator also looks petty by even putting on a pay-per-view show, because it is likely just a legal maneuver in its court case with top lightweight contender Eddie Alvarez. Alvarez attempted to sign a UFC contract, but Rebney contended Bellator matched the UFC offer and that Alvarez belongs to Bellator.
That’s for a court to decide, but it’s unconscionable for Bellator officials to tie up a young athlete in the prime of his career. But Bellator, which in the suit said it planned to feature Alvarez in a pay-per-view to compete against the UFC offer, now has to go forward.”
A talented fighter like Eddie Alvarez does deserve his chance in the UFC. Unfortunately, the cream does not rise to the top, especially in the fight game: Without the right management, political maneuverings and opportunities, it simply spoils unnoticed and unheralded on the sidelines. Where Iole misses the point over both the Alvarez situation, as well as the true significance of the Bellator PPV, has to do with the context that he explains these situations occurring within.
Bellator didn’t trip over itself to find Tito Ortiz and Quinton Jackson. They just happened to be the only available and marketable MMA fighters who fit into Viacom/Bellator’s plans. Interestingly, the Eddie Alvarez situation speaks directly to the reason why so few free agents exist in MMA, because of how Alvarez’s MMA contract essentially enslaved him to his promotion.
No promoter wants to invest in a fighter without assurances that they will be able to recoup what it cost to develop them down the line. An undercard fighter with a purse of $3,000 (plus expenses like airline tickets, hotel, etc.) has to bring in $3,000+ worth of net profit in ticket sales, pay-per-view buys, merchandise, marketing or sponsorship, otherwise the promoter is taking a loss every time said fighter has a match. It’s no wonder that a promoter would favor long-term contracts that allow them to hang on to the few prospects who do pan out as draws.
The situation between Bellator and Eddie Alvarez is similar to the situation between the UFC and Randy Couture that occurred in October 2007 when Couture tried to bail on a UFC contract with two fights remaining (By the way, did Kevin Iole lament the waste of Couture’s prime athletic years back in 2007-2008?). While Eddie Alvarez should have had a lawyer review his Bellator contract before he signed it, perhaps he felt he had no other options at that juncture of his career.
Without competition in the MMA marketplace, promoters are free to offer fighters the worst contracts possible — the kind that’s chock-full of legal jargon which emasculates them and diminishes their brand. These can include clauses that demand likeness rights, video game rights, a cut of sponsorship, matching clauses — you name it, a lawyer can put it in writing and have the fighter sign it in their own blood.
For all the flaws of the Rampage-Ortiz PPV, it has value for fighters everywhere. Suddenly there’s a second MMA promotion running pay-per-views, and in-demand fighters can use that as leverage in contract negotiations.
The UFC is well-aware of the dangers of competition. Their former competitor Strikeforce was swallowed up back in March 2011 before the San Jose-based outfit could even attempt to put on a PPV show. A free UFC card featuring Anderson Silva vs James Irvin was quickly slapped together to counter-program Affliction’s July 19 show in 2008 (Iole omits this fact from his criticism that Affliction’s PPV show drew an estimated 100,000 PPV buys).
Strategically, the UFC is making the correct move behind the scenes in anticipating Viacom/Bellator’s strategy. That’s why you see fighters like Roy Nelson being signed to a nine-fight contract, or Anderson Silva signing a 10-fight contract. Even if Bellator was able or willing to match UFC salaries, the promotion legally couldn’t even field an offer to fighters like Silva or Nelson — not unless Bellator is waiting to wait several more years.
The fight game has always been about opportunism, greed and hypocrisy, and no promotion should be exempt from judgment. There are numerous stories afloat about how Bellator has shortchanged its fighters, the Eddie Alvarez situation just being the visible tip of the iceberg. Simultaneously, the MMA media has to acknowledge what the underlying issues are with regards to fighter contracts, rather than attacking the symptoms of a corrupt universe as Kevin Iole has done.
The bottom line is that the success of the Rampage-Ortiz PPV shouldn’t be measured on the show’s PPV buys. Bellator’s strategic goals are to achieve a larger television audience on Spike TV and to acquire several more marketable pay-per-view stars. Perhaps if Anderson Silva puts on another performance as embarrassing as the one at UFC 112, or if Jon Jones refuses another last-minute opponent leading to the cancellation of an event, Bellator might finally be able to put on a PPV event worth buying.
Since Bellator Fighting Championships was created, there hasn’t been much vitriol between them and the UFC, which happens to be the biggest MMA promotion on the planet.
Certainly there have been jabs back and forth, here and there over the years, but n…
Since Bellator Fighting Championships was created, there hasn’t been much vitriol between them and the UFC, which happens to be the biggest MMA promotion on the planet.
Certainly there have been jabs back and forth, here and there over the years, but not until Bellator signed on to replace the UFC on Spike TV did the gloves come off a bit more.
In addition to airing on Spike TV, Bellator is now owned by Viacom—the parent company of Spike TV which televised the UFC for several years including during the launch of The Ultimate Fighter in 2005.
Since the split with their former network home, UFC president Dana White has made no secret that he’s not a fan of Viacom or their business practices. When the announcement was made that Bellator was going into the pay-per-view business this November, White went on a tirade proclaiming “they have no f—king clue what they’re doing.”
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney disagrees with White’s assessment of the company’s move into the pay-per-view market. He even took a back-handed slap at the UFC’s willingness to put on a pay-per-view card every single month, regardless of who is fighting on the card.
While he never said the UFC by name, it was pretty clear who Rebney was talking about when he discussed Bellator‘s future plans for pay-per-view during a press conference on Monday.
“The one thing that I’ve always said about pay-per-view is that you can’t force feed pay-per-views down people’s throats month in and month out. You can’t do it as a repetitive vehicle,” Rebney stated.
“We’re a free TV mechanism and a free TV business. Our partnership and our alliance is with Spike, and when incredible opportunities come up for us, and I sit down with our partners and we have the opportunity to Tito (Ortiz) vs. Rampage (Jackson) or we have the opportunity to another huge fight that as an MMA fan you go ‘that’s great, I would watch that’ we will probably jump back into the pay-per-view arena.
“It’s not going to be one of those things where every single month, do or die, we keep putting it out same time, same place, same channel, where we don’t necessarily have or someone else doesn’t necessarily have the fighters to fuel it that a premium purchase should be fueled. We’ll be back in it, but we’ll be back in it when the time’s right to be back in it.”
The question then came up to Rebney about the main event that will lead Bellator‘s first foray into pay-per-view pitting two former UFC champions against each other. Both Tito Ortiz and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson are coming off multiple losses in a row, but are viewed as big names and legends in MMA.
Just having a legendary name doesn’t mean Bellator is planning to forgo its current system of crowning contenders. Since its inception, Bellator has depended on the tournament format to hand out titles as well as find contenders in each weight class.
Rebney says that standard won’t change just because Bellator is putting on a big fight between two well-known names like Jackson and Ortiz. He says in Bellator, fighters have to earn their shot at the belt.
This is when Rebney took another crack at the UFC, again without ever saying a name, but obviously talking about current UFC light heavyweight ChaelSonnen. Sonnen received a title shot at 205 pounds despite coming off a loss in a middleweight title bout in his last trip to the Octagon. Sonnen is known as a prolific talker, and apparently Rebney isn’t a fan of how he got his shot at the belt.
“Our point of difference is that we’re real sports competition, and when it boils down to world title fights, when it boils down to crowning our champion at 170, or 55 or 45 or whatever weight class, guys are going to earn the right to fight for that championship and they’re going to have to beat the champion. It’s the toughest tournament in sports, it’s real sports competition,” Rebney said. “We’re not sitting around waiting for some wrestler to lose two fights straight and then bark his way into a 205 world title fight. That’s just not the essence of what we do.”
During the entire press conference, Rebney rarely if ever even uttered the words UFC, and never mentioned any fighter or executive by name, but reading between the lines it was pretty transparent who he was speaking about on both accounts.
While there’s no doubt the UFC will likely always be the No. 1 MMA promotion, Bellator certainly seems willing to poke at the bear with some of the comments he has made lately.
Whether it gets a reaction from the UFC, or if they even care, remains to be seen.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Eddie Alvarez is back in business.
