Bellator Fighting Championships will return to Canada and Ontario for the second time in a month on Friday with a very exciting and relevant night of fights from Casino Rama in Orillia, Ontario.The mixed martial arts card will be headlined by a feature…
Bellator Fighting Championships will return to Canada and Ontario for the second time in a month on Friday with a very exciting and relevant night of fights from Casino Rama in Orillia, Ontario.
The mixed martial arts card will be headlined by a feature fight between current lightweight champion Michael Chandler and Japanese veteran star, Akihiro Gono. The BFC title will not be on the line.
The card will also feature a welterweight tournament semi-final between Ben “Killa B” Saunders and Bryan Baker. This fight has large implications for the title aspirations of both fighters and could signal a bit of a shifting of the guard within the BFC welterweight division.
In a very highly anticipated fight, Canadian welterweight star Ryan “The Real Deal” Ford will make his BFC debut against 50-win veteran Luis Santos. Ford is a very popular fighter in Canada and many fans will be tuning in to see if Ford can make that next step in his career.
The rest of the card is not to be ignored as top fighters such as heavyweight Damian Grabowski and locals Will Romero, Nordine Taleb and Nathan Gunn will all be in action.
Here are five things to watch for on Friday night.
Bellator 67 will take place this Friday night from the beautiful Casino Rama near Orillia, Ontario and the card is sure to deliver some very electric mixed martial arts action to hungry fans in the region.The card is mixed with a headline super-fight b…
Bellator 67 will take place this Friday night from the beautiful Casino Rama near Orillia, Ontario and the card is sure to deliver some very electric mixed martial arts action to hungry fans in the region.
The card is mixed with a headline super-fight between current lightweight champion Michael Chandler and Japanese veteran sensation Akahiro Gono. In a formula that fans have grown to know and rely on, the card is the filled out by tournament action and a variety of aspiring local fighters.
This is the promotion’s third event in the last 10 months in the 5,000-seat Rama Entertainment Complex and the fans in Ontario are very appreciative of the fact that it is becoming regular stop. The first event was Bellator 47 last July and was highlighted by featherweight tournament action and a great fight between Pat Curran and Ronnie Mann.
The next show at Rama was only four months later, highlighted by the welterweight tournament final that saw Douglas Lima take out Ben Saunders with a second-round knockout.
Bellator has not slowed down in Ontario in 2012, as they held their first show in Windsor last month in the Colosseum inside Caesars Casino. That card was headlined by a title fight between Ben Askren and Douglas Lima, and although the card fizzled a bit, it was by no fault of the promotion.
The card was stacked, but the fighters always make or break the night and the fighters were just a bit too tentative on the night.
Less than a month later, Bellator is back in Ontario this Friday night and the buzz is building within the area. Bjorn Rebney and his crew are consistently building satisfied customers in this region and mixed martial arts fans here should feel very spoiled.
Dwight Wakabayashi is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA, MMA Editor at CKSN.ca and guest blogger for Sportsnet.ca.
With Hector Lombard leaving and expected departure of Eddie Alvarez, Bellator will be losing two of the most influential faces in the promotion’s history. Losing two stars like Lombard and Alvarez is no doubt a huge loss, but it may actually turn out t…
With Hector Lombard leaving and expected departure of Eddie Alvarez, Bellator will be losing two of the most influential faces in the promotion’s history. Losing two stars like Lombard and Alvarez is no doubt a huge loss, but it may actually turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
Let me make this clear right from the start—there is no sensible way to deny that the two men were great stars for Bellator. Both men were the most dominant champions in the promotion and you could argue that Lombard was the face of the promotion much in the same way Georges St-Pierre is the face of the UFC.
So how can it be a good thing for Bellator if their two biggest stars are in transit to greener pastures?
The answer lies in Bellator’s move to major cable outlet, Spike TV, in 2013. Normally, losing two superstars is a dreadful loss, but given the fact that Bellator is in a transition period, they can now market any number of talented fighters in their move to Spike TV.
Bellator can tell us Michael Chandler or Alexander Shlemenko are world beaters and new fans wouldn’t know any better.
And it’s not like Lombard and Alvarez were helping the promotion move forward anyway. The ratings for the promotion have dropped abysmally the past few shows and it seemed nothing Bellator could do would help raise ratings.
You know what happens when a team underachieves in professional sports? The roster gets blown up.
Guys like Chandler, Shlemenko, the Freire brothers and Pat Curran among others are all new faces to many MMA fans who can carry the banner for Bellator moving forward.
Bellator also has the advantage of being the only major promotion not under the Zuffa umbrella that features women’s MMA. If they can correctly market WMMA on national cable, Bellator could potentially replace Strikeforce as the top promotion for women’s competition.
The Lombard/Alvarez Era helped make Bellator into what it is today, and their contributions cannot and should not be denied. But at the same time it’s clear Bellator is moving into a new era with a major TV deal and as such new stars are needed to replace the older ones.
Change is always scary for anyone but in cases like this, it’s needed.
(This is the last known photo taken of Jay Hieron before he was forced to cut off that thumb to fulfill contractual obligations.)
You gotta feel sorry for Jay Hieron. After a successful run through Bellator’s season 4 welterweight tournament, he was given the chance to knock reigning champion and narcolepsy catalyst Ben Askren from his perennial throne at Bellator 56. The fight was close to say the least, but it was the general consensus that Hieron had done enough (ie. stop Askren’s takedowns) to earn the title. The judges, however, saw things differently, awarding Askren the victory despite his usual lack of anything resembling offense. Sometimes these things happen in MMA. And just like that, Hieron’s title hopes, and a ten fight win streak dating back to 2007, were destroyed.
Cut to a year later. Hieron has requested time and time again for a rematch with Askren, only to be repeatedly denied by the Bellator brass, who informed him that if he is so desperate to get “Funky,” he should sign up for the next tournament and try his luck. Hieron wasn’t having it, and asked to be released from his contract.
And although Bellator are likely dealing with some separation issues at the moment, they kindly obliged “The Thoroughbred”…on the grounds that he would return a significant amount of money first.
Hear Hieron’s side of the story after the jump.
(This is the last known photo taken of Jay Hieron before he was forced to cut off that thumb to fulfill contractual obligations.)
You gotta feel sorry for Jay Hieron. After a successful run through Bellator’s season 4 welterweight tournament, he was given the chance to knock reigning champion and narcolepsy catalyst Ben Askren from his perennial throne at Bellator 56. The fight was close to say the least, but it was the general consensus that Hieron had done enough (ie. stop Askren’s takedowns) to earn the title. The judges, however, saw things differently, awarding Askren the victory despite his usual lack of anything resembling offense. Sometimes these things happen in MMA. And just like that, Hieron’s title hopes, and a ten fight win streak dating back to 2007, were destroyed.
Cut to a year later. Hieron has requested time and time again for a rematch with Askren, only to be repeatedly denied by the Bellator brass, who informed him that if he is so desperate to get “Funky,” he should sign up for the next tournament and try his luck. Hieron wasn’t having it, and asked to be released from his contract.
And although Bellator are likely dealing with some separation issues at the moment, they kindly obliged “The Thoroughbred”…on the grounds that he would return a significant amount of money first.
When interviewed by NBC Sports, Hieron revealed that he had to hand over his signing bonus in order to be released from his contract:
I asked for a rematch with (Ben) Askren and they said no to go back through the tournament. That just didn’t make sense to me cause I thought I beat him already. I had to pay them back my signing bonus, but at this point in my career, I would rather do that than sit on the shelf.
It has never been a policy of Bellator to grant an immediate rematch with a champion, and in fact it has never happened in the promotion’s history. Alexander Shlemenko had to fight his way back to a rematch with Hector Lombard, and even after he did just that, he still didn’t receive it, so for Hieron to consider himself an exception is perhaps wrong on his part. Then again, Shlemenko’s fight with Lombard wasn’t exactly close, whereas Hieron could easily make the claim that he won rounds 1, 3, and 5 of the fight. Like we said, sometimes these things happen in MMA.
In either case, Hieron couldn’t be happier to get back int the game, tweeting the following:
Just got my release from BELLATOR..Time to work my way up too the top.
Hieron is currently scheduled to return to action on July 13th against an opponent TBA at a Legacy FC card, but he made sure that his contract with this promotion allows him to break said contract if he gets a call from any higher up *cough* UFC *cough* promotions in the near future. Hieron told NBC Sports, “Maybe if someone gets injured (we) will possibly get on a UFC card before.”
Let’s hope so. Hieron’s record may stand at a paltry 0-2 in the octagon, with losses coming to George St. Pierre (understandable) and Jonathan Goulet (WTF?!), but the man is a pretty damn entertaining fighter in his own right, and would make a welcome addition to the 170-pound division. Currently 22-5 in MMA competition, Hieron owns notable wins over current UFC welterweight contender Jake Ellenberger and former UFC brawler Joe “Diesel” Riggs among others.
So who’d like to see “The Thoroughbred” back in the octagon?
(Who the hell just asked me if I want to be a f*cking fighter?!)
Talk about a great way to start of your day. Confirmed by none other than “Lightning” himself via his Twitter, it appears that Hector Lombard has officially signed with the UFC. After being offered a contract a little over a week ago, Lombard gave the Bellator brass a chance to match the UFC’s bid. But Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney must have come to the same realization that nearly every sappy rom-com protagonist has; if you love something, let it go. Here’s what he told MMAFighting, who first broke the news:
We have a business model where we make decisions based on analyzing data. Since the first day we came into being, we made decisions based on real models, not hypotheticals. The UFC model is largely based on pay-per-view, and the offer they made to Hector is going to be monetized via pay-per-view. While pay-per-view could play a role in our future, today it doesn’t. So, we did our due diligence to review the UFC contract, analyzed it in terms of charging our audience to see Hector vs. putting him on free TV, and we decided to allow the UFC to sign Hector, where I am extremely confident he will win the UFC middleweight title on pay-per-view.
Currently 31-2 in MMA competition, Lombard finds himself on a ridiculous 25-fight win streak, including victories over TUF 7’s Jesse Taylor, UFC veterans Brian Ebersole and Joe Doerksen, and arch-nemesis Alexander Shlemenko, who, barring a sudden signing with the UFC, will not be receiving his well-earned rematch with Lombard anytime soon. It looks like it’ll be another cold year in Russia for “The Storm.” Lombard has not lost a fight since 2006, where he dropped a unanimous decision to Akihiro Gono at Pride – Bushido 13.
So I ask unto you, Potato Nation, who should Lombard face in his octagon debut? And how will he cope with fighting in a ring smaller than your average soccer arena?
Join us after the jump as we bid adieu to Hector’s Bellator run with a look back at his greatest hits.
(Who the hell just asked me if I want to be a f*cking fighter?!)
Talk about a great way to start of your day. Confirmed by none other than “Lightning” himself via his Twitter, it appears that Hector Lombard has officially signed with the UFC. After being offered a contract a little over a week ago, Lombard gave the Bellator brass a chance to match the UFC’s bid. But Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney must have come to the same realization that nearly every sappy rom-com protagonist has; if you love something, let it go. Here’s what he told MMAFighting, who first broke the news:
We have a business model where we make decisions based on analyzing data. Since the first day we came into being, we made decisions based on real models, not hypotheticals. The UFC model is largely based on pay-per-view, and the offer they made to Hector is going to be monetized via pay-per-view. While pay-per-view could play a role in our future, today it doesn’t. So, we did our due diligence to review the UFC contract, analyzed it in terms of charging our audience to see Hector vs. putting him on free TV, and we decided to allow the UFC to sign Hector, where I am extremely confident he will win the UFC middleweight title on pay-per-view.
Currently 31-2 in MMA competition, Lombard finds himself on a ridiculous 25-fight win streak, including victories over TUF 7′s Jesse Taylor, UFC veterans Brian Ebersole and Joe Doerksen, and arch-nemesis Alexander Shlemenko, who, barring a sudden signing with the UFC, will not be receiving his well-earned rematch with Lombard anytime soon. It looks like it’ll be another cold year in Russia for “The Storm.” Lombard has not lost a fight since 2006, where he dropped a unanimous decision to Akihiro Gono at Pride – Bushido 13.
So I ask unto you, Potato Nation, who should Lombard face in his octagon debut? And how will he cope with fighting in a ring smaller than your average soccer arena?
Help us bid adieu to Hector’s Bellator run with a look back at his greatest hits.
It’s no secret that the UFC has a lock on most of the top talent in mixed martial arts. With past acquisitions of the WEC, Pride, and Strikeforce, they hold a near monopoly over the top level of the sport. But there are a handful of fighter…
It’s no secret that the UFC has a lock on most of the top talent in mixed martial arts. With past acquisitions of the WEC, Pride, and Strikeforce, they hold a near monopoly over the top level of the sport.
But there are a handful of fighters out there who have managed to earn both money and reputation competing in other, smaller organizations. These fighters have inspired feisty debate over the years regarding their placement in the rankings due to the fact that, as talented as they are, they haven’t exactly been facing the highest level of competition.
Former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez is just such a fighter.
A professional mixed martial artist for nearly a decade, Alvarez cut his teeth on the local east coast circuit before graduating to the more prestigious promotions of Bodog, Dream, and Bellator. He’s impressed fans by compiling a record of 23 wins with only three losses—with 13 of those wins coming by knockout and three by submission.
He’s long been a top-10 ranked lightweight, having defeated the likes of Joachim Hansen, TatsuyaKawajiri, Roger Huerta, Pat Curran and, most recently, ShinyaAoki.
Eddie lost his Bellator title to the young buzz saw Michael Chandler late last year, but Chandler is a phenomenal talent, and that loss should not diminish the star of Alvarez.
At 28, he’s just coming into his athletic prime. He’s exciting and well-rounded, with heavy hands and a lot of charisma. And the UFC needs him.
Make no mistake, the UFC lightweight division is perhaps the deepest division in the entire sport. There’s no shortage of contenders, and in the UFC Alvarez would be just another guy in line. But that’s what keeps a division so interesting. Fresh contenders provide more competition, which ups everybody’s game. That’s why the lightweight division is also perhaps the most exciting division in the entire sport.
They don’t need Alvarez to survive, of course. It’s a different type of need. They need him, as well as any top talent they can get their hands on, to thrive well into the future.
It’s about vision.
Steve Jobs didn’t dominate the tech world with complacent assumptions that his product line was good enough. He did it by playing chess, not checkers.
Alvarez just completed his Bellatorcontract. As is commonplace with MMA contracts, Bellator will have an exclusive bargaining time frame to try and hammer out a new deal. If an agreement cannot be reached, Alvarez can then seek employment elsewhere, and Bellator has the right to match any offer he may receive.
Don’t be surprised if Bellatordoesn’t let Alvarez go without a fight. They just lost middleweight champion Hector Lombard to the UFC, and while they’ll survive an Alvarez departure as well, promotions do not thrive by losing all their established stars.
In the end, however, it’s difficult to match the procurement power of the UFC.
Alvarez will likely end up fighting in the Octagon by fall, and we’ll have yet another contender to keep the lightweight division fresh well into the future.
Bellator 67 will take place this Friday night from the beautiful Casino Rama near Orillia, Ontario and the card is sure to deliver some very electric mixed martial arts action to hungry fans in the region.
It’s no secret that the UFC has a lock on most of the top talent in mixed martial arts. With past acquisitions of the