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Bellator vs. TUF: What’s the Better Way to Spend Your Friday Night?

Recently, The Ultimate Fighter has been actually registering a pulse within the MMA community, as the show has been revamped since crossing over to the FX network.With a new format which invites fans to tune into live fights every Friday night, the org…

Recently, The Ultimate Fighter has been actually registering a pulse within the MMA community, as the show has been revamped since crossing over to the FX network.

With a new format which invites fans to tune into live fights every Friday night, the organization’s only threat appears to be that of the Bellator Fighting Championships, who coincidentally will be airing their events on Fridays as well.

With several tournaments underway, both TUF and Bellator will be going head-to-head for the foreseeable future.

So, what does TUF provide that you just can’t get with Bellator?

Well, for starters, the opposing coaches of this season of TUF will feature UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and challenger Urijah Faber—two men who have become beneficial to the onward ascension of the lighter weight classes, specifically at 135 pounds.

With short verbal jabs being thrown here and there, both Faber and Cruz have remained relatively civil with one another, though their mutual disdain for one another is as apparent as ever.

Now with live action coming every Friday night, we get to bear witness to all the happenings. Both amongst the fighters and coaches in relative real time, with all the drama unfolding the same week the show is produced, rather than waiting months on end for a mitigated version.

Now, what does Bellator provide?

The Chicago-based promotion has adopted the use of the tournament format to produce an engaging experience for both the fans and fighters alike.

It’s especially intriguing when notable, world renowned talents get upset by these young, upstart talents that nobody has ever heard of.

It’s because of these tournaments that stars such as Pat Curran and Michael Chandler have been able to ascend the ranks of their respective divisions, having become recognized as top 10 level fighters.

So, what’s your best way to spend these lonesome Friday nights?

DVR the crap out of both shows.

Between budding talents and new drama unfolding with each passing week, neither Bellator nor TUF is something that you’ll want to miss.

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Power-Ranking the Bellator Champions

Bellator Fighting Championships have been able to cultivate a promising batch of fighters through their unique tournament formats. Though many notables have graced the cage, fighters like Pat Curran, Cole Konrad and Michael Chandler have been able…

Bellator Fighting Championships have been able to cultivate a promising batch of fighters through their unique tournament formats.

Though many notables have graced the cage, fighters like Pat Curran, Cole Konrad and Michael Chandler have been able to use the organization to spearhead their respective careers and become mainstream successes in the world of mixed martial arts.

Their paths to the top have come through the grace of the aforementioned tourney, as well as acquiring some championship gold along the way.

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Brian Rogers Steals the Show at Bellator 61 with Spectacular Knockout

Bellator middleweight contender Brian Rogers was an underdog, according to Vegas sports books, when he stepped into the cage against Wand Fight Team’s Vitor Vianna last night at Bellator 61. However, Rogers didn’t let that slow him down as he scored a …

Rogers (9-3) was showcasing his impressive takedown defense and the aggressive style that we have come to appreciate from the members of the StrongStyle gym out of Independence, Ohio. “The Predator” was overwhelming Vianna (12-3) in all aspects of the game before the highlight-reel finish that came at the 4:14 mark in Round 1.

A straight right staggered Vianna in the center of the cage, before Rogers took advantage of the opening and landed the fight-ending flying knee.

As soon as the knee connected, Vianna crumbled to the ground and Rogers raised his arms in victory. It was a scene that resembled a fatality finish in Mortal Kombat and gave Rogers the win he needed to advance to the next round of the Bellator middleweight tournament.

“There are only certain opportunities to gamble in a fight,” Rogers said after the fight. “I knew there was probably less than 45 seconds left in the round—it was short on time. I was fortunate (the knee) landed.”

Rogers now hopes to carry the momentum to another victory in the semifinal round, where he will face undefeated Brazilian Bruno Santos (12-0). The second semifinal will feature Russian Vyacheslav Vasilevsky and former UFC fighter Maiquel Falcao.

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Defending Bellator by Not Defending Non-Title Super-Fights

In order to truly consider yourself a sports fan, you have to take the bad with the good. My rallying cry of “go watch Bellator” has not been without some detractors, but thankfully, most of them have been fellow hardcore MMA fans like myself. While they aren’t so quick to jump onto the Bellator bandwagon, they definitely have put some serious thought into their criticisms.

In order to give this “go watch Bellator” experiment a little diversity, I’m going to begin responding and discussing some of the concerns MMA fans have towards Bellator.

First up, the “super-fights” that have Bellator champions not defending their titles.

Before I even begin, I’d like to state one thing: It’s very easy to get off topic when it comes to these non-title “super fights.” Inevitably, it’ll all come back to the reason behind these fights: The tournament format keeps the champions inactive. I intend to make Bellator’s tournament format the finale of my tangent of articles that address Bellator’s flaws. So just keep that in mind.

That said, the main problem with non-title “super-fights” is simple: It’s not a super-fight unless you make it special.

The UFC has provided some good examples for this in their time. In the one fight that saw BJ Penn not defending his UFC Lightweight Championship in his most recent run as champion, he was fighting Georges St. Pierre for the UFC Welterweight Championship in a fight that was marketed as one of the biggest fights in UFC history. Anderson Silva stepped out of the UFC Middleweight division to take on Forrest Griffin, a former UFC Light Heavyweight champion. That wasn’t as big of a “super-fight” as Penn-GSP, but it certainly was memorable since many consider it the most embarrassing beatdown in UFC history.

Bellator’s “super-fights” are more along the lines of Anderson Silva’s fight against James Irvin. At least in that fight, the purpose was to take viewers away from the first Affliction pay-per-view. In Bellator…these fights just kinda happen. It’s better than letting the champion sit on the shelf…but not much better.

And if you want my honest opinion? By now ya’ll know I loves me some Bellator…but only in Bellator is it considered a “super-fight” when a reigning champion takes on a sacrificial lamb.

Before Christian M’Pumbu lost to Travis Wiuff, it was always mentioned in the buildup to these fights that a Bellator champion had always won these non-title fights. But look at most of the competition those champions faced. There have been a few decent threats to the Bellator champions, but for the most part it’s been a series of easy, one-sided beatdowns. These fights only make sense if you consider that something is better than nothing, meaning that any opponent is better than just letting the champions sit on the shelf and possibly develop ring rust while they’re waiting for the next tournament to conclude.

There’s a reason I chose to talk about this topic first in my series of articles discussing Bellator’s flaws: I have no real counter to this one, folks. I’m being open and honest: I don’t like this and I want it to stop. I like a lot of things about Bellator, that’s the reason I started #gowatchbellator. But I don’t like this.

It’s not all “doom and gloom,” though. There are actually several ways for Bellator to fix this problem. First and foremost, they could simply run more tournaments to the point where there’s always a contender waiting in the wings. Most champions in major promotions fight three times a year, so Bellator could conceivably fill that gap quite easily in the coming years thanks to the exposure and boost that the move to Spike TV will give them.

We’ve actually already seen this in the form of Bellator’s “Summer Series.” Taking place after Season Five, the winner of that tournament (Pat Curran) was moved ahead of the winner of Season Five’s Featherweight tournament (Patricio Freire) when an injury forced Freire out of his championship opportunity. Curran went on to win the belt in an absolutely brilliant performance, and now we’ll get Freire-Curran once Freire heals up.

In the case of the “Summer Series,” all it took was one more tournament to keep Joe Warren active instead of sitting on the shelf waiting for Freire to heal. Not only that, but we also got an amazing “Bellator moment” when Pat Curran defeated Joe Warren. And finally, we’ve got a huge Freire-Curran showdown to look forward to.

If that doesn’t work (and it really should), Bellator could simply try to get better competition for their champions to face—champions from other promotions (non-Zuffa, of course), former Bellator champions, even Bellator stars that don’t have much else to do and wouldn’t mind jumping up or down in weight.

But the disinterest in these non-title “super-fights” is a valid point for those that don’t like Bellator. My defense is simple: I don’t really like it, either, but there’s a lot of other things to like about Bellator. No promotion is perfect, and sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. So I can still say confidently and loudly: go watch Bellator.

If you’re a Twitter user and want to get in on the discussion and/or offer up your own insight, feel free to use #gowatchbellator in your tweets to help spread the word.

Oliver Saenz, also known as PdW2kX, is a freelance journalist, opinion columnist, hardcore MMA fan and lifelong video game nerd. For more news, views, previews and reviews on all things Mixed Martial Arts as well as video games, be sure to visit FightGamesBlog.net.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Bellator FC: The Top 5 Reasons You Need to Go Watch Bellator

Tonight, Bellator will be presenting its 61st event live on MTV2. The sixth season is already off to a good start, as seen by Pat Curran’s dramatic KTFO of Joe Warren last week. As we head deeper and deeper into season six, the list of reasons to go wa…

5. It’s one of the only other options available.

Zuffa dominates the industry. That’s been a true fact since the fall or PRIDE FC. It’s been a true fact as the UFC has battled it out with, and ultimately defeated, the likes of Elite XC, Affliction and yes, even Strikeforce.

Now that Strikeforce solely exists as a subsidiary of Zuffa, Bellator is the only other major MMA promotion currently on television. Aside from a handful of smaller promotions with smaller TV deals, Bellator is the only option left if you want something different. Good thing it’s an excellent option.

4. It’s going to Spike TV in a year, but Bellator isn’t in a holding pattern.

Next year will probably be the biggest year in Bellator’s history, and it will also be Bellator’s best chance to truly get into the mainstream MMA consciousness. But Bellator isn’t playing it safe this season.

Every tournament is loaded with stars, the champions are all set to defend their titles and Bellator even has a video game on the way. In a year that could be booked solely around saving all the best fights for Spike TV, Bellator is putting its best foot forward and ending its run on MTV2 with a bang.

3. The champions continue to prove that they’re top fighters.

I can admit that some of Bellator’s divisions are weaker than others (a lot weaker in some cases), but several of Bellator’s champions have entered into “best in the world” discussion.

There’s a lot of hype around Pat Curran right now, and deservedly so. Eddie Alvarez, now the former champion, was known for years as one of the best lightweights not in the UFC. Hector Lombard is so well respected that it’s recently been rumored that the UFC is interested in signing him.

Simply put: A promotion is built on the shoulder of its champions, and Bellator continues to prove that most of their champions could hang with anyone else in the world, including UFC and Strikeforce fighters.

2. An unknown can go from “who?” to “one of the best in Bellator” in only a few fights.

Maybe you consider this a negative? Me, I love a Cinderella story. I love the idea that I could go into a Bellator tournament not having a clue who one of the participants is, and then by the end of the tournament I’m giving some serious thought to that guy becoming a Bellator champion.

Bellator’s tournament format keeps creating stars, and that’s an invaluable tool for the promotion. And it also results in some stellar fights, which brings me to my next point.

1. The fight quality continues to improve.

Could anything else be No. 1? Ever since Bellator came to MTV2, I have been able to count on one hand the number of events I actually considered bad. It’s true that not every fight is a five-star classic. Some fights are a bit mundane, even boring. There have been entire Bellator events where I haven’t seen an interesting fight.

But the vast majority of the time, Bellator is an amazing promotion to watch. The number of highlight-reel moments they continue to produce is astounding. Bellator is not without its flaws, and I’ll be examining and debating those flaws soon, but the fight quality of Bellator has only continued to get better as the years have gone by.

And I hate to pull the “true fan” card, but this is something I really believe in: if you’re a true MMA fan, the quality of the fights should be the No. 1 deciding factor for whether or not you want to follow a promotion. You want exciting fights and amazing moments, more often than not? Go watch Bellator.

If you’re a Twitter user and want to get in on the discussion and/or offer up your own insight, feel free to use #gowatchbellator in your tweets to help spread the word.

Oliver Saenz, also known as PdW2kX, is a freelance journalist, opinion columnist, hardcore MMA fan, and lifelong video game nerd. For more news, views, previews, and reviews on all things Mixed Martial Arts as well as video games, be sure to visit FightGamesBlog.net.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Bellator 61: Preview and Predictions

Bellator LXI comes live from Bossier City, Louisiana tonight on MTV 2. Originally headlined by a pair of heavyweight tournament finalists from last season, the main event between Eric Prindle and Thiago Santos has been postponed until next week due to …

Tonight, the quarterfinals of the middleweight tournament kicks off. The tournament is a mix of UFC veterans, Bellator tournament veterans and exciting foreign mixed martial artists.

Here is a preview of tonight’s card.

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