Ask the Potato: Bellator, Nick Diaz and More Elevator Etiquette


Even a broken potato is right twice a day.

Admit it: You thought the return of Ask the Potato would be one and done. You thought there’d be no way we could stick to a feature for two Saturdays in a row. Shame on you for having such little faith in us. Not only have we actually put together a new edition of Ask the Potato, but we’ve even reached out to our Twitter account for a question this week. It’s called “progress”, people. So let’s get to it, shall we?

Questions and answers are after the jump.


Even a broken potato is right twice a day.

Admit it: You thought the return of Ask the Potato would be one and done. You thought there’d be no way we could stick to a feature for two Saturdays in a row. Shame on you for having such little faith in us. Not only have we actually put together a new edition of Ask the Potato, but we’ve even reached out to our Twitter followers for a question this week. It’s called “progress”, people. So let’s get to it, shall we?

@SLTribMMA asks: @cagepotatomma I look at the Bellator non-title fights as a way to keep the champ from getting too much ring rust. What do you propose?

The easy answer is to simply put the belt on the line during these superfights that Bellator books for its champions. Nothing else has to change. Sure, it takes significance away from the tournament, but let’s face it- some guys don’t need to prove themselves worthy of a title shot by winning the tournament (Jay Hieron specifically comes to mind). Let them get an immediate crack at the champion, and save the tournament for the unknown, unproven talent.

The flaw with this solution is determining who qualifies for an immediate shot. Does Bellator give the immediate shot to the UFC veteran with an average record against elite competition (like Ben Saunders) or an impressive looking minor league prospect (like Douglas Lima)? To this we say, ask the BCS how hard it is to rank challengers from various leagues based on both record and level of competition. For that matter, anyone not named Lyoto Machida or Kenny Florian can tell you that any league without concrete fighter rankings will always have fans questioning their decisions when it comes to anointing a challenger. So cheer up, Murray.

Chri534 asks : If the whole press conference no-show thing didn’t happen and Diaz vs. St. Pierre & Condit vs. Penn were both still set to go, what would the UFC have done with Nick now that GSP got hurt?

It’s obvious that the UFC would try to cash in on their young steed’s abilities be it inside or outside of the cage. Dana would be pretty fucking stupid not to take advantage of Diaz’s charisma and charm by placing him alongside Goldberg and Rogan in the announcer’s booth. Upon his arrival halfway through the Mitrione-Kongo bout, Diaz would interrupt tired Goldyisms with gems such as “Kongo has been working a lot on his wrestl— fuck your mooooother!!!”. The only real loser in the deal? Jon Anik.

El Famous Burrito asks: iF you had to be stranded on a island with one current or former MMA fighter, who would it be? (Keep in mind, that he can choose to beat the shit out of you if you don’t get along).

Look, El, we don’t want to go all “Michael Bisping” on your ass, but seriously-“he”? Get real, playa .

Jesus Frijoles asks: So, BG gets into an elevator with Dana, how awkward would that ride be? What are the odds that the term douchebag would be used and who would throw it out there first?

We don’t know what floor they’re on or what floor they’re going to, but if Ben wants those press credentials back he’ll be going down.

zhmmvv asks: top sex service ,top girls. welcome to hxxp://url7.me/kVh4

We get asked this a lot, actually. We have an answer, but it’s never enough, is it?

 

Skeletor asks: When you guys see Old Dad at all the prestigious MMA conferences and events you attend every year, does he act like old friends or just blow you off for his more popular friends?

When we go to all the prestigious MMA conferences and events?  You haven’t been here long, have you, Skeletor?

That about wraps it up for this week. Tune in next week as we answer even more of your (hopefully at least kind of) MMA related questions. You know the drill: You can send us questions through our Facebook page. You can tweet them to our Twitter account. You can register for our forums and post your questions there. Or you can just post them in the comments section of this article. Not to rub it in to our loyal Facebook fans, but you’re the only medium we haven’t picked a worthy question from yet. So, you know, you should probably ask us some better questions. Just saying. Annnnnddddddddd GO!

MMA: Champion Ben Askren on Jay Hieron, Roufusport and Being the Best

Ben Askren entered Bellator’s season two welterweight tournament with little more than a world class wrestling pedigree, a 3-0 MMA record and a talent that many fight promotions may have, in hindsight, undervalued. The brass at Bellator Fighting C…

Ben Askren entered Bellator’s season two welterweight tournament with little more than a world class wrestling pedigree, a 3-0 MMA record and a talent that many fight promotions may have, in hindsight, undervalued.
 
The brass at Bellator Fighting Championships instantly recognized what Askren could bring to the table for their organization. The investment they made in an inexperienced fighter has paid off ten fold.
 
This Saturday night, over a year later, “Funky” Ben Askren will enter the Bellator cage with a record that stands at 8-0. With him he will bring that absolutely devastating grappling game a BJJ purple belt and an ever evolving striking game.
 
Most importantly, Askren will bring into the cage with him the Bellator welterweight strap, which he now looks to defend against a crafty and dangerous MMA veteran Jay Hieron. Askren has been on quite a roll inside the Bellator cage, and this will mark his first title defense.
 
To defeat Jay Hieron, he will have to be the best Ben Askren he has ever been. And, after having transitioned to the world renowned Roufusport camp, where some of the game’s greatest talents call home, Askren feels confident that he has indeed become the best he can be.
 
While the title will be his greatest motivation when he takes his corner on fight night, this upcoming bout between Hieron and Askren has seen its share of bad blood boil over between the two welterweight combatants.
 
Askren sat down and spoke with Todd Jackson of Hurtsbad MMA to discuss his opponent, his progress as a fighter and where he sees himself among all welterweights in the sport of MMA. As for his opponent, Askren pulled no punches and has lost no love when it comes to Xtreme Couture’s Jay Hieron.
 
The champ told Hurtsbad MMA, “He just kind of rubs me the wrong way. I guess people could say this about me too, but he just comes off with the ‘my [expletive] doesn’t stink’ kind of thing, like he is better than other people. I just really don’t like that type of mentality.”
 
And while bad blood is what it is, Askren does see potential threats posed by Hieron, but overall did not sound impressed with his opponent. “He has a strong wrestling background. He has some pretty good stand up. But from what I see, he doesn’t really excel in any certain area except his wrestling, which becomes null and void due to my level of wrestling.”
 
Askren has finished half of his opponents while defeating the other half by decision. When it comes to Hieron, he shared his thoughts on the possibility of ending his night early.
 
Askren said, “I think I will finish him. But, at the same time, I’m going to let the fight run its course. I’m not going to try to force something that isn’t there and go out there and make a stupid mistake and maybe lose to someone like him when it’s not necessary.”
 
The champ added, “I think I have the ability to finish Jay and I think I will, but I’m not going to go out there swinging for the fences like some kind of clown.”
 
Askren is known for his wrestling, which he feels is a clear cut advantage over Hieron. Hieron is known to be a grinding type of fighter who will drag fighters into the deep waters, so surely Askren expects his wrestling to play a big part in this fight.

With his wrestling prowess being a given, Askren realizes that to excel in this game it takes an entire MMA package. Training under Duke Roufus, he feels he is well on his way to becoming that package.
 
Askren talked about his transition back to Wisconsin to train at Roufusport. “The main reason I moved back to this area is because I knew how good of a coach Duke Roufus was. He just does a great job with all of his fighters. On top of that, they’re progressive.”
 
Askren went on to explain, “They know it’s mixed martial arts, they know it’s not kickboxing, they know it’s not boxing, not wrestling, not jiu jitsu, it’s mixed martial arts. They know it’s everything combined and they are on the cutting edge of that.”
 
The pedigree of the stable of fighters competing out of that camp speaks for itself. Askren is proud to represent that. “They have a bunch of young hungry fighters who want to be the best. We are a very tight team, we practice every single day together and we all help each other out.”

Working out under Roufus holds many benefits for a champion looking to sharpen every weapon he carries, especially the striking game. “Duke’s camp is a perfect camp for me, because where I struggled was in my stand up. The have great coaching here for stand up, and then every single day we spar I have to go up against some of the best stand up fighters in MMA, some of the most cutting edge stand up fighters in MMA.”
 
Askren offered the obvious examples of warriors he bangs it out with daily. “Whether it’s Alan Belcher, Anthony Pettis, Danny Downs or Eric Koch. They all have good kicks, punches, knees and good elbows. They’re not one dimensional stand up fighters, they have everything. That really helps get me prepared for anything I have to face inside the cage.”
 
Even with the understanding of his need to constantly move forward and improve in every aspect of MMA, Askren feels confident in his place among the best welterweight fighters in the world. Competing in a division with names like Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz, Askren feels he is right up there with the best in the game.
 
The champ explained, “I really think I can compete with anyone in the world. Obviously I haven’t been given a chance to prove that yet, but in time I will be given that chance. I will show everyone that I am one of the best fighters in the world at my weight.”
 
“I know that I’m a very tough and threatening matchup for anybody.”
 
Anyone who has seen this guy put it down, knows that he indeed can smother and control anyone he fights at will. He can manipulate and dictate where a fight takes place, which is a key element of any MMA bout. His chin has been tested and passed so far, and his hands are being honed with some of the best in the business.

So go ahead and argue with the man if you like, but it is extremely hard to say with a straight face that his formula inside the cage is not working. To say that he is indeed one of the best in the world, and could compete as such given the opportunity, is no stretch whatsoever.

Standing ready to face the toughest test of his career, Askren sounds confident and ready to prove that he is one of the best, and he can and will put his money where his mouth is.

 

This article originally featured at Hurtsbad MMA

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Viacom’s Purchase of Bellator Fallout: Four Overlooked Things That Will Likely Happen Because of the Deal


(Well, at least *some* of the inevitable changes will be good.)

When it was announced today that media giant Viacom had purchased Bellator Fighting Championships, most of us probably overlooked the bigger picture of what the deal means to the landscape of MMA. At a glance, better financial backing and being on a more popular channel like Spike means better fights and bigger paychecks for fighters, but behind the scenes the scope of the deal is likely much bigger than we know and the aftershocks will be felt for some time.

Check out four of the biggest likelihoods that will come out of the purchase after the jump.


(Well, at least *some* of the inevitable changes will be good.)

When it was announced today that media giant Viacom had purchased Bellator Fighting Championships, most of us probably overlooked the bigger picture of what the deal means to the landscape of MMA. At a glance, better financial backing and being on a more popular channel like Spike means better fights and bigger paychecks for fighters, but behind the scenes the scope of the deal is likely much bigger than we know and the aftershocks will be felt for some time.

Check out four of the biggest likelihoods that will come out of the purchase after the jump.

Strikeforce and Showtime part ways:

Before all of you business experts begin furiously typing that Showtime isn’t technically affiliated with Viacom, keep in mind that a majority of the specialty channel is still owned by media mogul Sumner Redstone, whose family also owns CBS and he still remains on the board of directors. As such, it’s unlikely that one of the networks under the Redstone umbrella would give a leg up to the competition, meaning that Strikeforce is likely dust in the wind by the end of the year.

 

MMA on CBS again:

There’s a very good chance that CBS was using Chuck Liddell’s appearance on Hawaii Five-O this week as a litmus test to gauge the popularity of the sport with its viewership to see if signing with a promotion would be in its best interest. Although the ratings aren’t back yet for the episode, the fact that CBS’s PR department was pushing the episode to the MMA media pretty hard the past few weeks means they wanted the show to do well and were making sure it did. It’s no coincidence that they prominently displayed the ProElite cage and logos throughout Chuck’s cameo on the show. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire and it would have been just as easy for the show to cover up the PE logo or use a generic cage, so there’s a pretty good chance that the promotion is on the cusp of that deal with CBS we talked about a few months back. Now that all of the cards are down, we can probably expect an announcement in the following weeks that a deal that compliments ProElite’s newly announced broadcasting contract with HDNet is in place.

 

Spike gets back into the MMA reality series game:

Although no easy task, there’s a good chance that we will see Spike pick up where they left off with The Ultimate Fighter and begin producing a new original series to go hand-and-hand with Bellator programming on the channel. The challenge will be coming up with something fresh and new that won’t get stale. Maybe they should take our advice and put both opponents for an upcoming bout in the same fighter house and let nature take its course.

 

Counter-programmingpalooza:

Both Spike and the UFC have proven that they can be spiteful by attempting to sabotage the competition by airing replays of big fights as a calculated counter-programming measure. Dana White has said that he’s not at war with Bjorn Rebney, but since BR is no longer the primary owner of Bellator, all bets are off. Expect “The Baldfather” to switch to Berzerker mode like he did with Affliction and ProElite 1.0 when both promotions announced that they would be going head-to-head with the UFC. Things are going to get interesting shortly.

Worth noting is the fact that Spike still owns the primary broadcasting rights to a portion of the UFC library and considering that they aren’t planning on moving Bellator over from MTV2 until 2013, there’s a pretty good chance that they will be wringing every last drop of blood out of the contract before it expires.

Viacom Buys Majority Stake in Bellator; Spike to Begin Broadcasting Events in 2013


(Well, well, well…)

Spike TV will become the new home for Bellator starting in 2013. According to a new USA Today report, Viacom — the parent company of MTV Networks — has purchased a majority stake in Bellator Fighting Championships, signaling the official end to their six-year relationship with the UFC.

CEO Bjorn Rebney will remain in charge of Bellator. Speaking about the Viacom deal with USA Today, he said: “It puts all of those cornerstones of ownership in place for us, which is something that’s been so seriously lacking in the MMA space with so many different companies, including Strikeforce and the IFL and Affliction and all the different failures that have occurred…It alleviates those issues…It’s a very, very good day for mixed martial arts as a whole, because now you have two groups in the space that have a very substantial presence that obviously isn’t going to go anywhere for a very, very long time.”


(Well, well, well…)

Spike TV will become the new home for Bellator starting in 2013. According to a new USA Today report, Viacom — the parent company of MTV Networks — has purchased a majority stake in Bellator Fighting Championships, signaling the official end to their six-year relationship with the UFC.

CEO Bjorn Rebney will remain in charge of Bellator. Speaking about the Viacom deal with USA Today, he said: “It puts all of those cornerstones of ownership in place for us, which is something that’s been so seriously lacking in the MMA space with so many different companies, including Strikeforce and the IFL and Affliction and all the different failures that have occurred…It alleviates those issues…It’s a very, very good day for mixed martial arts as a whole, because now you have two groups in the space that have a very substantial presence that obviously isn’t going to go anywhere for a very, very long time.”

According to the terms of their current contract, Spike will broadcast new UFC content through this December, but the channel also reserves the rights to the promotion’s library of fights through 2012. As a result, Bellator events won’t air on Spike until 2013, which means Bellator has another year of main cards on MTV2 and prelims on the SpikeTV website. After that, Spike will broadcast two seasons of Bellator events per year, and expects to run additional Bellator-related content both on TV and online.

Spike TV president Kevin Kay sees the move as a positive change in the way the channel handles its MMA business: “We had a great relationship with UFC and we still do. We helped each other to build each other’s brand. Like all good things, you know that at some point it’s going to come to an end…As we realized that our relationship with UFC was likely to come to an end, our Viacom mergers and acquisitions folks, and us, started to have conversations with MTV2 about getting invested in a mixed martial arts promotion and become owners as opposed to renters. You’re building value in something that you own, and you own it for the long term. You’re not in a constant state of negotiation.”

And the increased exposure for Bellator isn’t lost on its fighters either. Said lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez: “They’ll have a ton of more money to negotiate with. As long as I keep doing well and do what I’m supposed to do, the future looks bright…I’m smiling ear-to-ear right now. I couldn’t be any happier. Endorsements are hard to come by when you’re on ESPN Deportes and these other smaller channels.”

For more details on the Viacom/Bellator purchase, visit USA Today.

Viacom Buys Bellator, Giving an Upstart Promotion a Long-Term Shot

Filed under: Bellator, NewsIn recent years in mixed martial arts, promotions that have tried to position themselves as the UFC’s primary competitor have always fallen by the wayside. But the news that Viacom has purchased Bellator Fighting Championship…

Filed under: ,

In recent years in mixed martial arts, promotions that have tried to position themselves as the UFC’s primary competitor have always fallen by the wayside. But the news that Viacom has purchased Bellator Fighting Championships makes this No. 2 promotion different: Bellator may never be on the same level as the UFC, but it now has a solid foundation on which to establish itself as an MMA promotion that’s here to stay.

Viacom owns both MTV2, which currently airs Bellator fights, and Spike TV, which has been the cable TV home of the UFC for several years. Spike President Kevin Kay told USA Today that with the UFC leaving Spike for Fox, now is the right time for Viacom to demonstrate that it’s heavily invested in MMA by getting on board with Bellator.

“As we realized that our relationship with UFC was likely to come to an end, our Viacom mergers and acquisitions folks, and us, started to have conversations with MTV2 about getting invested in a mixed martial arts promotion and become owners as opposed to renters,” Kay said. “You’re building value in something that you own, and you own it for the long term. You’re not in a constant state of negotiation.”

Viacom’s plan is to keep Bellator on MTV2 through 2012, then move it to Spike in 2013, when Spike’s deal to air repeats of UFC programming comes to an end. Spike has a much larger audience than MTV2 — and an audience that’s accustomed to watching MMA — and so moving Bellator to Spike just makes sense.

The biggest question is what kind of investment Viacom wants to make in Bellator going forward: Will Viacom be willing to spend the kind of money that will allow Bellator to compete with the UFC for fighters? Or will Bellator be content to stick with fighters who are mostly a step below UFC level? Bellator has a handful of fighters who are considered among the Top 10 in the world in their weight classes, but for the most part the quality of the fighting in the Bellator cage is not on par with what fans are accustomed to seeing in the UFC.

Another question for Bellator is whether it will re-think its approach of using a seasonal format with weekly shows and tournaments. That format has been Bellator’s trademark, and it allows the promotion to build up its tournament winners quickly. But it has also resulted in problems when winning fighters have suffered injuries, and the tournament format has caused some of Bellator’s champions to experience long layoffs while waiting for the next tournament to end.

But however Bellator resolves those issues, the best news is that Bellator will be around long enough to make those decisions. Viacom is a huge media company with the deep pockets necessary to keep Bellator afloat for years to come. This deal means Bellator has a promising future.

 

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Bellator Purchased by Viacom, Parent Company of Spike TV

In a blockbuster deal revealed early Wednesday morning, Viacom has purchased Bellator Fighting Championships. The news was first reported by USA Today, and solidifies Viacom and to a greater extent Spike TV’s commitment to MMA. After losing the b…

In a blockbuster deal revealed early Wednesday morning, Viacom has purchased Bellator Fighting Championships.

The news was first reported by USA Today, and solidifies Viacom and to a greater extent Spike TV’s commitment to MMA.

After losing the broadcasting rights to the UFC earlier this year it was expected that Viacom would continue to stay in the MMA business through Bellator. This news solidifies those assumptions. 

Bellator is currently the No. 3 promotion in MMA, lagging behind ZUFFA-owned promotions UFC and Strikeforce, but with the promotional power that Viacom has, it will likely close the gap in the next few years.

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney will remain in charge of the day-to-day operations of the company.

Spike TV has been the go to channel for MMA fans since 2005, when it first aired The Ultimate Fighter  and has since held dozens of UFC events as well as 14 full seasons of the reality show. However, the network’s relationship with ZUFFA and the UFC effectively ended earlier this year when the UFC announced a multi year deal with FOX.

While Bellator will eventually move to Spike TV, it is unlikely to happen until 2013 since Spike still has a deal with the UFC to air their product in 2012.

It has not been announced if Bellator will remain on MTV 2, or air on a different Viacom network until the change is made.

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