Gracie, Davis Expected for Inaugural Bellator 205-Pound Tournament

Filed under: Bellator, NewsWith their new TV deal in place, Bellator has turned its attention to Season 4, which according to CEO Bjorn Rebney, will kick off in March 2011.

On Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour, Rebney announced that the organization wi…

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With their new TV deal in place, Bellator has turned its attention to Season 4, which according to CEO Bjorn Rebney, will kick off in March 2011.

On Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour, Rebney announced that the organization will feature a light heavyweight, welterweight, lightweight and featherweight tournament in their upcoming season.

This will mark the first time the organization holds a 205-pound division tournament, and while no names have officially been announced for it, Rebney hinted that Daniel Gracie and Raphael Davis will be a part of the eight-man field.

The MMA Hour With Leben, McCorkle, Rebney, Magalhaes and Gutierrez

Filed under: MMA Videos, UFC, FanHouse Exclusive, Bellator, VideosHere’s who we have lined up for Monday’s two-hour live edition of The MMA Hour:

* UFC middleweight Chris Leben will stop by to preview his UFC 125 fight against Brian Stann.

* Heavywei…

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Here’s who we have lined up for Monday’s two-hour live edition of The MMA Hour:

* UFC middleweight Chris Leben will stop by to preview his UFC 125 fight against Brian Stann.

* Heavyweight Sean McCorkle will discuss what went wrong in his fight against Stefan Struve at UFC 124.

* Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney will explain the organization’s new TV deal with MTV2.

* Matt Mitrione will grace us with his presence for another installment of “The Mitrione Minute.”

* Former TUF finalist Vinny Magalhaes will talk about his recent win at M-1 Challenge 22.

* Women’s MMA fighter Michelle Gutierrez will talk about her career and upcoming fight in January.

* And MMA Fighting’s Ben Fowlkes will stop by to look back at WEC 53 and talk other MMA news.

And of course, we’ll be taking your calls. Give us a shout at: 212-254-0193 or 212-254-0237.

Watch the show live below beginning at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT. Download previous episodes of The MMA Hour on iTunes here.

Bjorn Rebney on Bellator’s MTV2 Deal, Alvarez-Melendez, Brookins Litigation

Filed under: FanHouse Exclusive, Bellator, News Describing Bellator’s recently announced deal with MTV2 as a “perfect alliance,” company CEO Bjorn Rebney hailed the union as a proper evolutionary step for the young promotion.

Speaking on Monday’s edit…

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Describing Bellator’s recently announced deal with MTV2 as a “perfect alliance,” company CEO Bjorn Rebney hailed the union as a proper evolutionary step for the young promotion.

Speaking on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Rebney said that the new deal with the national cable platform positively addressed most of the issues and problems that plagued Bellator’s recent deal with FSN.

Most notably, its events would be broadcast live around the country, at a consistent start time.

“There are no preemptions, there are no delays,” he told host Ariel Helwani. “It was problematic for me as the CEO of the company. It was problematic for fans who wanted to watch over the last two seasons.”

Scott Coker is Predictably Unimpressed with Bellator’s Bullsh*t

("My biggest regret? Not springing for caller ID. Next question …" PicProps: GalsGuidetoMMA)
Over the weekend, we brought you news that Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney was pursuing the very questionable strategy of trying to publicly shame Strike…


("My biggest regret? Not springing for caller ID. Next question …" PicProps: GalsGuidetoMMA)

Over the weekend, we brought you news that Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney was pursuing the very questionable strategy of trying to publicly shame Strikeforce into a promotional partnership with his lesser-known MMA company. After Rebney went to the media with his claims that Strikeforce jefe Scott Coker was ignoring his text messages about a potential cross-brand superfight between Gilbert Melendez and Eddie Alvarez (and Coker denied it, also to the press … so, you see where this is headed …) Bellator published some gloomy, Loch Ness Monster-style photographs of four messages Rebney allegedly sent somebody he had saved in his phone as “Scot Coker Mobile.” Yeah, it was all pretty hilarious in a slapstick, will-you-lookit-what-these-idiots-are-up-to-now kind of a way and the lolz just increased exponentially when later that same day Strikeforce confirmed that Rebney had been sending his texts to Coker’s old number.

Once we were all done shouting, “Smooth fuckin’ move, Bjorn!” in unison, we began to wonder aloud: How exactly would the boss of America’s second largest MMA promotion look upon the revelation that his potential new business partners would so readily try to out him as liar to the public … and even fumble around and fuck that up? As it turns out, not favorably. Coker told Bloody Elbow this week in his ever understated way that he has “concerns” about how Bellator handled this. If we had to guess about specifics, we’d wager the major concern is that Bjorn Rebney made himself look like a backbiting no-account who texts like my mom when she’s trying guilt trip me into calling her back about Sunday dinner. But maybe it’s best if we let Coker tell it in his own words.

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Bellator Tries to Browbeat Strikeforce into Co-Promotion, Releases Increasingly Irritating/Irritated Texts to Coker

(Step one of trying to create a strategic partnership with another organization: Publicly claim CEO of other organization is a goddamned liar. That’s some Dale Carnegie shit, right there. PicProps: Connect.in.com)
We’ve got a classic (and totally…


(Step one of trying to create a strategic partnership with another organization: Publicly claim CEO of other organization is a goddamned liar. That’s some Dale Carnegie shit, right there. PicProps: Connect.in.com)

We’ve got a classic (and totally stupid) media gambit on our hands here between Bellator honcho Bjorn Rebney and Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker. Ever since Bellator decided that one of its primary corporate strategies would be to continually repeat the dubious claim that Eddie Alvarez is the No.1 lightweight fighter in the world, it’s been publicly pushing for a co-promotional, company vs. company show with Strikeforce. Rebney took the idea to the MMA media, saying he’d “love” for the two promotions to double-up on a pay-per-view effort featuring a bevy of cross-brand championship matches, but that Coker wasn’t calling him back about it. In response, Coker – who’s always down for totally mishandling a public relations opportunity – went on Sherdog Radio this week to say he too was interested, but denied he’d ever heard from Rebney and accused Bellator of pulling a PR stunt. Naturally, Bellator’s next move was to release what it alleges are a bunch of Rebney’s text messages to Coker. Ruh-roh.

It’s pretty easy to imagine someone in the Bellator office pumping their fist and yelling out, “Checkmate, motherfucker!” as they hit “send” on this particular email, which reportedly contained four fairly low-quality snapshots of Rebney’s texts. The images are after the jump, of course. If you squint, you can even kind of read them.

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The MMA Hour With Frank Shamrock in Studio, Brendan Schaub, Bjorn Rebney

Filed under: MMA Videos, UFC, Strikeforce, FanHouse Exclusive, Bellator, News, VideosOn Monday’s live edition of The MMA Hour, we will be joined in studio by MMA legend and Strikeforce commentator Frank Shamrock. Shamrock will discuss the new EA Sports…

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On Monday’s live edition of The MMA Hour, we will be joined in studio by MMA legend and Strikeforce commentator Frank Shamrock. Shamrock will discuss the new EA Sports MMA video game, the state of Strikeforce and how retirement life is treating him.

We will also be joined by heavyweight prospect Brendan Schaub, who faces Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 121 on Saturday night, as well as Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney. Rebney will discuss the biggest fight in the organization’s history between Roger Huerta and Eddie Alvarez and other Bellator-related news.

We’ll also be giving one lucky caller a free box of 2010 Topps UFC trading cards (MSRP $70), which features two autographs and two memorabilia cards per box. The contest is open to legal residents, who are 18 years of age and over, of the United States (including the District of Columbia). Click here for official rules.

For a chance to win, you just have to give us a shout during the show and the best call will be awarded the 2010 Topps UFC box.

Give us a call at at 212-254-0193 or 212-254-0237.

Download this show and previous episodes of The MMA Hour on iTunes here.

The MMA Hour begins below beginning at 1 PM ET.